Psalms 42

Psalms 42:1

Desert Fathers: Poemen said, ‘It is written, “Like as the hart longs for the waterbrooks, so longs my soul for you, O my God” (Ps. 42:1). Indeed, the harts in the desert eat many snakes and when their venom makes them burn with thirst they come to the waters to assuage their burning thirst. It is the same for monks: in the desert, they are burned by the poison of the demons and they long for Saturday and Sunday to come so that they can go to the springs of water, that is, to the Body and Blood of the Lord, to be purified from the poison of the evil ones.’ — The Desert Fathers, Sayings of the Early Christian Monks

Theodoret of Cyrus: I am longing and thirsting for the worship of my living God, he is saying. “To see the face of God” means worshiping him according to the Law, and such worship was confined to Jerusalem.… very appropriately do they name God “strong and living” as they take note of the lifeless and immobile idols of the Babylonians. — COMMENTARY ON THE Psalms 42:2

Psalms 42:2

Augustine of Hippo: “My soul is thirsty for the living God” [Psalms 42:2]. What I am saying, that “as the hart pants after the water-brooks, so longs my soul after You, O God,” means this, “My soul is thirsty for the living God.” For what is it thirsty? “When shall I come and appear before God?” This it is for which I am thirsty, to “come and to appear before Him.” I am thirsty in my pilgrimage, in my running; I shall be filled on my arrival. But “When shall I come?” And this, which is soon in the sight of God, is late to our “longing.” “When shall I come and appear before God?” This too proceeds from that “longing,” of which in another place comes that cry, “One thing have I desired of the Lord; that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.” Wherefore so? “That I may behold” (he says) “the beauty of the Lord.” “When shall I come and appear before the Lord?”… — Exposition on Psalms 42

Cassiodorus: Christ the Lord is the fountain of waters from which flows everything that restores us. Flowing streams can often run dry, but a fountain is always supplied with water. So we are rightly invited to hurry to the liquid of the sacred source; there our desire is never able to experience thirst. — EXPLANATION OF THE Psalms 42:2

Gregory of Nyssa: The person, however, who has once tasted virtue and has come to understand its nature by his own experience of the good is no longer the kind of person who must be dragged away from his passionate attachment to evil by necessity and warning and compelled to look to virtue. On the contrary, he has an excessive thirst for what is superior.… [He] “thirsts” for participation in God more than “the hart” longs for “the fountains of water.” And it follows that the person who finds the fountain after this excessive thirst draws in as much water as the abundance of his desire draws off. But he who has received what he desired in himself is full of what he desired. For that which has become full is not again emptied on the model of physical satiety, nor does that which was drunk remain inactive in itself. In whomever the divine fountain has come into existence, it transforms the one who has embraced it to itself and imparts to this person a portion of its own power. — ON THE INSCRIPTIONS OF THE Psalms 1:5.40-41

Gregory the Dialogist: First, therefore, he is sought without being found, so that afterward, when found, he may be held more tightly. For holy desires, as we have said, grow by delay. But if they fail by delay, they were not desires. With this love burned whoever was able to reach the truth. Hence David says: “My soul has thirsted for the living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God?” — Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 25

Psalms 42:3

Augustine of Hippo: “My tears have been my meat day and night, while they daily say unto me, Where is your God?” [Psalms 42:3]. My tears (he says) have been not bitterness, but “my bread.” Those very tears were sweet unto me: being thirsty for that fountain, inasmuch as I was not as yet able to drink of it, I have eagerly made my tears my meat. For he said not, “My tears became my drink,” lest he should seem to have longed for them, as for “the water-brooks:” but, still retaining that thirst wherewith I burn, and by which I am hurried away towards the water-brooks, “My tears became my meat,” while I am not yet there. And assuredly he does but the more thirst for the water-brooks from making his tears his meat….“And they daily say unto me, Where is your God?” For if a Pagan should say this to me, I cannot retort it upon him, saying, “Where is yours?” inasmuch as he points with his finger to some stone, and says, “Lo, there is my God!” When I have laughed at the stone, and he who pointed to it has been put to the blush, he raises his eyes from the stone, looks up to heaven, and perhaps says, pointing his finger to the Sun, “Behold there my God! Where, I pray, is your God?” He has found something to point out to the eyes of the flesh; whereas I, on my part, not that I have not a God to show to him, cannot show him what he has no eyes to see. For he indeed could point out to my bodily eyes his God, the Sun; but what eyes has he to which I might point out the Creator of the Sun?… — Exposition on Psalms 42

