Psalm 43:2 Kommentar

This psalm, it is likely, was penned upon the same occasion with the former, and, having no title, may be looked upon as an appendix to it; the malady presently returning, he had immediate recourse to the same remedy, because he had entered it in his book, with a "probatum est - it has been proved," upon it. The second verse of this psalm is almost the very same with the ninth verse of the foregoing psalm, as the fifth of this is exactly the same with the eleventh of that. Christ himself, who had the Spirit without measure, when there was occasion prayed a second and third time "saying the same words," Mat 26:44. In this psalm. I. David appeals to God concerning the injuries that were done him by his enemies (Psa 43:1, Psa 43:2). II. He prays to God to restore to him the free enjoyment of public ordinances again, and promises to make a good improvement of them (Psa 43:3, Psa 43:4). III. He endeavours to still the tumult of his own spirit with a lively hope and confidence in God (Psa 43:5), and if, in singing this psalm, we labour after these, we sing with grace in our hearts.

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 43 This psalm is without a title; but may well enough be thought to be one of David's: and the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Ethiopic, and Syriac versions, call it a psalm of David, and the latter adds, when Jonathan told him that Saul intended to kill him; and certain it is, that it was wrote by the same person, at the same time, and upon the same occasion as the preceding, seeing some of the same expressions are used in it, see Psa 42:1, title; and some take this and the preceding to be but one psalm, and this might be written with that on account of the rebellion of his son Absalom.

For thou art the God of my strength,.... Who being the strong and mighty God was able to deliver and save him, as well as to plead his cause; and was the author and giver of strength, natural and spiritual, to him; and was the strength of his heart, life and salvation; and is a good reason why he committed his cause unto him; why doest thou cast me off? this is the language of unbelief: it being what was not in reality, only in appearance: the psalmist was ready to conclude he was cast off and rejected of God, because he was afflicted and left in a desolate condition by him, and he did not immediately arise to his help and deliverance, and had withdrawn the light of his countenance from him; but God does not cast off or reject any of his people; they always continue in his love, and in his covenant, and in the hands of his Son; they are always in his sight and family, and shall never perish eternally; and whoever casts them off, or casts them out, he will not; why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? See Gill on Psa 42:9.

And since patience is needful in order to endure, until the harvest, a certain distinction without separation, if we may so speak (for they are together with us, and therefore not yet separated; the tares however being still tares, and the grain still grain, and therefore they are already distinct); since then a kind of strength is needful, which must be implored of Him who bids us to be strong, and without whose making us strong, we should not be what He bids us to be; of Him who said, "He that endures unto the end shall be saved," [Matthew 24:31] lest the soul's powers should be impaired in consequence of her ascribing any strength to herself, he subjoins immediately, "For Thou, O God, art my strength: why have You cast me off, and why go I mourning, while the enemy harasses me?" [Psalm 43:2]. I go mourning: the enemy is harassing me with daily temptations: inspiring either some unlawful love, or some ungrounded cause of fear; and the soul that fights against both of them, though not taken prisoner by them, yet being in danger from them, is contracted with sorrow, and says unto God, "Why?" Let her then ask of Him, and hear "Why?" For she is in the Psalm enquiring the cause of her dejection; saying, "Why have You cast me off? And why go I mourning?" Let her hear from Isaiah; let the lesson which has just been read, suggest itself to her. "The spirit shall go forth from me, and every breath have I made. For iniquity have I a little afflicted him; I hid my face from him, and he departed from me sorrowful in the ways of his heart." [Isaiah 57:16-17] Why then did you ask, "Why have You cast me off, and why go I mourning?" You have heard, it was "for iniquity." "Iniquity" is the cause of your mourning; let "Righteousness" be the cause of your rejoicing! You would sin; and yet you would fain not suffer; so that it was too little for you to be yourself unrighteous, without also wishing Him to be unrighteous, in that you would fain not be punished by Him. Consider a speech of a better kind in another Psalm. "It is good for me that You have humbled me, that I might learn Your righteousnesses." By being lifted up, I had learned my own iniquities; let me by being "humbled," learn "Your righteousnesses." "Why go I mourning, while the enemy harasses me?" You complain of the enemy. It is true he does harass you; but it was you who "gave place" [Ephesians 4:27] to him. And even now there is a course open to you; choose the course of prudence; admit your King, shut the tyrant out.

