Psalm 43 is presented to us in
many ways as an epilogue or as the closing stanza of Psalm 42. It continues in some ways the
same theme and indeed it closes in verse 5 with a repetition
of the last verse, verse 11 of Psalm 42. The psalmist writes
in this short psalm, Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against
an ungodly nation. O deliver me from the deceitful
and unjust man. For thou art the God of my strength. Why dost thou cast me off? Why go I mourning because of
the oppression of the enemy? O send out thy light and thy
truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring
me unto thy holy hill and to thy tabernacles. Then will I
go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy. Yea, upon
the harp will I praise thee, O God my God. Why art thou cast
down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within
me? Hope in God, for I shall yet
praise Him who is the health of my countenance and my God. Verse 3 reads, O send out thy
light and thy truth, let them lead me, let them bring me unto
thy holy hill and to thy tabernacles. O send out thy light, and thy
truth. Without light, we sit in the
darkness. Until there is light, we cannot
see. Without light, all is dark, void,
and without form. The beginning of Genesis, for
the creation of this world, God writes that in the beginning
God created the heaven and the earth and the earth was without
form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and
the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters and God
said let there be light and there was light and God saw the light
that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness and
God called the light day and the darkness he called night
and the evening and the morning were the first day until God
sent forth light in the beginning all was darkness and outside
of God outside of his creative hand, outside of him, there is
darkness. Without God, without his truth,
without his life, there is nothing, nothing, nothing but darkness. Everything is pitch black. If
you don't know God, If you don't know Him and His Son, if you
don't know His truth and His gospel, you're in darkness. You know nothing. You have nothing. You see nothing. You feel nothing. You're in darkness. You may say,
I know this and I know that, but you know nothing regarding
truth. and your years upon this earth
will be fleeted. And as you career from time into
eternity you will come to stand before the God who dwells in
light, the God who is light, the God who shone his light in
the darkness and you will answer to the fact that you rejected
the light, you knew not the light, you never came to the light,
you sat in darkness, you were content with darkness, you were
content with your own sin and your own rebellion and your own
ignorance of the truth and your love of the darkness, your love
of sin and your hatred of God, His ways, His truth, His sun
and His light will bring your eternal damnation. There is light
and there is darkness and God separated the light from the
darkness And if you love the darkness more than the light,
you will pay the price forevermore. You will be forever separated
from God with no entrance and no way of return into His dwelling
place or His glory. When death comes, the door shuts. In this world, you may come to
hear the Gospel preached. you may have the light shone
across your pathway you may have the truth presented to you but
if you reject and shut your ears and shut your eyes and shut off
your heart's understanding and say not for me or for another
day and pass through this brief moment upon this earth walking
in darkness and despising the light, then in the end all you
will know for eternity to come is everlasting darkness, the
fires of God's wrath, separation from God who dwelleth in light
with his people around his throne. There's no way back. There's
no second chance. There's no well I didn't think
it really mattered when I was in the world or I didn't know
that my life would be so brief. There's no turning back. Many
die as it were before their time or before their expected time. Everyone thinks that they will
as it were live forever or at least live to a very old age.
