Psalms 42 · ESV Study Bible

Why Are You Cast Down, O My Soul?

PSALM 42 [†] t As a deer pants for flowing streams,

so pants my soul for you, O God.

2 u My soul thirsts for God,

for v the living God.

When shall I come and w appear before God? [2]

3 x My tears have been my food

day and night,

y while they say to me all the day long,

“Where is your God?”

4 These things I remember,

as I z pour out my soul:

a how I would go b with the throng

and lead them in procession to the house of God

with glad shouts and songs of praise,

c a multitude keeping festival.

5 d Why are you cast down, O my soul,

and why are you e in turmoil within me?

f Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,

my salvation [3] 6[†]and my God.

My soul is cast down within me;

therefore I g remember you

h from the land of Jordan and of i Hermon,

from Mount Mizar.

7[^][†] Deep calls to deep

at the roar of your waterfalls;

j all your breakers and your k waves

have gone over me.

8 By day the LORD l commands his steadfast love,

and at m night his song is with me,

a prayer to the God of my life.

9 I say to God, n my rock:

“Why have you forgotten me?

o 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,

p while they say to me all the day long,

“Where is your God?”

11 q 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.

PSALM—NOTE ON 42–43. While each of these psalms can be taken separately, Psalms 42–43 go well together as a song with three stanzas: they share a refrain (42:5, 11; 43:5); 43:2 is almost the same as 42:9; and they both express the longing to return to God’s presence in the sanctuary (42:2; 43:3–4). In these psalms the singer laments his circumstances (connected with enemies who despise God and oppress his faithful servants), which keep him from attending worship at the central sanctuary. Singing this in corporate worship would especially foster a sense of yearning and expectation in the faithful, so that they would learn to attend worship looking for God’s presence, to mourn any circumstances that prevent them from attendance, and to count their attendance at worship as a great gift from God (certainly not a burdensome duty!). Other psalms that express yearning for God include Psalms 63 and 84.

PSALM—NOTE ON 42:6–11 Has God Forgotten Me? The second stanza sharpens the description of the singer’s situation. He is in the land of Jordan and of Hermon, and near the otherwise unknown Mount Mizar; this would probably locate him north of the Sea of Galilee (at the source of the Jordan River)—but at any rate he is far from Jerusalem, where the sanctuary is. He knows that God is not literally absent (v. 6), but he also feels that the sanctuary is where he meets God most fully; hence his separation has left his soul cast down within him (v. 6), because he wonders why God has forgotten him (v. 9). This stanza ends, like the first, with self-encouragement.

PSALM—NOTE ON 42:7 This verse uses two images of unruly water, perhaps to contrast with the “flowing streams” of v. 1: the first portrays two waterfalls plunging into a valley, calling to one another with a roar, while the second portrays the raging sea, in which one might drown (Jonah 2:3).

PSALM—NOTE ON 42:1–5 My Soul Pants for God. The song begins with a poignant expression of longing for God himself, using the image of thirst: As a deer pants for flowing streams. For the pious, the answer to this longing comes in public worship; this is clear from the phrase appear before God (i.e., at the sanctuary; cf. Ex. 23:17), and from Ps. 42:4, which recollects the former participation in sanctuary worship. The singer represents himself as separated from this worship and subject to taunts from those who despise his faith. The singer closes the stanza by encouraging himself that God will return him to worship. (Observe that the first words of v. 6, “and my God,” belong with the refrain.)