Charles H. Spurgeon

Whole Psalm. This Psalm is evidently a continuation or supplement to the preceding. In some MSS of Kenicott and de Rossi's, they are united, and make one Psalm. George Phillips, B.D.

Verse 1. Judge me, O God, and plead my cause, etc. Believers may appeal to God's justice, and plead God's righteousness.

1. Touching suffering wrongs of men. Touching suffering wrongs of men, believers may appeal upon these three grounds:

(a) The injustice that men do to believers, is as well against God's just nature, as against the believers' ease. So their appeals to God are agreeable to God's enmity against injustice; therefore, his enmity concurs with their appeals. Ro 1:18.

(b) Justice in men is according to God's nature, as well as for the believer's welfare, and, therefore, the disposition and inclination of God's nature concurs with their prayers for deliverance. Ps 11:7 Lu 23:6-7.

(c) Such wrong God who do wrong his people 2Ch 15:11 Zec 2:8 Ac 9:4-5; so that in deliverance God vindicates himself as well as the believers.

2. Touching sin in relation to God's wrath. Touching sin in relation to God's wrath, a true believer may plead God's justice or righteousness on these three grounds:

(a) Christ our Advocate or Attorney so pleads. Joh 17:24, etc. Now, the client may plead the same as the advocate, seeing it is in relation to the same party and the same issue.

(b) Christ hath satisfied God's justice, so that on Christ was laid all the sins of all believers. He was "wounded" for them. Now, God cannot in justice punish twice; therefore, seeing Christ was wounded, believers must be healed. Isa 53:1-12.

(c). Believers have God's righteousness imputed to them 2Co 5:1-21; therefore, God must deal with believers as he will deal with his own righteousness.

Useful is this doctrine two ways.

1. For terror to the enemies of believers. How many prevailing cries to the justice of God are against such enemies? (a) Their own sins cry. (b) Believers injuries cry. (c) Believer's prayers cry. (d) Christ's intercession cries over against their prayers and desires Re 6:9, compared with Re 8:3.

2. The second use is for comfort to believers, that as God's mercy is for them, so his justice to deliver them, not only from men, but from sin; and in and through Christ they may humbly plead justice as against sinners, so against sin; not only against the guilt but against the power, that seeing Christ died, sin should not live. Condensed from Nathanael Homes, 1652.

Verse 1. Ungodly...deceitful...unjust. There are ungodly men who, being destitute of religious principle, will not scruple to injure us, when they can thereby gratify their passions or advance their worldly interests. There are deceitful men who will put on the garb of friendship, and acquire our confidence and esteem, and then treacherously cheat us out of our property, or our reputation, or our peace. There are unjust men, who by fraud or by violence, would rob us of our dearest rights and most valuable possessions, and not only reduce our powers and opportunities of doing good, but even diminish our means of comfortable subsistence. And there are oppressors, who taking advantage of our weakness or dependence, and trampling alike on the maxims of equity and humanity, may exact from us unreasonable services, impose upon us heavy burdens and cruel restraints, and ply us with insults, and harassments, and deprivations, from which we can make no escape, and for which we can find no redress. Andrew Thomson, D.D., in "Lectures on Portions of the Psalms." 1826.

Verse 2. Thou art the God of my strength. The godly man hath from God a threefold strength, namely, natural, providential, and spiritual.

1. Natural, Ac 17:28. This is twofold: of body, of mind. Of robustness, hardness, and agility of body; of wit, invention, and valour of mind. Now, these donations of corporal and mental natural endowments are God's gifts. Ps 18:34,39 ...

2. Providential strength, which is threefold: (a) God's donation of strengthening mercies—Corporal: wine to make glad, and bread to strengthen. Ps 104:15, and mental, common gifts; as Paul had a singular gift of language and single life; Apollos of elocution, argument, power of convincing. (b) Providential strength is God's making way for his people to act and put forth their strength. Ps 78:50. (c) Providential strength is God's concurrence with our lawful human acting. Ps 18:29.

