Psalm 42

 To the choirmaster. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah.

1 As a deer pants for flowing streams,
   so pants my soul for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God,
   for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
3 My tears have been my food
   day and night,
while they say to me all the day long,
   “Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember,
   as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
   and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
   a multitude keeping festival.
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
   and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
   my salvation 6 and my God.
My soul is cast down within me;
   therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
   from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
   at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
   have gone over me.
8 By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
   and 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 do I go mourning
   because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10 As with a deadly wound in my bones,
   my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me all the day long,
   “Where is your God?”
11 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
   and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
   my salvation and my God.

1 As a deer pants for flowing streams,
   so pants my soul for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God,
   for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
3 My tears have been my food
   day and night,
while they say to me all the day long,
   “Where is your God?”

 “As the deer….”

It’s a famous line from the psalms, but in context it’s a cry of desperation.  The psalmist is desperate for God, but feels utterly abandoned.  He is dying of thirst, but there’s no water to drink.  “When will you show up, God?”  His tears are constant, almost like food, and the people around make his situation worse by asking, “Why doesn’t your God show up?”  (This reminds me of the taunts that Jesus hears on the Cross.)

4 These things I remember,
   as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
   and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
   a multitude keeping festival.

He remembers how he used to go to the Temple of the great festive holidays in Jerusalem, how things used to be so good and so thrilling.

5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
   and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
   my salvation 6 and my God.

And then the psalmist reminds himself that he has no reason to be in despair, that there will come a time again when he will praise God.

It’s almost as if he needs to hear himself speak words of hope out loud, since he certainly doesn’t feel hopeful.

My soul is cast down within me;
   therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
   from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
   at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
   have gone over me.

Mount Hermon is the tallest mountain in Israel, located as far north as you can go.  It is also the headwaters of the Jordan River.  The psalmist imagines the sound of the waterfalls in that land, and then imagines himself drowning in a deep ocean, with the bottomless abyss on top of another bottomless abyss.  What was a pleasant sound in his thoughts has now become the terrifying sense of being overcome by forces outside his control.

8 By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
   and 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 do I go mourning
   because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10 As with a deadly wound in my bones,
   my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me all the day long,
   “Where is your God?”
11 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
   and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
   my salvation and my God.

The psalmist knows that the Lord is with him, and yet he still feels abandoned.  And so he closes the psalm with another statement of what he knows to be true, despite appearances: that things will one day turn around and he will praise God again.

Sometimes you just have to stubbornly cling on to hope.

P.S. See below for Shane and Shane’s reworking of Psalm 42.

P.P.S. Also, see below for the video of my sermon on this psalm from April 23, 2023.