Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 17 May 2020
I’m usually not good at timing my sermon preparation, so I’m usually up late on Saturday night trying to finish preparing my sermons for Sunday. My family is usually all asleep by the time I stumble in to bed. But my wife always leaves a couple of lights on for me so that when I’m done with my work in the office, I can see well enough to navigate through the darkness of the house at night to find my way to curl up beside her in bed.
The author of this Psalm in a similar way, has endured a season of difficult challenges and is stumbling through darkness, as it were, asking God to send him enough light to guide him back into the rest of a close, worshipping relationship.
Not everybody is agreed on who wrote this Psalm:
The Hebrew text, the oldest-known of which is dated about 900 years A.D. has no notes on who wrote it, but
Septuagint Greek translations of this Psalm dating to close to the time of Christ contain a note that this was “a Psalm of David.”
"The mention of the tabernacle and the holy hill shows that the Psalm is neither earlier nor later than the times of David and Solomon, before whom there was no holy hill, and after whom there was no tabernacle." ~Alexander, as quoted by Plumer
The Syriac translation from about the third century AD added that David wrote it when he heard from Jonathan of Saul’s intention to murder him.
Others have suggested that this Psalm was set during Absolom and Ahithophel’s rebellion against King David1 or later on in the history of Israel when it was conquered by Assyria (Ewald) or Babylon (Oesterley) or even the Greeks (Hitzig).
But St. Augustine wisely pointed out in this Psalm as he did in the previous Psalm that the authorship isn’t as important as the application: "We need not then dwell long on pointing out to you, who is the speaker here: let each one of us be a member of Christ's Body; and he will be speaker here."
There is an obvious relationship between Psalms 42 and 43, in that two of the verses in Psalm 43 are repeats of verses in Psalm 42. Some Bible scholars say it used to be one psalm that accidentally got divided into two (G. Wilson), and others argue that they were intentionally written as two separate psalms (Plumer). I’d lean toward the latter, especially considering the way Psalm 42 is more of a stream of consciousness account of a man going through a hard time, and Psalm 43 is more of a logical argument laid out to convince God to deliver someone who has been unjustly treated.
This is courtroom language. David begins by asking God to take the role of a judge and render a verdict in the case he’s bringing to the court. David believes God is a good adjudicator and will find him innocent of guilt and vindicate him.
This introduction is not unlike the Apostle Paul’s opening remarks before the judgment seat of King Agrippa a thousand years later. It was apparently acceptable to “butter up” your judge by stating your confidence in his skill at judging.
Interestingly, David not only asks God to be the judge but also to be his defense lawyer to “argue [his] case / plead for [his] cause / defend [him]” before the court. He is so certain that this is an open-and-shut case that there is no risk of the defense lawyer being accused of bias if he also judges the case!
On the other side of the courtroom is a man from “a nation” (or, more technically a non-Jewish ethnic group) that is “not godly.”2
This phrase occurs nowhere else in the O.T., but it appears to be a contrast statement.
The word for “godly” (chesiyd) is used in Jer. 3:12 to describe God’s character, including being faithful, loyal, exclusive, loving, and devout in an interpersonal relationship.
God infuses that character of Himself into His people. Psalm 4:3 "But y'all should know that Yahweh caused to separate a godly man for Himself. Yahweh will heed when I call to Him." (NAW)
Thus a nation that is “not godly” does not share God’s character traits, is not holy, and so is outside of God’s favor and will be condemned on God’s day of judgment.
