Psalms 42:1-11

Psalms 42

This Psalm contains a prescription for a downcast soul, consisting of three ingredients.

I. The first is inquiry: " Whyart thou cast down?" Religious despondency must have a cause; and if we can discover it in any case, the old proverb holds good that a knowledge of the disease is half its cure.

II. The second ingredient of the prescription is remembrance: (1) the Psalmist's remembrance of his own experience and (2) his remembrance of God's gracious dealings with others.

III. The third ingredient is hope: "Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise Him." (1) The hope is to be in God.(2) The downcast soul must hope in God, and not in change of circumstance. (3) Hope is a different thing from faith, while the operations of the two are nevertheless closely allied.

M. R. Vincent, Gates into the Psalm Country,p. 145.