Ps. 43.4-5 (going into God's altar)

“And let me / go into / God’s altar – to the God / of my gladness; - I will rejoice / and praise you / on a lyre – O God / my God. – O my soul / why are you downcast? – and why / so disturbed / within me? – Wait patiently / for God / for I will / praise him again – the victories / of my God’s presence.” Once God has deployed his power, through his light and truth, there is an important shift in tone in the psalm. Previously, when the psalmist asked God to “let him” perform something it was to remember his time of pilgrimage and liturgy within the Temple. (42.2). This memory was, as we saw, both something to be cherished and also an aching reminder of his thirst. Now, however, the psalmist asks God to “let me go into God’s altar”. The goal (the Temple) is the same except now the psalmist is confident in his deliverance; his case has been pled (43.1-2) and he is sure that the judgment of delivering light and truth will occur. The intimacy of these lines points back to the opening verse (42.1), especially through the constant emphasis on the goal of his desire—“God of my gladness”—and the liturgical acts—“rejoice and praise you on a lyre”. Finally, this sense of surety is sealed by the small but important phrase, “O God, my God.” We have indicated before that this phrase is the covenantal/kinship bond established between God and his people (“You will be my people, and I will be your God.”). Through the psalmist’s confidence that God will judge him (and, therefore, deliver him), the covenantal bond will be restored (the ‘hiatus’ will be closed). Two further observations. First, the final refrain, “O my soul…”, has throughout the psalm been the signal of internal division; the sense of God’s ‘hiatus’ has created in the psalmist his own division. Here, though, the refrain strikes a very different note—that of an almost calm assurance. It is precisely in the flow from vs. 4 into 5 that this is achieved and, in particular, through the almost blending of “O God my God. O my soul…”. Literarily, “O my God” has been neighbored to “O my soul…”. Literarily, the psalmist’s soul and God have been ‘brought close’ which is what the psalmist has sought since the initial verse. Second, the psalm began with the desire on the part of the psalmist to “see God”. As this developed, in his memory, this desire was understood to be a desire to liturgically praise God “with the pilgrim crowd”. This is furthered here as the liturgical and joyous words fall over each other (“go into God’s alter”, “God of gladness”, “rejoice and praise you on a lyre”, “praise him again”). In essence, what is clear is that the psalmist cannot envision seeing God without such ‘seeing’ being simultaneously a liturgy and a gladness. To see God is to praise him, and when we praise him, we see him.