Ps. xliii. 3, 4. 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.
IT is supposed that David wrote both this and the preceding psalm when he was driven from Jerusalem by his rebellious son, Absalom. After briefly calling on God to judge between him and his blood-thirsty enemies, he here shews, that the being separated from divine ordinances was to him the heaviest part of his affliction. True, indeed, his faithful servants, Zadok and Abiathar, had brought him the ark ; but that he sent back again to its wonted residence^; for to have the symbol of the Deity without his actual presence and favour, would afford him little consolation or benefit. To enjoy God in his ordinances, was his supreme delight. And hence he implores of God to " send forth his light and his truth," to conduct him back to them ; for who but God could devise a way for his return ? or what had he to depend upon in this hour of his extremity, but the promise and pro- tection of God himself? In the event of his being restored to God's tabernacles, he determined that he would go with more delight than ever " to the altar of his God, even to God himself, who was his exceeding
^ 2 Sam. XV. 25.