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Psalm 43:5

Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him: my Savior, my helper, and my God.

3Oh, send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy hill, to your tents.
4Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my exceeding joy. I will praise you on the harp, God, my God.
5Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him: my Savior, my helper, and my God.
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Notice

The command to hope comes from someone still questioning his own despair, so the promise of praise leaves the soul’s present trouble in view.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

What would you write in response to the question, “Why are you disturbed within me?”

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What does the word “still” suggest about the praise this troubled speaker expects to offer?

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Which words in “my Savior, my helper, and my God” feel easiest or hardest to say today?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

12 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.

This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
John 14:1“Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me.Both passages address inward trouble with a summons to trust God; Jesus also tells his hearers to believe in him.
Psalm 42:11Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him, the saving help of my countenance, and my God.Both repeat the same questions about despair and disturbance, followed by the command to hope in God and the expectation of praise.
Hebrews 6:19This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and entering into that which is within the veil,Both connect hope with the soul: the psalm addresses a troubled soul, and Hebrews describes hope as its sure and steadfast anchor.
Psalm 42:5Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his presence.Both question the soul’s despair in the same words and look toward praising God for his saving help.
Psalm 62:5My soul, wait in silence for God alone, for my expectation is from him.Both speakers address their own souls and direct their expectation toward God.
Psalm 131:2Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.Both describe the soul within the speaker, though Psalm 43 names disturbance and Psalm 131 describes quiet like a weaned child.
Job 11:18You will be secure, because there is hope. Yes, you will search, and will take your rest in safety.Hope appears in both passages; Psalm 43 directs it toward God, while Zophar’s speech in Job links it with security.
1 Corinthians 13:13But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.Both name hope, though the psalm commands hope in God and Corinthians names hope among what remains.
Lamentations 3:20My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me.Both describe inward distress through the soul: disturbed within the speaker in the psalm, bowed down within him in Lamentations.
Lamentations 3:24“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul. “Therefore I will hope in him.”Both connect the soul’s hope with a personal confession about God: he is the speaker’s God in the psalm and portion in Lamentations.
1 Thessalonians 5:8But since we belong to the day, let’s be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.Both connect hope with salvation: the psalm names God as Savior, while Thessalonians describes the hope of salvation as a helmet.
Genesis 49:6My soul, don’t come into their council. My glory, don’t be united to their assembly; for in their anger they killed men. In their self-will they hamstrung …Both speak to the soul: the psalm urges hope in God, while Genesis rejects joining men who killed in anger.
Where this verse fits

Feeling distant from God. grief. waiting.

What the Bible says about doubt →What the Bible says about grief →What the Bible says about patience →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Read Psalm 43:5 aloud before bed tonight

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Encouragement

You do not have to report that despair has lifted to speak these words. The speaker still names his trouble while confessing that God is his Savior and helper.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 43:5. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

Keep goingPsalm 43 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).