Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 43:4
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.
4. Then will I go ] Or, That I may come (Psa 42:2).
unto God my exceeding joy ] Even unto the God of my gladsome rejoicing. God Himself is the goal of pilgrimage: the altar is but the means of approaching Him and realising His presence.
Yea, upon the harp will I praise thee) And give thanks unto thee upon the harp, as of old (Psa 42:4).
O God my God ] A phrase found only in the Elohistic Psalms, and clearly the equivalent of Jehovah my God, due, not to the original Psalmist, but to the Elohistic editor. See Introd. p. lvi.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Then will I go unto the altar of God – The altar on Mount Zion, where sacrifices were offered: 2Sa 6:17. The meaning is, that he would again unite with others in the public and customary worship of God. Compare the notes at Psa 42:4.
Unto God – Into the immediate presence of God; the place where he was worshipped.
My exceeding joy – Margin, the gladness of my joy. The Septuagint renders this, who makes my youth joyous: or, the joy of my youth, (Thompson) The Hebrew is, the gladness of my joy; meaning, that God was the source of his joy, so that he found all his happiness in Him.
Yea, upon the harp will I praise thee – Compare the notes at Psa 33:2-3. Instruments of music were commonly used in the worship of God, and David is represented as excelling in the music of the harp. Compare 1Sa 16:16-23.
O God, my God – It was not merely God as such that he desired to worship, or to whom he now appealed, but God as his God, the God to whom he had devoted himself, and whom he regarded as his God even in affliction and trouble. Compare the notes at Psa 22:1.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 43:4
Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy.
The altar of joy
This is the expression of a twofold desire, a desire for communion with God, and for communion with God through public worship. There is a great wail of sorrow in the psalm, but it is not a sorrow without hope; faith struggles with despondence, and gets the victory. The authorship of the psalm we cannot be certain of. Nor of the occasion, whether some event in Davids reign, or in Ahazs, or in the captivity, or yet some other. Augustine held that the psalm is the proper expression of the Church while she is an exile in this world. They are unquestionably words for all individual souls who feel that something intervenes between them and God–whether it be exile of the body or of the heart only. Often we are separated from the house of God, from the worship that we love, and which has been so precious because so helpful to us, and we yearn for restoration to our privileges. Or it may be the yearning of the heart for spiritual joy, for delight in worship, for the kindling inspiration, the answering voice, the holy rapture which once we knew but now do not, though all the outward service is still ours. Or it may be the longing of the holy soul for Gods heaven, that presence of God in which there is fulness of joy and of which sometimes in our holiest hours we have visions and foretastes. Thus in different experiences and moods we make these precious words our own. But to the psalmist they told–
I. Of his strong desire for restoration to the public worship of God. It is of the very essence of the religious heart that it should yearn for God. Let a mans religious life be full and fervent, and the use of what are termed the means of grace may be safely left to the instincts of his own soul. But does not every pious heart sympathize with Davids delight in the house of the Lord? Who of us has not realized there a fuller and more fervent feeling of His presence than anywhere else? Who of us neglects or disparages Gods house without coldness and dulness creeping over our whole devotional life? Its services are the festivals of our piety, it is the place where His honour dwelleth. But the psalmist speaks of worship before Gods altar. Why the altar rather than the mercy-seat? It is not enough to say that he spake the language of his dispensation, which was one in which sacrifice was prominent. Why was it so? There is but one satisfactory answer–that it was an institution prophetical and preparatory to the great sacrifice of Christ. By no satisfactory process, at least to minds like my own, can it be explained away or reduced to a mere symbol of self-sacrifice. The facts and instincts of our moral consciousness all agree to the doctrine of sacrifice as it is set forth in the Bible.
II. The psalmists superlative joy in such worship. Why have we not more joy? It is absent almost everywhere. In all churches and services, in hymns and prayers. It is because we fail of the personal character essential to it, and because we think hard and false thoughts of God. (H. Allen, D. D.)
The altar of God
The devotional spirit is the life of religion; and there never was a man of piety who was not a man of prayer. The text opens to us two important views.
