Praying the Psalms. Psalm 43

By mmayer
Psalm 43

Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause
    against an ungodly people;
from those who are deceitful and unjust
    deliver me!
For you are the God in whom I take refuge;
    why have you cast me off?
Why must I walk about mournfully
    because of the oppression of the enemy?

O send out your light and your truth;
    let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy hill
    and to your dwelling.
Then I will go to the altar of God,
    to God my exceeding joy;
and I will praise you with the harp,
    O God, my God.

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
    my help and my God.

Psalm 43  You are God my stronghold. Why have you rejected me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?

Send me your light and your faithful care, let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell.

The Psalms have been around for 3,000 years. They still work today and they help us grow in our prayer life.

Chad Bird is an American Lutheran Old Testament scholas and pastor. As a young pastor, he messed up badly. His wife divorced him, took the children, and he ended up night driving trucks on the Texas oil fields, to be close to his children. His life was a mess, and so was he. Suddenly the Psalms started to make sense, as he tells us in his book ‘Night Driving Notes From a Prodigal Soul’. He found words that expressed how he was feeling, and slowly he came to experience that God’s presence was real and forgiving, despite all he had got wrong.

Let the Psalms help you in your praying. Find a verse or verses that express your longings, or how you are feeling. Sit with them. Say them aloud. Then be silent, and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you, or simply hold you safe and warm.

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