Christ Church

Psalm 43: Judge Me, O God

Christ Church on

Fifth Decade of Psalms

Introduction

The 43rd Psalm is very similar to the one before it, and in a handful of manuscripts it is even included together with it. But rather than consider it as a detached portion of the 42nd Psalm, it is a simpler explanation to consider this as a supplement, composed with the previous psalm in mind, expanding on the same themes.

The Text
“Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation . . .” (Psalm 43:1-5).

Summary of the Text

The psalmist cries out to God for judgment (v. 1). He is being attacked by an “ungodly nation,” and he seeks God’s vindication. Deliverance, when it comes, would be from the deceitful and unjust man (v. 1). God is the God of David’s strength, and David finds it inexplicable that God has cast him off (v. 2). Why does David have to go mourning because of the enemy’s oppression? He then prays that God would send out His light and His truth in order to lead David home, back to the worship of the true God (v. 3). When light and truth have done this, then David will approach the altar of God, unto God Himself as his joy, and David will not be able to contain the music (v. 4). The psalm concludes with David chiding himself, just as he had done in the previous psalm (v. 5). He then ends with the triumph of faith, knowing that he will in fact praise God, who is the health of his countenance and his God (v. 5).

Judge Me

We have commented before on the striking differences that arise when we compare the mentality of the psalmist with the mentality of many modern Christians. One of those differences is the eagerness with which the psalmist frequently seeks out and is hungry for God to judge him. The Christian who understands that all his righteousness is filthy rags is reluctant to say this, and quite understandably. But this kind of isolated judgment is not the only kind of judgment there is. And if it were, the psalmist knew as well as we do that we would all be in serious trouble. “If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?” (Ps. 130:3).

But there is another sense of judgment in Scripture—vindication, deliverance, justification. This cannot be understood apart from a distinction made between absolute righteousness (Godward), which no one has, and covenant righteousness (toward God and man), which all believers are called to display. When we cry out to God, asking Him to judge our cause, vindicating us “because of our righteousness,” this is what we are doing. Think of it as the difference between “being righteous” and “being in the right.”

As C.S. Lewis notes, “The difference is that the Christian pictures the case to be tried as a criminal case with himself in the dock; the Jew pictures it as a civil case with himself as the plaintiff” (p. 15). The Psalms are full of pleadings from plaintiffs, and this is something we must recover. This does not erase our awareness of our justification in that great criminal case, in which we were the guilty accused, but rather should heighten it.

Remember your great forgiveness in that criminal trial every time you enter a civil complaint—do not be like the wicked servant who was forgiven 10 million and then choked his fellow servant over a quarter—but do not remember your acquittal in such a way as renders you incapable of taking up your own cause ever. One definition of a liberal is one who is incapable of taking up his own side in a dispute. Don’t be like that. But neither should you be the kind of person that cannot conceive of ever having been at fault in any way. There are at least two senses of justification, and we must remember them both.

Twin Vipers

David needs to be delivered from the deceitful and unjust man (v. 1). Those two characteristics are twin vipers. Because he is unjust, he has no standard of justice to operate by other than his own self-interest, whatever that might happen to be. And because that is the case, and because lies are frequently a good way to get your way on the cheap, he is also deceitful. This makes every conflict lopsided. One disputant is constrained by a sense of justice and fair play, and the other is not. An amateur Olympic boxer has to fight in this way, and he is up against someone fighting by ultimate cage fighting standards. And because of this, the psalmist cries out to God, who is the one who will ultimately put all things to rights.

God of My Strength

God will certainly do this, even though it appears that He is uninterested in doing it now. God, You are my strength. Where did You go? This the same theme as the previous psalm, and it has the same resolution. David chides himself, talking to himself. “Why are you disquieted?” But again, the same as before, he turns to God in confidence—”for I shall yet praise him.” In the midst of great troubles, remember that you are the servant of a far greater God. And the greatness of God surpasses the greatness of your troubles in a way that overcomes the apparent distance of this great God.

