Read & explore together
Send Out Your Light
Psalm 43 is a prayer-song that moves from asking God for help to speaking hope to a troubled soul. It shows pain honestly, yet it keeps turning back to God as judge, guide, joy and helper.
Understanding the passage
Read these words in context
In these verses, the singer asks God to judge fairly, rescue from deceitful and wicked people, and answer the feeling of rejection and oppression. The prayer then asks for God’s light and truth to lead the singer to God’s holy hill and altar, ending with self-address and renewed hope in God.
Psalms 43:1–5Main takeaway
This psalm teaches that a hurting person can speak honestly to God, ask for his leading, and call their own soul to hope in him.
Explore the poem and its images
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01A call for God to judge and rescueThe psalm opens by asking God to “vindicate” and “plead my cause”. These are requests for God to judge rightly and act on behalf of the speaker.
Explanation
The psalm opens by asking God to “vindicate” and “plead my cause”. These are requests for God to judge rightly and act on behalf of the speaker. The problem is described as an ungodly nation and deceitful, wicked people. The prayer is direct and personal, asking God for deliverance from wrong done by others.
02Faith and grief are both spokenVerse 2 calls God “the God of my strength”, so the singer still identifies God as a source of strength.
Explanation
Verse 2 calls God “the God of my strength”, so the singer still identifies God as a source of strength. Yet the same verse asks why God seems to have rejected the speaker. The words about mourning and oppression show that trust in God and deep distress are both present in this prayer-song.
03Light and truth as God’s leadingThe singer asks God to send out “your light and your truth”. In the psalm, these are pictured as guides that lead and bring the person to God’s holy hill and tents.
Explanation
The singer asks God to send out “your light and your truth”. In the psalm, these are pictured as guides that lead and bring the person to God’s holy hill and tents. The focus is not on finding a path alone, but on God giving what is needed to come near to him.
04From leading to joyful praiseIf God leads in this way, the singer says, “Then I will go to the altar of God.” God is called “my exceeding joy”, and praise will be offered on the harp.
Explanation
If God leads in this way, the singer says, “Then I will go to the altar of God.” God is called “my exceeding joy”, and praise will be offered on the harp. The movement of the psalm is important: prayer for rescue leads to prayer for guidance, and guidance leads to worship.
05Speaking hope to the soulThe final verse turns inward. The singer asks the soul why it is in despair and disturbed, then gives a command: “Hope in God!”
Explanation
The final verse turns inward. The singer asks the soul why it is in despair and disturbed, then gives a command: “Hope in God!” This does not deny the trouble already named. Instead, it answers despair with a decision to keep praising God as Saviour, helper and God.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01What troubles does the singer name at the start of the psalm?
Look for the words that describe the opposition and suffering in the opening request to God.
02What does the singer ask God’s light and truth to do?
Notice the action words in verse 3 and where they are meant to bring the singer.
03How does the ending answer the despair named in the same verse?
Compare the questions about despair with the command and the promise of future praise.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Psalms 43:1–5
1Vindicate me, God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation. Oh, deliver me from deceitful and wicked men.
2For you are the God of my strength. Why have you rejected me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
3Oh, send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy hill, to your tents.
4Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my exceeding joy. I will praise you on the harp, God, my God.
5Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him: my Savior, my helper, and my God.