Psalms 42:5

In this refrain the truer -self" chides the weaker -soul," the emotional nature, for its despondency and complaint.

cast down Bowed down as a mourner. Cp. Psalms 35:14; Psalms 38:6.

The resemblance of our Lord's words in Gethsemane (Matthew 26:38; Mark 14:34) to the Sept. rendering of this verse, Why art thou exceeding sorrowful, O my soul?(ἵνα τί περίλυπος εἶ, ἡ ψυχή ;) suggests that this Psalm may have been in His mind at the time; the more so as He appears to use the words of Psalms 42:6, which the Sept. renders, My soul is troubled(ἡ ψυχή μου ἑταράχθη), in a similar connexion upon another occasion (John 12:27). In view of this it is interesting to remember that the hart is a common emblem for our Lord in Christian art.

disquieted in me Lit. moanest, or frettest upon me, the same idiom as in Psalms 42:4. Cp. Psalms 77:3; Jeremiah 4:19.

hope thou in God Or, wait thou for God. Cp. Psalms 38:15; Psalms 39:7; Micah 7:7.

praise him Or, give him thanks, as in past time (Psalms 42:4).

for the help of his countenance This is the reading of the Massoretic Text. But the construction is peculiar, and the LXX and Syr. suggest that we ought to read here as in Psalms 42:11, and Psalms 43:5, (Who is) the help of my countenance and my God. But O my Godshould be retained at the beginning of Psalms 42:6, where it is needed [22]. The help(lit. salvations, the plur. denoting manifold and great deliverances, as in Psalms 28:8) of my countenanceis a periphrasis for my help, facilitated by phrases like to look uponor turn away the faceof a person (Psalms 84:9; Psalms 132:10).

[22] The error arose very simply from the transference of the ו from the beginning of ואלהי to the end of מני, so that מני ואלהי became מניו אלהי. Then אלהי was assumed to be merely an accidental repetition of אלהי at the beginning of Psalms 42:6, and dropped out.