In addition to this, two positively-condemning words are used in the second half of verse 1 to describe the opposing party:
Mirmah3 “Deceitful” and
‘Avlah – “Unjust/iniquitous”
There are two Psalms – both of them Psalms of David –
which describe these kind of persons:
Psalm 58 “Do you indeed speak righteousness, you silent ones? Do you judge uprightly, you sons of men? No, in heart you work wickedness; You weigh out the violence of your hands in the earth. The wicked are estranged from the womb; They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent... Break their teeth in their mouth, O God! Break out the fangs of the young lions, O LORD! Let them flow away as waters which run continually; When he bends his bow, Let his arrows be as if cut in pieces. Let them be like a snail which melts away as it goes... He shall take them away as with a whirlwind, As in His living and burning wrath. The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance; He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked, So that men will say, ‘Surely there is a reward for the righteous; Surely He is God who judges in the earth.’” (NKJV)
Psalm 64 “Hear my voice, O God, in my meditation; Preserve my life from fear of the enemy. Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked, From the rebellion of the workers of iniquity, Who sharpen their tongue like a sword, And bend their bows to shoot their arrows – bitter words... They encourage themselves in an evil matter; They talk of laying snares secretly; They say, ‘Who will see them?’ They devise iniquities: ‘We have perfected a shrewd scheme.’ ... But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; Suddenly they shall be wounded. So He will make them stumble over their own tongue... The righteous shall be glad in the LORD, and trust in Him. And all the upright in heart shall glory." (NKJV)
Since God is a God of justice, He can be called upon to deliver those who ask Him to save them from injustice.
The imperfect tense verb “deliver me” could actually be an indicative statement about what God customarily does: He rescues – that’s what He does, or it can be interpreted in parallel with the imperative verb which opened the verse and rendered as a command “deliver me!”
Psalm 37:39-40 “Verily the salvation of righteous men is from Yahweh; He is their strength in a time of crisis. Yahweh will also help them and deliver them. He delivers them from wicked men and saves them because they have taken refuge in Him.” (NAW, cf. Psalm 18:43-48)
As the Psalmist builds his case with God, he gives the reason why he is asking God to Judge and bring deliverance to him:
This verse is very similar to Psalm 42:9 “I will say to God my rock-mountain, “Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go gloomily into the oppression of the enemy?” (NAW) Here we have synonyms for “rock” and for “forgotten,” but the thought is basically the same.
The synonym for “rock” is “strength/stronghold”
Psalm 27:1 "Yahweh is my light and my salvation. Of whom shall I be afraid? Yahweh is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be in dread?" (NAW)
Psalm 28:7-8 “Yahweh is my strength [עז] and my shield; it is in Him that my heart has trusted, so I will be helped out, and my heart will rejoice, and through my song I will respond to Him. Yahweh is the strength of His people, and He is the source-of-strength behind the salvations of His anointed one.” (NAW, cf. Ps. 31:2-4)
Psalm 37:39-40 "Verily the salvation of righteous men is from Yahweh; He is their strength in a time of crisis. Yahweh will also help them and deliver them. He delivers them from wicked men and saves them because they have taken refuge in Him." (NAW)
The synonym for “forgotten” is the Hebrew word zanach, translated "reject/cast off." It shows up almost exclusively in terms of the covenant God made that if Israel rejected God, God would reject Israel and let them lose their status as a nation.
1 Chronicles 28:9 "As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever." (NKJV)
200 years later, God said through Hosea (chapter 8) that Israel "transgressed My covenant And rebelled against My law... [and] rejected the good... [and] made idols for themselves – That they might be cut off."
And so the curses of that covenant came into being with the exile, described using that same word "rejected" in Psalms 74 and 77 by Asaph and in Lamentations 2 by Jeremiah. But this rejection was not to be permanent: Lam. 3:31-32 said, "For the Lord will not cast off forever. Though He causes grief, Yet He will show compassion According to the multitude of His mercies." (NKJV)
And so in Zechariah 10:6 the New Covenant is promised: "I will strengthen the house of Judah, And I will save the house of Joseph. I will bring them back, Because I have mercy on them. They shall be as though I had not cast them aside; For I am the LORD their God, And I will hear them." (NKJV)
But I believe Psalm 43 was written at an earlier point in time when God had not actually brought the hammer down, yet God's people were afraid that Israel had crossed the line and had come under that covenantal curse or rejection.
