Psalms

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Psalm 43


Defend me, O God, and plead my cause
against a godless nation.
From deceitful and cunning men
rescue me, O God.

Since you, O God, are my stronghold,
why have you rejected me?
Why do I go mourning
oppressed by the foe?

O send forth your light and your truth;
let these be my guide.
Let them bring me to your holy mountain
to the place where you dwell.

And I will come to the altar of God,
the God of my joy.
My redeemer, I will thank you on the harp,
O God, my God.

Why are you cast down, my soul,
why groan within me?
Hope in God; I will praise him still,
my saviour and my God.

Commentary
Defend me, O God, and plead my cause
against a godless nation.
From deceitful and cunning men
rescue me, O God.

Since you, O God, are my stronghold,
why have you rejected me?
Why do I go mourning
oppressed by the foe?

O send forth your light and your truth;
let these be my guide.
Let them bring me to your holy mountain
to the place where you dwell.

And I will come to the altar of God,
the God of my joy.
My redeemer, I will thank you on the harp,
O God, my God.

Why are you cast down, my soul,
why groan within me?
Hope in God; I will praise him still,
my saviour and my God.

Commentary


Defend me, O God, and plead my cause
against a godless nation.
From deceitful and cunning men
rescue me, O God.

Since you, O God, are my stronghold,
why have you rejected me?
Why do I go mourning
oppressed by the foe?

O send forth your light and your truth;
let these be my guide.
Let them bring me to your holy mountain
to the place where you dwell.

And I will come to the altar of God,
the God of my joy.
My redeemer, I will thank you on the harp,
O God, my God.

Why are you cast down, my soul,
why groan within me?
Hope in God; I will praise him still,
my saviour and my God.

Commentary
Defend me, O God, and plead my cause
against a godless nation.
From deceitful and cunning men
rescue me, O God.

Since you, O God, are my stronghold,
why have you rejected me?
Why do I go mourning
oppressed by the foe?

O send forth your light and your truth;
let these be my guide.
Let them bring me to your holy mountain
to the place where you dwell.

And I will come to the altar of God,
the God of my joy.
My redeemer, I will thank you on the harp,
O God, my God.

Why are you cast down, my soul,
why groan within me?
Hope in God; I will praise him still,
my saviour and my God.
                               (vv. 1-5)

The struggle in the heart of the Levite has reached a different stage now, which enables him to pass victoriously through the darkness, to stand in the quiet assurance of faith and trust that his prayer is being answered. He holds firmly on to the reality of God’s presence – with him now. He prays that God will vindicate him before his foes, will let these godless people see that the Lord is God indeed, and will deliver him out of their hand. He seems unaware that he has transcended his great problem – his belief that God could only be found in the Temple in Jerusalem. God is here with him now, in his trouble.

The limits of his faith are shown, however, when he insists on a physical return to the Temple. He does not yet appreciate the deeper answer he has been given. He requests God to send both light and truth to guide his steps homeward, to God’s house. There he will offer joyful sacrifice again and join the choirs in their praise and worship. Now that he can visualize himself back home in the Temple, he calms down. The struggle ceases, and his faith can soar again. His outward circumstances have not changed at all, yet he sees everything differently, for he himself has changed interiorly.

We have much to learn about prayer from this psalm; for the interior struggle with our doubts, with our inability to trust God, with trials which emanate from our contact with the unbelieving world and from the dark caverns of our own soul, are the bread and butter of the spiritual journey. Few are as open and truthful about their interior struggles as this son of Korah, and later St Paul in the New Testament. Both were great men of faith who confronted the reality before them, and were unafraid to speak about their experiences. Because of them, and others like them, lesser souls will gain the courage to face their own particular struggle, and persevere through to victory.

The basis on which the spiritual life is built is longing for God. Without this sense of need there is nothing to build on. Those who experience no need of God are not usually found seeking God in prayer, or longing to participate in community praise and worship. This type usually belong to the group who taunt the others with the scornful question: “Where is your God?” They say that there is no God, that it is all a myth invented to keep people happy, and to give the neurotic a ray of hope. For them, money, good health, and success in the world supply their needs. They possess no key to understand the grieving of a soul that has truly found God, and fallen in love with Him. To the unbelieving person it is inconceivable that you could be in love with the infinite. They prefer to tell you that you are sick! Sadly, one realizes that the blind cannot lead anyone, let alone another blind person (see Matthew 15:14).

