Psalms 42

Just as a deer pants for streams of water, I long for you, O God, with my whole self.

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

NoteA "hart" is an adult male deer; the word was ordinary English in 1611. "Soul" here translates Hebrew *nephesh*, which means the whole living person (the self, with its appetites and breath), not an immaterial part housed inside the body. The same word runs through the psalm wherever "soul" appears.

2I am thirsty for God, the living God. When will I be able to come and stand before him?

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

Note"Appear before God" is the standard Hebrew phrase for coming to the sanctuary, as worshipers did at the yearly festivals. The consonants of the Hebrew can equally be read "see the face of God," and ancient scribes seem to have softened it to the passive "be seen", the phrase carries the sense of being admitted into a person's presence, as a subject is admitted to a king. "The living God" distinguishes this God from the images of gods that filled the surrounding world.

3My tears have been my food day and night, while people keep asking me, "Where is your God?"

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

Note"Meat" in 1611 English meant food of any kind, not flesh specifically. The taunt "Where is your God?" is the standard ancient jeer at someone whose god has apparently failed to act for them, the implication is that the god is absent, powerless, or non-existent.

4I remember all this, and I pour out my heart: how I used to walk with the crowd and lead them to the house of God, with shouts of joy and praise, in a crowd keeping a festival.

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.

Note"Pour out my soul" is a Hebrew idiom for emptying oneself of grief, letting everything out. "Kept holyday" refers to the pilgrim festivals, when crowds traveled together to the sanctuary in Jerusalem singing as they went; the psalmist is remembering being part of, and possibly at the head of: that procession. The Hebrew of the middle of this verse is difficult and the word rendered "led them" is uncertain.

5Why are you so low, my soul? Why are you so restless inside me? Put your hope in God. I will praise him again for the help that comes from his face.

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.

NoteThis verse is a refrain: it returns almost word for word at verse 11, and a third time at the end of Psalm 43, which is why many scholars think Psalms 42 and 43 were originally a single poem. "Cast down" means sunk low, depressed; "disquieted" means agitated or churning, not merely uneasy. "Countenance" is the face; in Hebrew a face turned toward you means favor and attention, a face hidden means neglect. The Hebrew text divides the words slightly differently here, ending this line with "his face" and beginning the next verse "My God, my soul is cast down."

6My God, my soul is low within me. So I will remember you from the land of the Jordan River, from the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.

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.

NoteThese are places in the far north of the land, at the headwaters of the Jordan around Mount Hermon, the opposite end of the country from Jerusalem and its sanctuary. "The Hermonites" in the King James is a mistranslation of a Hebrew plural meaning the Hermon range or its peaks; no people group is meant. Mount Mizar is otherwise unknown; the name means "littleness," so it may be a small hill rather than a proper place name.

7Deep water calls out to deep water in the roar of your falling torrents. All your breakers and waves have swept over me.

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

Note"Deep" translates *tehom*, the great mass of water thought of as lying beneath and beyond the earth, the same word used of the waters at the world's beginning and of the sea that swallows ships. "Waterspouts" in 1611 English meant cascades or waterfalls, not the sea-tornado the word means today. "Billows" are the great rolling swells of the sea.

8Yet by day the LORD sends out his faithful love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God who gives me life.

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

Note"LORD" printed in small capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew consonants often written Yahweh, which Jewish readers did not pronounce aloud. "Lovingkindness" translates *chesed*, the loyal, committed care one party owes another within a binding relationship, closer to sworn faithfulness than to warm feeling.

9I say to God, my rock, "Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go around grieving while the enemy crushes me?"

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

Note"My rock" is the image of a crag or cliff-fortress, the high ground you run to when attacked, a place of safety, not a statement about hardness or stability alone.

10My enemies mock me, and it is like having my bones crushed, while they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"

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

NoteThe Hebrew of the first phrase is uncertain: the word can mean a shattering or crushing, or, on the reading the King James translators followed, a weapon driven into the bones. Either way the taunt is felt as physical injury.

11Why are you so low, my soul? Why are you so restless inside me? Put your hope in God. I will praise him again. He is the one who saves me, and he is my 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.