DECEMBER 12 - DAY 14Psalm 43:1-5
Jeff Niehaus
What application can there be for such a prayer today, when the form of God’s Kingdom is not a "nation,” when there is no "holy mountain” on which he "dwells,” and no temple building or "altar?” For now, and ever since Pentecost, the church corporately and its members individually have been the temple(s), and the altar that counts is the altar of the believer’s heart. Yet, like the psalmist, we live in the midst of an ungodly nation, with deceitful and wicked men around us–from the vast yet largely invisible culture of drug users and dealers that form part of the corrupt underbelly of our society, to the purveyors of entertainment in its various and seductive forms, to self-seeking people of deceit in high positions on Wall Street or in Washington. The one who, by God’s grace, sees our nation, to some extent at least for what it is, sees soon enough that it is a culture of spiritual influences from which he or she might well want to be "rescued.”
The answer for us, as for the poet, is to call upon God to "send forth [his] light and [his] truth.” The Hebrew word translated as "truth” would better be translated "faithfulness.” It is the second part of a covenant word pair, "grace [or "love”] and truth,” as the Lord himself declared when he passed before Moses in the cleft of the rock, "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness” (Ex 34:6).
We count on God’s faithfulness, his covenantal commitment to us in Christ, to send the light, the illumination of his Holy Spirit, who does indeed lead us and is our comforter. With such a leader and comforter we have good reason to rejoice, be it with the sort of harp (vs.4) that David used to drive away the evil spirit that tormented Saul (1 Sam. 16:16.23), or with a simple song of joy, but always from the altar of our heart.
Because God has faithfully revealed himself to and in us, in Christ, we may rejoice and receive the work of the Comforter–the Spirit of God–who is enthroned upon, and inhabits, the praises of his people (Ps 22:3).
The answer for us, as for the poet, is to call upon God to "send forth [his] light and [his] truth.” The Hebrew word translated as "truth” would better be translated "faithfulness.” It is the second part of a covenant word pair, "grace [or "love”] and truth,” as the Lord himself declared when he passed before Moses in the cleft of the rock, "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness” (Ex 34:6).
We count on God’s faithfulness, his covenantal commitment to us in Christ, to send the light, the illumination of his Holy Spirit, who does indeed lead us and is our comforter. With such a leader and comforter we have good reason to rejoice, be it with the sort of harp (vs.4) that David used to drive away the evil spirit that tormented Saul (1 Sam. 16:16.23), or with a simple song of joy, but always from the altar of our heart.
Because God has faithfully revealed himself to and in us, in Christ, we may rejoice and receive the work of the Comforter–the Spirit of God–who is enthroned upon, and inhabits, the praises of his people (Ps 22:3).
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