I. The peculiar nature of that worship which God has authorized. It is going to the altar of God. We ought all to be aware that there is a peculiarity in the worship which God authorizes. There is–
1. The recognition of our sin. When man was innocent he needed no atonement. There was no altar in Paradise. But now we need one.
2. Our first liability to punishment is acknowledged.
3. And that God is propitious through the atonement He has appointed. A mere sacrifice is not sufficient, for it might have been a human invention merely. But this God has appointed. Atonement is for the penitent (cf. 2Ch 6:29-31).
II. The emphatic description which is given of the joy of it.
God, my exceeding joy. This joy arises from–
1. Our being placed in the presence of a Being of infinite glory and perfection. It supposes reconciliation with God.
2. Because this worship enables us to appropriate this display of glory to ourselves. David speaks of My God.
3. It is the joy of confidence.
4. And in going to the altar of God we have the renewed assurances of His favour.
5. And there is the joy of life. (R. Watson.)
The believer going to God as his exceeding joy
Especially does he thus come to God in the holy ordinance of the Lords Supper, which was called by the ancients the Eucharist or Sacrifice of Praise. Now–
I. In this ordinance there are to the sincere Christian many sources of joy.
1. The fullest assurance and the clearest evidence of the forgiveness of sins.
2. The strongest and most illustrious proof of Divine love.
3. The fullest assurance of receiving from God all that is necessary for comfort and happiness while in this world, and that both for spiritual and temporal life.
4. A pledge and earnest of heaven.
II. Practical improvement of this subject. See–
1. How great is Gods goodness in providing for us now so rich entertainment.
2. What joy and consolation there are here be the fearful and doubting Christian.
3. And, indeed, to all without exception, because here we see that God is in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. (J. Witherspoon.)
God, my exceeding joy
I. Cheerfulness is health and duty (Pro 17:22; Neh 8:10; Isa 64:5). It is our duty as Christians to rise to
What nothing earthly gives, nor can destroy
The souls calm sunshine and her heartfelt joy.
II. God alone is exceeding joy. He alone lasts, He only overflows. And all this but natural to Him who is the Lord of the universe. And this exceeding joy is undisturbed by any fear of coming to an end. The bridal pair are very happy, but the thought often comes, One of us must survive the other; which, alas? But the joy of God cannot be disturbed by any calamity. And how elevated it is. For none of them that trust in Him shall be desolate.
III. There is a great difference between thinking about God and enjoying him. It is one thing to apprehend God, and another to appropriate Him. The God of experience is the God we need. (E. Paxton Hood.)
The good mans duty and blessedness
And then I shall be happy: heaven only can make me happier. Oh, if I can but get near to God and procure a smile from Him, all the world will be as nothing to me. A happy frame of mind this, to meet trouble in. Consider–
I. The good mans duty–going to God. This implies–
1. Submission as to his Sovereign.
2. Friendship so as to commune with God as to his troubles, joys, sins, fears, hopes, needs.
II. The good mans blessedness–exceeding joy in God. It exceeds all other joy.
1. In its nature. It is not earthly but spiritual and divine.
2. As to its degree. Creature joy is but little–a drop–at most, but in Gods presence is fulness of joy.
3. As to duration. It is as the house on the rock compared with that on the sand. Let us ask, What is our joy?
III. Improvement.
1. How wrong not to go to God. We are either still children of wrath, or if not there has been some sad declension from God.
2. How great our obligation to Christ.
3. Let us long for heaven. (Samuel Lavington.)
Communion with God, the Christians aim in attending Divine ordinances
I. In what manner we should attend upon Gods ordinances; in imitation of Davids example.
1. He resolved to deal with God only by the intervention of an atonement.
2. He intended not to continue an idle spectator, nor to consider himself as such, during his attendance in Gods tabernacles. Here is the market-place, where all that is truly valuable is exposed to sale by Gods authority, and may be bought without money and without price.
3. He resolved to bring somewhat with him into Gods tabernacles which he might offer upon His altar. And every Gospel worshipper, when he comes into Gods courts, ought to bring an offering with him. If you are duly affected with what He has done for you, nothing less will satisfy you than to offer yourself, and all your services, and all your talents, and all your possessions as a sacrifice of thanksgiving upon the Gospel altar.
