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Psalms 42

KJV · Chapter 42/150

1As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

2My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?

3My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?

4When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday.

5Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.

6O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar.

7Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.

8Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.

9I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

10As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?

11Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

📖 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. Psalms 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. Psalms 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. Psalms 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. Psalms 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. Psalms 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. Psalms 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. Psalms 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. Psalms 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. Psalms 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. Psalms 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. Psalms 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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