Evagrius Ponticus: Nothing nourishes like that which nourishes the spirit. Blessed are those who weep, for they will laugh. — NOTES ON THE PSALMS

Evagrius Ponticus: Seeing that God is Creator, he is in everything made; seeing that he is excellence and wisdom, he is in all holy powers.… God is even in people sometimes in excellence, sometimes in accomplishment: it is of angels to behave always according to God; of demons, never; of people to behave sometimes rightly, sometimes not. — NOTES ON THE Psalms 41[42].4

John Cassian: There is a weeping that springs from contemplating eternal good and longing for future light, and tears of joy and desire cannot help but break out as the soul is athirst for the mighty living God. — CONFERENCES 9:29

Psalms 42:4

Augustine of Hippo: “I thought on these things, and poured out my soul above myself” [Psalms 42:4]. When would my soul attain to that object of its search, which is “above my soul,” if my soul were not to “pour itself out above itself”? For were it to rest in itself, it would not see anything else beyond itself; and in seeing itself, would not, for all that, see God. Let then my insulting enemies now say, “Where is your God?” aye, let them say it! I, so long as I do not “see,” so long as my happiness is postponed, make my tears my “bread day and night.” Let them still say, “Where is your God?” I seek my God in every corporeal nature, terrestrial or celestial, and find Him not: I seek His Substance in my own soul, and I find it not, yet still I have thought on these things, and wishing to “see the invisible things of my God, being understood by the things made,” [Romans 1:20] I have poured forth my soul above myself, and there remains no longer any being for me to attain to, save my God. For it is “there” is the “house of my God.” His dwelling-place is above my soul; from thence He beholds me; from thence He created me; from thence He directs me and provides for me; from thence he appeals to me, and calls me, and directs me; leads me in the way, and to the end of my way.. .. — Exposition on Psalms 42

Cassiodorus: Rejoicing refers to the singing of psalms, while confession must include lamentation over sins. The combination of these two things undoubtedly makes for a complete Christian.… What is sweeter and more salutary than to praise God and to continually accuse oneself. — EXPLANATION OF THE Psalms 42:5

Theodoret of Cyrus: After the sad events, therefore, he proclaims pleasant ones and ahead of time teaches that they will quickly secure their recall, and with the guidance of God’s grace, they will return to the land of their desire and will rebuild God’s house, will celebrate the customary festivals and welcome into their ears the festive sound and spiritual melody. — COMMENTARY ON THE Psalms 42:3

Psalms 42:5

Ambrose of Milan: Troubled by the hazardous turnings of this world, David says, “Why are you sad, O soul, why do you trouble me? Hope in God, for I will give praise to him, the salvation of my countenance and my God.” Therefore, when we are distressed and apprehensive, let hope strengthen us with the expectation of things that are to come. Look to each phrase individually. “Hope, for I will give praise,” he says; not “I give praise,” but “I will give praise.” This means: I will give praise better at that time when I shall behold the glory of God with face unveiled and be transformed into the same image. As he was consoling himself, suddenly turning to himself, he says, “My soul is troubled within myself”; that is, I, who ought to strengthen others, am myself disturbed, and because I do not have strength of myself, let us receive it from the Creator. — THE PRAYER OF JOB AND DAVID 4:3.12-13

Arnobius the Younger: Do not be sad, spirit, but hope in the Lord because I confess to him. He is the Savior of my countenance, that is, my God is the restorer of his own image. — COMMENTARY ON THE Psalms 42

Augustine of Hippo: But seeing, brethren, so long as “we are at home in this body, we are absent from the Lord;” [2 Corinthians 5:6] and “the corruptible body presses down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weighs down the mind that muses on many things;” [Wisdom 9:15] even though we have some way or other dispersed the clouds, by walking as “longing” leads us on, and for a brief while have come within reach of that sound, so that by an effort we may catch something from that “house of God,” yet through the burden, so to speak, of our infirmity, we sink back to our usual level, and relapse to our ordinary state. And just as there we found cause for rejoicing, so here there will not be wanting an occasion for sorrow. For that hart that made “tears” its “bread day and night,” borne along by “longing to the water-brooks” (that is, to the spiritual delights of God), “pouring forth his soul above himself,” that he may attain to what is “above” his own soul, walking towards “the place of the wonderful tabernacle, even unto the house of God,” and led on by the sweetness of that inward spiritual sound to feel contempt for all outward things, and be borne on to things spiritual, is but a mortal man still; is still groaning here, still bearing about the frailty of flesh, still in peril in the midst of the “offenses” [Matthew 18:7] of this world. He therefore glances back to himself, as if he were coming from that world; and says to himself, now placed in the midst of these sorrows, comparing these with the things, to see which he had entered in there, and after seeing which he had come forth from thence;

