Psalms 43 - Introduction

This psalm is without a title. The name of the author is unknown, and, of course, it is not known on what occasion the psalm was composed. It bears, however, a very strong resemblance, in its general spirit and in its structure, to Psalms 42:1, and was, beyond doubt, composed by the same author, and in reference to the same occasion. The resemblance between the two psalms is so striking that many have supposed that they are parts of the same psalm, and as this one terminates with the same language Psalms 43:5 as that which occurs at the close of the two parts of Psalms 42:1 Psalms 42:5, Psalms 42:11, it has been conjectured by many that this is the third part or strophe of the psalm, and that they have been separated by mistake of the transcribers. See introduction to Psalms 42:1. It would be impossible to account for the fact that they had become separated in the majority Hebrew manuscripts if they had originally constituted one psalm; while the fact of their being found united in a small number of Hebrew manuscripts is easily accounted for, as the resemblance of the two may have led the transcribers to suppose that they were parts of one composition. The probability is, that this psalm was composed by the same author, as a kind of supplement to the former psalm, or as expressing, in a slightly different form, the emotions which passed through his mind on that same occasion.

The psalm contains

(1) an earnest appeal to God to assist the suffering author, and to protect him from the efforts of an ungodly nation, and from the designs of the deceitful and unjust man, Psalms 43:1;

(2) an appeal to God as his strength, with the language of anxious inquiry why he had cast him off, and had suffered him to go mourning because of the oppression of his enemy, Psalms 43:2;

(3) an earnest prayer that God would interpose, and would send out his light and his truth, and would permit him to go again to his holy hill, to the tabernacles, and to the altar, Psalms 43:3; and

(4), as in Psalms 42:5, Psalms 42:11, self-reproach that he is thus dejected and dispirited, and an appeal to his own soul to arouse itself, and to put its trust in God. It is a psalm, like the former, of great practical value to those who, in affliction, are sad and desponding.