3. The third sort of power is spiritual: God is the godly man's spiritual power. 1Jo 2:14: "I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, " namely, with spiritual strength, for it follows, "The word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one." This is the main strength of a godly man; as that text hints, namely, young men are naturally strong, but St. John takes no notice of that, but commends them for their spiritual strength. This spiritual strength is from the word of the Spirit, and from the Spirit of the word, that is, from the Spirit accompanying the word.

From the word of the Spirit, the word of God. Ps 119:50: "This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me." To be "quickened, "i.e., enlivened, is to be full of vigour and spirit and to act mightily, and to "comfort" is, as the word signifies, to make strong; for when a man is most cheerful with sobriety, he is most strong. St. John in that place fore quoted, saith the young men to whom he wrote were strong because the word of God abode in them. For Pr 12:25 "whereas sorrow in the heart of man maketh it stoop"—makes it sickly, weak, drooping—"a good word maketh it glad, "cheerful, strong, vigorous. And so if the word of a wise friend, how much more the word of God, with its many strengthening promises? Ps 20:2 119:28. The word of God is the very mind and will of God, and power of God, and with the word God created the world, therefore, he that receives this word must needs receive a great deal of strength. Ro 1:16.

Verse 2. The Spirit of the word, the Holy Spirit that useth to accompany the word to them that receive it. By his Spirit God is in a believer 1Co 6:9 Eph 2:1-22; and this is the spirit of strength and power. Eph 3:16 2Ti 1:7. As a powerful, active soul makes a vigorous body, so the Spirit in the soul makes the soul powerful and strong, being the soul of the soul of a believer. We read more than once or twice in the Scriptures, that when believers did any eminent act, it is said, the Spirit of the Lord came upon them, and they did so and so, i.e., the Spirit of God in them did them put forth its power to make them act powerfully. Condensed from Nathanael Homes.

Verse 3. O send out thy light and thy truth. Possibly there may be an allusion to the Urim and Thummim, as the symbol of light and truth. J. J. Stewart Perowne.

Verse 3. Light and truth. Delightful and all comprehensive words. Thy contain all the salvation and all the desire of a believing, confiding soul. But it is only when thus combined—separated they are no longer a ground of trust and joy. For what would favour avail without faithfulness? It would be no more than the uncertain friendship of men, who smile today and reproach tomorrow; who make large promises, but do not perform them. Even the light which angels and glorified spirits enjoy in heaven would be insufficient to banish all fear and to fill them with satisfaction, were it not for their confidence in the truth of God. How much more, then, must this be the case with erring, sinful, mortals on earth? When the humble spirit is bowed down under a sense of its utter unworthiness and innumerable weaknesses and defilements, its negligences, follies, and wanderings, what should save from despair but the confidence that he who has been merciful will also be faithful; that God is truth as well as light; that he hath said, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee; "that he "cannot lie, "and that, therefore, "his mercy endureth for ever?" On the other hand, truth without light, faithfulness without grace, would be only the dreadful execution of terrible but just denunciations on the transgressors of the holy law. "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Adam ate, and in that day became the subject of sin and death. This was truth executing judgment. But light arose around the darkness; beams of mercy tempered the heavy cloud. The promise of the Great Deliverer was given; then faithfulness was enlisted on the side of grace, and became engaged for its bestowment; "mercy and truth met together; righteousness and peace kissed each other." Since then, all humble and trusting souls have beheld them united, and have made their union the ground of their confidence and joy. Henry March.

Verse 3. Thy tabernacles. There were two tabernacles, one at Zion, where the ark stood, and another at Gibeon. 1Ch 16:37,39. It is not to this fact that the psalmist alludes, however, but to the circumstance, in all probability of the different parts of the tabernacle. There was, first the holiest of all, then the sanctuary, and then the tabernacle of the convocation. Heb 9:1-8. John Morison.