“Why art you cast down, O my soul, and why do you disquiet me?” [Psalms 42:5]. Lo, we have just now been gladdened by certain inward delights: with the mind’s eye we have been able to behold, though but with a momentary glance, something not susceptible of change: why do you still “disquiet me, why are you” still “cast down”? For you do not doubt of your God. For now you are not without somewhat to say to yourself, in answer to those who say, “Where is your God?” I have now had the perception of something that is unchangeable; why do you disquiet me still?

“Hope in God.” Just as if his soul was silently replying to him, “Why do I disquiet you, but because I am not yet there, where that delight is, to which I was, as it were, rapt for a moment? Am I already ‘drinking’ from this ‘fountain’ with nothing to fear?”…Still “Hope in God,” is his answer to the soul that disquiets him, and would fain account for her disquiet from the evils with which this world abounds. In the mean while dwell in hope: for “hope that is seen is not hope; but if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” [Romans 8:24-25] — Exposition on Psalms 42

Psalms 42:6

Augustine of Hippo: “My soul is disquieted on account of myself” [Psalms 42:6]. Is it disquieted on account of God? It is on my own account it is disquieted. By the Unchangeable it was revived; it is by the changeable it is disquieted. I know that the righteousness of God remains; whether my own will remain steadfast, I know not. For I am alarmed by the Apostle’s saying, “Let him that thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall.” [1 Corinthians 10:12] Therefore since “there is no soundness in me for myself,” there is no hope either for me of myself. “My soul is disquieted on account of myself.”…“Therefore I remember You, O Lord, from the land of Jordan, and from the little hill of Hermon.” From whence did I remember you? From the “little hill,” and from the “land of Jordan.” Perhaps from Baptism, where the remission of sins is given. For no one runs to the remission of sins, except he who is dissatisfied with himself; no one runs to the remission of sins, but he who confesses himself a sinner; no one confesses himself a sinner, except by humbling himself before God. Therefore it is from “the land of Jordan I have remembered you, and from the hill;” observe, not “of the great hill,” that you may make of the “little hill” a great one: for “whoso exalts himself shall be abased, and whoso humbles himself shall be exalted.” If you would also ask the meanings of the names, Jordan means “their descent.” Descend then, that you may be “lifted up:” be not lifted up, lest you be cast down. “And the little hill of Hermon.” Hermon means “anathematizing.” Anathematize yourself, by being displeased with yourself; for if you are pleased with yourself, God will be displeased with you. Because then God gives us all good things, because He Himself is good, not because we are worthy of it; because He is merciful, not because we have in anything deserved it; it is from “the land of Jordan, and from Hermon,” that I remember you. And because he so remembers with humility, he shall earn his exaltation to fruition, for he is not “exalted” in himself, who “glories in the Lord.” — Exposition on Psalms 42

Cassiodorus: God is not to be sought from the height of arrogance, but the remembrance of him is found in situations of lowly humility. — EXPLANATION OF THE Psalms 42:7

Evagrius Ponticus: When we come up against the demon of acedia, then with tears let us divide the soul and have one part offer consolation and the other receive consolation. And sowing within ourselves goodly hopes, let us chant with holy David this [verse]. — PRAKTIKOS 27

Psalms 42:7

Ambrose of Milan: Listen to this: “Deep calls on deep at the voice of your floodgates.” Scripture of the Old Testament calls on Scripture of the New Testament for the consummation of holiness and the fullness of grace; it calls with the voice of grace and the outflowing of spiritual abundance. — COMMENTARY ON TWELVE Psalms 36:18

Arnobius the Younger: When deep calls deep, the Son calls the Father from the depth of land and river, and you have opened the cataracts of heaven. As the Holy Spirit descends, the Father addresses the Son from the height of the heavens. When he calls from the deep to deep, the glory of the Lord comes to me. — COMMENTARY ON THE Psalms 42