But many young people are taken away in tragedy. Many die with
misadventure. Many are drowned. Many are knocked
over. Many are taken away by disease. Many are taken away by their
own misadventure with drugs or alcohol or whatever it might
be. Many die young. And when they stand before God
in the light, before being sent off into the darkness. There's
no turning back. There's no, oh but I was there
so briefly. I thought I would leave it for
another day. I thought I would come to study
that truth one day. I never counted it so seriously. I was just young. I was just
having a bit of fun for a while. These things seem so serious
and solemn. To consider my soul, to consider
my state, to consider my sin, to consider the judgment and
the wrath of God, to consider the gospel and the death of Jesus
Christ, to consider the one that came into this world, the light
of God shining in the darkness, the one who was born at Bethlehem,
the one who came of old, of whom I heard every year, but was more
obsessed with my own riches and my own pleasure than of the one
who was born in a stable because the world had no room for him
who was cast out by this world of darkness who was rejected
at his coming and rejected at the end and in the end was crucified
the one who in my heart I put to death because I had no time
for him he as it were came knocking on the inn door of my own heart
and I said it's shut there's no room and off he went and I
never saw him again. If that's you. If Christ has
come in his gospel knocking upon the door and the inn is shut
and there's no room and he goes away and you never come to hear
of him again or never know him again or never have time for
him again. if the light passes you by and
you remain in darkness then in darkness you will remain forevermore
there's no second chances there's no coming back again John repeats in his gospel something
of what we saw in the beginning in Genesis John's Gospel speaking
of Christ. John writes, In the beginning
was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by him and
without him was not anything made that was made. In him was
life and the life was the light of men. and the light shineth
in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not. It couldn't
see. Mankind who had been on this
world for thousands of years, who'd had the scriptures given
to them, man who had the scriptures, man who had heard from God, man
who had seen the miracles of God. When God delivered his people
out of Egypt and sent forth the signs and the wonders in Egypt,
man who had heard from God sat in darkness. Man who had
the scriptures prophesying of the coming of Christ and of his
birth that Messiah would come, that a Saviour would come that
he would be born a man sat in darkness and when the light came
and shone in the darkness when Christ was born the darkness comprehended it
not. Have you comprehended it? It says in Matthew's Gospel regarding
Christ's entrance into this world, Matthew chapter 4, quoting Isaiah's Now when Jesus had heard that
John was cast into prison he departed into Galilee and leaving
Nazareth he came and dwelt in Capernaum which is upon the sea
coast in the borders of Zabulon and Nephilim that it might be
fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying the
land of Zabulon and the land of Nephilim by the way of the
sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people which
sat in darkness saw great light. And to them which sat in the
region and shadow of death, light is sprung up. The people were
sat in darkness. for all their religion, for all
the scriptures, for all their knowledge, they knew not God,
they were in darkness. But then, as prophesied by Isaiah,
Christ came and he walked among them. And there was a people
who had sat in the darkness, who when they saw him, they saw
great light. Many didn't. Many despised and
rejected. Many in the end took him and
crucified him. But there was a people which
sat in darkness, who saw great light. You who sit in the darkness,
have you seen this great light? Or are you yet blind? until God
sends out his light and his truth and until he sends out that light
and that truth to you and to me in particular we remain in
darkness we sit in darkness in Genesis God said let there be
light now the world the universe until that point was dark but
God always was and God always is light that light was not created when
God said let there be light but he shone forth his light where
there was no light and the light already is even if you may sit
in darkness it already is Christ is there Christ has come Christ
lives and reigns this day whether you can see him or not the light
is there and yet you're in darkness but should God say let there
be light of you regarding your dark heart then you like the
world of old will have light shining into a place where there
was no light. and you'll no longer be sat in
darkness but you'll be flooded with light and everything that
was confused to you, everything that was just words to you, everything
that you had heard about, heard about God, heard about Christ,
heard about the gospel which was just words will suddenly
be plain. suddenly you'll see suddenly
like the blind man your eyes will be open and you'll see you'll
see the light you'll see the truth you'll comprehend the truth
you'll see the Son of God and you'll bow down and you'll worship
O send out thy light and thy truth let them lead me let them
bring me unto thy holy hill and to thy tabernacles without that
light and that truth you're not led anywhere you're led astray
by your own evil heart and by the great adversary of your soul
who deceives and leads you astray who came in the garden of eden
unto adam and eve and whispered in their ears and said thou shalt
not surely die without a seat of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil and off you'll go listening to his whispering
ways, eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, going
to religion, going to the scriptures, going to the law and eating of
it and thinking that by your understanding and your eating
and your doing and your walking and your living that you might
attain to something. But it's a lie, it was a lie
when he told it to Eve, it was a lie when he told it to everyone
that's followed. It's a lie, you will not come
to God. through your knowledge and your
wisdom and your works and your will and your doing you'll remain
in darkness he whispered thou shalt not surely die when adders
eat of this tree but they did die and so did you and so did I this
is why we come out of the womb dead because we've eaten and
we eat of that tree continually as we sit in the darkness blind
to the truth until that day when God says of us, in us, to us
let there be light O send out thy light and thy truth let them
lead me What will lead you unto God? What will lead you unto
salvation? What will lead you away from
destruction? What will lead you away from
the lies of the adversary, the evil one, the devil, the serpent?