Verse 4. Then will I go unto the altar of God. Let us remember that the approach to God in the holy place is by means of the altar, whence eternally ascendeth the fragrance and the preciousness of the one whole, perfect burnt offering, and where for ever and ever the divine holiness resteth and feedeth with its pure fire with infinite satisfaction, with inconceivable delight. Oh, what a holy, a divine, a wondrous place is this altar of God! That altar now means all the value and everlasting efficacy of the one offering of Christ unto God for us; and it is in the full power and blessedness thereof that we draw nigh to God. To this point, to this unspeakably blessed position, the light and the truth of God will attract the child of God. Toward this altar all the rays of the light of divine favour and grace, and of divine truth and holiness, have from eternity converged; and from this point they shine forth toward and upon the soul and heart of the poor, far off penitent, attracting him to that altar where he may meet his God. Let us then come to the altar of God; let us enter the cloud of holy incense that filleth the tabernacle of the Most High; let us realise how perfectly God is satisfied with that which Christ has done, with his obedience in dying to meet the claims of divine justice on the sinner, and to complete the perfect surrender of himself as our exceeding joy, even the gladness of our joy, the heart, essence, substance, and reality of our joy. John Offord, 1868.

Verse 4. Then will I go unto the altar of God. He would with cheerfulness run and offer up the sacrifice of thanksgiving to his gracious deliverer; he would take his own soul as the burnt offering, and kindle and burn it up with the fire of a vigorous love and raised affections terminating upon God, the flames whereof should ascend to him alone...Unto God my exceeding joy, or, as the Hebrew is more exactly translated, unto God the gladness of his joy—that which gave a relish to every other comfort, which was the soul and life of his pleasures, and could only make them real and lasting; it was God who raised his joy to fulness of satisfaction and contentment. William Dunlop.

Verse 4. Then will I go...unto God. The expression of going to God implies SUBMISSION and FRIENDSHIP

1. Submission. I will go and pay my homage to him, as my Sovereign; I will go and hear what he says; I will go and receive his orders.

2. Friendship. I will go and consult him, and converse with him as a friend; and be thankful that, in such a troublesome and ensnaring world, I have such a friend to advise with.

(a) I will go and tell him my griefs; how greatly I am distressed with some particular disorder in my body, or with some disturbance in my family, or with some disappointment in my worldly circumstances, or (which is worse than all of them together) with a sad darkness in my soul.

(b) I will go and tell him my joys, for even in this vale of tears "my heart is" sometimes "glad, and my glory rejoiceth."

(c) I will go and tell him of my sins. He knows them, indeed, already, but he shall hear them from me.

(d) I will go and tell him my fears; how greatly I am distressed at times, when I perceive this or the other corruption so strong, which I thought had received its death wound... how I tremble when I have by my folly provoked the Lord to leave me, for fear he will never return again, etc.

(e) I will go and tell him my hopes, for some hope I have amidst all my discouragements...I will go and tell him all this; I will unbosom and unburden my whole heart to him; and if my necessities did not drive me to him, I should go to him from inclination. Condensed from Samuel Lavington.

Verse 4. Unto God. Believers are not satisfied in the use of religious duties, unless they arrive at God himself in those duties. We speak not here of that arrival at God himself which is by and after all duties, to a beatific vision of God in glory, but we speak of that arrival at God himself which is to be had in duties, while we are in the exercise of duties; namely, to attain to God's special presence in them, in an actual communion, communication and conversing with God, so that we are spiritually sensible he is with us therein. I say God's special presence and actual communion, to distinguish it from that ordinary habitual presence and communion of God's being with a believer at all times. Joh 14:16. Nathanael Homes.

Verse 4. My exceeding joy. The psalmist might well call God his exceeding joy, for it infinitely exceeds all other joy in its nature, degree, and duration. Samuel Lavington.

Verse 4. My exceeding joy. As faith acquires more strength, we come to think of God and address him in more endearing terms. J. P. Lange.

Verse 4. Exceeding joy. This can be said of no other joy. All other beauties have their boundaries, all other glories have their glooms. This is that illimitable sea, God. E. Paxton Hood.

