Psalms 42:1-11
1 As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?
3 My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
4 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday.
5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.
6 O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hilla Mizar.
7 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
8 Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.
9 I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
10 As with a swordb in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?
11 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.
THE PSALMS
BOOK THE SECOND
Psalms 42, 43
DESCRIPTIVE TITLE
A Debarred Worshipper Mastering his Sorrow.
ANALYSIS
Stanza I., Psalms 42:1-5, A Debarred Worshipper, Nursing his Grief, nevertheless Strives to Rise Above it. Stanza II., Psalms 42:6-11, Deeply Feeling his Personal Condition, the Sufferer Encourages Himself by Recalling a Past Deliverance, and begins to Pray Hopefully, though Sorely Dismayed by Outward Troubles. Stanza III. (43), Psalms 42:1-5, Looking his Public Troubles in the Face, the Psalmist Prays for a Triumphant Deliverance.
(Lm.) An Instructive Psalm.
1
As a hind cometh longing up to channels of water
so my soul longeth for thee O God!
2
Athirst is my soul for Godfor a GOD who liveth,
when shall I enter in and see[453] the face of God?
[453] So it shd. beG, Intro., 458; and so it is in some cod. (w. 1 ear. Pr. edn., Aram., Syr.)Gn. It is probable that in the original it was -see the face of Yahweh-'Br.
3
My tears have served me for food day and night,
through its being said unto me all the dayWhere is thy God?
4
These things would I fain remember and pour out upon my my soul
how I used to pass over in a throng
used to lead them in procession unto the house of God,
with the sound of jubilation[454] and thanksgiving
[454] Or: of a ringing cry.
a crowd keeping festival!
5
Why shouldst thou despair O my soul and groan upon me?
Wait thou for God, for yet shall I thank him,
as the great salvation[455] of my[456] person[457] and my God.[458]
[455] Pr. intensive.
[456] M.T.: hisclearly in error for my: cp. Psalms 42:11 and Psalms 43:5.
[457] So O.G. 447a. Or: the health of my countenance; or: the victory of my presence. The same alternatives apply to Psalms 42:11 and Psalms 43:5.
[458] Should probably be addedDr. To the same effectDel.
6
Over myself[459] my soul keeps despairing[460] therefore will I remember thee,[461]
[459] Stands emphatically at the beginning of the sentence.Kp., Del.
[460] Frequentative. Is cast down blunts the point.
[461] That is, what I learned of thee.
from the land of Jordan and the Hermonsfrom Mount Mizar,
7
Deep unto deep calling out to the sound of thy waterfalls:
all thy breakers and thy billows over one passed.
8
By day may Jehovah command his kindness and by night his song,
with me a prayer to the God of my life.[462]
[462] Specially fitting, if the writer was thinking of an occasion when God saved his life. Some cod. however read: to a living GodGn.
9
I would fain say to GodO my Cliff! wherefore hast thou forgotten me?
wherefore should I gloomily walk through the oppression of an enemy?
10
Like[463] a shattering in my bones have mine adversaries reproached me,
[463] So some cod. M.T.: beth, With the effect of; or At the cost ofO.G. 90a, 3.
through their saying unto me all the day, Where is thy God?
11
Why shouldest thou despair O my soul and why groan upon me?
Wait thou for God, for yet shall I thank him,
as the great salvation[464] of my person and my God.
[464] Cp. Psalms 42:5.
(Nm.)
PARAPHRASE
As the deer pants for water, so I long for You, O God.
2
I thirst for God, the living God. Where can I find Him to come and stand before Him?
3
Day and night I weep for His help, and all the while my enemies taunt me. Where is this God of yours? they scoff.
4, 5 Take courage, my soul! Do you remember those times (but how could you ever forget them!) when you led a great procession to the Temple on festival days, singing with joy, praising the Lord? Why then be downcast? Why be discouraged and sad? Hope in God! I shall yet praise Him again! Yes, I shall again praise Him for His help.[465]
[465] Literally, for the help of His countenance.
6
Yet I am standing here depressed and gloomy; but I will meditate upon Your kindness to this lovely land where the Jordan River flows and where Mount Hermon and Mount Mizar stand.