"Because you are my God." Here the reason for the deliverance is set forth; and it is twofold: one on God's part, who has the power; hence he says, "you are my strength." Is. 12: "My strength and my praise is the Lord." And He is called our strength effectively, because it comes from Him. Is. 40: "He gives power to the faint, and to those who have no strength He multiplies fortitude and vigor." The other reason is on his own part, namely the evils he suffers. Some evils we suffer according to opinion, because when we are in adversities we seem to be rejected by God; hence he says, "why have you rejected me?" But "the Lord will not cast off His people," Ps. 94. And so this evil is merely apparent. Another evil is real; hence there follows, "why do I go about in sadness?" Sad either with the sorrow of the world, which works death; and in this sense the meaning is: why do I go about in sadness, namely temporally, while the enemy, the evil man, afflicts me temporally. Or "I go about in sadness," with the good sorrow that works repentance unto salvation. And in this sense the meaning is: why do I go about in sadness only? Because joy should also be joined to repentance.

Excepting the recurrence of the refrain, there is no good reason to suppose this a part of the preceding, though the scope is the same. It has always been placed separate. (Psa 43:1-5) Judge--or, "vindicate" (Psa 10:18). plead, &c.-- (Psa 35:1). ungodly--neither in character or condition objects of God's favor (compare Psa 4:3).

God of my strength--by covenant relation my stronghold (Psa 18:1). cast me off--in scorn. because--or, "in," that is, in such circumstances of oppression.

The Elohimic Judica (the introit of the so-called Cross or Passion Sunday which opens the celebritas Passionis), with which the supplicatory and plaintive first strophe of the Psalm begins, calls to mind the Jehovic Judica in Psa 7:9; Psa 26:1; Psa 35:1, Psa 35:24 : judge me, i.e., decide my cause (lxx κρῖνόν με, Symmachus κρῖνόν μοι). ריבה has the tone upon the ultima before the ריבי which begins with the half-guttural ר, as is also the case in Psa 74:22; Psa 119:154. The second prayer runs: vindica me a gente impia; מן standing for contra in consequence of a constr. praegnans. לא־חסיד is here equivalent to one practising no חסד towards men, that is to say, one totally wanting in that חסד, by which God's חסד is to be imitated and repaid by man in his conduct towards his fellow-men. 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. In Psa 43:2 the poet establishes his petition by a twofold Why. He loves God and longs after Him, but in the mirror of his present condition he seems to himself like one cast off by Him. This contradiction between his own consciousness and the inference which he is obliged to draw from his afflicted state cannot remain unsolved. אלהי מעזּי, God of my fortress, is equivalent to who is my fortress. Instead of אלך we here have the form אתהלּך, of the slow deliberate gait of one who is lost in his own thoughts and feelings. The sting of his pain is his distance from the sanctuary of his God. In connection with Psa 43:3 one is reminded of Psa 57:4 and Exo 15:13, quite as much as of Psa 42:9. "Light and truth" is equivalent to mercy and truth. What is intended is the light of mercy or loving-kindness which is coupled with the truth of fidelity to the promises; the light, in which the will or purpose of love, which is God's most especial nature, becomes outwardly manifest. The poet wishes to be guided by these two angels of God; he desires that he may be brought (according tot he Chethb of the Babylonian text יבואוני, "let come upon me;" but the אל which follows does not suit this form) to the place where his God dwells and reveals Himself. "Tabernacles" is, as in Psa 84:2; Psa 46:5, an amplificative designation of the tent, magnificent in itself and raised to special honour by Him who dwells therein.