Psalms 42

Psalms 421. To the Chief Musician. Maschil. To the Sons of Korah. The obvious reference to personal experience and feelings in this psalm made it more necessary to designate it as a maschil or didactic psalm, intended or permanent and public use. See above, on Psalms 32:1. The experience described is evidently that of David, and most probably at the time of his exclusion from the sanctuary in consequence of Absalom’s rebellion. See 2 Samuel 15:25.

The only doubt is whether the psalm was composed by him or by the Sons of Korah. These were a Levitical family of singers, 1 Chronicles 6:1; 1 Chronicles 6:7; 1 Chronicles 6:16 (16, 22, 31), 1 Chronicles 9:19; 1 Chronicles 26:1, who still continued that employment in the reign of Jehoshaphat, as appears from 2 Chronicles 20:19. This being their office, it would seem more natural to regard them as the performers rather than the authors of the psalm. It seems improbable, moreover, that the composition should be ascribed to a whole class or family. On the other hand, the Sons of Korah are here separated from the Chief Musician, and occupy precisely that place where we usually find the author’s name. It is also remarkable that we never find the Sons of Korah, named with David or any other individual author except Heman, who was probably one of themselves.

See below, on Psalms 88:1. If he, or any other of the Sons of Korah, be regarded as the author of the psalm before us, he must be supposed to have composed it in the person of David, i.e. to express David’s feelings at a particular juncture of his history.

It is, of course, a much more obvious supposition, that David himself wrote it for this purpose. Nor can the intrinsic probability of this supposition be destroyed, although it may undoubtedly be weakened, by the difficulty of accounting for the fact, that David’s name is never mentioned in the titles of any of the eleven psalms inscribed to the Sons of Korah. The psalm before us is divided by its structure into two parts, marked by the burden or refrain in Psalms 42:6; Psalms 42:11 (5, 10). In the first, he laments his exclusion from God’s presence, Psalms 42:2-3 (1, 2), aggravated by the taunts of his enemies, and the recollection of his former privileges, Psalms 42:4 (3), but confidently anticipates their restoration, and calls upon his soul to hope and trust in God, Psalms 42:5-6 (4, 5). In the second, he goes over the same ground, though not in the same words, Psalms 42:7; Psalms 42:11 (6, 10), and closes with the same expression of confidence as before, Psalms 42:11 (10).

2. (Psalms 42:1). As a hart panteth after streams of water, so panteth my soul for thee, (O) God. The first noun is masculine but the verb feminine, so thatwe may either read hart or hind. The verb occurs only here and in Joe 1:20, which is evidently copied from the verse before us. The allusion may be either to the exhaustion caused by flight, or to the natural effects of drought. See below, on Psalms 43:2 (1). The essential idea is that of intense desire and an overwhelming sense of want. Streams of water, waterbrooks. See above, on Psalms 38:16 (15).

3. (Psalms 42:2). Thirsted has my soul for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? The past tense of the first verb shews that he is not expressing a desire just conceived for the first time, but one with which he is already familiar. Of the two divine names here used, one (Elohim) describes God as an object of religious worship, the other as a Being of infinite power. He is Living and Mighty, as distinguished from maginary deities, and from impotent and lifeless, idols. When shall I come? implies a local, bodily approach, and this agrees with the following phrase, appear before God, which is the technical expression in the Law for stated appearance at the sanctuary, except that the divine name Jehovah is exchanged for Elohim, which occurs ten times in this psalm, and Jehovah only once.

4. (Psalms 42:3). My tears have been my bread day and night, in (their) saying to me all the day, Where (is) thy God? The word translated tears is the collective term used in Psalms 39:13 (12). The Hebrew verb is in the singular. “My weeping has been my bread,” i.e. my food. “Instead of eating I have wept.” See below, Psalms 102:5 (4), and compare 1 Samuel 1:7, Job 3:24. Day and night, all the day, are strong but common phrases for continually, constantly. See above, on Psalms 1:2.

In saying, i.e. in the time of saying, while it is said. Or a pronoun may be supplied, in (their) saying, while they say, i.e. his enemies. Where is thy God? The very question is an indirect assertion that God had forsaken him. See above, Psalms 3:3 (2), Psalms 22:9 (8), and below, Psalms 71:11; Psalms 115:2, and compare Joe 2:17. The words of Shimei may have been present to the mind of David.

See 2 Samuel 16:7-8.

5. (Psalms 42:4). These (things) I will remember and will pour out upon me my soul, when I pass in the crowd, (when) I march (with) them up to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with festive noise (or tumult). This is the only construction of the sentence which gives the future forms their proper force instead of converting them into past tenses, which is wholly arbitrary, and therefore ungrammatical. If the last clause contained a reminiscence of his former privileges, there was nothing whatever to prevent the use of the preterite forms. These things, not his former enjoyments, but his present sufferings. I will remember, I am determined so to do, this idea being suggested by the very form of the Hebrew verb.