What will lead you away from the riches and the pleasures
of this world and the deceptions of this world which will lead
you ultimately to destruction? What will lead you unto God?
what will lead you to heaven when you die? God's light and
God's truth and nothing else the scriptures open with let
there be light and then it continues with the unfolding of the truth
of God in his gospel and if you're ever to be saved there must be
light shone into your heart and a revelation of the truth of
God in Jesus Christ. Let there be light. Let them
lead me. Let them bring me unto thy holy
hill and to thy tabernacles. How will we ever enter into God's
holy hill? How will we ever enter into his
tabernacles? How does one get to heaven when
he dies? through God's light and God's
truth. Death is common to all men. It's common to all men because
as the scriptures say, one man sinned and by sin death entered
the world. Everyone dies and everyone is
touched by death and everyone experiences the horror of death
and the sorrow of death and the emotional impact of death. when
they die but also when loved ones die everyone's affected
by death everyone knows the reality of death and yet they sit in
the darkness not acknowledging the cause and the reality and
the meaning of it and why there's death which is their sin but
they're all touched by it and they all hope that after death
there is either nothing they just as it were fall asleep or
that if there is a life after death if there is a God if there
is a heaven and hell that somehow they'll be going to heaven and
they think and they put their hopes on their own goodness as
a means of getting there. They say, well, I hope there's
a heaven when I die and I hope that if there's a God, he's a
nice God who'll treat me kindly because I'm quite a good person.
and in their foolishness they hope that they're going to stand
before God and be received by God simply because they haven't
done this excessive evil or that excessive evil. They blindly
hope when in reality all they've done all their lives is reject
God, shut Him out of their thinking, run the other way and indulge
their own pleasures. They've got no love of God. got
no understanding of the truth and no understanding of the light.
They're in darkness and they foolishly walk backwards towards
death and you may foolishly walk backwards towards death just
hoping for the best. But you'll never be brought into
God's holy hill and to his tabernacles. You'll never be brought into
heaven's glory. by hoping for the best when the
reality is you are so utterly evil in God's judgment. Your best is eternal destruction. You cannot stand in God's presence. You're full of sin. You've never
served Him. You've never loved Him. You've
never worshipped Him. You've never cared for Him. You
love yourself. You love your own desires. You
love your own will. You love your own ways. You don't
want to bow down to God. You just want to live your own
selfish way and hope that God in the end will forgive you and
say it doesn't matter. well that won't lead you into
his holy hill only his light and his truth will and when the
light shines you'll see the filth and the iniquity in the darkness
of your heart when the truth comes you'll come to understand
that you need a righteousness to stand before this God and
you have no righteousness you'll come to discover that you are
full of sin and you'll feel like you're full of sin and you'll
know you're full of sin and you'll know the conviction that that
sin brings upon you you'll know the conviction that God brings
upon your heart because of that sin you'll know the wrath of
God burning down against you you'll know you cannot stand
in his presence you'll know that you're unjust you'll know that
you're under wrath And fear and dread will fill your heart when
the light and the truth shine in. And then what are you going
to do? How are you going to come into
His holy hill in such a state? You cannot. And you will not. Except He shows you mercy. and
if he's to show you mercy it must be on the ground of justice
because he must look at what you are and he must do something
about what you are in order to forgive you and in order to lead
you in and as he shines the light into your heart he shines the
light into your heart not just of your sin but of what he's
done about it He declares the truth unto you and leads you
by the truth by his Gospel to his Son and he says, I sent my
Son, the Light, into this world to take the sins of people like
you and to suffer the consequence, to bear the wrath of God against
them. to drink my judgment in your
place I sent my son for people like you that hate and despise
me that I might deliver people like you from this judgment that
I might cleanse them that I might wash them that I might save them
even though you hated me I set my love upon these whom I shall