Augustine of Hippo: “Deep calls unto deep with the voice of your water-spouts” [Psalms 42:7]. I may perhaps finish the Psalm, aided as I am by your attention, whose fervour I perceive. As for your fatigue in hearing, I am not greatly solicitous, since you see me also, who speak, toiling in the heat of these exertions. Assuredly it is from your seeing me labouring, that you labour with me: for I am labouring not for myself, but for you. “Deep calls unto deep with the voice of your water-spouts.” It was God whom he addressed, who “remembered him from the land of Jordan and Hermon.” It was in wonder and admiration he spoke this: “Abyss calls unto abyss with the voice of Your water-spouts.” What abyss is this that calls, and to what other abyss? Justly, because the “understanding” spoken of is an “abyss.” For an “abyss” is a depth that cannot be reached or comprehended; and it is principally applied to a great body of water. For there is a “depth,” a “profound,” the bottom of which cannot be reached by sounding. Furthermore, it is said in a certain passage, “Your judgments are a mighty abyss,” Scripture meaning to suggest that the judgments of God are incomprehensible. What then is the “abyss” that calls, and to what other “abyss” does it call? If by “abyss” we understand a great depth, is not man’s heart, do you not suppose, “an abyss”? For what is there more profound than that “abyss”? Men may speak, may be seen by the operations of their members, may be heard speaking in conversation: but whose thought is penetrated, whose heart seen into? What he is inwardly engaged on, what he is inwardly capable of, what he is inwardly doing or what purposing, what he is inwardly wishing to happen, or not to happen, who shall comprehend? I think an “abyss” may not unreasonably be understood of man, of whom it is said elsewhere, “Man shall come to a deep heart, and God shall be exalted.” If man then is an “abyss,” in what way does “abyss” call on “abyss”? Does man “call on” man as God is called upon? No, but “calls on” is equivalent to “calls to him.” For it was said of a certain person, he calls on death; [Wisdom 1:16] that is, lives in such a way as to be inviting death; for there is no man at all who puts up a prayer, and calls expressly on death: but men by evil-living invite death. “Deep calls on deep,” then, is, “man calls to man.” Thus is it wisdom is learned, and thus faith, when “man calls to man.” The holy preachers of God’s word call on the “deep:” are they not themselves “a deep” also?… — Exposition on Psalms 42

Psalms 42:8

Augustine of Hippo: Therefore follows: “The Lord will commend His loving-kindness in the day-time; and in the night-time will He declare it” [Psalms 42:8]. In tribulation no man has leisure to hear: attend, when it is well with you; hear, when it is well with you; learn, when you are in tranquillity, the discipline of wisdom, and store up the word of God as you do food. For in tribulation every one must be profited by what he heard in the time of security. For in prosperity God “commends to you His mercy,” in case thou serve Him faithfully, for He frees you from tribulation; but it is “in the night” only that He “declares” His mercy to you, which He “commended” to you by day. When tribulation shall actually come, He will not leave you destitute of His help; He will show you that which He commended to you in the daytime is true. For it is written in a certain passage, “The mercy of the Lord is seasonable in the time of affliction, as clouds of rain in the time of drought.” “The Lord has commended His loving-kindness in the day-time, and in the night will He declare it.” He does not show that He is your Helper, unless tribulation come, from whence you must be rescued by Him who promised it to you “in the day-time.” Therefore we are warned to be like “the ant.” For just as worldly prosperity is signified by “the day,” adversity by the night, so again in another way worldly prosperity is expressed by “the summer,” adversity by the winter. And what is it that the ant does? She lays up in summer what will be useful to her in winter. Whilst therefore it is summer, while it is well with you, while you are in tranquillity, hear the word of the Lord. For how can it be that in the midst of these tempests of the world, you should pass through the whole of that sea, without suffering? How could it happen? To what mortal’s lot has it fallen? If even it has been the lot of any, that very calm is more to be dreaded. “The Lord has commended His loving-kindness in the day-time, and in the night-time will He declare it.”…“There is with me prayer unto the God of my life.” This I make my business here; I who am the “hart thirsting and longing for the water-brooks,” calling to mind the sweetness of that strain, by which I was led on through the tabernacle even to the house of God; while this “corruptible body presses down the soul,” [Wisdom 9:15] there is yet with me “prayer unto the God of my life.” For in order to making supplication unto God, I have not to buy anything from places beyond the sea; or in order that He may hear me, have I to sail to bring from a distance frankincense and perfumes, or have I to bring “calf or ram from the flock.” There is “with me prayer to the God of my life.” I have within a victim to sacrifice; I have within an incense to place on the altar; I have within a sacrifice wherewith to propitiate my God. “The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit.” What sacrifice of a “troubled spirit” I have within, hear. — Exposition on Psalms 42

Cassiodorus: It is precisely what is learned in quietness that is later manifested in distress. The words of the Law are learned in restful times, but their fruit is later displayed in affliction. — EXPLANATION OF THE Psalms 42:9

