Psalm 43
God is our judge, advocate, and deliverer. The joy of the Lord exceeds any trial, any wicked worker’s efforts. We are God’s, and He is our praise and resolution when you finally offer yourself to do with as He will. Through Christ, entrance is made unto the altar, be not downtrodden; look up, for there is our hope.
“1 Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.”
Judge me, plead my cause, and deliver me. It might seem like a fool’s errand asking God to judge you, for all are sinners; “…They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.” – Psalm 14:1. No man is truly righteous.
Foremost, God is the judge, but Christ, seated at the Father’s right hand, has satisfied God’s justice for every sinner. Having suffered the cross for you, making payment for your sin, and risen again in the power and light of the truth of eternal life, show your cause, therefore, to Jesus Christ that He might stand good before the throne, by faith, for you.
Bought by Christ, sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise as the day of redemption approaches, having faith in Jesus up until the last, you are no fool. The religion of the saints to the world is foolishness; the lost are self-assured, having found the Rock, but of offense and stumbled at the word; disobedient to the truth; the fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. But at that particular marker, the head of the corner tried and true who is Christ Jesus upon which God’s men stand, we know our judgment is not of an end but looking for, by His good graces, and receiving daily by His mercies, refreshing anew; we are made free from the law of sin and death. We walk in the glorious forgiveness of deliverance.
And what a poignant prayer we find in Psalm the Forty Third; for what Christian doesn’t face an abundance of sin without, wickedness at every turn, and devils in every corner? Our cause is just. Our nation has turned into a rotting carcass hung out festering, and flies are circling every enterprise of society; ravenous jackals are looting the treasury. But it’s at every level; sin is so pervasive making contact with any aspect of culture seems like an exercise in which being drenched in filth is the primary purpose. Do all of Christ’s men see? Will they stand by? We need a judge, but we are indeed at the hands of the Just One.
Babylon, spiritual Egypt, and Sodom is no place for the weak of faith; viewing in any direction, we see judgment, which will worsen. There’s no escape but into the arms, by our prayer, of a loving, holy God who is full of tender mercies. The godless will pay for what they’ve done, but the millstone of God’s justice grinds at a cosmic pace that no man can affect. Sometimes, it’s generations in the making before rectitude is served.
Deceit and injustice go together; hateful children of wrath and disobedience have chosen darkness, thinking it a game; these two are their bread and butter of sin. Repayment will come. Most look for an earthbound solution, and perhaps God will still show His unmerited favor toward us. But it’s a silly attempt to grab a dustpan of one sort or another as the West disintegrates, hoping to clean up the ash heap. No, deliverance for the saint residing in the perseverance of the faith is in the Father’s strength, looking toward the throne of God and of the Lamb; a cleansing fire is coming, even as with David, a man says, “teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight.”
For the young in faith asking of our Creator to both be our representative pleading of your cause and the judge to hear your case may seem, without prayerful consideration, to be somewhat irrational. But, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” – Romans 8:16. Therefore, God is our mediator and chief justice, the highest Judge of all His creation in every domain. “…for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” – Romans 8:26
“…plead my cause against an ungodly nation.” Even in the frustrations of a sin-cursed dying republic, God knows our case and cause. He hears our prayers even when it’s no more than a perturbed exclamation of disgust at the evil all around. And take heart, any injustice to God’s people is an injustice to Him; “Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you” – 1 Thessalonians 1:6. Maintain your ways for you are His; the Lord loves the upright and righteous man; He delivers from the unjust.
“2 For thou art the God of my strength: why dost thou cast me off? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
The questions are rhetorical, for we belong to Christ. Be not forgetful of where our strength comes, tested by the law and found guilty, pushed by the world yet found a man changed by Christ, strained by the flesh and the devil and seeing it all repugnant, being a son in the Kingdom of God, chosen in Him, fear not, He will strengthen you, be not dismayed for He is God and will help you. By upholding you with the right hand of His righteousness, held close by Him to the fortress of faith, believe in the Lord.
Christ declares, for without me ye can do nothing. Though seemingly cast off by God for a season, that most pleasant of warm spring breezes, full of sweetness, the Holy Spirit of God arrives right on time when we finally offer ourselves in service. For that’s what God wants, all of you, for His will and great purposes in heaven and earth to bring Him acclaim. Worldly Christians confuse the Kingdom as outer darkness with trouble and toil but the world as happiness; this ought not to be so. God is getting His glory; that’s the judgment of a people, and though they rage, the heathen will know that Christ is Lord. Though you may sometimes feel like the outcast as God cleanses, His people stand the test; if you are steadfast, you, a child of the mighty King, will not be moved.
