Psalm 43: 1 – 5
The True and Honest Judge
1 Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; Oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man! 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? 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. 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. 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.
If you have watched the news lately you daily come across corrupt justice. People who should be brought to account for their crimes are overlooked while innocent individuals are the top stories. What happened to proper judgment?
The prophet Isaiah reported in chapter 33: 22, “For the LORD Is our Judge, The LORD Is our Lawgiver, The LORD Is our King; He will save us. Our Great God Is the True and Honest Perfect Judge.
People call the church and ask, “What does the Bible say about when God will judge us?"
There are two separate judgments. Believers are judged at the Judgment Seat of Christ as Romans 14: 10 – 12 points out, “10 But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.11 For it is written: “As I live, says the LORD, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” 12 So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. 13 Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way.”
Every believer will give an account of himself, and the Lord will judge the decisions he made—including those concerning issues of conscience. This judgment does not determine salvation, which is by faith alone Ephesians 2: 8 - 9, “8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
Rather it is the time when believers must give an account of their lives in service to Christ. Our position in Christ is the “foundation” spoken of in 1 Corinthians 3: 11 – 15, “11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. 14 If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.” That which we build upon the foundation can be the “gold, silver, and precious stones” of good works in Christ’s name, obedience and fruitfulness—dedicated spiritual service to glorify God and build the church. Or what we build on the foundation may be the “wood, hay and stubble” of worthless, frivolous, shallow activity with no spiritual value. The Judgment Seat of Christ will reveal this.”
The gold, silver, and precious stones in the lives of believers will survive God’s refining fire (v. 13), and believers will be rewarded based on those good works—how faithfully we served Christ 1 Corinthians 9: 24 – 27, “24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. 25 And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. 26 Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. 27 But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”, how well we obeyed the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20, “18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.”), how victorious we were over sin (Romans 6:1-4, “1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”), how well we controlled our tongues (James 3:1-9, “1 My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. 2 For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. 3 Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. 4 Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. 5 Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things.”
See how great a forest a little fire kindle! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. 8 But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God.”), etc. We will have to give an account for our actions, whether they were truly indicative of our position in Christ. The fire of God’s judgment will completely burn up the “wood, hay and stubble” of the words we spoke and things we did which had no eternal value. “So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12, “So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.” ).
The second judgment is that of unbelievers who will be judged at the Great White Throne Judgment (Revelation 20:11-15, “1 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. 14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.[fn] 15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”). This judgment does not determine salvation, either. Everyone at the Great White Throne is an unbeliever who has rejected Christ in life and is therefore already doomed to the lake of fire. Revelation 20:12 says that unbelievers will be “judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” Those who have rejected Christ as Lord and Savior will be judged based on their works alone, and because the Bible tells us that “by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified” (Galatians 2:16, “knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.”), they will be condemned. No amount of good works and the keeping of God’s laws can be enough to atone for sin. All their thoughts, words and actions will be judged against God’s perfect standard and found wanting. There will be no reward for them, only eternal condemnation and punishment.
1 Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; Oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man! 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?
He calls on God to judge him, with a view to vindicating him because of his love for Him, and to plead his cause before the godless nation which holds him. He seeks to be delivered from the hand of the deceitful and unjust men who represent that nation. The singular is signifying unjust man in general. They do not walk in God’s ways and therefore God must surely finally deliver him (who does walk in God’s ways) from their hands. For He is the God of his strength (and thus his rocky fortress).
So he again asks why God has seemingly cast him off, and allowed him to go in mourning because of the oppression of his enemies. He echoes the words of all those who have found themselves in difficult situations which do not seem to tie in with God’s love. And it gives assurance that God does know of our situation. The fact that we have this psalm available demonstrates that eventually he was released or ransomed.
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. 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.
He has in mind here the pillar of light that had led God’s people from Egypt, and the light and truth revealed at Sinai. It was by these manifestations of God that Israel had been delivered. So now he wants God to act in the same way on his behalf, delivering him and leading him back to God’s holy hill and to His tabernacles. (The plural for tabernacles may suggest the time of David when there were two tabernacles, one in Hebron which was the main center of worship, and one in Jerusalem that held the Ark of the Covenant of YHWH. Then he will again be able to go to the altar of God, to God Who is his great joy, and will be able to praise him on the harp because He Is God his God.
Once the God of light and truth comes to deliver him nothing will be able to prevent his release, for light and truth must always prevail. It is a productive reminder that our salvation also is totally due to the coming of One Who was the Light and the Truth (John 8.12 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”).
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.
This final truth has confirmed his faith and made him sure of his deliverance. He can with even more confidence call on his soul and ask it why is it so disquieted simply because of these troubles that have beset him. Let it hope in God. For he knows that God must eventually release him so that he may yet go to the House of God to praise Him, for God is the one who is his constant aid and sustainer and is his God.