This word for being “rejected” by God occurs a couple of times in Psalms by David (Ps. 60:3-12, 108:12), the sons of Korah (Ps 43:2, 44:10-24, 88:15), and Ethan the Ezrahite (Ps. 89:39).
In the next Psalm (44) we'll see the sons of Korah arguing, "...we have not dealt falsely with Your covenant... or stretched out our hands to a foreign god... yet you have severely broken us... and covered us with the shadow of death... Why do You sleep, O Lord? Arise! Do not cast us off forever." (NKJV)
God’s people are not totally immune from bad things happening to us. "No public service, no piety, no benevolence, no humility can exempt God's servants from ill will and wrong doing in this wicked world. David had his foes; Christ had His murderers. The enemies of God's servants are often so many, so cruel, so cunning and so powerful, that it is a marvel they do not eat them up... the only resource left them is to enlist God. [And t]he confidence which the righteous repose in God is not misplaced. He is the God of their strength" ~William Plumer
Here David asks, “Why? Why did you make me an outcast?” This assumes a personal God who is sovereign over the events in David’s life and who does what He does for good reasons. You don’t ask the clouds why they rain because they don’t have any personal decision in the matter, but you can ask a personal God why a particular thing happened, especially if you suspect He has set it up to be a learning experience for you.
The “you” which opens this verse is emphatic in Hebrew: “It is YOU who are my God.[It is YOU who are] my strength – the source of my strength, my stronghold.”
David is arguing from a position of relationship: “If you’re my God and I’m one of Your people, then it doesn’t follow that you can desert me. We’ve got a thing going here. You have to keep your end of the covenant and be my God and save me.”
Yes, it’s o.k. to pray to God like that. It is a position of faith in His word. It is a way to express your trust in Him. “Save me; I am yours!” (Psalm 119:94)
"He considered it absolutely certain that his enemies had no power to do him harm except in so far as the Lord permitted them; and therefore he asks, as if it were something altogether unaccountable, how it happened that his enemies prevailed against him whilst he was under the assured protection and guardianship of God. From this he gathers courage to pray, that God would be pleased again to manifest his favor, which he seemed to have hid from him for a time." ~J. Calvin
“God never cast off any that trusted in him, whatever melancholy apprehensions they may have had of their own state... It is hard to reconcile the mighty force of the church's enemies with the almighty power of the church's God; but the day will reconcile them when all his enemies shall become his footstool.” ~M. Henry
Now after this explanation of why there was an injustice that called for God to intervene with His justice, the psalmist proposes to God the solution to this injustice:
Cf. Psalm 5:8 “Yahweh, guide me in your righteousness because of my opponents; level your way in front of me.” (NAW)
There are only two other places in the O.T. where the “sending” of “truth” and “light” were mentioned as God’s guidance:
One is the prayer of Abraham’s servant after successfully finding a wife for Isaac: Genesis 24:48 "And I bowed down my head, and worshipped the LORD, and blessed the LORD God of my master Abraham, which had led me in the way of truth [אֱמֶת] to take my master's brother's daughter unto his son." (KJV)
The other is a reference in Nehemiah of God leading Israel through the desert by means of a pillar of cloud: Nehemiah 9:19 “Yet in Your manifold mercies You did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of the cloud did not depart from them by day, To lead them on the road; Nor the pillar of fire by night, To show them light [לְהָאִיר], And the way they should go." (NKJV)5
I think it’s entirely possible that our psalmist is remembering these times in the past when God led His people through wilderness times, and he’s saying, “Do it again, God!” As we’ve seen many times before in the scriptures, it is good to remember God’s mighty deeds in the past in order to bolster our faith in Him for the present.
