Psalm Chapter 43

Psalm 43: Send Out Thy Light

This brief psalm is almost certainly the final stanza of Psalm 42 — it shares the same refrain, the same ache, the same desperate hope. But where Psalm 42 was mostly looking backward and inward, Psalm 43 turns its face forward and upward. "O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me." It is the prayer of someone who knows he cannot find his way home alone. Light and truth are not abstractions here but guides, almost persons, sent out by God to take the exile by the hand and bring him to the holy hill. And the destination is not merely safety but joy — "unto God my exceeding joy." Not God my duty, not God my obligation, but God my exceeding joy. The harp comes out. Praise begins. And then, once more, the refrain: "Why art thou cast down, O my soul?" The question is not answered so much as overwhelmed — crowded out by the stubborn, repeated decision to hope. Sometimes faith is not a feeling but a discipline of the tongue, choosing to say "I shall yet praise him" before the evidence has arrived.

00:00 Send Out Thy Light and Truth
01:00 Why Art Thou Cast Down