Psalm 42 - Yearning for God
1)As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. 2) My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God? 3) My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually, “Where is your God?” 4) These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I went with the throng and led them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival. 5) Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my help and my God. 6)My soul is down cast within me; therefore, I remember you from the land of Jordan and Hermon, from Mount Mizar. 7)Deep calls to deep at the thunder of your torrents; all your waves and your billows have gone over me. 8) By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and 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 walk about mournfully because the enemy oppresses me?”10) As with a deadly wound in my body, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me continually, “Where is your God? 11) Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.
Background: The book of Psalms is the prayer book and hymnal of the Bible. In it the authors share every raw human emotion possible. The words can take us from feelings of fierce vengeance, to euphoric praise, to stately thanksgiving, to abject despair, to quaking fear and lament, to calm delight, to steadfast hope and trust, sometimes in the space of a comma. We are reminded in the psalms that all of human life is lived in the presence of and in awareness of God. The psalmists assume and assure us that all of human life is attended to by God and that all of human life is the appropriate subject of prayer. God does not want from us, in the intimacy of prayer, just the parts of life that feel good, or look good, or feel faithful or look faithful. Every breath is a breath of the Spirit and no circumstance is too petty to bring before God. No feeling, even about God, no doubt, no anger, no disappointment with God, is off limits when life is lived in God’s presence. What a comfort it is to know that we do not have to censor our prayers, as if we could if we wanted to.
The book of Psalms is a compilation of several collections of psalms; many used liturgically in worship. Perhaps some were written for private devotion and, because they express themes that are universal, later became a part of the worship language of God’s people. Traditionally it was thought that all of the psalms were written by King David. Many probably were, but we now know that others had hands in these beautiful poem/prayer/songs. Whoever the writer/composer may have been, in these texts we are given permission to be real, before God and with each other. The psalms as poetry and song, have many layers of meaning which unfold within us in our daily experience.
Psalm 42-43: Today we are focusing on Psalm 42. Scholars suggest that this psalm was actually part 1 of a two-part poem that concludes with Psalm 43. It begins what is called the Second Book, within the psalms and is one of the most beautiful of the psalms of lament. We do not know the author for sure. Nor do we know if the exile he is experiencing is a literal one or a metaphorical one. What we do know for sure is that he is in pain, longing for the experience of God he seems to longer be able to apprehend, and which he feels that he will surely die without. Even in this time of barren helplessness, when all chaos and enemies seem to taunt and win, somehow he finds within himself the courage to trust that God is at work, even with, and for, him.
Word Study
Vs. 1 – The poem opens with a resonate image of the writer’s longing for God’s presence. Like a deer in the woods that knows that without water it will die, the psalmist knows that his own soul is parched and needs the life-giving refreshment of God’s intimate presence. The word ‘soul’ in Hebrew (nephesh) refers to the living, breathing essence of a person. It is a more full bodied concept than a person’s psyche or personality. It is the entirely of one’s being, both that of which we are aware, and that about which we only have hints or hopes.
Longs – This word means to pine for something with audible anguish.
Vs. 2 – thirsts – This word conveys a sense of parched agitation.
Living – chay – This beautiful word means ‘living, alive, sustaining, living prosperity. It is sometimes used in connection with recovering from sickness, discouragement or death. It is a word that carries meanings of being vigorous, raw, fresh and intrinsically good. In this verse these are all qualities of the God for whom the writer thirsts.
Behold the face of God – This phrase means to see intellectually, to perceive, to understand, to enjoy.
Vs. 3 – It is not clear in the Hebrew if the antecedent of ‘say to me’ is people or tears. It would be possible to read that the author’s own tears are asking the question of him. In that case it is like saying that our own misery is causing us to question where we can find God. So, people who see our hardship can pose those questions to us, like Job’s friends, we can also have an inner dialogue of despair in our own hearts. Day and Night, carries the sense of unrelenting, or daily. Say means to speak, utter or declare. Again, this reenforces the power of the psalmist’s struggle.
Vs. 4 – remember – zakar – an interesting word that means to pierce, to impress upon the memory, to record.
Throng – this word comes from the root ‘to squeeze.’ So, it implies close friends, like we might say, ‘he and I are tight.’
Pour out – to spill forth, to bear one’s soul in complaint
House – This word can refer to a tent, a hut, a palace or a temple. It is where God dwells.
Thanksgiving – this word comes from ‘to extend one’s hand’ and refers to a confession, a vow, or a thank offering.
Vs. 5 – cast down – in despair and not seeing a clear path forward
Disquieted – disturbed inside, in turmoil.
Hope – This word is not a wish. It means to wait, to tarry, to expect good, to be patient.
Praise – this means to sing and give thanks. Some scholars suggest that in this context it is a kind of muttering of thanks that comes from remembered experience and not present felt experience.
Help – This word means, help, deliverer, salvation, victory and welfare.
Vs. 6 – Jordan, Hermon and Mount Mizar. We don’t know exactly where Mount Mizar was, or is. What is clear is that the psalmist finds himself in exile in the lonely upper Jordan, either physically or emotionally or both.
Vs. 7 – Deep calls to deep – The words here translated as ‘deep’ refer to primordial chaotic waters. It is an image of drowning in chaos. Calls – means to cry out or cry loudly. The writer is saying that all he hears is chaos shouting all around him. He hears a kind of antiphonal thundering around him. Perhaps he is sick. We do not know. This verse taken as a whole poetically gives us a picture of someone who thinks he is about to drown in chaos and die.
Vs. 8 – commands – to make firm, to establish
Steadfast love -Hesed – This profoundly sacred concept in Hebrew I like to translate as ‘unshakeoffable-ness.’ By day, even in the psalmist’s despair, God establishes that God’s love is reliable. It cannot be outrun. Nor must it be earned.
Prayer – usually used of an intercession for someone else or someone in need.
Vs 9 – mournfully – to be ashy, to wear black. This is an indication that his sorrow can be seen by all.
Vs. 10 – This verse is an anguished cry for vindication. Some scholars think that the ‘deadly wound’ refers to an actual physical affliction. Others suggest that it is a poetic way of referring to the deadly pain of unrelenting adversaries. There is no reason in my mind that it could not refer to both simultaneously.
Vs. 11 – Hope – Here the word for hope means ‘to stand with waiting endurance and not run.’
Praise – this word usually refers to liturgical praise with hands lifted.
Questions for Reflection
- How do you respond to biblical poetry? Do you find it spacious and exhilarating, or confusing and boring? Why do you think that is so?
- When you think about times of pain or hardship in your life, what are your prayers usually like? How about when the hardship passes?
- Have you ever had a time when you felt isolated or like you were drowning in chaos? Was it easy or hard for you to experience God in those times?
- The psalmist uses happy memories to help him through trouble in this prayer. Have you ever tried to rehearse good times with God when you felt upset or despairing? What was that like?
- The psalmist emphasizes that even in his trouble he hopes for closeness with God and believes that there will come a time when his exile ends and he is filled with God’s presence again. Can you think of a time that hope saw you through?