Bring Me to the Altar

Just as in the previous psalm David longed to be in the great multitude, worshipping God in a very public way, so here he desires to come to God’s holy hill, His tabernacles. He wants to approach the altar of God, which is simply a way of saying he wants to approach God Himself, the God who is his exceeding joy (v. 4).

Great Deliverance is the Mother of Great Music

After David is brought to the altar of God, after he is successfully brought to God his exceeding joy, the result is music. “Upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God” (v. 4). The one who is forgiven little loves little (Luke 7:47). The one who is complacent has little to sing about. The one who is lethargic has little reason to break into song. God often brings us through great trials because it is the only way to produce magnificent music. He doesn’t want to bring us to heaven in such a way that we can only stand around and hum. For the wine to be made, the grapes must be crushed. For the songs of deliverance to come forth, the people must be afflicted first.

It is therefore no coincidence that periods of reformation and revival are periods marked by musical explosiveness. Paul tells the Colossians that the word of Christ should dwell in the them richly, and that they should then overflow in psalm, hymns and spiritual songs (Col. 3:16). The richness of the dwelling should line up with the richness of the fruit, and if the fruit is poor, then the spiritual experience producing it is poor. And that often happens because we are lukewarm, and have no intention of every getting into the kind of trouble that David used to get into.

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Psalm 42: The Breakers of Jehovah

Christ Church on

Fifth Decade of Psalms

Introduction

This next psalm is not attributed directly to David, although it is almost certainly his. The psalm is given to the chief musician, for the sons of Korah to sing. These were probably the descendants of the same Korah who rebelled against Moses in the wilderness (Num. 16).

The Text
“As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God . . .” (Ps. 42:1-11).

Summary of the Text

The psalmist is parched in his soul, and thirsts after God the way a hart longs for a brook (v. 1). He repeats this— his soul thirsts for Elohim, the living Elohim. When will he be able to appear before Elohim in worship (v. 2)? He is in such trouble that he is unable to eat at all—tears are his only food (v. 3). His adversaries know how to taunt him in a way that really hurts; they ask “where is your God” (v. 3)? There was a time when the psalmist was able to rejoice with God’s people in God’s house, but all he has now are memories (v. 4). But David chides himself—why are you downcast (v. 5)? But having said this, he returns immediately to the problem, which is that he is downcast (v. 6). He recalls God’s goodness to Israel in the past—crossing the Jordan, for example, and Hermon is where Og and Sihon had been defeated. Mizar was (perhaps) a small mountain near Sinai (v. 6). But though he remembers great deliverances from the past, he is still in deep trouble now. He is caught between water below and water above, and the breakers of Jehovah have gone over his head (v. 7). Nevertheless, all appearances to the contrary, God will command His lovingkindness to come in the daytime, and will command His song to come at night (v. 8). David will pray (v. 8). What will he say? He will say to his rock, “Why have you forgotten me” (v. 9)? They say, “where is your God”? Why should I have to say it too (v. 10)? David chides himself again, and with the same words. Why are you cast down? Hope in God, who will deliver (v. 11).

Talking and Listening

The trouble here is very great. In the midst of such trouble, we have only two options. We may listen to ourselves, which is not healthy. Or we may do what David does here, which is talk to himself. He takes himself in hand— David talks, requiring David to listen. This is very different than simply accepting whatever your murmuring heart might churn up. Don’t doubt in the dark what you knew in the light, and speak to yourself deliberately in terms of what you knew in the light. This is the way of wisdom. The way of folly is to sit in the dark giving full credence to whatever thoughts drift into your head. The necessity of this distinction is underscored by the n eed that David has to do it twice in the course of just eleven verses. If you don’t listen the first time, say it again (vv. 5, 11).