There is also a Christological level of fulfillment to this psalm in the sending forth of God’s light and truth. Who said, “I am the light of the world” (John 1:8, 8:12)? and “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6), and who was “sent” by God the Father? The coming of Jesus is a fulfillment of David’s prayer for God to send His light and His truth!
Indeed it is Jesus who is our great high priest to guide us into the presence of God in heaven, as we saw in the book of Hebrews.
But it goes even further than that, because the Holy Spirit, in turn, was sent by Jesus and the Father to bring light (Dan. 5:11-14) and truth to us in this time between the ascension of Jesus and the return of Jesus. Jesus said in John 15:26, "But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.” (NKJV)6
We can still pray this prayer of David today “send forth Your light and Your truth to guide me” and expect an answer to our prayer in the person of the Holy Spirit!
We can be just as confident as David was that God will answer this prayer, even as David expressed this confidence in Psalm 57 while in a cave, hiding from King Saul’s hit-men, “...O God, be merciful to me! For my soul trusts in You; And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, Until these calamities have passed by. I will cry out to God Most High, To God who performs all things for me. He shall send from heaven and save me... God shall send forth His mercy and His truth...” (NKJV)
The destination of God’s guidance through His light and His truth is His holy hill, literally the “mountain of His Holiness.”7
This “holy mountain/hill” is used several places in the Bible to indicate God’s abode in heaven (Ps. 3:4, Isaiah 11:9, 66:25, etc.),
but the immediate context of this Psalm is a time when there was (or perhaps was about to be) a brick-and-mortar temple at the crest of the hill upon which the city of Jerusalem was built. The psalmist expects God to lead him back in among the people of God so that he can enjoy worshiping God in that temple! (cf. Isa. 56:6-7)
"As the chief cause of his sorrow consisted in his being banished from the congregation of the godly, so he places the height of all his enjoyments in this, that he might be at liberty to take part in the exercises of religion, and to worship God in the sanctuary8." ~Calvin
"His heart is upon the holy hill and the tabernacles, not upon his family-comforts, his court-preferments, or his diversions; he could bear the want of these, but he is impatient to see God's tabernacles again; nothing so amiable in his eyes as those; thither he would gladly be brought back." ~M. Henry
“As under the law no fitter place for a sinner could be found than the altar of God where atonement was made by bloody offerings, so under the gospel the first thing every sinner should seek is the expiation of sin by the blood of Christ. He is our Altar, Sacrifice, Lamb, Righteousness. Live in sight of the Cross.” ~Wm. Plumer
Note that it’s not just to the general vicinity of the temple that he seeks to be led, but right into the tabernacles/dwellingplaces, chambers, residential rooms of God Himself (the Hebrew word is plural9), inside the temple, and not even stopping there once he entered, but proceeding all the way to the altar within the temple, as we’ll see in the next verse, which was the absolute closest that a layperson10 could get to God in his day.
Don’t be content to just get kinda close to God. Be like David and ask God to lead you by His Holy Spirit and get you as close to Him as you can get!
David11 is daydreaming of going to church! Do you ever do that? Maybe it would be more equivalent to think of going to a special Christian conference or retreat. There’s nothing wrong with looking forward to those special occasions, as long as it reflects an enjoyment of being close to God.12
“There is great danger in forgetting God, his mighty works, and the worshiping community of faith. Our society stands ever ready to taunt us, using the words of the psalmist's enemies, "Where is your God?" That they can even raise this question is a testimony to their powerful commitment to forgetfulness and ignorance. Ours is a world that does not wish to remember God. And the danger is that the world and our friends who are of the world can easily persuade us that there is no deliverance from our fears that we do not create for ourselves. It is easy in the face of the painful vagaries of life to conclude that we are on our own — life is what you make of it! ... That is why community worship is such an important part of the life of the faithful. The Israelites knew that and longed for those occasions when they could come together in celebration and in praise, repentance, and thanksgiving. Worship together is a place of memory. Together we call to mind what it is so easy to forget alone – that God is good and that his steadfast love endures forever for those who trust in him. Corporate worship counters our society's message of forgetfulness and sends a message both outwardly and inwardly that we are not alone. Worship is a place for testimony and celebration. It is a time for confession and forgiveness. It is a place where we remember the past, receive power to face the present, and conceive hope for tomorrow.” ~Gerald Wilson, NIV Application Commentary
The enemy in v.2 brings gloomy darkness and oppression, but God – having God as your God – brings joy and happiness. God is the source of happiness – we’ve seen that in the earlier Psalms:
Psalm 4:6 "Yahweh You gave happiness to my heart..."
