1 “Send me your light and your faithful care, let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell.
2 Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.
3 Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God” Psalm 43:3-5.
In ancient manuscripts, Psalms 42 and 43 form one psalm. Together they express the sorrow of a devout worshipper, possibly a temple singer, who lived in the far north of Israel (see Psalm 42:6) and could no longer go to worship at the temple in Jerusalem. This may have been because the kingdom was now divided, and the northern king would not allow his people to travel into the southern territory, where Jerusalem was situated. The king rejected the religion that was based in Jerusalem and set up his own idol-gods, one near his southern border and one in the far north where the writer of this psalm lived (see 1 Kings 12:28-29).
The psalmist is longing to draw near to God in his temple, and his longing is likened to the intense thirst of an animal that seeks water in a dry sunburnt country (Psalm 42:1-2). Ungodly friends mock him for having such strong feelings for a God who, living far away in Jerusalem, can be of no help to him (Psalm 42:3). When he recalls how in former times he had led groups of singing worshippers to Jerusalem, his confidence in God is strengthened (Psalm 42:4-5). As he watched the waters of those fast-flowing northern streams tumbling over the rocks, he felt that those waters were like the troubles that tumbled over him, almost drowning him in sorrow (Psalm 42:6-7). But through all the disappointments and all the mockings of his enemies he knows that God will keep him (Psalm 42:8-11).
Meanwhile the psalmist is still in an unsettled state of mind, because God has not yet given him his heart’s desire (Psalm 43:1-2). Then, in our Psalm today, as he considers the certainty of God’s character, his confidence returns. He knows he will meet God at his altar on Mount Zion again (Psalm 3-5). He prays for the Light of God and his faithful care, and he prays to worship at “the altar of God.”
But it is his appeal to you and me to put our hope in God. Take time and ask God to give you certain hope in God. Let hope be a big part of your Advent journey!
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
From the Bible:
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” Romans 15:13.
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for your harm, to give you a future filled with hope” Jeremiah 29:11.
“But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint” Isaiah 40:31.
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