The Godly May Do What the Ungodly May Not

One of the most striking things about this psalm is the way David rejects the taunts of the ungodly, knowing the malice that was driving them, while at the same time asking the same question himself. The difference is that they did not want an answer, and would refuse to accept one if it came. David was hungry for an answer, wanting it desperately. But it was still the same question. His soul thirsts for God because he does not know when he can appear before Him (v. 2). But these malicious adversaries touch him in that tender spot by asking, “Where is your God?” This is just the question David was asking. The question gets to him, and so he has to speak to himself firmly (v. 5). But this is not the double-minded man, unstable in all his ways (Jas. 1:8). Rather, deep faith and profound desperation are woven together. Notice how it goes: Why am I downcast (v. 5)? I am downcast, bad (v. 6). God has always delivered His people (v. 6). This is the worst trouble of my life—caught in a tornado at sea, and wave after wave from Yahweh goes over my head (v. 7). Yet God will deliver me (v. 8). I will say to God my rock, why have you forgotten me (v. 9)? My enemies say you have forgotten me—am I supposed to agree with them (v. 10)? Why am I disquieted (v. 11)? God will deliver.

All the Bible belongs to all of us, and we are particularly called to pray the psalms. This is not the same thing as cherry picking from the psalms to suit your personality type. If you like rolling around in despair, there are plenty of passages for you. If you are a happy happy joy joy type, there are also plenty of passages. But if you are a normal person experiencing the grace of God throughout the course of your life, the whole Bible is yours. And only the grace of God can equip you to appropriate all of it—as David does here. One of the great things the grace of God does is integrate and unify. But there is a certain kind of immature mind that simply asks if it is “in the Bible,” and not whether it is balanced with everything else in the Bible. We must long for Spirit-given balance. Why does the Bible have to say that no one can say Jesus is accursed by the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 12:3)? Well, perhaps because certain unstable types seized on the fact that Jesus became a curse for us when He was hanged on a tree (Gal. 3:13).

Public Worship, Real Truth

David thirsts after God. At the same time, he does not conceive of a privatized relationship with God—everything is geared to appearing before God. The way the mind turns after privation reveals a great deal about its true loves (v. 4). David wants to appear before God (v. 2), meaning that he wants to worship publicly at the appointed place. David remembers what it was like when he was with the multitude of worshippers, and praising God with the corporate voice that was like the sound of many waters (v. 4). David longed for a public holy-day.

Come to Particulars

When your enemies come against you and say, “Where is your God?” you must say that He is commanding His lovingkindness to be at your right hand during the day, and He has ordered His music to stand sentry around you tonight. That is what you say to your adversaries. In the meantime, to God your rock you say, “That was a good question. Have you forgotten me? That can’t be . . . You cannot let me down. If that happened I could not praise You in the public assembly, and I am going to praise You in the public assembly. Right?”

And when your enemies repeat—continually, daily—as they do here, “Where is your God?” then you may apply the words of Mr. Greatheart in Pilgrim’s Progress, right before he killed the giant Maul. “These are but generals, said Mr. Great-Heart; come to particulars, man.”

The Breakers of Jehovah

David here says that all God’s waves came over his head (v. 7). Strictly speaking, this has only been true of one man —the Lord Jesus. Remembering this will enable us to plead the words of this psalm, and others like it, without becoming whiners or moaners. The whiner complains his way through every other verse. The chirrupy one wants to put all his troubles into a great, big box, sit on the lid and grin. Instead of these two options, get a real life and serve a real God.

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Psalm 41: God Helps Those Who Help the Helpless

Christ Church on

Fifth Decade of Psalms

The Text

“Blessed is he that considereth the poor : the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble . . . ” (Ps. 41:1-13).

Outline and Summary of the Text

As with much Hebrew poetry, this psalm is structured as a chiasm.

a. didactic introduction and associated prayer of confidence (vv. 1-4);