If the verse related only to the past, this strong expression would be out of place. The act of reflection or self-introversion is expressed by the stong figure of pouring out his soul upon himself, which at the same time suggests the idea of lively emotion; not necessarily of grief, as in Job 30:16, but of mingled joy and sadness in the recollection of past sufferings and deliverances, just as we might speak of a man’s heart being melted, either with sorrow or gratitude, or both.

When I pass, or still more literally, for I shall pass, which in that case expresses the confident expectation of a favourable issue. Pass, i.e. pass along in solemn procession. The crowd, or throng, the Hebrew word suggesting, by its etymological affinities, the idea of a thicket, and then of a confused mass. The verb translated march occurs only here and in Isaiah 38:15, where it seems to be borrowed from the place before us. Its construction is like that of the English march, which, though commonly intransitive, in some cases governs the noun directly. If we render it here, I shall march them, it conveys the additional idea of conducting as well as joining the procession.

Up to, a stronger expression than to, implying actual arrival at the place in question. The use of music in the processions to the temple may be inferred from 2 Samuel 6:5.

The word translated noise or tumult may also mean the multitude by whom it is produced. See above, on Psalms 37:16, Psalms 39:7 (6). But, the other is the primary meaning and agrees best with the parallel expressions. The last word in Hebrew means originally dancing (1 Samuel 30:16), but with special reference to its ceremonial use, as an expression of religious joy (2 Samuel 6:14).

6. (Psalms 42:5). Why art thou cast down, (O) my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me? Wait thou for God, for I shall yet thank him (for) the salvation of his face (or presence). The Psalmist’s faith addresses his unbelieving fear, as if it were another person. The question involves a reproof, as if he had said, thou hast no reason to be thus dejected. Why, literally what, i.e. for what cause, or on what account.

Art thou, literally wilt thou be? Why wilt thou persevere in this extreme and gratuitous dejection? The form of the Hebrew verb is reflexive, why wilt thou deject thyself, implying, still more strongly than before, that the dejection was a voluntary one, and therefore culpable. Disquieted, the same verb that is used in Psalms 39:7 (6), and the root of the noun meaning noise or multitude in Psalms 42:5 (4) above. Here, as elsewhere, it denotes, not mere uneasiness, but violent agitation, and is sometimes applied to the commotion of the sea. See below, on Psalms 46:4 (3), and compare Jeremiah 5:22.

Within me, literally upon me, as in the foregoing verse. Wait for God, i.e. for the fulfilment of his promises, implying confidence and hope. The verb translated thank means strictly to acknowledge, and is applied both to the confession of sin and to the thankful acknowledgment of benefits received. See above, on Psalms 30:5 (4), Psalms 32:5. Salvation, frequent or complete deliverance. See above, on Psalms 18:50 (49).

His face, his propitious countenance or aspect, with allusion to the benediction in Numbers 6:25-26. See above, on Psalms 4:7 (6), Psalms 16:11, Psalms 17:15; Psalms 31:17 (16). The determination to thank God for his goodness implies a confident expectation that it will be exercised. See above, on Psalms 5:8 (7).

7. (Psalms 42:6). My God, upon me is my soul cast down. Therefore I will remember thee from the land of Jordan and the Hermon, from the hill Mizar. In spite of his expostulations, his dejection still continues, and can only be removed or mitigated by a more direct recollection of what God is, and has done for him, and of the mutual relation still subsisting between them. Upon me, as in the two preceding verses. Here perhaps the phrase may be intended to suggest, that reliance on himself only deepened his dejection, and compelled him to repose his trust on some other and more sure foundation.

Is cast down, will be so, unless and until thou lift it up. From the land implies that he was there excluded from God’s presence by exclusion from his sanctuary. The indefinite expression, land of Jordan, i.e. the tract through which it flows, as we say the valley of the Mississippi, is referred specially to the eastern side by the mention of the Hermons, i.e. as some suppose mount Hermon, and the other mountains upon that side of the river, just as Baalim means Baal, and other idols worshipped with him (1 Kings 18:18), or more probably mount Hermon, considered not as a single eminence, but a chain or range like the Alps, the Alleghanies, etc. In either case it is put for the whole region east of Jordan, which did not properly belong to Canaan or the Holy Land. (See Joshua 22:11). In this wide sense the expression might be used by David, even in reference to his abode at Mahanaim, north of the Jabbok, on the borders of Gad and Manasseh (2 Samuel 17:24; 2 Samuel 17:27, 1 Kings 2:8). Mizar, little or littleness.

