Christianity

Psalms 43Send Out Thy Light

Summary

Psalm 43 is a short prayer asking God to vindicate the psalmist against an ungodly nation and deceitful people. He asks God to send out light and truth to lead him back to the holy hill, where he will go to the altar of God, his exceeding joy, and praise him with the harp. It ends with the same refrain as Psalm 42, Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and many scholars read the two as a single poem.

Key verse

“O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.”

Psalms 43:3

Themes

Light and Truth
Return to Worship
Vindication
Hope

Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.

For thou art the God of my strength: why dost thou cast me off? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.

Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God.

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

Text: King James Version (1611/1769), public domain.

Across traditions

Christianity
Psalm 42: As the Hart Panteth
Psalm 42 supplies the opening of the same poem, and its refrain recurs in Psalm 43:5.
Judaism
Tehillim 43 in the JPS 1917 Tanakh
In Jewish tradition the two psalms are numbered separately, but commentators note the shared refrain and the longing for the temple that unites them.

Questions about Psalms 43

Are Psalms 42 and 43 one psalm?

Many scholars think so: Psalm 43 has no heading, shares the refrain of Psalm 42 and continues its themes. Some Hebrew manuscripts join them, while standard Bibles keep them separate.

How was Psalm 43 used in the Latin Mass?

Its Latin form, beginning Judica me, was recited by the priest at the foot of the altar in the traditional Roman Mass, because verse 4 speaks of going to the altar of God.