Theodore of Mopsuestia: I considered further that though the impending troubles are so numerous, it is very easy for you to provide a solution; if by day you bid lovingkindness to be shown us—in other words, relief from the troubles to occur—it happens so quickly that immediately those in receipt of good things set about singing through the night and offering hymns of praise to you for what has happened. When God enjoins mercy by day, then, immediately by night “his song is with me,” as if to say, So prompt will be the discharge of his command that, with his command given by day, it is possible for me to sing by night of the good things done to me. — COMMENTARY ON Psalms 42:9A

Psalms 42:9

Augustine of Hippo: “I will say unto God, You are my lifter up. Why have You forgotten me?” [Psalms 42:9]. For I am suffering here, even as if You had forgotten me. But You are trying me, and I know that Thou dost but put off, not take utterly from me, what You have promised me. But yet, “Why have You forgotten me?” So cried our Head also, as if speaking in our name. “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” I will say unto God, “You are my lifter up; why have You forgotten me?” — Exposition on Psalms 42

Psalms 42:10

Augustine of Hippo: “They who trouble me cast me in the teeth.” Again that voice! “While they say daily unto me, Where is your God?” [Psalms 42:10]. And it is principally in the temptations of the Church they say this, “Where is your God?” How much was this cast in the teeth of the Martyrs! Those men so patient and courageous for the name of Christ, how often was it said to them, “Where is your God?” “Let Him deliver you, if He can.” For men saw their torments outwardly; they did not inwardly behold their crowns! “They who trouble me cast me in the teeth, while they say daily unto me, Where is your God?” And on this account, seeing “my soul is disquieted on account of myself,” what else should I say unto it than those words: — Exposition on Psalms 42

Evagrius Ponticus: It is of the greatest ignorance to think that God is in a place. God does not stand in a place. He is free. — NOTES ON THE Psalms 41[42].11

Psalms 42:11

Augustine of Hippo: “Why art you cast down, O my soul; and why do you disquiet me?” [Psalms 42:11]. And, as it seems to answer, “Would you not have me disquiet you, placed as I am here in so great evils? Would you have me not disquiet you, panting as I am after what is good, thirsting and labouring as I am for it?” What should I say, but,

“Hope thou in God; for I will yet confess unto Him” [Psalms 42:11]. He states the very words of that confession; he repeats the grounds on which he fortifies his hope. “He is the health of my countenance, and my God.” — Exposition on Psalms 42

Diodorus of Tarsus: Pondering all this within myself, then, I was again encouraged not to be alarmed but to hope in God, who readily provides me with salvation and again makes me esteemed. Turning their thoughts over and over, sometimes in despair, sometimes in hope, is typical of people suffering. — COMMENTARY ON Psalms 42

Jerome: When the inner person shows signs for a time of wavering between vice and virtue, say, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God.” You must never let suggestions of evil grow on you or a babel of disorder win strength in your breast. Kill the enemy while he is small, and, that you may not have a crop of tares, nip the evil in the bud. — LETTER 22.6

Origen of Alexandria: I beseech you to remember in all your present contest the great reward laid up in heaven for those who are persecuted and reviled for righteousness’ sake, and to be glad and leap for joy on account of the Son of man, just as the apostles once rejoiced when they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for his name. And if you should ever perceive your soul drawing back, let the mind of Christ, which is in us, say to it, when it wishes to trouble that mind as much as it can, “Why are you sorrowful, my soul, and why do you disquiet me? Hope in God, for I shall yet give him thanks.” I pray that our souls may never be disquieted, and even more that in the presence of the tribunals and of the naked swords drawn against our necks they may be guarded by the peace of God, which passes all understanding, and may be quieted when they consider that those who are foreigners from the body are at home with the Lord of all. But if we are not so strong as always to preserve calm, at least let not the disquiet of the soul be poured forth or appear to strangers, so that we may have the opportunity of giving an apology to God, when we say to him, “My God, my soul is disquieted within me.” — EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 4

Theodore of Mopsuestia: “My personal savior is my God”: I trusted that you would doubtless meet my request, since you personally are my salvation and my Lord (the term “personal savior” meaning “my support, my glory”—in other words, It is you yourself who provides me with this). — COMMENTARY ON Psalms 42:11C

Theodoret of Cyrus: Do not despair of salvation, O soul, he is saying: you have God as Savior; in him you gain sound hope. Quench your discouragement and receive consolation. — COMMENTARY ON THE Psalms 42:7