Psalms42
New International Version
1 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?
3 My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go to the house of God under the protection of the Mighty One with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng.
5 Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
6 My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.
8 By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me— a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?”
10 My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
11 Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
Study
Psalms 42Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Psalms 42. The full AI study guide (summary, themes, context) has its own page.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: The conflict in the soul of a believer..
vv1-5
The psalmist looked to the Lord as his chief good, and set his heart upon him accordingly; casting anchor thus at first, he rides out the storm. A gracious soul can take little satisfaction in God's courts, if it do not meet with God himself there. Living souls never can take up their rest any where short of a living God. To appear before the Lord is the desire of the upright, as it is the dread of the hypocrite. Nothing is more grievous to a gracious soul, than what is intended to shake its confidence in the Lord. It was not the remembrance of the pleasures of his court that afflicted David; but the remembrance of the free access he formerly had to God's house, and his pleasure in attending there. Those that commune much with their own hearts, will often have to chide them. See the cure of sorrow. When the soul rests on itself, it sinks; if it catches hold on the power and promise of God, the head is kept above the billows. And what is our support under present woes but this, that we shall have comfort in Him. We have great cause to mourn for sin; but being cast down springs from unbelief and a rebellious will; we should therefore strive and pray against it.
vv6-11
The way to forget our miseries, is to remember the God of our mercies. David saw troubles coming from God's wrath, and that discouraged him. But if one trouble follow hard after another, if all seem to combine for our ruin, let us remember they are all appointed and overruled by the Lord. David regards the Divine favour as the fountain of all the good he looked for. In the Saviour's name let us hope and pray. One word from him will calm every storm, and turn midnight darkness into the light of noon, the bitterest complaints into joyful praises. Our believing expectation of mercy must quicken our prayers for it. At length, is faith came off conqueror, by encouraging him to trust in the name of the Lord, and to stay himself upon his God. He adds, And my God; this thought enabled him to triumph over all his griefs and fears. Let us never think that the God of our life, and the Rock of our salvation, has forgotten us, if we have made his mercy, truth, and power, our refuge. Thus the psalmist strove against his despondency: at last his faith and hope obtained the victory. Let us learn to check all unbelieving doubts and fears. Apply the promise first to ourselves, and then plead it to God.
Key Words
נָצַח: properly, to glitter from afar, i.e. to be eminent (as a superintendent, especially of the Temple services and its music); to be permanent
מַשְׂכִּיל: instructive, i.e. a didactic poem
בֵּן: a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etc., (like father or brother), etc.)
קֹרַח: Korach, the name of two Edomites and three Israelites
אַיָּל: a stag or male deer
עָרַג: to long for
מַיִם: water; figuratively, juice; by euphemism, urine, semen
אָפִיק: properly, containing, i.e. a tube; also a bed or valley of astream; also a strong thing or a hero
נֶפֶשׁ: properly, a breathing creature, i.e. animal of (abstractly) vitality; used very widely in a literal, accommodated or figurative sense (bodily or mental)
אֱלֹהִים: gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative
Cross References
Psalms 42Identical refrain closing the twin Psalm 43, indicating they form a single literary unit.
Supported by JFB
Shares the intense, desperate metaphor of the soul thirsting for God in a dry wilderness.
Supported by JFB
Jonah quotes this exact phrase ('all thy waves and thy billows passed over me') in his distress.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Expresses the identical passionate longing of the exiled soul to appear before God in His sanctuary.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Identical Hebrew idiom and imagery of 'pouring out the soul' in overwhelming grief.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Hannah uses the same phrase to describe prayer born of deep grief and provocation.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Parallels the cruel, faith-shaking taunt of the enemy asking, 'Where is the Lord thy God?'
Supported by JFB
Parallels God giving 'songs in the night' to sustain the believer during seasons of darkness.
Supported by Matthew Henry