Study

a Bible passage

Click a verse to see commentary
Select a resource above

42. Psalm 42

1 As the deer pants for streams of water,
   so my soul pants for you, my God.

2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
   When can I go and meet with God?

3 My tears have been my food
   day and night,
while people say to me all day long,
   “Where is your God?”

4 These things I remember
   as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go to the house of God
   under the protection of the Mighty One See Septuagint and Syriac; the meaning of the Hebrew for this line is uncertain.
with shouts of joy and praise
   among the festive throng.

    5 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
   Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
   for I will yet praise him,
   my Savior and my God.

    6 My soul is downcast within me;
   therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
   the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.

7 Deep calls to deep
   in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
   have swept over me.

    8 By day the LORD directs his love,
   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 go about mourning,
   oppressed by the enemy?”

10 My bones suffer mortal agony
   as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
   “Where is your God?”

    11 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
   Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
   for I will yet praise him,
   my Savior and my God.


7. Depth calleth unto depth These words express the grievousness, as well as the number and long continuance, of the miseries which he suffered; as if he had said, I am oppressed not only with one kind of misery, but various kinds of distress return one after another, so that there seems to be neither end nor measure to them. In the first place, by the term depth, he shows that the temptations by which he was assailed were such, that they might well be compared to gulfs in the sea; then he complains of their long continuance, which he describes by the very appropriate figure, that his temptations cry out from a distance, and call to one another. In the second part of the verse, he continues the same metaphor, when he says, that all the waves and floods of God have passed over his head By this he means that he had been overwhelmed, and as it were swallowed up by the accumulation of afflictions. It ought, however, to be observed, that he designates the cruelty of Saul, and his other enemies, floods of God, that in all our adversities we may always remember to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God which afflicts us. But it is of importance to go beyond this, and to consider, that if it should please God to rain with violence upon us, as soon as he shall have opened his sluices or waterspouts, there will be no termination to our miseries till he is appeased; for he has in his power means marvellous and unknown for executing his vengeance against us. Thus, when once his anger is kindled against us, there will be not only one depth to swallow us up, but depth will call unto depth. And as the insensibility of men is such, that they do not stand in awe of the threatenings of God, to the degree in which they ought, whenever mention is made of his vengeance, let us recall this verse to our recollection.


VIEWNAME is study