Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me” Psalm 43.3
Psalms 42 and 43 are closely connected. In both cases the psalmist was greatly distressed and filled with a longing to return to God’s presence in the sanctuary. Coupled with that longing was the oppression he experienced from the taunting of the ungodly who hate God and persecute His people.
In Psalm 42, he acknowledged that “his soul is cast down within” (v.5), but he was then led to “remember” God. And to remember God was to have his thoughts shaped by what he knew of God. He knew that his distress, which he likened to “waves and billows,” which had gone over him, were God’s “waves and billows” (v.7). But further, he remembered God by reminding himself that, “The Lord commands His steadfast love, and at night His song is with me” (v.8). Note that Lord is in small caps, which denotes God’s covenantal name. It’s God’s covenantal faithfulness to His covenant of grace that inspired and sustained the hope of salvation in the psalmist. He wrote, “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God” (v.11).
In Psalm 43, the psalmist concluded his meditation with the very same refrain: “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God” (v.5). In this case, however, he employed a different means of recovering his comfort.
He knew that if he allowed these enemies of God and God’s children to influence and pollute his thoughts, he would sink into the mire of tearful despair. Instead, he cried out to God, “Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me.” The “Oh” gives us an indication of the depths of anxiety and distress he was experiencing. He was desperate. He recognized that the path to God is from, and only from, God’s light and truth. Only then would he find comfort and rest in the midst of his oppressive circumstances.
By light and truth, he was making a direct reference to the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit in opening up to him the truth, God’s revealed Word. Together they would be the guides he desperately needed in order to persevere, and to continue hoping in his God, his very salvation.
Whether it be a pandemic like we’re experiencing now, or any other trying and oppressive set of circumstances in our lives, which includes life in an unbelieving world, the only sure source for comfort, contentment, rest and hope in this life is in what God tells us in His word. David wrote, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119.105). Paul encouraged the young pastor Timothy by writing, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3.16-17). In God’s word, we’re told that God “works all things according to the counsel of His will,” and that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Ephesians 1.11; Romans 8.28).
And the “called” in Romans eight above are the ones who were once spiritually dead in sin, but have been brought alive by the Holy Spirit, who showed them their dire need of a Savior from the guilt and condemnation of their sin. He then gave them the inseparable gifts of faith and repentance whereby they wholly embraced and followed Jesus Christ as the One who lived, suffered, died and rose again on their behalf.
These “called” now have ongoing access to this light and truth to sustain them in this life, and to nourish and cultivate hope, real living hope in what God has promised and secured in Christ. The puritan John Flavel was quoted regarding God’s providence: “Providence not only brings you to heaven, it brings heaven to your soul now. God is providentially steering all to the port of his own praise and his peoples’ happiness, while the whole world is busily employed in managing the sails and tugging at the oars with a quite opposite design and purpose. They promote God’s design by opposing it, fulfil his will by resisting it, and enlarge his church by scattering it.” Or, as Paul put it, “What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who (or what) can be against us?” (Romans 8.31)
What an encouragement the Psalmist provides for us by steering us to the regular immersing of ourselves in God’s word, praying that God would open our eyes through the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit that we might behold wondrous things in His law (Psalm 119.18). In this way we are wonderfully led in this life to the ultimate destination of the consummation of the fullness of life in Jesus Christ.
Let our daily prayer be “Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me.”
Psalms 42 and 43 are closely connected. In both cases the psalmist was greatly distressed and filled with a longing to return to God’s presence in the sanctuary. Coupled with that longing was the oppression he experienced from the taunting of the ungodly who hate God and persecute His people.
In Psalm 42, he acknowledged that “his soul is cast down within” (v.5), but he was then led to “remember” God. And to remember God was to have his thoughts shaped by what he knew of God. He knew that his distress, which he likened to “waves and billows,” which had gone over him, were God’s “waves and billows” (v.7). But further, he remembered God by reminding himself that, “The Lord commands His steadfast love, and at night His song is with me” (v.8). Note that Lord is in small caps, which denotes God’s covenantal name. It’s God’s covenantal faithfulness to His covenant of grace that inspired and sustained the hope of salvation in the psalmist. He wrote, “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God” (v.11).
In Psalm 43, the psalmist concluded his meditation with the very same refrain: “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God” (v.5). In this case, however, he employed a different means of recovering his comfort.
He knew that if he allowed these enemies of God and God’s children to influence and pollute his thoughts, he would sink into the mire of tearful despair. Instead, he cried out to God, “Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me.” The “Oh” gives us an indication of the depths of anxiety and distress he was experiencing. He was desperate. He recognized that the path to God is from, and only from, God’s light and truth. Only then would he find comfort and rest in the midst of his oppressive circumstances.
By light and truth, he was making a direct reference to the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit in opening up to him the truth, God’s revealed Word. Together they would be the guides he desperately needed in order to persevere, and to continue hoping in his God, his very salvation.
Whether it be a pandemic like we’re experiencing now, or any other trying and oppressive set of circumstances in our lives, which includes life in an unbelieving world, the only sure source for comfort, contentment, rest and hope in this life is in what God tells us in His word. David wrote, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119.105). Paul encouraged the young pastor Timothy by writing, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3.16-17). In God’s word, we’re told that God “works all things according to the counsel of His will,” and that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Ephesians 1.11; Romans 8.28).
And the “called” in Romans eight above are the ones who were once spiritually dead in sin, but have been brought alive by the Holy Spirit, who showed them their dire need of a Savior from the guilt and condemnation of their sin. He then gave them the inseparable gifts of faith and repentance whereby they wholly embraced and followed Jesus Christ as the One who lived, suffered, died and rose again on their behalf.
These “called” now have ongoing access to this light and truth to sustain them in this life, and to nourish and cultivate hope, real living hope in what God has promised and secured in Christ. The puritan John Flavel was quoted regarding God’s providence: “Providence not only brings you to heaven, it brings heaven to your soul now. God is providentially steering all to the port of his own praise and his peoples’ happiness, while the whole world is busily employed in managing the sails and tugging at the oars with a quite opposite design and purpose. They promote God’s design by opposing it, fulfil his will by resisting it, and enlarge his church by scattering it.” Or, as Paul put it, “What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who (or what) can be against us?” (Romans 8.31)
What an encouragement the Psalmist provides for us by steering us to the regular immersing of ourselves in God’s word, praying that God would open our eyes through the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit that we might behold wondrous things in His law (Psalm 119.18). In this way we are wonderfully led in this life to the ultimate destination of the consummation of the fullness of life in Jesus Christ.
Let our daily prayer be “Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me.”