Ps. 43.1 (setting the case for trial)

“Judge me / O God – and plead / my case – against / a loveless people. – From deceitful people – and the unrighteous / rescue me.” We have mentioned in the past two related ways in which the psalmist attempts to unite himself: memory and hope. Here, we have a second, and very important, method: appealing to God for judgment. We have encountered this in other psalms, particularly those in which David seems to be involved. What we find is that the appeal to judgment is the attempt on the psalmist’s part to heal the ‘hiatus’ between God’s knowing and acting. This desire for judgment on the psalmist’s part is intimately related to his previous appeals to memory and hope. Just as both of those modes are entirely historical, so too does this appeal for judgment attempt to ignite history (to re-ignite the past and bring that into the present/future). In other words, when time/history seems to have become derailed due to the ascendency of the unrighteous, it is the righteous’ particular duty and desire to call upon God to enact his judgment and place time back in its proper place. A second observation: the plea for judgment takes the language of a court hearing (“plead my case”) but aligns that with the act of deliverance (“rescue me”). This is important as any pronouncement as to the psalmist’s ‘innocence’ will be a real/historical ‘exodus’ from the unrighteous. This is no mere ‘spiritual’ pronouncement. It will heal the ‘hiatus’ between God’s knowing and acting. Third, and this is important: just as in other psalms involving David’s appeals to God, so too here does the psalmist initiate his appeal for judgment by asking God to judge him first. Certainly, the psalmist does not envision himself guilty (the invocation is immediately paralleled by “plead my case”), but this should not lessen the fact that the psalmist instinctively places everything underneath the judgment of God. By placing himself within the light of judgment the psalmist is hoping it will force God to recognize his, the psalmist’s, innocence and act accordingly. It could be read, therefore, as a subtle/respectful demand that God begin the court process that seems to have been unjustifiably delayed.