7
All your waves and billows have gone over me, and floods of sorrow pour upon me like a thundering cataract.[466]
[466] Literally, deep calls to deep at the noise of Your waterfalls.
8
Yet day by day the Lord also pours out His steadfast love upon me, and through the night I sing His songs and pray to God who gives me life.
9
O God my Rock, I cry, why have You forsaken me? Why must I suffer these attacks from my enemies?
10
Their taunts pierce me like a fatal wound; again and again they scoff, Where is that God of yours?
11
But O my soul, don-'t be discouraged! Don-'t be upset! Expect God to act! For I know that I shall again have plenty of reason to praise Him for all that He will do! He is my help! He is my God!
(Nm.)
1
Vindicate me O God and plead my cause against a nation without kindness,
from a man of deceit and perversity wilt thou deliver me!
2
For thou art my protecting God[467] wherefore hast thou rejected me?
[467] Ml.: My God of stronghold.
wherefore should I gloomily wander[468] through the oppression of an enemy?
[468] Or: march to and fro. Go mourningDel. Why go I about in dark attireDr.
3
Send forth thy light and faithfulnesslet them lead me,
let them bring me into thy holy mountain[469] and unto thy habitations!
[469] Cp. 2 Chronicles 3:1; 2 Chronicles 33:15, Isaiah 30:29, Jeremiah 26:18, Micah 3:12.
4
So would I enter in unto the altar of Godunto the God who gladden my youth,[470]
[470] So the Sep.a beautiful and suggestive reading.
so will I thank thee with a lyre Jehovah[471] my God!
[471] So Sep., preferred by Kp. and others.
5
Why shouldst thou despair O my soul and why groan upon me?
Wait thou for God, for yet shall I thank him,
as the great salvation[472] of my person and my God.
[472] Cp. Psalms 42:5.
(Lm.) To the Chief Musician.
(CMm.) For the sons of korah = the patriarchs of song.
Cp. Intro., Chap. II., 3.
PARAPHRASE
O God, defend me from the charges of these merciless, deceitful men.
2
For You are God, my only place of refuge. Why have You tossed me aside? Why must I mourn at the oppression of my enemies?
3
Oh, send out Your light and Your truthlet them lead me. Let them lead me to Your Temple on Your holy mountain, Zion.
4
There I will go to the altar of God my exceeding joy, and praise Him with my harp. O Godmy God!
5
O my soul, why be so gloomy and discouraged? Trust in God! I shall again praise Him for His wondrous help; he will make me smile again,[473] for He is my God!
[473] Literally, He is the help of my countenance.
EXPOSITION
The crowning feature of this (double) psalm is its lofty and intense spirituality: A soul athirst for God; moved by strong desire for fellowship with Godto be conscious of his nearness, to be face to face with him; assured that such a realisation will be as satisfying as for a thirsty animal to drink of the cooling stream.
The next thing noticeable in this (double) psalm, is the beauty of its formin three stanzas, each with a refrain repeated in identical words; and easily detected when this structure is observed, a gradual advance from sheer sorrow, to circumspect petition, and then to bold entreaty.
Perhaps the third thing to arrest our attention is, the psychological wonder of a Sufferer striving to master his sorrow and to rise above it.
Probably the surest way to observe these three leading features with interest and profit is to institute an investigation into the probable authorship of the psalm.
David has been thought of: though we are no longer under any obligation to presuppose that he wrote it, inasmuch as this psalm is really an orphan psalm, since undoubtedly the sons of korah were singers, or a class of singers, and not authors. Nevertheless, it is an interesting fact, that David has been regarded as the probable writer of this pathetic composition; several circumstances combining to give this hypothesis an air of probabilitychiefly his intense love for the worship of Jehovah's house in Jerusalem, and his flight from the holy city on occasion of Absalom's rebellion. That David crossed over the Jordan, and then turned north, ascending the high lands of Gilead as far as Mahanaim, and so came into full view of Mount Hermon on the north is another circumstance rather favourable to this conclusion. The objections to this view are: first, That, even so, David did not go far enough north to get among the waterfalls of the Upper Jordan; and, second, That he was surrounded by faithful friends, all the time, and not by enemies who would keep mocking him with the taunt, Where is thy God?to which we may add, third, That, formidable as was Absalom's rebellion, David would scarcely refer to it as the oppression of an enemy. These considerations preclude our deciding for David. Some would add, that the very absence of David's name from the head of the psalm should, among other reasons, count for something, why David could not have penned this psalm,seeing the many evidences of care to place his name wherever it had any right to stand.
