Psalms 43:4

The poet, in anticipation, revels in the thought of that which he has prayed for, and calls upon his timorous soul to hope confidently for it. The cohortatives in Psa 43:4 are, as in Ps 39:14 and frequently, an apodosis to the petition. The poet knows no joy like that which proceeds from God, and the joy which proceeds from Him he accounts as the very highest; hence he calls God אל שׂמחת גּילי, and therefore he knows no higher aim for his longing than again to be where the fountainhead of this exultant joy is (Hos 9:5), and where it flows forth in streams (Psa 36:9). Removed back thither, he will give thanks to Him with the cithern (Beth instrum.). He calls Him אלהים אלהי, an expression which, in the Elohim-Psalms, is equivalent to יהוה אלהי in the Jahve-Psalms. The hope expressed in Psa 43:4 casts its rays into the prayer in Psa 43:3. In Psa 43:5, the spirit having taken courage in God, holds this picture drawn by hope before the distressed soul, that she may therewith comfort herself. Instead of wthmy, Psa 42:6, the expression here used, as in Ps 42:12, is וּמה־תּהמי. Variations like these are not opposed to a unity of authorship.

This psalm, it is likely, was penned upon the same occasion with the former, and, having no title, may be looked upon as an appendix to it; the malady presently returning, he had immediate recourse to the same remedy, because he had entered it in his book, with a "probatum est - it has been proved," upon it. The second verse of this psalm is almost the very same with the ninth verse of the foregoing psalm, as the fifth of this is exactly the same with the eleventh of that. Christ himself, who had the Spirit without measure, when there was occasion prayed a second and third time "saying the same words," Mat 26:44. In this psalm. I. David appeals to God concerning the injuries that were done him by his enemies (Psa 43:1, Psa 43:2). II. He prays to God to restore to him the free enjoyment of public ordinances again, and promises to make a good improvement of them (Psa 43:3, Psa 43:4). III. He endeavours to still the tumult of his own spirit with a lively hope and confidence in God (Psa 43:5), and if, in singing this psalm, we labour after these, we sing with grace in our hearts.