Lessons From the Psalms - Psalm 43

[00:00:00] Welcome to Lessons from the Psalms. This is Bill Kelley and I'll be your host. On this

[00:00:14] podcast we will be going over the book of Psalms.

[00:00:21] Soap an imprier. Father God, I thank you for anyone listening to this Psalm today. Lord,

[00:00:27] I pray that you would reveal to everyone listening how much you truly love each and every one of them.

[00:00:35] I ask this in Jesus name, amen. This is Psalm 43 beginning in verse 1.

[00:00:43] Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation. Oh, deliver me from the deceitful

[00:00:54] and unjust man, for you are the God of my strength. Why do you cast me off? Why do I go morning

[00:01:06] because of the oppression of the enemy? Oh, send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me.

[00:01:16] Let them bring me to your holy hill and to your tabernacle. Then I will go to the altar of God,

[00:01:26] to God my exceeding joy and on the harp I will praise you. Oh, God, my God. Why are you cast down

[00:01:38] O my soul and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him,

[00:01:48] the help of my countenance and my God. Friends, Psalm 43 is entitled prayer to God in time of trouble

[00:02:01] and according to the commentary in my Bible, and I am reading out of the Nelson study Bible,

[00:02:09] Psalm 43 is a continuation of Psalm 42. The original poem was separated into the two

[00:02:18] Psalms we have today so they could more easily be used for worship in the temple. Let's

[00:02:27] break this Psalm down first by verse. It begins with vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against

[00:02:38] an ungodly nation. Friends, when we hear that word vindicate me, this is the author crying out

[00:02:48] that he is innocent and he has done nothing wrong. Oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.

[00:02:58] For you are the God of my strength. Why do you cast me off? Now friends, when I read that,

[00:03:08] what I am sensing the author is telling us is that he feels more aware of the enemy at this time

[00:03:18] than God himself. He feels that he is a distance away from God and he's pleading to God to come

[00:03:29] closer to him. Looking for three, O send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me. Friends,

[00:03:42] I absolutely love that part of this verse. This is where we are to be led to live our lives

[00:03:53] is the word of God. I just think this is absolutely beautiful and a lot of people try to do

[00:04:01] everything on their own. A lot of people do not look at Scripture as the first place

[00:04:09] that they should go if they have an issue in their life. May I suggest that you consider doing that?

[00:04:19] Let's go on. Let them bring me to your holy hill and to your tabernacle. Then I will go to the

[00:04:29] altar of God to God my exceeding joy. I love that and on the harp, I will praise you, O God,

[00:04:41] my God. That is absolutely awesome. Now friends, there's a verse in the Bible that says that God

[00:04:49] inhabits the praises of his people. So when you praise God, you can do it with your voice or you can

[00:04:59] do it with a musical instrument. In this particular case, the author obviously plays the harp and

[00:05:09] that is how he is going to show praise to God. Let's look at verse 5. Why are you cast down, O my soul?

[00:05:20] And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God for I shall yet praise him the help of my countenance

[00:05:31] and my God. Now friends, the commentary in my Bible for verse 5 says this. Why are you cast down?

[00:05:42] These words are the refrain of this and the previous Psalm. In Psalm 42, it was also in verse 5 and

[00:05:54] 11. So we're using the same refrain in Psalm 43 because at one time they were all in the same

[00:06:06] Psalm. In time of doubt and stress, the poet urges his inner being and this is our soul. We know this

[00:06:17] as our mind, our will and our emotions by the power of God to keep believing. And friends,

[00:06:27] sometimes in life we have things come against us and it seems like nothing is going our way.

[00:06:36] We can't sense the presence of God, we get discouraged, sometimes we get into despair or discouragement

[00:06:46] but this verse is telling us keep believing in God. He knows that one day by God's grace he will

[00:06:58] return to the place of praise to God, the center of worship in Jerusalem. Friends, please rejoin me soon

[00:07:08] as we take a look at Psalm 44.