Psalm 16:11 "You will cause me to know the path of life; fullness of happinesses is with Your presence..."
Psalm 30:10-12 “...Yahweh was gracious to me to became a helper to me. You changed my mourning into a circle-dance for me! You untied my sack-cloth and girded me with happiness, in order that what has been glorified may make music for You and not sit still. Yahweh my God, I will praise you forever!" (NAW)
This isn’t the kind of happiness that just brings a half-smile to your lips. This is an abandonment of “delight” – “exceeding” joy – the kind that makes you want to get up and do a little jig. (The Hebrew word giyl literally means to whorl around in a circle.)
This gladness/happiness/joy should characterize the worship of God (Num. 10:10). If joy is not present in worship, something’s wrong!13
David also was a harp-player – although the image of harp-playing doesn’t conjure up the right image for me – I think of long-haired women seated sedately in flowing robes sinuously strumming on a giant instrument that it takes a truck to move. I think that playing a song on the guitar brings up a more accurate image to our mind’s eye today, because the Hebrew kinnor was a hand-held string-instrument that the average person could play popular music on14.
And so we finally come to the third chorus of the Psalm, a repeat of Psalm 42:11 and 42:5.15
“Though the words remain the same, they are now sung on a new note. They ring with triumphant hope and certainty.” (A. Cohen, quoting Daath Sofrim)
"It is our understanding then, that is addressing our soul. The latter is withered away from tribulations, worn out in anguish, made sorrowful in temptations, fainting in toils. The mind, catching a glimpse of Truth above, would fain rouse her spirits, and she says, 'Why art thou sorrowful, O my soul?'" ~Augustine
He sees, as it were, that ray of light illuminating the path back to close, joyous fellowship with God and his people, and he has hope again.
"The covenant relation expressed in the words ‘God, my God,’ was the foundation of perpetual confidence to David… If temptation is sore, if afflictions multiply, if enemies are many and powerful, let us hold fast and firm God and his truth. The more terrible the storm, the more necessary is the anchor (Heb. vi. 19). Hope in God." ~William Plumer
LXX (Ps.42) |
Brenton(LXX) |
DRB (Vulgate) |
KJV |
NAW |
Masoretic Txt |
1 Ψαλμὸς τῷ Δαυιδ. Κρῖνόν με, ὁ θεός, καὶ δίκασον τὴν δίκην μου ἐξ ἔθνους οὐχ ὁσίου, ἀπὸ ἀνθρώπου ἀδίκου καὶ δολίου ῥῦσαί μεB. |
1 A Psalm of David. Judge me, o God, and plead my cause, against an ungodly nation: deliver me from [the] unjust and crafty man. |
1 A psalm for David. Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause from the nation that is not holy: deliver me from the unjust and deceitful man. |
1 Judge me, O God, and pleadC my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man. |
1 Adjudicate for me, God, and argue my case please against an ungodly nation. Deliver me from [this] man of deceit and injustice! |
1 שָׁפְטֵנִיD אֱלֹהִים וְרִיבָהE רִיבִי מִגּוֹי לֹא־חָסִיד מֵאִישׁF־מִרְמָה וְעַוְלָה תְפַלְּטֵנִי׃ |
