Psalm 43

Psalm 43

Prayer to God

in

Times of Trouble

~

A Psalm

Dealing with Emotions

and with

Faith in God

- New King James Version -

Verse 1

Vindicate me, O God,

And plead my cause against an ungodly nation;

Oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man!

The meaning for this verse

is clearer

when we look at

The New Century Version.

It says:

God, defend me. Argue my case

against those

who don’t follow you.

    Save me from liars and those who do evil.

Here the psalmist is

feeling

trapped by the ungodly actions

of people around him.

~

In this psalm and throughout the Bible

God teaches us to 

ASK

him for what we want and need.

God can see our situations.

He knows what we need.

But he still -  tells us to ask.

In this Psalm,

we are being taught

to take our problems and bring them

to God in prayer.

Ask

When we sincerely ask God, we honor him.

When we ignore prayer

or distain prayer

and

casually think that

God should be a mind-reader,

we dishonor God.

Psalm 26:1 is a related verse to Psalm 43:1.

Verse 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?

Here we see the Psalmist

sharing all his emotional distress

with God. 

And God invites us to share

all the

details

of

our distress.

God wants us to share

what we are thinking and feeling.

He wants to be our best friend. 

Think about this:

The God of the Universe

wants to be OUR Best Friend.

In our closest relationships,

God wants our words

to be containers of intimacy. 

Verse 3

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.

God

sends out

his light and truth

through his

Scriptures.

Reading this verse

reminds me that

Psalm 119

tells us that God's word is a lamp.

And of course we know that God's word is truth.

Yet

it is not only that

we need to read God's Word.

It implies that

we also need

God to

"highlight" things to us

AS

we read.

We have all had the experience

of reading a Bible verse or section

for the umteenth time

and all of a sudden

this time

something NEW jumps out at us.

It may be a joyful revelation

or it may be a convicting message.

When I am reading the Bible,

I remind myself that

God will often

SHINE his light

on whatever truth I need to see

contained within his Word. 

 - IF - 

I read the Bible with a teachable heart.

Shine

In Psalm 43:3,

the word "shine" is not implied in that Hebrew word,

but the following translation

does express the idea

that I am trying to convey.

We could even make it into a prayer. . .

O my God, 

shine Your light and truth

to help me see clearly.

Psalm 43:3 a The Voice translation

Verse 4

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.

God is

My Exceeding Joy!

-

There is joy in knowing God!

Joy

Psalm 21:6 b

is a related verse.

It is talking about the king -

yet

we can put ourselves

in the position of the king in this psalm.

Psalm 21:6 b says...

 For You make him

to be blessed and a blessing forever;

You make him

exceedingly glad with the joy

of Your presence.

Psalm 26:1 AMPC

We joyfully

Praise God

in songs!

The song below is based on Psalm 43.

Verse 5

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.

Verse 5 in the NCV translation:

Why am I so sad?

Why am I so upset?

I should put my hope in God

   and keep praising him,

    my Savior and my God.

Psalm 43 verse 5

teaches us to say

wise words to ourselves

during times of discouragement.

It is wise to keep some

encouraging Scriptures

"in our back pocket"

and pull them out for times of discouragement.

-

It is also wise to have some songs

ready to sing

during times of discouragement.

-

Here is one that I like.

Jesus

Jesus is hidden in Psalm 43:5.

For I shall yet praise Him,

The help of my countenance and my God.

The Strong's Hebrew word # 3444

is translated

"help"

in English in

The New King James version.

It is the Hebrew word:

Yeshua.

Yeshua means Salvation.

help = Hebrew word # 3444 = Yeshua = salvation

Yeshua 

is 

Jesus' name

in Hebrew.

When the disciples called him by name,

they said, "Yeshua!"

KJV translates this word as "health" in Psalm 43:5.

KJV translates # 3444

as

"Salvation"

61 times.

KJV translates # 3444

as

"help"

4 times.

The KJV also translates # 3444 as: 

deeds of deliverance (1),

deliverance (6),

prosperity (1), save (1), saving (1), security (1),

victories (1), victory (1)

And

take note:

Psalm 43:5

is the same as

Psalm 42:5 and Psalm 42:11.

Uplifting Musical Strength

This song ministers to us when we are in

difficult

circumstances.

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