My apologies for this being late. We had company yesterday and our power was off several hours today.

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1 Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.

2 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?

3 O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.

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.

5 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.

The subject matter and progression of this Psalm is pretty straightforward. The Psalmist cries out to the God of his strength for deliverance and exercises faith that God will answer him.

There are a few phrases that stand out to me. One is in verse 4, where he says he will go to “God, my exceeding joy.” I don’t know if the Psalmist here is David, but this echoes David’s being a man after God’s own heart. His passion for God makes mine look so paltry. Though I love God and look to Him for protection and provision and grace and strength and everything else that is needed, times when I have thought of Him in that way have been few, the highlights of life rather than and everyday occurrence. I pray that will change.

Verse 3 also stands out: O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me. How easily we can be led astray, especially in times of need, and how greatly we need His light and truth.

And then verse 5 repeats similar thoughts from Psalm 42. That word “disquieted” really captures how we feel when something is amiss in our world. Dr. Jim Berg titled his series dealing with guilt, anxiety, anger and despair Quieting a Noisy Soul with this same idea in mind: a heart that is not at rest in the Lord is “noisy,” disquieted. This led me to look up other verses about quietness of spirit:

Isaiah 30:15: For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.

Isaiah 32:17: And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.

Psalm 131: 1-2: Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.

Psalm 107: 28-30: Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.

Psalm 1:33: But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

I Peter 3:4: But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

This “quietness” isn’t something mystical: it is the state of the soul at rest in God, fully confident that He can and will take full care of us and whatever problems might enter our lives.