Joyous Trembling: God as My Advocate

“Judge me, Lord, and plead my cause against a nation without passion. Rescue me from those who are deceitful and wicked. You are my Lord, my stronghold.

Why have you rejected me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?

Send Your light and Your truth, let them lead me; let them bring me to the mountain of Your holy sanctuary, to the places where You dwell.

Then I will go to the altar of the Lord, to the Power, my joy and my delight. I will praise You with the lyre, O Lord, my Lord.

Why, my soul, are you downcast?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in the Lord,

for I will yet thank Him,

for He is my deliverance,

the light of my countenance,

and my Lord (Psalms 43).”

David is requesting that God judge him and plead his case! How can the Judge plead the case of the servant?

After his request, David challenges God, “Why have you rejected me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?”

David experiences the taunting of those who do not understand his passion as God not advocating for him; he feels that when God does not advocate, He is rejecting David.

David desires God’s light and truth as his guides to finding God, and he is insisting that God’s light and truth will be his advocates.

Rather than respond to the accusations of his enemies as an indication that he is mistaken in his choices, David insists that he is vulnerable because God is not pleading David’s case that all his choices are intended to find God’s light and truth.

King David sees the Judgment as an opportunity for God to vindicate him, plead for him, and allow him to discover God’s light and truth. David surely trembled when placed in judgment, but he was confident that even if he had made serious mistakes, that God would clearly see David’s intentions and desires as part of his search for closeness to God.

King David is confident that the judgment will result in his being able to see God’s light and truth and promises, “Then I will go to the altar of the Lord, to the Power, my joy and my delight. I will praise You with the lyre, O Lord, my Lord.”

Once David will experience his Joy in Trembling, he will address his soul and say, “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in the Lord, for I will yet thank Him, for He is my deliverance, the light of my countenance, and my Lord.”

This is not a Rosh Hashanah or Teshuvah of tears and mourning, but of rejoicing, a time of discovery and vindication. King David sees the judgment of Rosh Hashanah ending with God as his advocate. This is the, “Serve God with fear, and rejoice with trembling (Psalms 2:11),” of Rosh Hashanah.