42:2 ὅτι σὺ εἶ, ὁ θεός X, κραταίωμά μου· ἵνα τί ἀπώσω με; καὶ ἵνα τί σκυθρωπάζων πορεύομαι ἐν τῷ ἐκθλίβειν τὸν ἐχθρόν [μου]; |
2 For thou, O God, art my strength: wherefore hast thou cast me off? and why do I go sad of countenance, while the enemy oppresses me? |
2 For thou art God my strength: why hast thou cast me off? and why do I go sorrowful whilst the enemy afflicteth me? |
2 For thou art the God of my strengthG: why dost thou cast me off? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? |
2 For it is You who are my God, my stronghold! Why did you cast me away? Why do I go gloomily into the oppression of an enemy? |
2 כִּי־אַתָּה אֱלֹהֵי מָעוּזִּי לָמָה זְנַחְתָּנִי לָמָּה־קֹדֵר אֶתְהַלֵּךְ בְּלַחַץ אוֹיֵב׃ |
42:3 [ἐξ]απόστειλον τὸ φῶς σου καὶ τὴν ἀλήθειάν σου· αὐτά με ὡδήγησαν [καὶ] ἤγαγόνH με εἰς ὄρος ἅγιόν σου καὶ εἰς τὰ σκηνώματά σου. |
3 Send forth thy light and thy truth: they have led me, and brought me to thy holy mountain, and to thy tabernacles. |
3 Sent forth thy light and thy truth: they have conducted me, and brought me unto thy holy hill, and into thy tabernacles. |
3 O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernaclesI. |
3 Send Your light and Your truth; it is they that will guide me and bring me to the mountain of Your holiness and to Your chambers. |
3 שְׁלַח־אוֹרְךָ וַאֲמִתְּךָ הֵמָּה יַנְחוּנִי יְבִיאוּנִי אֶל־הַר־קָדְשְׁךָ וְאֶל־מִשְׁכְּנוֹתֶיךָ׃ |
42:4
καὶ |
4
And I will go in to the altar of God, to God who gladdens my
youth:
I will give thanks to thee |
4
And I will go in to the altar of God: to God who giveth joy to my
youth.
(43:5)
To thee, O God my God, I will give praise |
4
Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding
joy: yea, |
4 Then I will go in that direction to the altar of God, to the God of my circle-dance happiness, and I will praise You with a guitar, God, my God! |
4 וְאָבוֹאָהK אֶל־מִזְבַּח אֱלֹהִים אֶל־אֵל שִׂמְחַת גִּילִי וְאוֹדְךָ בְכִנּוֹר אֱלֹהִים אֱלֹהָי׃ |
42:5
ἵνα τί περίλυποςL
εἶ, ψυχή, καὶ
ἵνα τί συνταράσσεις
X με; ἔλπισονM
ἐπὶ τὸν θεόν,
ὅτι X ἐξομολογήσομαι
αὐτῷ· σωτήρι |
5 Wherefore art thou very sad, O my soul? and wherefore dost thou trouble me? Hope in God; for I will give thanks to him, [who is the] health of my countenance, and my God. |
5 Why art thou sad, O my soul? and why dost thou disquiet me? (43:6) Hope in God, for I will still give praise to him: the salvation of my countenance, and my God. |
5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquietedO within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the healthX of my countenance, and my God. |
5 My soul, why are you depressing yourself and why are you moaning over me? Develop hope towards God, because I shall praise Him again – even my God – [for] salvations before my face. |
5
מַה־תִּשְׁתּוֹחֲחִי
נַפְשִׁי
וּמַה־ |
1“‘[T]he deceitful and unjust man’ ... so well suits the case of Ahithophel that some hence conclude that this Psalm certainly refers to Absalom's rebellion, in which that fox was the cunning adviser.” ~William Plumer
2“...
‘the deceitful and wicked man,’ might indeed be applied
to Saul; but it seems rather to be a form of speech in which, by
enallage, the singular number is used for the plural...” ~J.