Whether this be taken as a proper name, of which there is no trace elsewhere, or as a descriptive epithet, it seems to be contemptuous.

8. (Psalms 42:7). Deep unto deep (is) calling at the voice of thy waterspouts; all thy billows and thy waves over me have passed. The first word in Hebrew seems to denote strictly a great body of water, and in that sense is applied to the ocean— see above, on Psalms 36:7 (6)— and also to its waves. It may here mean either a wave or a flood. The participle (calling) represents the scene as actually passing. The idea may be simply, that they respond to one another’s noise, or more emphatically, that each wave invites or summons another to succeed it.

For a somewhat similar expression see above, Psalms 19:3 (2). Voice, i.e. sound or noise. The Hebrew word is less restricted in its application than the English, so that it is not necessary even to assume a personification. The next word, in the only other place where it occurs (2 Samuel 5:8), has the literal meaning of a water-spout or gutter. It may here denote the continued streams of rain poured upon the earth. The sense of water-falls or cataracts, although supported by the ancient versions, has no foundation in etymology or usage.

The idea that David here alludes to the water-falls of Lebanon, by which he was surrounded, rests on a false interpretation of Psa 42:7 (6), which, as we have seen, contains a general description of the country east of Jordan, called in later times Perea. Billows and waves, literally breakers and rollers, i.e. masses of water rolling towards the shore and broken on it. Throughout this verse there is an obvious allusion to the universal deluge, as there is in Psalms 29:11 (10), Psalms 32:6, and often elsewhere.

9. (Psalms 42:8). By day will Jehovah command his mercy, and by night his song with me, a prayer to the God of my life. Notwithstanding his distresses he is still convinced that God has not forsaken him. By day and night some understand prosperity and adversity; but they are probably put together to denote all time, the opposition between song and prayer being merely rhythmical, i.e. occasioned by the parallelism. Compare Psalms 92:3 (2). Command his mercy, i.e. exercise it authoritatively, or as a sovereign.

His song, a song of praise to him, implying the experience of his goodness, even in a season of distress. Compare Job 35:10. These words may be governed by the verb of the first clause, he will command his song (to be) with me, he will give me occasion to sing his praise, or construed with the substantive verb understood, his song (shall be) with me. The God of my life may be explained to mean my God of life, i.e. my living God. Compare the hill of my holiness— my hill of holiness— my holy hill, Psalms 2:6. It is more natural, however, to understand by the God of my life the God to whom my life belongs, upon whom it depends, and who is bound to protect it. “A prayer to him who is by creation the author, and by covenant the preserver of my life.” 10. (Psalms 42:9). I will say to God, my rock, why hast thou forgotten me? Why go I mourning in the oppression of the enemy? This expostulation may be regarded as a part or a sample of the prayer which God enabled him to offer, even in the midst of his afflictions. The divine name here used is the one significant of strength. My rock, my refuge, my protector, and the foundation of my hope. See above, on Psalms 18:3 (2). Why go I? more exactly, why shall or must I go? Mourning, literally squalid, dirty. See above, on Psalms 34:14; Psalms 38:7 (6). In the oppression, may either mean during its continuance, or in consequence of it, or rather both ideas are included.

11. (Psalms 42:10). With murder in my bones, my enemies have taunted me, in their saying to me all the day, where is thy God? The strong expression in the first clause is intended to denote excruciating pain. My enemies, oppressors, or persecutors, as the Hebrew word denotes. Taunted me, a stronger exression than reproach or reviled me, implying scorn as well as anger and hatred. In their saying, i.e. by their saying and while they say, as in the foregoing verse. All the day, continually. See above, on Psalms 42:9 (8). Where is thy God? See above, on Psalms 42:4 (3).

12. (Psalms 42:11). Why art thou cast down, (O) my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me. Hope thou in God, for I shall yet thank him (as) the help of my countenance and my God. As usual in such cases, there is a slight variation in the burden or refrain from that in Psalms 42:6 (5). See above on Psalms 24:7-10. Instead of the salvations of his face we have here the salvations of my face.

The attempt to assimilate the two expressions, by an emendation of the text, is not only destitute of all authority and evidence, but forbidden by the general practice of the sacred writers in repeating the expressions either of themselves or others. The salvations of my face is a bold and unusual expression, which appears to mean such deliverances or such abundant help as clears up and illuminates the countenance before clouded and dejected. And my God is not an unmeaning or gratuitous addition, but has reference to the taunting question in the preceding verse, Where is thy God? As if he had said, “Behold him, he is here. My God is he who dissipates my clouds and animates my hopes, and raises me superior to the sneers as well as to the fury of my enemies.” While this variation relieves the repetition from entire sameness, the repetition itself brings the second strophe and the whole psalm to a striking and symmetrical conclusion.