Psalm 42
PSALM FORTY-TWO
For the director of music. A maskil of the Sons of Korah.
1 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?
3 My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
4 These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng.
5 Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and
6 my God. My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon-- from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.
8 By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me-- a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God my Rock, "Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?"
10 My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
11 Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
The first psalm in the second part of the Book of Psalms, the part we called "The Exodus Book," is composed by the Sons of Korah. They are, undoubtedly, the descendants of the Levite Korah who perished in the rebellion against Moses.1 In the days of David they had become gatekeepers at the temple.2 The Holy Spirit had given them gifts that far surpassed their abilities necessary to fulfill their daily tasks. They had not become professional musicians, like the sons of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun,3 but as good amateurs, they had mastered the art of praising God with their poetical gifts.
Their duties took to the gates of the temple, but the topic of this psalm speaks about a man who is banished from the temple, and who finds himself in "the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon … Mount Mizar." God's presence here is expressed in terms of a localized and topographical revelation. This reminds us of Jesus' answer to the woman of Samaria, in John's Gospel: "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."4 Worship of God is not bound to any place. This psalm by the sons of Korah is a psalm of people who stand at the gate of worship. It is a hymn of people who have lost the sense of God's presence. The psalm is the first in a series of eight.5 We further find the Psalms 84,85,87 and 88 attributed to the sons of Korah.
In his commentary The Psalms, George Knight suggests that the main character in this psalm is a woman who, during an invasion by the Philistines, was captured and carried off to be sold as a slave in the Gaza Strip. This, of course, is mere conjecture. We do better to interpret this psalm as an expression in physical images of spiritual truths. The thirst is a spiritual thirst, and the captivity is spiritual, although physical absence from Jerusalem is not excluded.
The first image shows us a hunted deer dying of thirst. The English word "deer" does not indicate the sex of the animal, but the Hebrew 'ayal gives us a picture of strength. Strongs Definitions says that it is "a stag or male deer." We can see the leader of the herd, whose death would leave the other animals in disarray. It shows the picture of someone who would leave a trail of sorrow behind if he were to perish spiritually. In our fellowship with God, we never feed upon Him for our own sake alone. If we go thirsty, others will suffer the consequences also. Our prayer ought always to be: "Lord, bless me, so I can be a blessing." He who only thirsts after God for his own fulfillment does not understand what is at stake. When God blessed Abraham, He had the salvation of the whole world on His mind. "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing."6 And when Jesus invited the thirsty souls to come and drink, He said: "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."7 The greatest satisfaction consists of the flowing through of the blessing.
Our foremost problem often is that our thirst is not intense enough. The Apostle John states twice in his Gospel that spiritual thirst is related to the fulfillment of Scripture. In the above quoted text, Jesus says: "As the Scripture has said,…" and when Jesus hangs on the cross, we read: "Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, 'I am thirsty.' "8 Jesus' thirst was a fulfillment of Scripture.
The son of Korah recognized the danger that one could get so used to the presence of God, that his thirst would dry up. Thirst for God originates with God.
The question is what causes thirst? Physical thirst is a signal our body gives that it needs water, more than food. A man can live for days without food. Hunger will even disappear after a few days, but thirst only increases. Panting for God, for most people, is not a daily experience. Longing for God is, usually, not the passion of our lives, because of the presence of sin. Profound longing for fellowship with God can only exist on the basis of atonement for sin. A person who never confessed his sin, and who has never received forgiveness, can never pant for God in the way described in this psalm.
The psalm mentions an earlier stage in which fellowship with God was different. "These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng." At the time the sons of Korah composed this psalm, it was a known fact that God was omnipresent. The fact that Jerusalem was the seat of God's revelation did not mean that a person who traveled abroad would lose his salvation. But one could not experience this collective fellowship with God, this going "with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng," while being away. So, the point here is not an individualistic enjoyment of spiritual blessings, but the functioning of the body of Christ; the fellowship of believers who love one another in the presence of God.
In Jesus' invitation to come and drink, we read the similarity of drinking and the fullness of the Holy Spirit. We read: "By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified."9 The baptism by the Holy Spirit makes us members of the body of Christ. Paul says: "For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body-- whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free-- and we were all given the one Spirit to drink."10 We do not receive the Holy Spirit as isolated individuals, but only in fellowship with one another. Panting after God, therefore, is not a desire for personal fulfillment alone, but a deep longing for the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the fellowship of believers.
There are also elements of a witness in this psalm. There may be people around us who say: "We cannot discover God in your lives; there are no supernatural elements that serve as an explanation for your conduct." The world has a fine intuition that tells them that lives of individual Christians, and the fellowship of the saints ought to be a manifestation of God's presence. As Christians, we know that we ought to lead that kind of life, but that it is impossible on a natural level. Thirst for God, therefore, is a cry for help; it is an acknowledgment that, without the miracle of Jesus' resurrection from the dead, we will not be able to live as we should. When Elisha stood at the border of the Jordan River, with Elijah's cloak in his hands, he cried: "Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah?"11 Unless there is in our lives a demonstration of the power of God, we will make no impression on the world around us.
The psalm speaks about "the living God." Thirst is a form of dying. A man cannot live without water. The difference between God and idols is not only that He is the living God, but also that He is the source of all life. To drink from this fountain means to be alive, as David says: "For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light."12
The person who speaks in this psalm finds himself far from Jerusalem, far from the place of God's revelation. We have to remind ourselves again that this psalm is composed by the gatekeepers of the temple in Jerusalem. It sounds contradictory that one would stand at the gate of the sanctuary, and speak as if being abroad in a foreign country, but a closer look will reveal a deep lesson. Even the high priest who, on the Day of Atonement, sprinkled the blood on the cover of the ark, did not stand before the throne of glory, but only before a representation of reality. Even we, who know God's revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ, and who know that God has spoken His last word in Him, "we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord," to use the words of the Apostle Paul.13 Our thirst for God will never be completely satisfied in this life on earth. Our thirst is for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We thirst for the fulfillment of our hope. Every fulfillment, and refreshment on earth is a down payment on the eternal returns that await us. Our thirst will never be quenched completely on earth.
