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Salmos 42

ARC · Chapter 42/150

1Assim como o cervo brama pelas correntes das aguas, assim brama a minha alma por ti, ó Deus!

2A minha alma tem sêde de Deus, do Deus vivo: quando entrarei e me apresentarei ante a face de Deus?

3As minhas lagrimas servem-me de mantimento de dia e de noite, emquanto me dizem constantemente: Onde está o teu Deus?

4Quando me lembro d'isto, dentro de mim derramo a minha alma: pois eu havia ido com a multidão; fui com elles á casa de Deus, com voz d'alegria e louvor, com a multidão que festejava.

5Porque estás abatida, ó alma minha, e porque te perturbas em mim? Espera em Deus, pois ainda o louvarei pela salvação da sua face.

6Ó meu Deus, dentro de mim a minha alma está abatida; portanto lembro-me de ti desde a terra do Jordão, e desde os hermonitas, desde o pequeno monte.

7Um abysmo chama outro abysmo; ao ruido das tuas catadupas: todas as tuas ondas e as tuas vagas teem passado sobre mim.

8Comtudo o Senhor mandará a sua misericordia de dia, e de noite a sua canção estará comigo, e a oração ao Deus da minha vida.

9Direi a Deus, minha Rocha: Porque te esqueceste de mim? porque ando lamentando por causa da oppressão do inimigo?

10Com ferida mortal em meus ossos me affrontam os meus adversarios, quando todo o dia me dizem: Onde está o teu Deus?

11Porque estás abatida, ó alma minha, e porque te perturbas dentro de mim? espera em Deus, pois ainda o louvarei, o qual é a salvação da minha face, e o meu Deus

📖 Chapter study

Summary

The psalmist, far from the temple, expresses a deep thirst for God, comparing it to a deer's thirst for flowing streams, and fights discouragement by repeating to himself: 'hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him'.

Explanation

This psalm opens 'Book II' of the Psalter and is attributed to the sons of Korah, a group of Levites responsible for the temple's music. The image of the thirsty deer has become one of the Bible's best-known metaphors for spiritual longing for God, especially in times of distance or hardship (the psalmist appears to be exiled, far from Jerusalem, in the region of the Jordan and Mount Hermon). The repeated refrain ('why art thou cast down, O my soul?') reveals a powerful spiritual technique: speaking to oneself, questioning one's own discouragement rather than simply feeling it passively. Today's application: it is possible — and healthy — to dialogue with one's own emotions in light of hope in God.

Fun facts

  • The 'sons of Korah,' mentioned in the title, were descendants of a Levite who rebelled against Moses and was judged (Numbers 16), yet whose line survived and became responsible for part of the temple's liturgical music — an example of restoration across generations.
  • Psalms 42 and 43 originally formed a single poem (they share the same refrain, repeated three times in total), later divided in the book's final arrangement.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Salmos 42:1This is the image of a thirsty, panting animal, desperately searching for water in dry ground, used to describe a thirst that isn’t physical, but spiritual, a longing to feel God’s presence again.
  2. Salmos 42:2Continues the thirst image from the first verse, now naming what satisfies it: the desire to appear before the living God, not just any god.
  3. Salmos 42:3Describes weeping so intense that tears become almost his only food, day and night, while he still hears the repeated taunt asking where his God is.
  4. Salmos 42:4Recalls with pain a time when he took part in temple celebrations amid the joyful crowd, a memory that only makes the present hurt more by comparison.
  5. Salmos 42:5This is the refrain repeated three times in the psalm: the psalmist speaks directly to his own soul, questioning its downcast state and convincing himself to wait on God.
  6. Salmos 42:6Mentions specific, distant places away from the temple, the Jordan and Mount Hermon, suggesting he writes from far away, exiled from the place he would most like to be.
  7. Salmos 42:7The “waterspouts” are waterfalls, possibly near the sources of the Jordan River mentioned in the previous verse. The image of waves and breakers passing over the psalmist describes the feeling of being swallowed by one problem after another, each calling up the next.
  8. Salmos 42:8Even from a distance, he holds on to a concrete hope: God’s mercy still comes by day, and by night there remains a song and a prayer to keep him company.
  9. Salmos 42:9Asks God, called here his Rock, an honest and even bold question: why does He seem to have forgotten him exactly when the enemy’s oppression weighs so heavily?
  10. Salmos 42:10Repeats the enemies’ constant taunting, but now described as a deadly wound in his bones, showing just how much this mockery really hurts.
  11. Salmos 42:11Repeats for the second time the same refrain from verse 5, closing the psalm with the same discipline of speaking to his own soul until it agrees to wait on God.

Chapters

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