For the soul who is in love with God, life is seen from a very different aspect to that of the unbeliever, or that of the religious person who is not spiritual. One knows the deep interior joy of communion with God, and has the happiness of fellowship with God’s friends in His Church. To love, and be loved by, God is the greatest happiness we can know this side of Heaven. Next to that is to know and love the body of Christ on earth, and to be known and recognized as part of this mystery.

For this person the liturgical celebrations of the great feasts of the Church are not empty rituals. They are re-enactments of the great mysteries of our faith, releasing the living waters of grace to the soul, flooding it with joy and peace, while nurturing it at the same time, and thus enabling it to grow to full maturity in Christ. To be one with the Lord, and with His body the Church, is the full communion that releases the glory of God to come down in a flood-tide of divine mercy on the whole world.

This soul, knowing and loving God and the brethren, is characterized by a deep longing for God, which is both painful and sweet at the same time. There is no room for self-complacency, for it sees the long road ahead to full union with God. It sees its own sinfulness, which causes it deep anguish, yet it is ravished by the beauty and glory of God, and it longs more and more to see the face of God. This can only come about when the veil of the flesh is removed by death; so the person finds himself longing to be gone and to be with Christ, yet he must stay to accomplish God’s will on earth. This tension is a deep, but peaceful suffering (see 2 Corinthians 5:1-4).

The love affair with God is not all joy. It has its times of harrowing darkness, desolation and apparent abandonment by God. This is necessary for growth. We can go for months, or even years, with nothing but tears for our lot, day and night. We might even feel that there is no deliverance for us from the dark tunnel of dryness and desolation in prayer. During this time both faith and motivation are purified, until we learn to seek God for Himself alone, not for any selfish reasons. In fact, one who did not have a real love for God would not persevere through this trial. Many go off, like the rich young man in the gospel, thinking that God is unfair to ask such a thing of weak human beings. Some of them join the scoffers, saying that there is no God. For the soul who truly loves, this trial is deepened by the fact that its inward suffering is reinforced by all the unbelief, doubts and agnosticism of friends and neighbours.

Nevertheless, it is fatal to look back to “the good old days” when we enjoyed God’s presence, had wonderful retreats, superb conferences, where “things were really happening”, where we got a lot out of our prayer and spiritual reading. This merely causes deeper sadness and enhances the sense of loss, which is bad enough already. Victory lies in denying oneself the luxury of daydreaming, and deciding to stay in the reality of the present moment, where the grace of God is ever present to help us. Here St Paul’s advice, “. . . to bring every thought into captivity, to make it obedient to Christ” (see 2 Corinthians 10:5), is very helpful if we do not want to lose our peace.

One of the great secrets of success in the spiritual journey is to discover the grace of the present moment. God revealed Himself to Moses as “the great I am”, the God of the eternal now. When we revert to the past, or fantasize regarding the future, we miss the opportunities that lie under our feet for making the most of the reality of our present circumstances. We may even miss some important grace God had planned for us, and so, needlessly, lengthen our spiritual journey. Jesus taught this to Martha in John 11, when she did just this regarding her dead brother, Lazarus. “If only you had been here . . .Yes, I know he will rise on the last day . . .” She almost missed seeing the glory of God work through her present bereavement.

God is with us now, even in our dark tunnels, and He is resurrection and life for us. As we let His light penetrate into our deepest depths, we gradually emerge fully resurrected, alive, and healed in our innermost being. And our life remains “hidden with Christ in God”, safe now from the taunts and the gaze of the unbelievers (see Colossians 1:1-3).

Resistance to grace at this point merely deepens the pain while lengthening the journey, Thus, dragged all the way to Calvary, we leave our heel-marks on the track, so that all other pilgrims will know that we have passed this way! Nothing is achieved by it. To wait on God in faith, trust and surrender to the operations of His grace in us, no matter how mysterious, is the sure and quick way to victory. To wait in joyful hope on God’s action and on God’s perfect timing in our lives is a hard lesson to master, because the “God knows best” attitude comes with difficulty to the adult, who instinctively prefers self-reliance to the seemingly ridiculous stance of surrender to God’s will. But when the lesson is mastered, we begin to experience God as our unshakeable rock, the One who will never fail us or forsake us. We look forward in tranquil, joyful faith. The outward circumstances in our life may not have changed, yet everything is different, and we are no longer wounded by the taunts of others.

We now understand more fully the words of Psalm 46:10: “Be still and know that I am God.” We can stand aside now and watch God vindicate us in situations that we thought impossible. He protects us from spiritual and earthly enemies, because we allow Him to, while at the same time, as our teacher and guide, He leads us into all truth. He will not give up the training programme until He brings us to the top of the mountain.

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