4. tie would present his gift upon the altar, and expect the acceptance of it only in that way. When you present your supplications to God, remember that you can receive no gracious answer, whatever it is that you pray for, unless through Christ. And when you make an offering of yourself and your services to God, consider always that it is only for the sake of Christ and His atoning sacrifice that any of your offerings can be accepted.
II. What it is to go to God himself at his altar or in his ordinances.
1. A cheerful and ready forsaking of all sin. Our degree of intimacy with God in ordinances will always bear a proportion to our diligence and success in cleansing ourselves from sin.
2. A turning of our back upon the world and leaving it behind us. We must go to heaven, not by any local motion, but by an elevation of our hearts, affections and desires above the vanities of a present world; and setting them upon the things that are above, where Christ is at the right hand of God.
3. A believing acceptance of God Himself as the persons everlasting and all-satisfying portion upon the footing of His own gracious grant and promise. In that wonderful declaration, I am the Lord thy God, so often repeated, God makes over Himself to us; as a portion, in the enjoyment of which we may be supremely blessed, even through an endless eternity.
4. An offering up to God all our desires in a way of fervent supplication.
5. A diligent searching after God, and after communion with Him in His ordinances.
6. An attendance upon God in ordinances with a view of being so much nearer to the full enjoyment of Him in the holy of holies above.
III. In what respect it is, on what grounds, that God may de called his peoples exceeding joy.
1. Why is God called His peoples joy?
(1) God is the author and the efficient cause of all the believers joy. It is one of the fruits of His Spirit dwelling in His people.
(2) God is the object of the believers joy.
2. Why the believers joy in God has the epithet exceeding.
(1) It exceeds all the joy that arises from the possession of any other, or of all other objects. All other objects are but the works of His hands. Therefore, that joy of which He is the object exceeds all that arises from other things, as far as the Creator is superior to the creature.
(2) It exceeds all the grief, heaviness and sorrow incident to the child of God through the manifold trials and miseries of all this life.
IV. Inferences.
1. All attendance upon Divine ordinances must be fruitless and unprofitable when persons are not concerned to come to Christ in ordinances.
2. No person comes really and acceptably to Christ who comes not, at the same time, unto God through Him.
3. In vain will any person attempt to come unto God, any otherwise than through Jesus Christ.
4. In this text we may see who among us shall be acceptable worshippers in Gods tabernacles; and particularly who will be welcome guests at His holy table to-day.
God our exceeding joy
God is the exceeding joy of the godly man.
1. As the immutable source of his supreme satisfaction. Let a man possess the favour of Him in whose presence there is fulness of joy, and he needs no more. Our lesser sources of satisfaction may be destroyed, but our greatest can neither perish nor change by the influence of evil.
2. As a perpetual supply of good which he may always appropriate. As the objects which constitute the materials of earthly happiness are all external, consequently they, as well as the happiness they create, are alike subject to change and decay. But they who rejoice in God have that redundant spring whose waters fail not. External sources of comfort may be dried up, like the prophets book, but the inward solacements of piety remain.
3. As the wise controller of all worldly events. It is on this ground that the believer can maintain his serenity of mind amidst outward causes of perturbation. Amidst all his trials he is well assured that God has attached an ultimate design of mercy to every sorrow. He can generally perceive that design, even if he cannot understand its full extent of good. In some cases it comes to prove and exhibit the excellency of his principles, the beauty of confiding faith, and the power of quiet meekness. In other instances it is to correct the evils of his heart, wean him from earth, and stimulate him to seek all his joys at Gods right hand.
4. As that Being who will eventually recompense the trials and sorrows of His people with eternal joy. Here the Christian is but a pilgrim through the wilderness preceding that promised good land, of which he gets but few and scanty gleams. Here, he has the flower of hope; there, God will give him the fruit of perfect joy. The largest desires of the soul shall hereafter be amply satisfied. The spirit, freed from all the sorrows, sins, and imperfections of this world, shall find perfect purity its element, and shall reflect the happiness of God for ever, as jewels the rays of sparkling light. (James Foster.)
