Psa 43 | EE | STEP | My God, say that I am right. Tell it to the people that do not love me. Rescue me from the man that tells lies and does bad things.

Psalms 43

Remember the Good Times

1 My God, say that I am right.

Tell it to the people that do not love me.

Rescue me from the man that tells lies and does bad things. ^{▼▼43:1 Verse 1: The psalmist is asking God to be his judge. A judge is someone that decides who is right and who is wrong. The psalmist believes that he is right and he asks God to tell everyone. God will do this by making him free so that he is not a hostage any more. ‘The people that do not love me’ are his enemies, maybe from Israel, Assyria, Babylon or somewhere else. ‘The man that tells lies and does bad things’ is one of the psalmist’s enemies. Maybe he was their leader.}

2 This is because you are my refuge, God.

Why are you always so unkind to me?

Why must I continue to be so sad?

You let my enemy do what he likes to me! ^{▼▼43:2 Verse 2: But things are still bad for the psalmist. He believes that God is his refuge, but God is not doing anything. The psalmist is still a hostage!}

3 Send out your light and your truth.

Let them be my guide.

They will bring me to your holy mountain

and to the house where you live. ^{▼▼43:3 Verse 3: He prays for God to send light and truth. He believes that they will take him back to Jerusalem. That is where the holy mountain and the house of God are. The holy mountain is Mount Zion where the temple was. It was holy because the Jews believed that God lived there. Solomon built the temple about 950 BC. The King of Babylon (Nebuchadnezzar) destroyed it in 587 BC. There were other temples, but we believe that the psalmist meant this one in Jerusalem. God’s light and truth would make people see (light) that the psalmist was right (truth). He should not be a hostage.}

4 Then I will come to the altar of God,

the God that makes me happy.

I will praise you with a harp, God, my God. ^{▼▼43:4 Verse 4: A harp is something you make music with. We call it a musical instrument. Psalm 150 tells us about other musical instruments that the Jews played.}

5 My soul, why are you so sad?

Why are you so restless inside me?

Hope in God, because I will praise him again!

When God is with me, he will do great things for me. ^{▼▼43:5 Verse 5: This verse comes three times in the psalm (Psalm 42:5 and 11; and here.) Each time we think that the psalmist became more certain that God would answer him. (Certain means ‘sure.’) We do not know if God did answer in the way the psalmist wanted. Maybe he did go back to Jerusalem. Maybe he learned that God was with him where he was hostage. This was all that mattered!}