We can analyze the first five verses of this psalm with these three questions: "When?" "Where?", and "Why?" "When can I go and meet with God?" is a question that asks how long the existing condition will last. "Where is your God?" is a mocking question asked by the enemies of the poets. And the psalmists themselves ask the question: "Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?"
As we have seen before, our present condition is not lasting. God may put us to the test for a time, but He never forsakes us. The question "Where is your God?" is a legitimate one, but the world does not have the right to ask us this question; we are the ones who should ask it ourselves. It is unhealthy for a person to live in the past, but we also should not belittle the experiences we had with God in the past either. In a sense, our Bible reading is a form of digging in the past; it means a falling back on what God has done for us, and for others, which is often the best defense against the attacks of the Evil One. Even though going "with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng" is something that took place in the past, it is something that really happened. It is not a figment of our imagination. Our enemy wants to make us believe that we imagine things, but he himself knows better, otherwise he would not attack us on this point. The writers of this psalm conclude that, if praising God in times past was a reality, it will be a possibility for the future also. They, therefore, ask themselves the question the cause of this depression. "Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?"
There is a difference between panting for God and this depression. In these stanzas the poets say three things about the soul: "my soul pants for you, O God," "I pour out my soul," and "Why are you downcast, O my soul?" All three images are particularly expressive. The intent is to show that a man's whole being is involved. This is no mere intellectual analysis of the situation. The head, the heart, and the will are all deeply involved. There is an overwhelming longing for God, in which the emotions play a major role; the tears prove this. The pouring out of the soul stands for a complete investigation of all the motives; no hiding places are left unturned. And, finally, there is a demonstration of faith, expressed in the words: "Put your hope in God." This hope is the turning point of the man's experience. The description of this crisis is very intense. It is the crisis in the heart of men who are gatekeepers at the temple.
The second stanza, from the verses 6-11, continues the same theme, expressed in different pictures, with one exception. The downcast soul is an image of defeat and depression. The human soul is not made to be downcast, but to stand up straight. If a flower turns to the sun, it does what flowers are supposed to do. In the same way human beings should not drop their heads. We have seen already that the person described in this psalm is not in Jerusalem, but in the "land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon-- from Mount Mizar." We do not know if this is a topographical designation or an expression of being "away from the Lord." In both cases it means that there is a distance between this person and God's revelation. The fact that, in the next verse there is mention of "all your waves and breakers," which probably means the Mediterranean, would indicate a spiritualization. One can hardly be to the East of Jerusalem and to the West of it at the same time. The person in the psalm sees himself as an exile, and a drowning man, and one who is shipwrecked. How can one be drowning and parched at the same time?
There is a remarkable similarity between verse 7 and the prayer of Jonah from inside the fish. Jonah may have had this psalm in mind when he prayed. Both here and in Jonah's prayer we find thoughts of being banished from God's presence, and the danger of drowning. The psalmists suggest here that man is in danger of dying when God's revelation ceases to be. But, both in this psalm as in Jonah's experience, man passes through death without being harmed by it. Yet, death is our enemy. The devil used to have the key of death and Hades, but the waves and the breakers that swept over both the psalmists and over Jonah are God's waves. "All your waves and breakers have swept over me." There is a difference between dying, and the experience of God's death; dying for God's sake means death and resurrection. A man will only have his life when he loses it. So, in final analysis, these verses speak about the resurrection of Christ. The man who puts his trust in God will not drown. God's waves and breakers may sweep over me, "By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me-- a prayer to the God of my life."
In the previous verses the psalmists went back into the past, to find comfort in difficult situations, here they reach forward. They put their hope again in God. The NIV says: "By day the LORD directs his love." The KJV reads: Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the daytime." Both mean that God will show us how much He loves us. It is an intimate expression of the personal experience of God's love which remains true day and night. During the day we may be conscious of God's love, but at night our world takes on other forms. When it gets dark, our senses cease to be stimulated by our surrounding and we are thrown back upon ourselves. If we can sing and pray in the dark, we demonstrate that God's grace has really had its effect on us. At night our true self will come out. The song we sing is God's song, which means that it does not originate within ourselves. It is the Lord who triumphs over the darkness within us. We are correct if we identify darkness with death. "At night his song is with me-- a prayer to the God of my life," therefore, is a confession that the Lord has conquered death for us.
The repetition of the verses 3-5 in verses 9-11 places the situation in quit a different light. In the first instance the phrase is introduced by the words: "My tears have been my food day and night," but the second time we read: "I say to God my Rock …" This changes the refrain into a challenge. The mortal suffering of the bones, or as the KJV puts it "As with a sword in my bones…" caused by the taunting of the enemies, has a different effect upon the person who learned to sing to God in the middle of the night, than upon the man who finds himself away from the Lord in "the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon-- from Mount Mizar."
Outwardly nothing has changed, but inwardly a great victory has been won. As always, change is caused by an encounter with God, and not by a change in circumstances. Before anything changes around us, we ourselves change.
1
See Numbers 16:1-352
See I Chr. 26:1,2
3
See I Chr. 25:1-8
4
John 4:21-24
5
See Psalms 42-49
6
Gen. 12:2
7
John 7:37,38
8
John 19:28
9
John 7:39
10
I Cor. 12:13
11
II Kings 2:14
12
Ps. 36:9
13
II Cor. 5:6 (RSV).
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