Psalm 43

Opening — Continuation of Psalm 42

“Welcome to Torah Today Ministries, our continuing series Tehillim Talks. And in this episode, we are going to continue Psalm 42 with Psalm 43, because originally these were one psalm. Psalm 43 is very short, so this recording probably won’t take that long.

But one of the things I find interesting is that last week I discussed how the Book of Psalms is divided up into five books. And these are marked in your Bibles more than likely. And what we find is in the first Book of Psalms, the first psalm, Psalm 1 and Psalm 2, were originally one psalm, but they were divided into two.

And here at the beginning of the second Book of Psalms, called the Exodus Book sometimes, we find Psalms 42 and 43 were originally one psalm, but they were divided into two Psalms. Now this does not happen with the third and fourth and fifth books of Psalms, just with these first two books. Why did the arrangers of the Book of Psalms do this?

I don’t know, but my only guess is this, and maybe you have a better one, is that they did not want there to be 148 Psalms, the Book of Psalms. They wanted to be a nice round 150. And so to do that, they broke the first Psalm into two, and they broke this Psalm into two.

There’s probably a better reason than that. If there is, I don’t know what it is, but I’d love to hear what you think. So let’s get right into our Psalm.

And I put here at the beginning that this is a continuation of Psalm 42. And if you read Psalm 42 and 43 together, it becomes quite obvious that the same theme is carried, some of the same words are used. And this phrase, why are you cast down or sunken down, oh my soul, is found three times, twice in 42, and we’ll find it ends in Psalm 43.”

Verse 1 — “Vindicate/Judge Me” and Shafat שָׁפַט

“So let’s begin with verse one. The first verse begins with vindicate me, oh God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people. From the deceitful and unjust man deliver me.

Now that first word, vindicate, if I wanted to translate that hyper literally, I would have put, judge me, oh God, judge me. Now, there are a few words in Hebrew that translate to judge, and this particular word is the word Shafat (שָׁפַט), and you can see it down here. If I can get my pencil working, there we go, Shafat, shin, pe, tet.

Sometimes it’s Shafat, sometimes it’s Shapat, that middle letter can be a P-H or a P sound. And in this word, Shafat, Shapat or Mishpat (מִשְׁפָּט) can be judge, like a man who’s a judge or to judge, the verb, or it can be Mishpat, which means judgment or justice. In Hebrew, the Book of Judges is called Shoftim (שֹׁפְטִים), which is the plural of this word, Shafat.

And when you’re reading through the Book of Exodus, you find the Ten Commandments in Chapter 20. And then the next chapter, Chapter 21, begins a Torah section, a portion that is called Mishpatim (מִשְׁפָּטִים), which means judgments or the principles of good judgment. And it relates to how to relate to people and discusses the laws in interpersonal relationships in particular.

So I can translate it to vindicate here because growing up in an evangelical church, judgment was always thought of in a very negative way. You don’t want to be judged. And judgment day is a horrible thing, and we don’t want to come under God’s judgment.

But in the scriptures, judgment is a very neutral word. Judgment is something that if you’re guilty, you dread facing. But if you’re innocent, you look forward to your day in court when there will be a judgment in your favor.

And so we need to change our thinking when it comes to judgment. If you are living a righteous life, and if you’re being attacked for doing what is right, then judgment is something you should be looking forward to because that is when the righteous acts that have been performed in this world will be revealed for what they are. And also the wicked acts will be revealed for what they are.

So if you’re living a righteous life, then judgment is something you should definitely be looking forward to. Looking forward to your day in court when you’ll be vindicated. Now, I want to share with you the first two times this word, Shaphat, is used in the Scriptures.

It will give you a set of tone for how this word is used. And you can watch for it if you do word studies when you’re studying the Hebrew Scriptures. The first time it’s found is in Genesis 16, 5, when Sarai, before her name was changed to Sarah, kind of goes on a rant against Abram before his name was changed to Abraham.

And this is what she says, And Sarai said to Abram, May the wrong done to me be on you. I gave my servant, Hagar, to your embrace, so when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May Adonai Shafat between you and me.

May he judge between you and me. So here we see Shafat being like, and Sarai I think is a little out of line as she says this. She’s very emotional.

She’s angry. She’s upset. And as you read the story, you can see why she would be.

But she’s saying one of us is right, and one of us is wrong, and I want Adonai to Shafat. I want him to judge between which of us is in the right, and which of us is in the wrong. The next time this word is found is in Genesis 18 25, and there it’s found twice in two different forms.

It says, Far be it from you to do such a thing to put the righteous to death with the wicked. Do you know who’s talking here? This is Abraham talking to God about Sodom and Gomorrah as he sees God getting ready to go and destroy those places.

And then Abraham continues and says, So that the righteous fares the wicked, don’t let this be. Far be that from you, shall not the Shaphat of all the earth do Mishpat? In other words, shall not the judge of all the earth do justice?

And so again, going into Sodom and Gomorrah, the angels are going down there to discern, does this place deserve destruction? Does it deserve being rescued? Or do we need to separate out who should be rescued and who should be destroyed?