Verse 5. Why art thou cast down, O my soul. He comes to his former remedy; he had stilled his grief once before with the same meditation and upbraiding of his own soul, and chiding himself; but he comes to it here as a probatum est, as a tried remedy; he takes up his soul very short, Why art thou so cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? You see how David's passions here are interlaced with comforts, and his comforts with passions, till at last he gets the victory of his own heart. Beloved, neither sin nor grief for sin, are stilled and quieted at the first. You have some short spirited Christians, if all be not quiet at the first, all is lost with them; but it is not so with a true Christian soul, with the best soul living. It was not so with David when he was in distemper; he checks himself, the distemper was not yet stilled; he checks himself again, then the distemper breaks out again; he checks himself again, and all little enough to bring his soul to a holy, blessed, quiet, temper, to that blessed tranquillity and rest that the soul should be in before it can enjoy its own happiness, and enjoy sweet communion with God. As you see in physic, perhaps one purge will not carry away the peccant humour, then a second must be added; perhaps that will not do it, then there must be a third; so when the soul hath been once checked, perhaps it will not do, we must fall to it again, go to God again. And then it may be there will be breaking out of the grief and malady again; we must to it again, and never give over, that is the right temper of a Christian. Richard Sibbes.

Verse 5. Hope in God. The more terrible the storm, the more necessary is the anchor. Heb 6:19. William S. Plumer.

Verse 5. Hope in God. The complete and perfect state of God's children here is not in re, but in spe: as Christ's kingdom is not of this world, so is not our hope. The worldling's motto is, "a bird in the hand." Give me today, say they, and take tomorrow whoso will. But the word of believers is, spero meliora—my hopes are better than my present possessions. Elnathan Parr.

Verse 5. The varied conflicts of the soul afford occasion for the exercise of the graces, and thus, through the divine wisdom and goodness, are made the means of eventual good. Henry March.

Verse 1. We apply to God—

1. As our Judge:Judge me.

2. As our Advocate:Plead my cause.

3. As our Deliverer:O deliver me.

Verse 1. Popular opinion outweighed by divine approbation.

Verse 1. How the Lord pleads the cause of his people.

Verse 1. Deceit and injustice twin vipers; their origin, their character, their folly, their end.

Verses 1-2, 4-5. Five mys:

1. My cause—"plead it."
2. My strength—"thou art."
3. My joy—God is.
4. My soul—"why disquieted."
5. My God.

Verse 3. O send out thy light and thy truth.

1. What is truth?

2. How truth is to be diffused.

3. Why it should be diffused.

4. Who must be the main agent of it. Varied from Dr. Bogue. 1800.

Verse 3. The blessings desired; the guidance sought; the end longed for.

Verse 3. Under what influence we should resort to divine worship.

Verse 4.

1. The good man's duty—expressed by going to God.

2. His blessedness—expressed by rejoicing in God. Samuel Lavington.

Verse 4. (first clause). When? Then. Where? Altar of God. Who? I. Why? My exceeding joy.

Verse 4. (second clause). It is God alone who can be an exceeding joy to his creatures. W. Dunlop's Sermons.

Verse 4. The joy of joy. The soul of soul joy.

Verse 4. The great object of public worship, its bliss, and the praise resulting from attaining it.

Verse 4.

1. The medium of joy, the altar of God, or God in Christ Jesus.

2. The springs of joy, or the attributes of God—mercy, justice, power, holiness, as seen in the atonement.

3. The value of joy, as comfort, strength, etc.

Verse 4. God my exceeding joy. A most rich and precious title.

Verse 4. (last clause). Possession, praise, resolution.

Verse 5. Discouragement's recovery. R. Sibbes Sermons.

Verse 5. I shall yet praise him. I, even I; shall, sooner or later, most assuredly; yet, despite troubles, foes, devils; praise with gratitude, confidence, exultation; him above all other helpers, though now afflicting me.

Verse 5. Health of my countenance, removing that which mars it—sin, shame, fear, care, sorrow, weakness, etc.

"Soul cordials against Sore Discomforts: in a Commentary or Explanations and Applications of the whole Forty-third Psalm, " pp. 312-562 of "The Works of Dr. Nathanael Homes, "1652 (folio).

In "Sabbaths at Home." by HENRY MARCH, there is an exposition of this Psalm. See "Treasury of David, "Vol. II, Page 323.