A Brief Explication of the First Fifty Psalms, Psalm 43
PSAL. XLIII.
This Psalme tendeth to the same purpose with the former; for David in exile complaineth of his persecuters, and prayeth for delivery, and regrateth his sad condition, ver. 1.2. prayeth for restitution unto the liberty of the publick ordinances, promising to praise God at his returning cheerfully, ver. 3, 4. and warstleth with his discouragements as he did in the former Psalme, ver. 5.
Vers. 1. JVdge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.
2. For thou art the God of my strength, why doest thou cast me off? why go I mourning, because of the oppression of the enemy?
FRom his complaint and prayer against his enemies; Learn, 1. As the godly have usually enemies powerful, many, crafty and cruel, oppressing them for righteousnesse; so want they not a Judge impartial, who is sufficient to take order with their adversaries, to whom they may & should address themselves in their affliction, as David doth here; Iudge me, O Lord, and plead my cause against an ungodly Nation. 2. The craftinesse and falshood, and fair pretences, whereby the enemies do palliate their cruel purposes, are more dangerous then their professed cruelty; from which no wisdome, except divine direction, can save a man; O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man. 3. What the oppressed Church, or particular Believer wanteth, that God hath, and is to be forth-coming for the Believers use and benefit, (as his need shall be) to uphold him by it, and comfort him, and deliver him, and blesse him: For, Thou art the God of my strength. 4. Although the Lord be all in all to us by Covenant; yet for our good and his own glory he may so exercise us, as we may want possession for a time of what we have in promise; yea, and seem also to be thrust out of our right; in which case if we shall once fixe our faith, we shall have liberty to dispute our right against all tentations, and to expresse the sense of our condition unto God without being mistaken, as here David doth, saying (not before, but after the fixing of his faith:) Why dost thou cast me off? Why go I mourning for the oppression of the enemy?
Vers. 3. O send out thy light and thy truth; let them lead me, let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy Tabernacles.
4. Then will I go unto the Altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God, my God.
From his prayer and promise of thanksgiving; Learn, 1. No tentation unto discouragement, nor seeming desertion should divert the Beleever from pursuing his desire of relief, but rather kindle his affection in prayer: O send out thy light. 2. Comfort, deliverances from troubles, and performance of promises, when they most disappear, are kept in store for us, and fast locked up, to be let forth in due time unto us: O send out thy light, and thy truth. 3. Direction how to carry our selves till we obtain our desires, and observation of the steps of Gods providence; bringing us to the possession of promised mercies, are necessary preparations for the merciemercy which we seek, and should be prayed for as mercies in order preceding that particular which we should have: Let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hil. 4. Spiritual grief must have spiritual comfort; godly sorrow for distance from God and want of the comfortable use his of ordinances, admitteth no comfort, save a comfort of that kind; for David longeth more to have the free use of the publick ordinances, then to have the Kingdome; Therefore saith he, let them bring me to thy holy hill, and to thy Tabernacles. 5. The first thing a soul is to look unto in his address to God, is the means of expiation of his sin, and that is Christ (represented by the Altar) offering himself a ransome for the sinner, and sanctifying the person of the offerer, and the worship and service of the man that comes to God through him; Then wil I go to the Altar of God. 6. This way of making address to God by Christ, giveth present access to God, and peace to the soul of him who draweth near this way: Thus I wil go to God. 7. God laid hold upon through Christ, furnisheth not only peace, but unspeakable joy also to the believer; yea, God reconciled through Christ, is the life of the believers gladness, I wil go to God, my exceeding joy. 8. As is the longing of the soul after God, when it is at a distance from him: so is the consolation and satisfaction which it findeth after renewed access; and as the supplicant is earnest for renewed sense of fellowship: so doth he purpose that the praises of God shal be hearty at the receiving of that which he longed for, and also that his faith shal be stronger by the fastning of the bond of the Covenant between him and God more strongly: I wil praise thee with the harpe, O my God.
Ver. 5. Why art thou cast downe, O my soule? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God; for I shal yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance and my God.
He closeth this Psalm as the former, setting faith and hope on work to wrastle with discouragement. Whence learn, 1. The strongest Believer may be overtaken with fits of dejection and discouragement; for this Champion findeth his soul cast down. 2. A praying soul believing in God through Christ, hath no reason of dejection and discouragement, whatsoever reason of humiliation he may have: Why art thou cast down, O my soule? 3. It is a sanctifying means for wrastling out of discouragement, to dispute mis-belief to the door, or to dispute our selves out of the dumps by reason taken from the Lords word; and it is wisdome to get the conscience to be our friend, when the mind and the heart are in a wrong temper in this case; it is necessary to take Gods part against mis-belief, and unwarrantable unquietnesse, and to dispute both his cause and our own against tentations: Why art thou disquieted within me? 4. No rest to a troubled and unquiet spirit, but by casting anchor on the Rock, and hoping in God; Hope thou in God. 5. Hope cannot raise it self in trouble, but by the gripe of a promise; Hope in God, for I shal yet praise him. 6. Though faith be in darkness, yet wil it see afar off; so soon as it puts the prospect of the Covenant of Grace to its eye, it discerneth the proper remedy of present evils to be in God, and the good it would be at, coming along unto it, and is as sure of it, as if it were in possession: He is the health of my countenance, and my God.