Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.
XLIII.
(1) An ungodly nation.—In the Hebrew simply a negative term, a nation not khasîd, i.e., not in the covenant. But naturally a positive idea of ungodliness and wickedness would attach to such a term.
O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.
(3) O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me.—Instead of the violent and contemptuous escort of Assyrian soldiers, leading the exile away from the “holy hill,” the poet prays for God’s light and truth to lead him, like two angel guides, back to it. Light and truth! What a guidance in this world of falsehood and shadow! The Urim and Thummim of the saints (Deuteronomy 33:8), the promised attendants of Israel, have been, and are, the escort of all faithful souls in all ages.
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.
(4) God my God.—An expression used in this collection instead of the more usual “Jehovah my God.” (Comp. Psalm 45:7, and for its import see General Introduction, and Psalm 50:7, Note.)
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.
(1) An ungodly nation.—In the Hebrew simply a negative term, a nation not khasîd, i.e., not in the covenant. But naturally a positive idea of ungodliness and wickedness would attach to such a term.