Psalm 43

“Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man! For You are the God of my strength; why do You cast me off? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me; let them bring me to Your holy hill and to Your tabernacle. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy; and on the harp I will praise You, O God, my God. Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God.”  Psalm 43:1-5 (NKJV)

You never know that God is all you need until God is all you have. It is one of the great lessons of the Psalms. Just as every Christian college Freshman away from home for the first time must learn to cope with the absence of familiar things and learn to rely on God, we must fight the urge to detach ourselves from (or skip past) the loneliness of the psalmists. They are speaking to each of us. We all feel alone and forsaken at times, but here in the Psalms, you can find comfort in both the brotherhood and the hope to overcome.

How should you respond if you find yourself in a situation where you are isolated and unjustly accused? Worse, what if you find yourself JUSTLY accused before God? That’s right. What if someone is casting accusations about you to God, and you know you have no defense because their facts are correct? Not only does that happen, but it is also happening against you in the heavenly realm right at this moment!

“Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, ‘Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.’” Revelation 12:10 (NKJV)

So, if Satan is accusing us day and night, who stands to vindicate us day and night?

“My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” 1 John2:1(NKJV)

“For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle - I am speaking the truth in Christ and not lying - a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.” 1 Timothy 2:5-7 (NKJV)

Jesus paid a debt He did not owe because we owed a debt we could not pay. We find hope in the psalms and can go to the altar with “exceeding joy,” not because we will be found innocent of the accusations against us, but precisely because we are GUILTY of the accusations, yet Jesus himself has delivered us! (Zechariah 3:3-4)

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