And of course, that’s exactly what did happen. The angels rescued a lot in his family, minus his wife, and the rest of Sodom was then destroyed. So Shafat means to look into something, be able to separate it out to what is right and what is wrong.

And this is a kind of judgment that we have to do in regards to our own actions, the actions of our children, the actions of those who are under our authority. And we also have to judge people’s fruit, because it’s by their fruit you’ll know them, whether they’re a false prophet or a wolf. Now, we’re not to condemn, that’s a different word.

But we do have to make judgments about right and wrong. And if we can’t do that, we’re not going to be very wise people. So, here the psalmist is saying, judge me, Shafat, vindicate me, look at what I am doing, and look at what my enemies are doing, and Lord, make a judgment.

Vindicate me, because I’ve been pursuing righteousness, and Lord, bring correction to them, because they’ve been doing unrighteously.”

Verse 2 — Feeling Rejected; Kadar קָדַר (Gloomy/Dark)

“And then verse 2, For you are the God in whom I take refuge. Why have you rejected me?

He’s expressing here very honestly and openly how he feels about things. He feels rejected by God. Has he been rejected?

Of course not. But it can feel that way. Why do I go about mourning or in darkness because of the oppression of the enemy?

Now, this word for mourning, I’ve translated two different ways. I show both of them here. It could be mourning or it could mean in darkness.

And if you look at your translation and other translations, you’ll find it rendered both ways. And the word under consideration here is the word Kadar (קָדַר). And it is used both ways in Scripture.

I think probably one of the best ways to translate it is simply gloomy. Why do I go about gloomy? And when you’re in a gloomy mood, you’re kind of mourning or moaning about something.

And it’s a dark mood. And so this word Kadar is the perfect word for this. You’ll find it in a few other places.

Let me give you just a couple in case you’re interested. 1 Kings 18, 45. And in a little while, the heavens grew Kadar.

They grew dark and gloomy looking. Kadar with clouds and wind. And there was a great rain.

Joel 3, 15. The sun and the moon are Kadar and the stars withdraw their shiny. And Micah 3, 6.

Therefore it shall be night to you without vision and darkness to you without divination. The sun shall go down on the prophets and the day shall be Kadar over them. So it doesn’t mean black.

It means gloomy and dark. And both in mood and in appearance.”

Verses 3–4 — Light & Truth; Mishkan מִשְׁכָּן and Shekinah שְׁכִינָה

“Well, let’s continue with verses 3 and 4.

Send out your light and your truth. I want to make a comment here. This mentions your light and your truth.

In many ways, this is redundant. Because in scripture, truth is light and light is truth. When people ask you what is the truth, it’s light.

And when you see light mentioned in the Bible, that represents truth. Because when there’s confusion, that means things are not being revealed fully for what they are. Some things are still in darkness.

You don’t know exactly what the facts are, what the truth is. But when the light comes, then you see clearly. Because now I see.

Now I know the truth. And that is exactly what we say, isn’t it? Now I see.

Now I understand because the light of truth has come into my mind, and I can see things clearly for what they are. And people whose works are darkness and they’re committed to darkness, they hate the light because their works are evil. But if we love light, it means we love truth.

Now you might be listening to this thinking, well, listen, Yeshua, the light of the world? Well, yes, of course he is. But didn’t he also say I’m the way, the truth and the life?

So he is the light of the world because he reveals the truth about who God is, about what righteousness is, about who we are, what our relationship is. He reveals the truth about everything that he addresses. So we need to be people who walk in the light.

In other words, we walk in the truth at all times. *Send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me.

Let them bring me to your holy hill and to your tabernacle.* And I translate the word mishkan (מִשְׁכָּן) literally here. That is what the tabernacle is called.

And that’s the Hebrew word used here, mishkan. But your translation may say dwelling place. And that is what a mishkan is.

It’s a place where the tabernacle is, the tabernacle is where God’s shekinah (שְׁכִינָה), shekan with us in the mishkan. And so I felt at liberty to go ahead and translate this tabernacle. *Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my exceeding joy.

And I will praise you with a liar, O God, my God.*”

The Altar & Sacrifices — Celebration, Not Only Sin

“Now, if I, and I’ve said this before, if I could somehow change the thinking of every believer in the world and repair this one thing, right at the top of my list would be to repair their thinking about the altar and the sacrifices. I couldn’t begin to tell you how many times well-meaning, godly people, Christians have asked me, why will the sacrifices continue if Messiah has come and dealt with sin?

Because in their minds, sacrifices are a way of dealing with sin. And sin and sacrifices go together. But that’s not the way it is in the Scriptures.

Most of the altars you see built in Scripture, in fact, almost all of the altars you see built in Scripture, almost all of the sacrifices you see offered in Scripture, had nothing to do with sin. True, there was a sin and a guilt offering, but there were also Thanksgiving offerings. There were wholeburnt offerings.