Under these circumstances, some have thought of an unknown Levite as author, on account of the memory, so vividly preserved by the writer, of having headed processions to the Temple in happier days. This conjecture has little else to support it; and, in Short, it can scarcely be said that any Levite occupied so important and central a position as this psalm requires. The desperate suggestion that this psalm may have been written by King Jehbiachin on his way to Babylon, may safely be dismissed; since the writer, at any rate, hoped soon to return to the holy city; and we must not go out of our way to court failure for the hope of the psalm.
It is time to say: That for no man, as author of this psalm, can such numerous and strong reasons be advanced as for King Hezekiah, notwithstanding one or two apparent reasons to the contrary. Let us look at the reasons for and against.
In favour of this conclusion the following weighty reasons may be alleged:First, the writer appears to be suffering from two chief causes: one personal to himself, and one of a more public character. He is apparently suffering from some personal disease, which amounts to a disfigurement of his face or disablement of his person. Hence the force of his description of God as the health of his countenance; or the salvation of his person, or the triumph of his presence. And then there is an enemy, under whose oppression he has to groan, whose taunts he has to bear. Now the significant thing is: That in Hezekiah both these causes of suffering met: He was struck for death with leprosy, and the Assyrian army was at the gate of Jerusalem:the Assyrian, a mighty and oppressive nation indeedwell answering to the description, A nation without kindness, whose foul-mouthed representative the villain Rabshakeh was, who mercilessly hurled his taunts against Hezekiah, and deceitfully perverted facts to degrade Hezekiah in the eyes of his own people. To these leading reasons in favour of the authorship of Hezekiah, there are several others to be added: Such as his tearsmentioned here, and mentioned in the history; his lyreof which also we read both here and in the history; his enthusiastic participation in the worship of the Temple, in reference to which it may safely be said that the very word in the 4th verse (of Psalms 42) passed over or crossed over is exquisitely adapted to describe the king's procession from the Royal Palace to the Temple, since there was a splendid viaduct connecting the two. It is extremely unlikely that such a combination of reasons for any other author can be found.
The one objection that may be urged can easily be obviated. The writer, it may be said, was not merely a debarred worshipper but a banished worshipper; since he prays to be led back into the holy mountain, proving that he was away from Jerusalem. Standing alone, that objection might have been plausible, though not conclusive; seeing that the language is perfectly consistent with mere enforced banishment from Mount Moriahthe mountain of the house (Cp. 2 Chronicles 3:1; 2 Chronicles 35:15, Isaiah 2:2; Isaiah 30:29, Jeremiah 26:18, Micah 3:12), and we know that Hezekiah regarded it as an ascent to visit Jehovah's temple (Isaiah 38:22). From that holy place, while his plague was upon him, he was debarred. Perhaps a still stronger objection to the claims of Hezekiah to be regarded as the author of this psalm, will be framed upon the assumption that the writer was far away from Jerusalem when he penned itthat, in fact, he was still among the waterfalls of the upper Jordan. But this assumption is quite to mistake that allusionquite to lose grip of the fact that that allusion was a memory; a memory not recalled while he was in the north, but a memory of a thrilling experience which befell him when he was in the north. To be sure of this, we have only to adhere to an accurate rendering of Psalms 42:6: Over myselfover my own deplorable bodily condition, my soul keeps despairingkeeps falling into fits of despondency: thereforebecause of this, that I may repress altogether this tendency to hopelessness, I will rememberI will recall an incident which befell me when I was a young man visiting the Upper Jordan: I will remember theein thy -marvellous kindness-' which was then -made wonderful to me-' by rescuing me from drowning in the rapids of the Upper Jordan. A storm came on; the waters, rolling down the mountain sides, caused a -spate-'; the waterfalls were roused to activity; the lakes into which their waters descended answered to each other, deep calling unto deep. I was in