deliver even though they hate that's what the truth makes known
and when the truth makes known that to you you will be broken
your heart will melt you will fall down in praise and wonder
and if God should say not only did I do that for sinners but
I did it for you I set my love upon you. I took your sins and
laid them upon my own son and I crucified him in your place. I judged your sins. I blotted
out your sins I made you to be righteousness in my Son I made
you to be the righteousness of God in my Son who suffered and
died in your place if he says that he did it for you and that
he's forgiven you and he's washed you in the blood of his Son he's
delivered you if he says he's done it for you then that truth
and that light that he makes known unto you will lead you
unto his holy hill. There's no leading into glory,
there's no entrance into heaven, there's no entrance into the
kingdom of God except you come this way and it's a way in which
your old man what you are by nature a sinner is slain is crucified
is convicted is judged and you're born again of god in christ a
new man who's forgiven who's washed washed in his own blood
saved with an eternal salvation made to be the righteousness
of god you must be born again if you are to enter into the
kingdom of heaven you must have you seen the light? have you
heard the truth? have you been born again of the
spirit? has this light and this truth
led you unto God? first the light then the truth
and the truth is only found in Christ Christ is truth. I am the way, the truth and the
life. There's only life in Christ. There's only a way unto God and
His glory through Christ. There's only truth in Christ.
He is truth. He's the embodiment of truth.
He came, He did all that was promised of Him. He spake truth. Every word that flowed from His
lips was truth. He is truth. Everything outside
of Him, everything that rejects Him is a lie. But He is God's
Saviour. He is God's Son. He is the only
one by which sinners might come unto God and be saved. He is
truth. If you know any truth then you
are brought to know Christ. He is the truth. And He's made
known in the Gospel. and is made known in the revelation
of the Gospel, something of it that we see in this psalm. For
when the psalmist says, O send out thy light and thy truth,
he has said so in the context of this psalm, in which he gives
us a glimpse of the Saviour. coming into the world and dying
in the place of sinners. The psalmist opens this psalm
with these remarkable words. Judge me, O God. and plead my
cause against an ungodly nation. O deliver me from the deceitful
and unjust man. Judge me O God. Now those are remarkable words
because none can say it and none in their right mind if they knew
what they were as sinners before a holy God would say it. The psalmist is led to say this
because he's led to speak in prophecy of Christ, who is the
only man that ever lived who can truly say before God, judge
me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation, because
only Christ can stand. If you or I come before God and
say, judge me, O God, where will we stand? What will his judgment
find? He will judge us and find us
wanting. Go on, try. In your heart, come
before God in prayer and stand before Him and say, judge me.
And what do you think He'll find if He judges you? Will He find
you to be upright? Righteous? Innocent? Perfect? or will he find a cesspit
of sin within the sewer of your heart? When he looks within you
what will he see? You might stand and claim oh
I'm like this and I'm like that and I've never done this wrong
or that wrong and you might have a million things that you can
hide from everyone else but what will God see within? What impatience
will he find within your heart? What fretfulness will he find
within your heart? What selfishness will he find
within your heart? What greed will he find within
your heart? What anger and malice will he
find within your heart? What hatred will he find within
your heart? What pride will he find within
your heart? Are you going to stand before
me and say judge me and think that I won't know that you are
full of pride or that you are selfish or that you are greedy? Then how are you going to stand
before a holy God and claim such things? Are you so foolish to
think that you won't be found wanting? Come before God and
say, Judge me, O God, and you'll be found wanting from the beginning
the list of iniquity in your heart, the list of sins that
you've committed and fought throughout your lifetime is endless. Then who would go before God
and say, Judge me, O God, except a man who truly is without sin and there is only one the Son
of God made a man made a little lower than the angels even for
the suffering of death he came God the Son of God a divine person
who took upon him human flesh a human soul he was a man yet
a man without sin He knew no sin, he never committed sin.
