Chapter Overview
Summary
Psalm 43 (MT) / Psalm 42 (LXX) is the continuation of Psalm 42 — sharing the same three-verse refrain ('why are you cast down, O my soul?') and advancing the petition-narrative. Many Hebrew manuscripts and the Greek tradition alike treat Psalms 42–43 as a single liturgical unit; they appear as one psalm in several medieval Hebrew manuscripts. The psalm lacks a superscription (unusual in Book II) — further evidence of its being the second-half of a paired-psalm. Verse 3's 'send out your light and your truth; let them lead me' supplies the classic divine-guidance prayer; verse 4's 'my exceeding joy' (simchat gili) is the Psalter's most intense joy-word pairing.
Notable Variants
43:3 'your light and your truth' as guidance-petition doublet; 43:5 refrain closing the 42/43 unit; the absence of a superscription as evidence of 42–43 unity.
Structural Notes
MT Ps 43 = LXX Ps 42. 5 verses. Paired with Ps 42; no superscription.
Vindicate me, O God, and plead my case against a nation without faithful love. From the man of deceit and injustice, rescue me.
'Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly people' tracks MT. The 'ungodly' (anosios / lō-chasid) — the non-covenantal — requests divine-legal advocacy. The vindication-prayer continues Ps 42's exile-petition.
For you are the God of my stronghold. Why have you rejected me? Why must I walk in darkness under the pressure of the enemy?
'For you are the God in whom I take refuge; why have you rejected me?' tracks MT. The rejection-lament reprises Ps 42:10's 'why have you forgotten me?' — the two-part psalm built on matched-lament refrains.
Send out your light and your truth — let them lead me, let them bring me to your holy mountain and to your dwelling places.
'Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me' tracks MT. LIGHT-AND-TRUTH (phōs kai alētheia) — the pairing that John 14:6 ('I am the way, the truth, and the life') and 1 John 1:5–7 ('God is light') reshape Christologically. The 'holy hill' and 'dwelling' destinations — Zion and the sanctuary — are the exile-pilgrim's goal.
Then I will come to the altar of God, to God, the gladness of my joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.
'Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy' tracks MT. The 'God my EXCEEDING JOY' (simchat gili / agalliasis tēs euphrosynēs mou) is the Psalter's most intense joy-pairing. Jude 24 ('present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great JOY' — en agalliasei) echoes the vocabulary.
Why are you cast down, my soul, and why do you groan within me? Hope in God, for I will yet praise him — the salvation of my face and my God.
'Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?' tracks MT — THIRD OCCURRENCE of the refrain (cf. Ps 42:6, 42:12). Closing the 42–43 unit with the same self-address completes the contemplative-frame. The final 'hope in God, for I shall again praise him' is the two-psalm-unit's resolved faith-declaration.