There were peace offerings. There were all kinds of offerings that were brought in joy. They were brought as an expression of love and devotion, of self sacrifice and complete giving of oneself to God.

And here too, the psalmist says, then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy. Why? Because he sinned?

No, because he wants to go and celebrate. You know, what do we do in America and around the world? When we want to celebrate, we have family and friends around, we have a cookout.

One of the things I loved when I first visited South Africa is what they call a braai. I mean, you know, in America, we have barbecues and cookouts, but you ain’t seen nothing until you go to South Africa to one of their braais. And a braai is where they get a big fire going, and they cook lamb chops and lamb sausage, and they’ve got chicken and steak, and it’s just unbelievable.

It is a meat fest. If you’re a carnivore like me, it really makes your day. But this is a time of celebration.

You do this when there’s rejoicing, when there’s fellowship, and especially with believers who love God. It becomes a time where we eat, we enjoy one another, we enjoy talking about him and how great our God is. That’s exactly the way it was in the temple and at the tabernacle.

And when you went and brought sacrifices, you must remember the sacrifices were eaten. Except for the whole burnt offering. There wasn’t anything left to eat there.

But all the rest were. They were eaten. It wasn’t wasted.

And so we need to stop thinking that sacrifices were ugly, that they only had to do with sin, that they were bloody and awful and need to be done away with. Well, only if you’re ready to get rid of your barbecues and cookouts and braai can you say that. But as now, so it was back then.

But there was a time of celebration, of fellowship with God. The altar was seen as his table and a place of having table fellowship with him. So let’s stop thinking of the sacrifices being these ugly, horrible, expensive, bloody things that need to be done away with.

And Jeremiah 33 makes it perfectly clear that when Messiah returns, his kingdom is established on earth. The sacrifices go back into full swing because there will be a lot to rejoice about.”

“El, El” — To God; El אֵל and Chai חַי

“Now, when he says to God, it’s interesting and you may not know this, but in Hebrew that’s El-El.

There you see it. Aleph Lamed, Aleph Lamed. Because the word to is the word L (לְ) and the word God, the short form of Elohim, is also El (אֵל), EL-EL.

So to God. I think it’s amazing to think that the word for God, El, the most simple basic word for God, is also the word to, to go toward. Because God is the goal of everything we are going toward.

He is the fulfillment of every desire we have. And anything that does fulfill us, it fulfills us because He is in it. He is a part of it.

And something comes from Him, and it’s for us and to draw us closer to Him. El, el may sound redundant, but it isn’t. There is also a place in Psalm 84, 2, where it says, *My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of Adonai.

My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. That phrase to the living God is el, el chai (אֵל אֵל חַי). To the God, the living one.

Chai (חַי) is life and living. El, el chai. So to go to God is el, el.

Don’t confuse that with the Israeli airlines el al. It’s close, but not quite. We will come to that phrase if we haven’t already in the Psalms, but we’ll discuss that then.

I can’t remember. Maybe we have already, but I think it still is ahead.”

Verses 4–5 — Refrain: Speak to Your Soul Conquering Depression

“Verses 4 and 5.

And this again is the third time we find this refrain in Psalms 42 and 43. Why are you sunken down, O my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me?

It’s almost as if the psalmist from the spirit is speaking to his own mind, will and emotions, his own soul, and say, What the matter you? What’s wrong with you? Quit acting that way.

Stand up. Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation, my God. Sometimes we need to stand in the place of our spirit, address our own minds, our own wills, our emotions, and say, Snap out of it.

Don’t be that way. Stand up, pull yourself out of the mud, and hope in God. Hope in God, for we will again praise him, my salvation and my God.

You know, as I’ve gone over Psalms 42 and now 43, in this phrase three times, why are you sunken down? Why are you cast down on my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me?

I keep thinking, we get cast down in our souls, and we get in turmoil when we get stuck in the temporariness. The temporariness of things.

But when we stand in the place of the spiritual, we step away from the temporariness of things into the spiritual and the eternal world, where things are solid, where it’s always light, where it’s always peace, where it’s always shalom, where God’s throne sits on a sea of glass. There’s not a ripple, because there’s nothing to disturb the place of God’s throne. And so when we find ourselves stuck in the temporariness of things and the turmoil and the shaking and the ups and downs of this shifting sand of a life that we live in, this world, we need to give ourselves a talking to.

And ask this question, why are you sunken down? Oh, my soul, why are you in turmoil? Answer, because you forgot.

You forgot that this stuff you’re going through right now only lasts for a blip. It’s temporary. Instead, we should hope in God, who is eternal, unchangeable, who is our rock.

And so we have to do this once in a while with ourselves. So don’t wallow in your depression. It’s ugly.

And it’s undeserving of a servant of the Master. But stand up, stand on the rock. Give yourself a good talking to.

And you know, if you choose to smile, you’ll find yourself actually responding with more joy.

And we owe it to others. We owe it to our God to be joyful, to be happy. So give yourself a talking to if you need it.

And until next time, I wish you Shalom and God bless.”