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Salmos 42

BLIVRE · Chapter 42/150

1Salmo de instrução para o regente; dos filhos de Coré: Assim como a corça geme de desejo pelas correntes de águas, assim também minha alma geme de desejo por ti, Deus.

2Minha alma tem sede de Deus, do Deus vivente: Quando entrarei, e me apresentarei diante de Deus?

3Minhas lágrimas têm sido [meu] alimento dia e noite, porque o dia todo me dizem: Onde [está] o teu Deus?

4Disto eu me lembro, e derramo minha alma em mim [com choros] , porque eu ia entre a multidão, [e] com eles entrava na casa de Deus, com voz de alegria e louvor, na festa da multidão.

5Minha alma, por que tu estás abatida, e te inquietas em mim? Espera em Deus; pois eu o louvarei pelas suas salvações.

6Deus meu, minha alma está abatida dentro de mim; por isso eu me lembro de ti desde a terra do Jordão, e dos hermonitas, desde o monte Mizar.

7Um abismo chama [outro] abismo, ao ruído de suas cascatas; todos as tuas ondas e vagas têm passado sobre mim.

8[Mas] de dia o SENHOR mandará sua misericórdia, e de noite a canção dele estará comigo; uma oração ao Deus de minha vida.

9Direi a Deus, minha rocha: Por que tu te esqueces de mim? Por que eu ando em sofrimento pela opressão do inimigo?

10Meus adversários me afrontam com uma ferida mortal em meus ossos, ao me dizerem todo dia: Onde [está] o teu Deus?

11Por que estás abatida, minha alma? E por que te inquietas em mim? Espera em Deus; porque eu ainda o louvarei; ele é a minha salvação 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.

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