Psalms 43:1-5
1 Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodlya nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.
2 For thou art the God of my strength: why dost thou cast me off? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
3 O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.
4 Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceedingb joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God.
5 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.
The enemy in Psalms 42 is the outward enemy and oppressor the Gentile. Though in circumstances, of course, and not in the depths of atonement, it is interesting to see the analogy in Verse 3 (Psalms 43:3) with what the Lord said upon the cross. Psalms 43 is a supplementary psalm to the former: only that here the ungodly nation, the Jews, are before us, and the deceitful and unjust man, the wicked one; though the Gentile oppressor be yet there (Psalms 43:2). We know they will both be there in that day. From the Jewish nation being now in the scene, the return to the holy hill and tabernacle and altar of God are more before the mind of the remnant. Verses 3-4 (Psalms 43:3-4) form the groundwork of the book.