God–the saints exceeding joy.
It is observable that, in the courts of kings, children and common people are much taken with pictures and rich shows, and feed their fancies with the sight of rich hangings and fine things; but the grave statesman passeth by such things as not worthy taking notice of–his business is with the king. Thus it is that in this world most men stay in the outer rooms and admire the low things of the world, and look upon them as pieces of much excellence; but the spiritually minded man looketh over all these things that are here below–his business is with God. (J. Spencer.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 4. Then will I go unto the altar] When thy light – a favourable turn on our affairs, leads us to the land of our fathers, and thy truth – the fulfillment of thy gracious promises, has placed us again at the door of thy tabernacles, then will we go to thy altar, and joyfully offer those sacrifices and offerings which thy law requires, and rejoice in thee with exceeding great joy.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Then will I go unto the altar of God, to offer sacrifices of thanksgiving for my deliverance.
My exceeding joy; the principal author and matter of all my joy and comfort.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. the altaras the chiefplace of worship. The mention of the harp suggests the prominence ofpraise in his offering.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then will I go unto the altar of God,…. Which was in the tabernacle, either of burnt offerings, or of incense, there to offer up the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving for mercies received. The altar under the Gospel dispensation is Christ, on which such sacrifices being offered, are acceptable to God, Heb 13:10;
unto God my exceeding joy; as over the mercy seat, upon a throne of grace, and as his covenant God; or this is exegetical of the altar, which is Christ, God over all, blessed for ever; and who is the object of the unspeakable joy of his people, in his person, righteousness, and salvation;
yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God, my God: the harp is a musical instrument, used in that part of public worship which concerned the praise of God under the former dispensation, and was typical of that spiritual melody made in the hearts of God’s people when they sing his praise, see Re 5:8.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The poet, in anticipation, revels in the thought of that which he has prayed for, and calls upon his timorous soul to hope confidently for it. The cohortatives in Psa 43:4 are, as in Ps 39:14 and frequently, an apodosis to the petition. The poet knows no joy like that which proceeds from God, and the joy which proceeds from Him he accounts as the very highest; hence he calls God , and therefore he knows no higher aim for his longing than again to be where the fountainhead of this exultant joy is (Hos 9:5), and where it flows forth in streams (Psa 36:9). Removed back thither, he will give thanks to Him with the cithern ( Beth instrum.). He calls Him , an expression which, in the Elohim-Psalms, is equivalent to in the Jahve-Psalms. The hope expressed in Psa 43:4 casts its rays into the prayer in Psa 43:3. In Psa 43:5, the spirit having taken courage in God, holds this picture drawn by hope before the distressed soul, that she may therewith comfort herself. Instead of wthmy, Psa 42:6, the expression here used, as in Ps 42:12, is . Variations like these are not opposed to a unity of authorship.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
4. And I will go to the altar of God. Here he promises to God a solemn sacrifice, in commemoration of the deliverance which he should obtain from him; for he speaks not only of the daily or ordinary service, but in making mention of the altar on which it was customary to offer the peace-offerings, he expresses the token of gratitude and thanksgiving of which I have spoken. For this reason, also, he calls God the God of his joy, because, being delivered from sorrow, and restored to a state of joy, he resolves to acknowledge openly so great a benefit. And he calls him the joy of his rejoicing, that he may the more illustriously set forth the grace of his deliverance. The second word in the genitive is added by way of an epithet, and by it he signifies that his heart had been filled with joy of no common kind, when God restored him, contrary to the expectation of all. As to the fifth verse, I have already treated of it sufficiently in the preceding psalm, and therefore deem it superfluous to speak of it here.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(4) God my God.An expression used in this collection instead of the more usual Jehovah my God. (Comp. Psa. 45:7, and for its import see General Introduction, and Psa. 50:7, Note.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. Then will I go unto the altar “Then,” is emphatic. When God’s “light and truth,” which he shall “send forth” with authority, shall have executed the divine plan of judgment and mercy, “then” he would go “unto the altar of God,” his “exceeding joy.” And then shall the righteous rejoice and lift up their heads. Here is the hope of the Church. The last verse closes with the same sad yet hopeful refrain as Psa 42:5; Psa 42:11.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘These things I remember,
And pour out my soul upon me,
How I was wont to go regularly with the throng,
And walked in procession with them to the house of God,
With the voice of joy and praise,
A festive crowd keeping holyday.’