Sieged by enemies on all sides, Christian oppression and persecution are at the doorstep, but there’s good news. You can’t say the name of Christ without hitting a sinner right between the eyes. Our state today is enough to make one mourn as a funeral dirge sung low for damned souls, but why? We are not damned. The Gospel is in us; the Truth both knows us and we know Him. Tell somebody the truth of Jesus Christ, which is your primary duty in the Kingdom of God. We were all enemies of God at one time, and many believers were the mortal enemy of the brethren who are now his fellows. Tell your enemy of the victory our King has brought to those who fear by faith.
“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.”
The world is desperately in need of God’s light and truth. The blinded man sees the darkness as light, hoping in the things of this world: “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.” – 2 Corinthians 11:14. But the serpent is a defeated foe; have no part with him. “Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:5. Jesus loves you, fear not.
On the very first day, the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and God brought forth light. And He divided the light from the darkness. And again, at the arrival of God’s sacrifice, His Lamb, at the advent of the New Covenant, this same light was made manifest and shined in darkness, but the darkness comprehended it not. To say the dark rejects the light is true, though, in the end, it can’t resist.
For millions, the light of God and Jesus Christ our Lord disrupts their spirit, for if it’s all true, their entire world-life view and everything they’ve been taught and everything they thought they knew comes crashing down around them. If Christ be raised from the dead, suddenly, the mortal soul is at once both imperiled but offered to be partaker of the light in the glorious Kingdom of God; every soul must choose: heaven or hell. Jesus is the way; no man cometh unto the Father but by Christ. And Christ is the true Light which lights every man’s soul. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” – James 1:17
What more excellent a gift than that of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord? Continuing in the light of divine favor and boundless grace will lead a man to the center of God’s desire for him, up the holy hill before the throne of the Almighty in praise and worship to bring Him glory and honor. “And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.” – Revelation 11:19
Put off thy shoes, for this is sacred ground, yet in your mortal body, it’s a fearful moment to come near to the throne. Here is truth: God is perfect, holy, and just. All things are His, made by Him and for Him. Let the light and the truth of God lead you to His tabernacles; come into the love of Christ Jesus, cry unto Him, “Let my supplication come before thee: deliver me according to thy word.” – Psalm 119:170
“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.”
Make your offerings there at the altar; the veil is rent in two making the way, the Kingdom of God and of His Christ is at hand; with His own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal mercy for us. “Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil” – Hebrews 6:19. The approach is now open; Jesus Christ has made the way to the altar in heaven. For the once offering of Christ is sufficient for all creatures to seek redemption, to be filled to overflowing abundance with joy and praise and upon instruments, singing and shouting; worthy is the Lamb. Praise ye the Lord.
“5 Why 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.”
The downcast soul is profoundly saddening, like a lion who’s lost his roar. But the valley of the shadow of death is also where Christ may be found; “…for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” – Psalm 23:4. All men have the right of petition unto God for His mercy in salvation. But the suffering saint has an inner chamber of approach unto the holiest of all before the everlasting Father, for rights of imprecatory prayer against the oppressor and the privilege of drawing ever closer to God for the comfort of His guiding hand. The man that touches the saint touches the apple of God’s eye; woe to the man.
The terror of God is the enemy of all wickedness; nothing can stand in the day of God’s wrath. Every injury to His Church is another flaming coal of brimstone heaped upon the head of the ungodly. Why seek the adoration of men instead of the praises of God, for in service of Him, works of faith and labor of love, is the patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God the Father.
The ungrateful heart is ugly. Why, indeed, knowing all things by His word and living in a better covenant with Christ, are we cast down and disquieted? Keep your eye on the Saviour, for He is our hope. Hope is intricate and demanding; it requires constant prayer, reading of the word, and gathering with other saints; hope without faith is no hope at all. “For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?” – Romans 8:24. Hope in Christ, though now unseen, He is never far off.
Nobody wants to praise God when their soul is disquieted, but in the praises themselves come the realization of hope, and from hope, a glimmer of light, then Light. “Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power.” – Psalm 15:1. God inhabits the praises of His people.
Worry and prayer are not the same thing; to go from one to the other, ask simply who is Jesus Christ, in whom all praises of gladness are found. The countenance of a man is changed by honor before God, upheld by His power, and uplifted to fight another day. Judged of God, yet pardoned, and further offered life in the glorious presence of our Saviour, we hope in the appearing of the Lord for He soon comes for everyone that is His. “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.” – 2 Corinthians 9:15
