Psalm 43 (1928 BCP)
Psalm 43 (1928 BCP) (Judica me, Deus) is the short prayer that follows Psalm 42 in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer Psalter. It moves from a plea for vindication amid oppression to a request for God's light and truth, return to the holy hill and altar, and a final act of hope spoken to the troubled soul. The Prayer Book appoints it at Evening Prayer on the Eighth Day, immediately after Psalm 42.
Text in the 1928 Psalter
GIVE sentence with me, O God, and defend my cause against the ungodly people; * O deliver me from the deceitful and wicked man.
2 For thou art the God of my strength; why hast thou put me from thee? * and why go I so heavily, while the enemy oppresseth me?
The first petition asks God to distinguish and defend a cause, not to license private vengeance. The speaker names both external opposition and inner heaviness before addressing God as “the God of my strength.” Thus the Psalm gives the worshipper words for lament which remain a prayer of dependence.
3 O send out thy light and thy truth, that they may lead me, * and bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy dwelling;
4 And that I may go unto the altar of God, even unto the God of my joy and gladness; * and upon the harp will I give thanks unto thee, O God, my God.
“Light” and “truth” are not merely private insight. They lead the petitioner to God's hill, dwelling, and altar, where joy becomes thanksgiving. The sequence matters: the Psalm seeks God's own guidance so that lament is gathered into public praise, rather than treating worship as an escape from suffering.
5 Why art thou so heavy, O my soul? * and why art thou so disquieted within me?
6 O put thy trust in God; * for I will yet give him thanks, which is the help of my countenance, and my God.
The Psalm does not pretend that heaviness has already gone; it teaches the soul to answer its disquiet with a future-oriented promise of thanksgiving. Its refrain deliberately completes the movement begun in Psalm 42: distress can be named truthfully while trust in God is renewed.
Prayer Book use
The Eighth Day
Evening Prayer.
Psalm 40. Expectans expectavi.
Psalm 41. Beatus qui intelligit.
Psalm 42. Quemadmodum.
Psalm 43. Judica me, Deus.
This appointment lets the Daily Office hear Psalms 42 and 43 together: thirst and remembered worship in the former are answered by the latter's prayer to be led home to God's altar. Their shared question to the soul and shared summons to trust mean that the Office makes hope a repeated corporate discipline, not an isolated feeling.
Patristic reading
Augustine reads the Psalm as the voice of Christ's Body, the Church, in its pilgrim condition. That reading does not dissolve the Psalmist's suffering into abstraction; it locates the one who is “cast down” within the common life of Christ's members.
That which is an-hungered, is the Church, is the Body of Christ: and that Man who is extended throughout the whole world, of which the Head is above, the limbs below: it is His voice which ought by this time to be perfectly known, and perfectly familiar, to us, in all the Psalms.
For Augustine, the “holy hill” and “tabernacles” are interpreted ecclesiologically. The interpretation is a Christian reading of the Psalm, not a denial of its literal prayer for God's presence and worship.
His holy Hill is His holy Church.... We are now on His Hill, that is, in His Church, and in His Tabernacle. The tabernacle is for persons sojourning; the house, for those dwelling in one community.
This makes Psalm 43 particularly apt for common prayer: its journey is toward God, but not toward an individual religious refuge. The Church on pilgrimage prays for the light and truth by which it is led into fuller praise.
Historical Protestant interpretation
Alexander Maclaren treats Psalms 42 and 43 as a connected movement in which the latter has a distinct predominance of prayer and joy. His reading is useful for the Prayer Book's paired Office appointment because it attends both to the lingering sorrow and to the confidence which governs the Psalm's close.
But the victory is not quite won, and therefore Psalm xliii. follows. It is sufficiently distinct in tone to explain its separation from the preceding, inasmuch as it is prayer throughout, and the note of joy is dominant, even while an undertone of sadness links it with the previous parts.
Maclaren further construes the paired terms in verse 3 as God's merciful and faithful action, while still preserving the Psalm's strong sanctuary and altar imagery.
Light and Troth—i.e., Loving-kindness and Faithfulness in fulfilling promises—are like two angels, despatched from the presence-chamber of God, to guide with gentleness the exile's steps.
The Prayer Book's text therefore supports a disciplined Christian use: God’s guidance is received as mercy and faithfulness; it directs the afflicted person toward the Church's praise; and it supplies words by which the soul learns again to hope in God.
See Also
References
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), The Psalter, Psalm 43, Judica me, Deus; text hand-compared with
sources/justus1928/Psalms1.htm. Society of Archbishop Justus, “The Psalter: Psalms 1–50”. - ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), The Psalter, Psalm 43, Judica me, Deus; text hand-compared with
sources/justus1928/Psalms1.htm. Society of Archbishop Justus, “The Psalter: Psalms 1–50”. - ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), The Psalter, Psalm 43, Judica me, Deus; text hand-compared with
sources/justus1928/Psalms1.htm. Society of Archbishop Justus, “The Psalter: Psalms 1–50”. - ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), The Psalter, “The Eighth Day,” Evening Prayer; appointment checked against
sources/justus1928/Psalms1.htm. Society of Archbishop Justus, “The Psalter: Psalms 1–50”. - ↑ Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 43, §1, trans. J. E. Tweed, in Philip Schaff, ed., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888); wording checked against the New Advent transcription. New Advent, “Exposition on Psalm 43”.
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 43, §4, trans. J. E. Tweed, in Philip Schaff, ed., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888); wording checked against the New Advent transcription. New Advent, “Exposition on Psalm 43”.
- ↑ Alexander Maclaren, The Expositor’s Bible: The Psalms, vol. II, Psalms XXXIX–LXXXIX (London: Hodder and Stoughton), pp. 59–60, “Psalms XLII, XLIII”; wording checked against the digital text. Christian Classics Ethereal Library, “Psalms XLII, XLIII”.
- ↑ Alexander Maclaren, The Expositor’s Bible: The Psalms, vol. II, Psalms XXXIX–LXXXIX (London: Hodder and Stoughton), p. 61, “Psalms XLII, XLIII”; wording checked against the digital text. Christian Classics Ethereal Library, “Psalms XLII, XLIII”.