Only he could stand before his God and say, judge me, O God. And God would look upon him and
found him spotless. When Christ went to the cross,
knowing what would befall him, when he was nailed to the cross,
he could say to his God in faith, Judge me, O God, and plead my
cause against an ungodly nation. All around me are sinners who
hate me. All around me are those who cried
out, crucify him, crucify him, we will not have this man to
reign over us. All around him are those that
dwell in darkness. All around him are sinners, an
ungodly nation. if God were to judge him he'd
find no fault in him yet Christ knew that he was there not for
his own sins not because of anything he'd
done but because he was going to bear the sins of his people
he was going to bear the sins of others he was going to be
judged as though he were them as though he were those who had
done all these evil things as though he were you if you said
judge me and God found all the iniquity in your heart that's
the position Christ would have found himself in if he died in
your place God would have taken your iniquity and laid it upon
him and made him to be it and looked at him and found all of
that in his son and judged him for it and slew him for it. Did he bear your iniquity? Did
he bear your sins? Was he made sin that you might
be made the righteousness of God in him? Christ says, oh deliver
me from the deceitful and unjust man. Not only to be delivered
from those who betrayed him and those who cried out crucify him,
but delivered from that man whose sins he bore upon the cross. If it was me that was crucified
with Christ, if it was you that was crucified with Christ, if
it was Paul that was crucified with Christ, then Christ bore
the sins of you, me and Paul and countless others who are
deceitful and unjust men. deliver me from the deceitful
and unjust man. Of himself, Christ could say,
judge me O God, because there was no sin in him. But he died
in the place of sinners. He died in Paul's place. Paul was crucified with Christ. And that deceitful and unjust
man, Saul, Paul, died with Christ and Christ died with him. And
he was the cause of Christ's death. And he was the one from
whom Christ needed to be delivered. He needed to be delivered from
the sins of Paul. He bore his sins. He was slain
for his sins. But they were the cause of his
death. Paul writes, I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live
yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live
in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me oh deliver me from the deceitful and unjust
man Christ so loved Paul that he loved him and gave himself
for him though he were perfect he bore Paul's sin as a consequence
of which God slew him, judged him and turned his back upon
him for thou art the God of my strength why dost thou cast me
off? why go I mourning because of
the oppression of the enemy? because of what he was made to
be what he was made to be Where is truth in Christ? Where is truth shone forth in
the darkness of this world so pointedly from the cross in the
death of Jesus Christ? There is truth. As he suffered
in the place of sinners, as he was judged because of the sins
of the deceitful and the unjust man. There is truth at the cross,
in judgment, in righteousness. Judge me. In that context, with that introduction,
the psalmist says, oh send out thy light and thy truth. Judge me. Why dost thou cast
me off? Why go I mourning because of
the oppression of the enemy? Send out thy light and thy truth. The light and the truth shine
forth from the gospel, from the cross, from the death of Christ
for sinners. They don't shine out solely from
the birth of Christ, solely from the coming of the light into
this world. The world likes to speak of Christ's
birth. They'll celebrate his birth,
but they turn a blind eye to his death. And yet the psalmist
would draw your attention with regard to the light. to the death
of Christ and the judgment of God against the sin of his people. I'll send out thy light and thy
truth. Have you seen it? The light and
the truth alone will draw us under God. The light and the
truth are found in the gospel. Have you heard the gospel? Have
you heard the gospel? Psalmist says, let them bring
me unto thy holy hill and to thy tabernacles then will I go
unto the altar of God unto God my exceeding joy yea upon the
harp will I praise thee O God my God then will I go when the
light is shone forth when the truth comes when they lead me
then I will go then I will go unto God when? when will he? When will you,
when will I? After the judgment. After the
cross. Once the faith of Christ had
received its reward. Once the righteousness of God
had been brought in when the judgment of God silenced and
blotted out the sins of his people. Then, then will I go. and not before. When will you
go unto God? When will you come unto God?
