From Lament To Praise.

FROM LAMENT TO PRAISE.

Psalm 43:1-5.

Bold prayer dares to address God in the imperative. It seems that the Psalmist, speaking on behalf of many a pilgrim since, has lost his sense of the immanence of God. Yet we cannot rely upon senses, so he falls back on what he knows about God.

“Judge me, O God,” he pleads (PSALM 43:1) – and he hardly needs to add, ‘Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?’ (cf. Genesis 18:25). We do not know whether the Psalmist had been taken hostage by foreigners, or was being persecuted by his own people, but he was a victim of both “deceit” and “injustice,” and sought God’s deliverance.

But why should the LORD hear such a prayer? “For,” says the Psalmist, “thou art the God of my strength” (PSALM 43:2). “Thou art” leaves no room for doubt. God is, and ever has been, my protector. So our reassurance is that ‘Hitherto hath the LORD helped us’ (cf. 1 Samuel 7:12). Why would He let us down now?

Yet, we ask, when God is “my strength,” why should it be as if He has “cast me off?” We “mourn” when we lose our sense of the felt presence of God, and we become all the more keenly aware of “the oppression of the enemy” (PSALM 43:2).

The way forward for the Psalmist was to submit himself anew to the “light” and “truth” of God (PSALM 43:3). Let them be his guides to lead him back to “thy holy hill” - where God “tabernacled” amongst men (cf. John 1:14). For us, that means approaching God through His Son Jesus Christ, ‘the Light of the world’ (cf. John 8:12); and ‘the way, the Truth and the life’ (cf. John 14:6).

“Then will I go to the altar of God” (PSALM 43:4). Jesus is our altar, and our sacrifice, and our great high priest. So even when we do not ‘feel’ the presence of God (and we need not live by our feelings), we may ‘boldly approach the throne of grace’ in the name of Jesus (cf. Hebrews 4:16).

Thus the Psalmist can look forward to approaching “God my exceeding joy” (or ‘God the gladness of my joy’). When we are full of the joy of the LORD, our desire is to give expression to that joy through the praises of “O God, my God” (PSALM 43:4).

The Psalmist scolds himself for his dejection. “Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me?” (PSALM 43:5). “Hope in God,” he says. Why? “For I shall yet praise Him.”

Indeed, He who is “the health of my countenance” will ‘wash away all tears’ at the last (cf. Revelation 21:4). And (owns the Psalmist once more), “He is my God.”

May we all have such a happy issue out of all our afflictions. And to His name be all the praise, and all the honour, and all the glory. Amen.