Psalms 43King James Version
A continuation of Psalm 42. Send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, the health of my countenance, and my God.
The continuation of Psalm 42, without its own superscription. The same refrain appears a third time. It opens with a legal plea for vindication against an ungodly nation and a deceitful man, then asks God to send light and truth as guides back to the holy hill. The altar of God, God as 'my exceeding joy.' The soul-address refrain closes the psalm as it closed Psalm 42: hope thou in God. The cycle is complete.
Light and truth sent by God are the guides that bring the exiled soul back to the place of joy; neither will or determination but divine guidance is the path.
verse: "O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles." The request is not for strength but for navigation.
No superscription. Continuation of Psalm 42. The same meter and refrain confirm the original unity. The legal language of v1 ('judge me, plead my cause') shifts from the water imagery of ch42 to a courtroom framing. The movement toward 'the altar of God' and 'my exceeding joy' (v4) anticipates the resolution denied in the exiled sadness of Psalm 42.
The son of Korah as the continuing petitioner; the ungodly nation and deceitful man as adversaries; God as the one asked to judge, deliver, and guide; the soul addressed in the refrain.
Psalms 42-43 together form a complete lament-trust cycle originally unified as one psalm. Their separation in the Masoretic text creates a three-stanza poem with a refrain. The repeated refrain ('Why art thou cast down, O my soul?') is one of the Psalter's most psychologically honest structures: the self in conversation with itself about faith.
For when you cannot find your own way back and you need to ask God to send something to guide you, because your own navigation has failed. The request is humble and specific.
1Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.
2For thou art the God of my strength: why dost thou cast me off? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
3O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.
4Then 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.
5Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.