personal peril, all thy breakers and thy billows passed over meall seemed lost, when I found myself landed on a cliff; the flood that engulfed me, saved me, it carried me to a safe spotmy feet were on a rock: the waters abated, and I was saved! Yea, O my Cliff, O thou God of my life, the gladdener of my youthful days,thus will I remember thee, and fortify myself against these fits of despondency. The beauty of the poet's picturesque reference can with difficulty be suppressed, however slovenly the translator'S-' rendering, however dull the expositor's imagination. Nevertheless, it may perhaps be remarked, without presumption, that, for lack of a correct historical point of observation, the psalmist's graphic allusion has been deplorably enfeebled. The words have been inexactly rendered; the incident has been represented as part fact and part figure, to the enfeebling of both, instead of being first taken as a connected whole in its literal completeness, and then employed as a whole in its metaphorical application to the sufferer's now present bodily conditionas by no means excluding hope; the preposition mem, from, has been assumed to bind the writer to be at the Jordan when he remembers, instead of leaving him free afterwards to recall the incidents from the Jordan: and thus, in fine, one of the most beautiful things in the Psalms has dwindled into very small dimensions indeed, and become unavailable for any practical purpose. Whereas, on the other hand, the treating of the whole thing as a memory, throws into delightful vividness both the singular designation of Jehovah as the writer's Cliff, and the peculiarly touching allusion to Jehovah as the gladdener of his youth. And thus, in fact, we are getting back not only Heze-kiah's name into the authorship of the Psalms; but, as a consequence, we are recovering precious snatches of his autobiography.
Thus refreshed by our study, let us turn back again and make the first thing noticed, also the last thing to abide in our hearts. This we may do by the trite observation that we do not thirst for things of which we have no knowledge. To thirst for God as a living God, we must first know him to be such; and know the incomparable satisfaction to be thence derived. Hezekiah knew the living God of Israel: he had seen his faceonly figuratively, representatively, adumbratively, it may be. But there was divine reality in it. The cloud of glory was therebehind the veil: the fire consumed the sacrifices: the Urim and Thummim gave responses: the prophets brought messages. The character of God gave the soul perfect satisfactionhis might gave protectionhis promises imparted hopehis pardon inspired love. These things, Hezekiah had known and enjoyed; and, though for the present there was a hiding of Jehovah's face, the memory of the brightness and blessedness of its revelation was not lost. What he had once enjoyed he desired to enjoy againdesired with an intensity of desire and keen sense of need which only the figure of thirst could represent. We, too, must know God in order to thirst for him. May the blessed sense of nearness to him abide with us in all the freshness and force of the fuller revelation of himself which he has made in Christ Jesus our Lord!
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1.
Do you agree with the reasons of Rotherham for rejecting David as the author of this psalm? Discuss.
2.
Discuss the arguments in favor of attributing this psalm to Hezekiah. (It would seem that Hezekiah is the master-organizer of many psalmswhy is Rotherham so strong in this preference?)
3.
Whoever wrote this psalm, his deep desire for God is a marvelous example for us. This is in a special way a psalm for all sometimes apathetic Christians. Read verses one through five for the attitude that will return us to our first love.
4.
Suppose at sometime in our experience we were prevented from assemblingwe were physically hindered from holding religious serviceswould the words of the psalmist in Psalms 42:4-5 relate to us? Discuss.
5.
What is your estimate of Rotherham's interpretation of Psalms 42:6-7 as that of: I will recall an incident which befell me when I was a young man visiting the upper Jordan.? Discuss.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1.
Why are these two psalms here inseparably considered?
2.
What were the charges made against the psalmist by the merciless deceitful men?
3.
In what sense has God ever tossed anyone aside?
4.
How can the highly figurative language of send forth thy light and faithfulnesshave any bearing on our needs? Discuss.