Calvin
“...most probably Saul, who not only showed no
kindness to David, but dealt most perfidiously and dishonestly with
him. If Absalom was the man he meant, his character was no better…
Some think that David, by the spirit of prophecy, calculated
this psalm for the use of the Jews in their captivity in Babylon,
and that the Chaldeans are the ungodly nation here meant; to them it
was very applicable... God might design it for their use, whether
David did or no.” ~Matthew Henry
“No particular
individual is meant. Man is to be understood collectively...”
~A. Cohen
3 These men are also mentioned in Psalms 5:7; 10:7; 35:20; 36:4; 38:13; 50:19; 52:6; 55:12&24; and 109:2.
4“Instead of אֵלֵךְ we here have the form אֶתְהַלֵּךְ, of the slow deliberate gait of one who is lost in his own thoughts and feelings.” ~Delitzsch
5cf Exodus 15:13 “You in Your mercy have led forth The people whom You have redeemed; You have guided them in Your strength To Your holy habitation."
6“[W]e are still to pray for God's light and truth, the Spirit of light and truth, who supplies the want of Christ's bodily presence, to lead us into the mystery of godliness and to guide us in the way to heaven." ~M. Henry
7Augustine had a strange interpretation: “We are now on His Hill, that is, in His Church, and in His Tabernacle. The "tabernacle" is for persons sojourning... for those who are both from home, and also in a state of warfare.”
8Calvin continued, "How it is that mention is here made of Mount Sion, which was not appointed to the service of God till after the death of Saul? The only solution of this difficulty which I can give is, that David, composing this psalm at an after period of his life, employs, in accordance with the revelation which had subsequently been given to him, language which otherwise he would have used more generally in speaking only of the tabernacle, and without at all specifying the place.
9This
is the first of five times in the Bible that the tabernacle is
referred to with this plural word. The others are in Psalms 46:5,
84:2, and 132:5-7 (Hebrew verse numbering).
"Tabernacles,
in the plural, may be thus explained: 1. There were different parts
of the great tent, as we learn from many Scriptures. Paul fully
explains this matter in Heb. ix. 1-8. So that the one tabernacle may
be spoken of in the plural. 2. In David's time there were two
tabernacles where God was duly worshipped, one in Mount Zion, as
many Scriptures show ; the other at Gibeon as we learn from 1 Chron.
xvi. 37-39. So that in two ways we may justify the use of the
plural." ~Plumer
“The plural may refer to the
various courtyards what will beature in the third Temple.”
~Cohen, quoting Ibn Ezra
“Tabernacles”
is... an amplificative designation of the
tent, magnificent in itself and raised to special honour by Him who
dwells therein.” ~Delitzsch
10 Nowhere in the O.T. is “going” to the altar described of a priestly function (except to offer incense) The priests would “go up on” or “approach/come near” the altar. The only other “going” to the altar is in the case of initiating a lawsuit (2 Chron. 6:22), and that doesn’t seem to fit the intent of David here (and it would be anachronistic too).
11Augustine pointed out a Christological application of the first half of this verse: “I will go in unto the Altar of God on High. What manner of Sacrifice is there? He himself who goeth in is taken for a burnt-offering.”
12“[W]e
come in vain to holy ordinances if we do not in them come to the
holy God.”
~M.
Henry
"It
is not a bare formal use of the ordinances, but communion with God
himself, which the lively believer seeketh after, in the use of
public ordinances" ~Wm.
