Psalm 43 1 Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man! 2 For You are the God of my strength; why do You cast me off? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? 3 Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me; let them bring me to Your holy hill and to Your tabernacle. “This psalm may at one time have been the last part of that one. This psalm is the only one in Book 2 (Psalm 42-72) that does not have a heading.” (Dr Thomas B. Constable) At least: “This psalm is an epitome or an appendix to the former, and little differing in words or matter.” (Trapp) If so, the teaching of the sons of Korah- the doorkeepers- continues. “‘Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly [unmerciful in the margin] nation;’ his own nation, when they joined his son Absalom in rebellion...” (John Gill) manifesting "none of the spirit of religion in their conduct toward him.” (Albert Barnes)“Though called גוִי, as in Isaiah 1:4, still Israel is meant. They were 'unloving,' both towards God and towards their king.” (The Pulpit Commentaries) “So he calls the company of his enemies for their great numbers, and because they were the far greatest part, and almost the whole body of the nation.” (Matthew Poole) “Such are a people of God’s wrath and of His curse.” (John Trapp) “‘Oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man!‘ There is some uncertainty whether by אישׁ one chief enemy, the leader of all the rest, is intended to be mentioned side by side with the unloving nation, or whether the special manner of his enemies is thus merely individualised. עולה means roguish, mischievous conduct, utterly devoid of all sense of right.” (Keil & Delitzsch) We are forced to choose sides. And so perhaps: “The deceitful and unjust man, is that coming man of sin, the son of perdition, who then has taken his seat in the temple of God in Jerusalem [even in the church today] (2 Thes 2:1-17).” (Arno Gaebelein) “‘For You are the God of my strength;’ etc. — “In the previous Psalm, David had called the Lord the God of his life. Now he calls him the God of his strength. We generally sing ourselves up. We may begin in a very low key, as David did, but if we can praise God in the dark, we shall soon praise God in the light.” (C. H. Spurgeon) “‘why do You cast me off?’ etc. — As if I were none of thine” (Albert Barnes)— “Oh, send out Your light and Your truth!’ Probably an allusion to the Urim and Thummim, from which the Psalmist was now absent, in flight…” (Bullinger Notes) “He prays for God's guidance and direction, His light of divine teaching, and his Truth in the revealed Word, to lead him safe through all his difficulties and dark providences, and once more to bring him back to that happy hill and blest abode, where God's honour dwelled.” (Thomas Coke) But in a fuller sense: “The Rabbis interpret light and truth by Messiah and Elijah.” (Trapp) who was to precede Him. “What is this but to ask for Christ to dwell in our hearts?” (R. D. B. Rawnsley) “‘Let them [Him] lead me; let them [Him] bring me to Your holy hill and to Your tabernacles.’ to holiness and to the knowledge of God in Christ which the tabernacle set forth.” (J. C. Philpot) Tabernacles, note the plural, an amplificative designation of the tent, magnificent in itself and raised to special honour by Him who dwells therein.” (Keil & Delitzsch) 4 Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy; and on the harp I will praise You, O God, my God. 5 Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God. “David’s army was small, the rebels were numerous and wicked beyond a name… Providence presently realized his confidence; the rebels were defeated, many of the fugitives were driven over the precipice, in the wood of Ephraim; the kingdom was purified of a vast throng of incorrigible men, and the Lord brought back His king to His altar and His holy hill. Oh how good is the Lord to those who trust in His Word: how bright are the beams of the sun after a dark and cloudy day. He who has God for his portion should never yield to despair.” (Joseph Sutcliffe) “Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy,” etc. “The fervent language used by the Psalmist, while anticipating his sacrifices of thanksgiving at the altar, is widely different from the frigid, unimpassioned religion of nominal Christians in general, and shames the lukewarmness of most of us.” (Thomas Scott)— “and on the harp I will praise You, O God, my God.’ instead of ‘Yahweh my God'—showing that the Ps. is 'Elohistic’” (John Dummelow) “... Zadok and Abiathar, had brought him the ark; but that he sent back again to its wonted residence [2 Samuel 15:25.]; for to have the symbol of the Deity without His actual presence and favour, would afford him little consolation or benefit. To enjoy God in His ordinances, was his supreme delight. And hence he implores of God to ‘send forth His light and His truth,’ to conduct him back to them; for who but God could devise a way for his return? or what had he to depend upon in this hour of his extremity, but the promise and protection of God Himself?” (Horae Homileticae) “In the event of his being restored to God’s tabernacles [at their proper abode in Judea from whence Christ would come], he determined that he would go with more delight than ever ‘to the altar of his God, even to God himself, who was his exceeding joy,’ and there pay to God the vows which he had made: yes, and the harp which now hanged upon the willows should again be tuned, to sing with more devotion than ever the praises of his God.” (Horae Homileticae) “But under every suspension of comfort, and every trouble, we should look forward to the season, when ‘God, our exceeding Joy,’ will end our sorrows and complete our felicity. Let us then silence our complaints, and repeatedly enquire, ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul ? and why art thou so disquieted within me?’ And resolve still to hope in God; for we shall yet eternally praise Him, who is the Health of our countenance and our God." (Thomas Scott), even Messiah.