When will you worship God? When will you praise God? When
will you come to a meeting knowing God? And not just going through
the motions and not just hearing the words. When will you come
by faith unto God? when you've been brought by His
light and His truth to the cross, to Christ and Him crucified,
when you've beheld your sins judged and taken away in the
Saviour, when you've seen Him taking them away, suffering under
the wrath of God and in the other side of death rising again victorious,
then, then you will go with exceeding joy, and with praise upon the
harp, then, then, when God, with his light and his truth, by his
gospel, brings you to Christ at the cross. in the darkness
in his death when you who sit in darkness come into that three
hours of darkness upon the cross and see what the darkness did
unto the light God sent his light into the world when Christ came
born in Bethlehem the light came but then at the final hour at
the cross the darkness came the darkness, your darkness, your
sin covered the light of God and made it dark and the light
of the sun was taken away and there was darkness. Oh where
would you and I be if that's how it had remained? Where would
we be if the light which once shone was taken away and remained
gone? And all that ever remained for
eternity was darkness. We'd all be lost. But praise
God out of the darkness he said let there be light. and the darkness
was taken away and the light shone forth and Christ rose victorious
having conquered sin and death and hell O the light shone never
to be darkened again never to be darkened again O send out
thy light and thy truth let them lead me Let them bring me unto
thy holy hill and to thy tabernacle. Then will I go unto the altar
of God, unto God my exceeding joy. Yea, upon the harp will
I praise ye, O God my God. Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? There's no more need. Why art
thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God for I shall
yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God. The people which sat in darkness
saw great light and to them which sat in the region and shadow
of death light is sprung up. Light is sprung up. Paul sat
in darkness despite all his religion sold it. and saw hearing of Christ
with the outward ear, hearing all about him, hearing the apostles
preaching of him, the disciples preaching of him, hearing all
these things with the outward ear, sought to put the church
and the believers of Christ to death and he sought going about
persecuting and causing havoc in the church and he went riding
to Damascus intent on destroying this people. and putting out
this light and making it dark again this religious man who
knew it all in the head sought to persecute the church and he
went riding to Damascus and on the way a great light shone from
heaven and he fell down And the light called out, Christ from
the light, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Why persecutest thou
me? And you who sit in the darkness,
if Christ should speak unto you out of that everlasting light
today, would you hear him saying unto you, why persecutest thou
me? with your hardness of heart and
your apathy and your disinterest and you're putting off of the
gospel and you're seeking your own pleasure and your own ways
why persecutest thou me? and Saul fell down and God blinded
his eyes for a time to show him the darkness in his own heart
before he then opened them And God said unto him, but rise and
stand upon thy feet. for I have appeared unto thee
for this purpose to make thee, Paul, a minister and a witness
both of these things which thou hast seen and of those things
in the which I will appear unto thee delivering thee from the
people and from the Gentiles under whom I now send thee to
open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from
the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness
of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by
faith that is in me. O send out thy light and thy
truth, let them lead me. O may God in his gospel come
unto you to turn you from darkness to light, to open your eyes to
turn you from the power of Satan unto God, that you, like Paul,
might receive the forgiveness of sins and an inheritance with
them which are sanctified by faith that is in Christ, as the
gospel, his light, his truth, leads you with them unto his
holy hill. Praise God on that.