Day 2: Psalm 43:3-6
Send your light and your truth; let them lead me.
Let them bring me to your holy mountain,
to your dwelling place.
Then I will come to the altar of God,
to God, my greatest joy.
I will praise you with the lyre,
God, my God.
Why, my soul, are you so dejected?
Why are you in such turmoil?
Put your hope in God, for I will still praise him,
my Savior and my God.
Quadriga:
1. This Psalmist is in distress. The preceding verses are a cry for God to vindicate
me against my enemies (43:1). What will that vindication look like? Invitation
onto your Holy Mountain, to your dwelling place. The vindication the psalmist
seeks is not something against an enemy, or something for himself, but an
invitation into God’s presence. In the closing verses he turns his attention to
his own soul, asking Why are you so dejected? He then encourages himself:
Put your hope in God. In five short verses the Psalmist has gone from a
cry to God, to a plea for God’s presence, to turning his soul to hope in his
Savior.
2. This has two aspects. On the one hand, Jesus is the Savior and God
that the psalmist hopes for. On the other, this could be spoken by Jesus
himself- in the garden of Gethsemane these words are extraordinary appropriate.
I believe we are meant to see both ourselves and Jesus in these words. He is the
light and truth that will lead us, but also he was lead by the light and
true of the Spirit and Scripture throughout his life. In both cases, the center
of our purpose and the way forward in light and truth is to praise at
the dwelling place of our God.
3. In our distress we are to seek the dwelling place of God, to praise him, and
to follow the light and truth that he was revealed to us. In ancient
Israel, that place was the Holy Mountain, the Temple, and the Altar. Today our
Holy Mountain is Christ himself- the stone not cut out by human hands
whose Kingdom will fill the whole earth. We look to the continuation of the
Incarnation: the church. Our community of faith is our Temple, embodied in ourselves
and our brothers and sisters in Christ. They are our refuge in times of trouble
and crisis, granted by God to carry us when we cannot carry ourselves. When we
can no longer turn to our own souls for encouragement, our family in the
Kingdom speaks these words to our souls: Put your hope in God! Praise him…
your savior and God.
4. The church is only a temporary continuation of Christ’s presence as the Holy
Mountain, Temple, and Altar of our God. He will come to the mountain again,
having completed the work of the sacrifice. He will take up his throne on the
mountain and vindicate us, his people. We put our hope in God because
his promises are sure and his vindication is certain. The days of speaking encouragement
to our own downcast souls are limited. On the day our faith is sight, there
will be no more downcast souls, only the greatest joy ever known.