The idea here is not that he just remembers the joys of the past, but that he speaks to himself and makes it quite clear to himself. His soul, as it were, speaks to his inner heart. And he brings home to himself the joy of his regular experiences at the three great feasts of Israel, when he had regularly gone with the crowd of worshippers and had walked in procession with them to the House of God, crying out with joy and praise. It was a festive crowd keeping holyday. It is this very thought, with its confidence and certainty in the power and goodness of God, which now causes him to lift himself up. Should a man who has a God like he has mope? With a God like Israel’s, past blessings are a guarantee of future glory.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Psa 43:4. My exceeding joy Or, as it is literally translated in the Margin of our Bibles, The gladness of my joy; i.e. The great author of all the joy that I have.
REFLECTIONS.We have here,
1. David’s appeal and prayer to God. Though in God’s sight he would cry, Enter not into judgment; yet, with respect to his enemies, he desired nothing more than to be tried at the bar of God; where his innocence would certainly engage him for his advocate against the ungodly nation of Israel, and his unnatural son.
2. Under the most discouraging circumstances, he professes his fixed dependance on divine support: his foolish reason could hardly be reconciled to his oppressed situation, and his unbelieving fears were ready to prevail; but he cleaves to God, as the God of his strength; and if so, Omnipotence was his guard.
3. He prays for God’s guidance and direction, his light of divine teaching, and his truth in the revealed word, to lead him safe through all his difficulties and dark providences, and once more to bring him back to that happy hill and blest abode, where God’s honour dwelled.
4. He promises hereupon to compass God’s altar; and his voice, like his harp in tune, should utter grateful sacrifices of praise to him; my God, he says, my covenant God, whom I have ever found gracious, good, and true, and my exceeding joy; joy too big for utterance, and which time is too short to tell. Note; (1.) We have an altar that it becomes us ever to approach with joy, remembering the sacrifice which Jesus hath offered, and the inestimable blessings we receive thereby. (2.) When we can say, my God, we shall be able ever to add, my joy, my exceeding joy; since, compared with him and his love, we shall rejoice in other things as though we rejoiced not.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 43:4 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.
Ver. 4. Then will I go unto the altar of God ] Not without store of sacrifices. God’s service is now nothing so costly; and should, therefore, be more cheerfully performed. Heathens had their altars, &c., all save the Persians.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
GOD. Hebrew El. App-4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Then: Psa 66:13-15, Psa 116:12-19
my exceeding joy: Heb. the gladness of my joy, Psa 71:23, Isa 61:10, Hab 3:17, Hab 3:18, Rom 5:11
upon: Psa 57:8, Psa 71:22, Psa 81:2, 2Sa 6:5, Rev 5:8
O God: Psa 42:6
Reciprocal: 1Sa 1:8 – am not 2Sa 15:25 – he will bring Job 27:10 – delight Psa 4:7 – put Psa 7:1 – O Psa 9:2 – I will be Psa 13:5 – my heart Psa 15:1 – holy Psa 25:5 – Lead Psa 26:6 – so will Psa 27:6 – therefore Psa 37:4 – Delight Psa 63:5 – with joyful Psa 68:3 – exceedingly rejoice Psa 73:25 – Whom Psa 84:10 – For Psa 89:26 – God Psa 91:2 – my God Son 7:12 – there will I give thee Joe 1:16 – joy Joh 17:13 – that Joh 20:17 – your God Eph 3:19 – that ye Rev 14:2 – harpers
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
43:4 Then {d} 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.
(d) He promises to offer a solemn sacrifice of thanksgiving in token of his great deliverance.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
2. Promise to praise 43:4
If God would bring him back to Jerusalem, he vowed to praise God publicly in the sanctuary.