Psalm 43
1 Vindicate me, O God!
Fight for me against an ungodly nation!
Deliver me from deceitful and evil men!
2 For you are the God who shelters me.
Why do you reject me?
Why must I walk around mourning
because my enemies oppress me?
3 Reveal your light and your faithfulness!
They will lead me,
they will escort me back to your holy hill,
and to the place where you live.
4 Then I will go to the altar of God,
to the God who gives me ecstatic joy,
so that I express my thanks to you, O God, my God, with a harp.
5 Why are you depressed, O my soul?
Why are you upset?
Wait for God!
For I will again give thanks
to my God for his saving intervention.
The NET Bible
I must confess, lately I've felt more like verses 1 and 2 that 3 and 4. It seems like we are now living in the "ungodly nation" of verse 1. How did that happen? When I was a kid, we were proud to be a Christian nation. We weren't perfect, but we had just rescued Europe from the Nazis and South Korea from the Communists in the north. We had not yet gotten bogged down in Vietnam and we were a proud nation, with an optimistic young president, and were on our way to the moon. With the assassination of JFK, the Vietnam war, civil rights struggles and such, something changed... Still, even though the psalmist faced similar troubles he went on to say "why must I walk around mourning...?"
"Reveal your light and your faithfulness!" Remember that the darkness in the world cannot overcome the light. (John 1:5) Keeping our eye on the light will lead us "back to your holy hill... To the alter of God... Who gives me ecstatic joy." I must admit that the psalmist is a little ahead of me hear with that "ecstatic joy", but I'm with him when he talks about expressing his thanks to God with his harp. One of my instruments just has 5 strings, but playing it does bring a lot of peace and joy. I'm just an old bass (and trombone) player, but participating in the praise and worship is a very uplifting experience. It's definitely more uplifting that concentrating on the problems in the world!
"Why so downcast, O my soul?" I never noticed until now that the two final verses of Psalm 42 and 43 are identical. I guess it must be important, to bear repeating! At any rate, these verses make a wonderful song. I included the link to one version by Marty Nystrom in the last blog. But I also remembering my friend, Steve Israel, playing it on his guitar, and that always encouraged me. So, bottom line, buck up Bucky, and praise the Lord and keep your eye on the light instead of the darkness.
Send Out Your Light- Psalm 43
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