b. petition of the psalmist (v. 5);
c. words and behavior of the adversary (vv. 6-8);
c’. words and behavior of the adversary (vv. 9-10);
b’. prayer of the psalmist (v. 11);
a’. didactic conclusion and associated Temple worship (v. 12).
The thirteenth verse here functions as the conclusion to the first book of the five books of psalms, probably divided up by Ezra. See also Psalms 72:18-19; 89:53; 106:48 and 150.
The man who considers and remembers the poor will be himself helped by the Lord (v. 1). The Lord will protect such a man, and not allow him to be taken by his enemies (v. 2). Although confined to bed, the Lord Himself will be the nurse (v. 3). The reason that David was confined to bed was because of sin, and so he sought mercy (v. 4). From that position, David was able to imagine what his enemies were saying—when will he die (v. 5)? And those with evil under their tongues like this are impudent enough to come and visit him on his sick bed, smooth words on the surface, but eagerly looking for trouble (v. 6). Those who hate David whisper against him (v. 7). They exult over the fact that he looks done for (v. 8). This is even done by one who had previously been close—perhaps Absalom or Ahithophel—and who had shared David’s bread (v. 9). This is clearly applied in the antitype to Judas betraying Jesus (John 13:18). But David prays to be raised, that He might dispense justice (v. 10). He knows that God is on his side because his enemy does not triumph (v. 11). God will establish David in His own presence forever (v. 12). And a blessing is declared with regard to the God of Israel, forever and ever, amen and amen (v. 13).

The Occasion

The serious illnesses of kings are always watched with interest. When a basketball player is about to shoot, there will be all kinds of posting up and positioning under the basket. When a king looks as though he is going to die, the same kind of ambitious scuffling is going on among the courtiers, plotters and heirs apparent. King David is the type, and the Lord Jesus is the antitype. There are some things that apply only to David (for example, his confession of sin in v. 4). But the apostle John clearly declares that v. 9 found its complete fulfillment in the treachery of Judas. The same kind of thing repeats over and over. We see this kind of treachery throughout the Old Testament (e.g. Jer. 12:6), we see it with Jesus, and with followers of Christ down to the present.

God Helps Those Who Help the Helpless

Our proverb says that God helps those who help themselves. And while there is an important but limited truth there, we want to pursue a deeper truth. God helps those who help the helpless. As we seek to understand this, we must take care not to treat it as though God in heaven were a celestial vending machine—as though I could put my good deeds in here, and get my product there. At the same time, sowing and reaping are woven into the way the world is structured. We simply must refuse to understand the sowing and the reaping in a superficial way. The seed is not sown on the surface of the ground, and the plant does not grow from a spot on the surface.

Those who when they are prosperous help the helpless are becoming the kind of people who can cry out to God for help when they are in dire straits. This is why it is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35); this is why the man is blessed who considers the poor (v. 1). David asks for mercy, and his appeal has two arguments. First he pleads for mercy because he has sinned (v. 4). No spin control. But second he asks for mercy because he had previously made a point of extending it. Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy (Matt. 5:7). David is in trouble—he is sick, and he is dealing with the treachery of friends. When he writes a psalm in his trouble, he begins with this: “Blessed is he that considereth the poor.” In his current crisis, he remembers the times when the crises was someone else’s—and he was the benefactor.

Intelligent Mercy

Note that the blessing is for those who consider the poor. This is not limited to mental activity—obviously, the result is action that actually helps the poor. But it at least includes thoughtful consideration. The blessing is not for those who close their eyes and strew money about the place. Those who are hurting need different things and we won’t know what those things are unless we consider it. Do they need medicine? a job? training? education for their children? capitalization for a business? debt forgiveness? What do they need? Consider it, and to consider it biblically is to act on it.

Right and Left Hand

Jesus teaches us that when we give, our left hand should not know what the right hand is doing (Matt. 6:3). Remember that David is making a plea to the Lord to consider him in his poverty, just as he had considered others in theirs. He is doing this in the context of slander—close associates and former friends were slandering him and speaking evil concerning him. They knew better, and yet they snatch at anything that will weaken David or misrepresent his character or his prospects. This was the position that Judas was in with respect to Jesus. He shared His bread, and lifted up his heel—the way an animal in a stall kicks the one who feeds him.

But David was king, and a public person. There is no question about settling personal scores, but when God raised him again, he intended to require them (v. 10). Jesus did not strike down His persecutors when they taunted Him as He was on the cross. And He could have; He could have summoned legions of angels. But He did not refrain because this was the wrong thing to do; He refrained because it was the wrong time. When the Lord came to Jerusalem in judgment in 70 A.D. the time was fulfilled and the fullness of wrath fell on that generation. Who will be trusted to wield judgment? The merciful. Who will be trusted to receive mercy? The merciful.

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