Plumer, quoting Dickson
“The
sacrifice upon the altar was not an end in itself but the means of
establishing communion with God. He is the ultimate goal towards
which the Psalmist longs to make his way.” ~A. Cohen
13Deut. 28:47-48 "Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything, therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you." (NKJV)
14Jewish scholars have noted that during the exile, the Jews couldn’t go to their temple anymore, so they refused to sing, retiring their harps by hanging them on willow trees (Ps. 137), but they still looked forward to the day when they would return to Jerusalem and pick up their harps again to worship God in the temple. (Cohen, Yaavetz)
15 Although 42:11 and 43:5 have a couple extra words that 42:5 doesn’t have, it’s practically the same.
AMy
original chart includes the NASB and NIV, but their copyright
restrictions have forced me to remove them from the
publicly-available edition of this chart. I have included the ESV in
footnotes when it employs a word not already used by the KJV, NASB,
or NIV. (NAW is my translation.) When a translation adds words not
in the Hebrew text, but does not indicate it has done so by the use
of italics (or greyed-out text), I put the added words in [square
brackets]. When one version chooses a wording which is different
from all the other translations, I underline it. When a
version chooses a translation which, in my opinion, either departs
too far from the root meaning of the Hebrew word or departs too far
from the grammar form of the original text, I use strikeout.
And when a version omits a word which is in the Hebrew text, I
insert an X. (I also place an X at the end of a word if the original
word is plural but the English translation is singular.) I
occasionally use colors to help the reader see correlations between
the various editions and versions when there are more than two
different translations of a given word. The only known Dead Sea
Scroll containing any part of Psalm 42:6-43:5 is 11Q(8)PsD,
which contain fragments of 43:1-3, highlighted in purple.
BAquilla’s version from the mid-second century AD is synonymous: απο ανδρος επιθεσεως και παρανομιας διασωσεις με “from the man who has laid his hand on me and is an outlaw, you will save me.”
C ESV “defend...people”
D Psalms 7:9; 26:1; and 35:24 also open with this word
E The paragogic he on this verb may have to do with making this imperative addressed to God more respectful.
F "There is some uncertainty whether by אִישׁ one chief enemy, the leader of all the rest, is intended to be mentioned side by side with the unloving nation, or whether the special manner of his enemies is thus merely individualised." ~Delitzsch
G NIV = “stronghold” ESV adds several words “[in whom] I [take ]refuge”
HIn the first few centuries AD, Aqilla, Symmachus, Theodotian, and “E” all emended the LXX Greek translation to future tense verb forms in the second half of this verse to conform to the imperfect tense Hebrew verbs of the MT.
I NIV & ESV changed the Greek and Hebrew plural to singular in English.
J Symmachus corrected the Greek text to the M.T. with euthumias “cheer” here and also called the instrument a “psalter.”
KI think this is a directional he; cf. the LXX εισ- prefix. Cohen suggested translating the opening Vav as purposive rather than sequential: “that I may come”
L cf. synonyms Σ = καταρρεεις “flow down,” Ε = ταπεινουσαι “become low”
M cf. synonyms in Aq. & Sym. Ανειμεινον “remain upon”
NSince at least the first century AD (and probably longer), scholars have debated whether it should be “my presence” or “His presence” in this verse and in the last verse of this psalm. Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotian, and more read, as the MT, autou “him,” in this verse, and “my” in v.11/12 and in 43:5. On the other hand, there are several Hebrew manuscripts – as well as the Syriac version – which support the LXX “my” here (thus the NIV), and there are Hebrew manuscripts and ancient Coptic, Aramaic, and Greek versions which read “him” in v.11/12. Since the word “and” and the word “his” in Hebrew are spelled the same, and since early manuscripts had no spaces between words, one part of the explanation for this variant is that different translators divided the words in different places. At any rate, both statements are true, and it doesn’t change the theology presented either way. And, for what it’s worth, no Dead Sea Scroll has been discovered with this verse visible for comparison.
O NAS/NIV = “disturbed” ESV = “in turmoil” Symmachus: θορυβεις “make a commotion”
PThis is plural as it was in the first two refrains (viz. 42:6 & 12), but most translations render it singular: LXX (although corrected by Symmachus to plural), Syriac, Targums, KJV=health, NAS=help, NIV=Savior, ESV=salvation.