Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 3 May 2020
In his commentary on Psalm 42, the Puritan Matthew Henry wrote, "Sometimes God teaches us effectually to know the worth of mercies by the want of them, and whets our appetite for the means of grace, by cutting us short in those means."
Psalm 42 is about coping with the very thing we are coping with today1, and that is not being able to gather with the church in regular worship. We are learning the “worth of mercies by the want of them” so that our appetite may be whetted for better-than-ever worship in the future. This Psalm teaches us how to do that, so listen carefully.
Psalm 42 is the first psalm in the second book of the Psalms, and is the first of 11 Psalms with a superscript about “the sons of Korah.” The Hebrew lamed preposition could mean “by” or “for,” and Bible scholars debate whether this was by the sons of Korah or by David or somebody else and for the sons of Korah. I’m inclined to think it was by the sons of Korah.
The first Korah we meet with in the Bible was a Levite and a cousin of Moses (Ex. 6:21). He was swallowed up by the earth after leading a rebellion against Moses and God (Num. 16).
His sons, however, did not die in the earthquake (Num. 26:11), and whether the sons of Korah in this Psalm refers to them 500 years before David, or to their descendants who were contemporaries of David2, or to other Levite relatives a thousand years after David, I don’t know for sure, and I don’t believe we have to know.
There were certain sons of Korah referred to in 1 Chronicles 9:19 and 2 Chron 20:19 who served as gatekeepers and worship singers in the reconstruction temple, so a setting in the exile or afterward could make sense.3
But most commentators consider this a Psalm about David’s experience of exile during his sojourn among the Philistines to escape King Saul, or possibly later during Absalom’s rebellion4.
As I’ve noted before, Psalms tend to be written purposefully to apply to multiple situations, including our own situations.
In one of the oldest commentaries on the Psalms, Augustine, around the year 400AD, offered an interesting take on the controversy over who wrote Psalm 42: “Who is it then that saith this? It is ourselves, if we be but willing! And why ask who it is, other than thyself, when it is in thy power to be the thing which you are asking about? It is not however one individual, but it is One Body... the Church... let all who have tasted the sweetness of the Lord and who own in Christ that for which they have a relish... thus speak...” Augustine went on to recommend that Christians use this Psalm for baptism services and for deathbed vigils for believers who are longing to go to heaven. But it is useless if you don’t put yourself into the Psalm and apply it to yourself.
The opening picture of this Psalm is of a deer (or hart – spelled without an “e”). Now, the only thing that the first half of the Bible says about this animal is that it is kosher to eat5. In other words, this is a wild animal commonly hunted and killed for food. This immediately creates a picture of how the Psalmist feels. “I am a helpless victim living on adrenaline and considered good for nothing but to be chased down and consumed!”
He says he pants after God like a deer pants for water – same verb on both sides of the simile. This is a rare verb found only here and in Joel chapter 1 in the Hebrew Bible.
“[It means] not merely a quiet languishing, but a strong, audible thirsting or panting for water, caused by prevailing drought... the primary meaning of the Arabic verb... is to be slanting, inclined or bent... which is transferred in Hebrew to an upward-directed longing.” ~Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, 1891
“[W]hen pursued over the dry and parched wilderness by the hunter, it seeks the stream of water with intense desire, and braying plunges into it with eagerness, as soon as it has reached its wished-for banks, at once to quench its thirst and escape its deadly pursuers..." ~James Anderson, 19th century Commentator on Calvin's Commentaries
Scholars debate whether it describes an audible sound of distress or a physical stretching out to the water, or a volitional desire to slake thirst, but, taken together with the verb “thirst” in v.2, this psalm paints a vivid picture of desperate yearning, crying out, and reaching for God.
Yearning and panting after God are a continuing part of the believer’s experience.
The imperfect-tense verb used to describe this panting indicates that it was not just a one-time incident of occasionally longing after God, but a continuing experience.
“Run to the fountain; long for the fountain... be not satisfied with running like any ordinary animal; run thou ‘like the hart.’ ... Let there be no sloth in thy running; run with all thy might: long for the fountain with all thy might.” ~Augustine
In the next verse, the synonym “thirst” is introduced to further describe this desire to experience a more fulfilling relationship with God.
“Thirsted” is in the Hebrew Perfect tense, so I interpret verse two as one specific instance to illustrate the psalmist’s lifetime of panting after God, although Bible scholars are all over the map as to what English verb tense to render a lot of these verbs in.
Note that, although this believer (as we’ll see in the upcoming verses) is looking forward to worshipping God in the temple, his yearning was not merely for an existential religious experience, he is panting after God Himself. “[T]ruly pious men were never satisfied with the ordinances of God without the God of ordinances.” ~William Plumer
Psalm 63:1, which is “A Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah,” uses the same word for “thirst”: “O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts [צָמְאָה] for You; My flesh longs [כָּמַהּ] for You In a dry and thirsty [עָיֵף] land Where there is no water.” (NKJV, cf. 2 Sam. 17:29)
It's also used of the thirsty Jews in the wilderness in the Exodus (Neh. 9:15) and during the Exile (Ps. 107:5, Isa. 5:13, Lam. 4:4, Hos. 2:5)6.
Also, as Psalm 69:21 prophecied, Jesus experienced this same thirst on the cross.
The physical deprivation of water is a symbol of deprivation of relationship with God.7
In this case, the psalmist seems to be in a situation where he can’t worship God properly.
Whether this is David fleeing the country from Saul or from Absalom or whether this is later Israelites or Judeans exiled from the promised land by the Assyrians or Babylonians, “[A]ppear before God” [is] the technical phrase for a pilgrimage to the Temple (Ps. 84:8, Ex. 23:17)… In th[is] Psalm we have a pathetic lament… [of] longing for redemption and the Temple Service… [I]n the sun-scorched Middle-East… water is held to be very precious. … God Who is the fountain of living waters... alone can satisfy the thirst of the true believer. ~A. Cohen (Soncino Books of the Bible)
“...being excluded from the sanctuary, [he] is no less grieved than if he had been separated from God himself. He did not, it is true, cease in the meantime to direct his prayers towards heaven, and even to the sanctuary itself; but conscious of his own infirmity, he was specially grieved that the way by which the faithful obtained access to God was shut against him. This is an example which may well suffice to put to shame the arrogance of those who without concern can bear to be deprived of those means..." ~J. Calvin
During this COVID virus lockdown, we can connect a bit with that feeling, can’t we? We’re not able to physically shake hands and hug and sit next to one another and hear the voices of the whole congregation lifted up in song and echoing around the vaulted ceiling high above, and be served communion and see that great big cross on the wall... and we miss all that. It naturally makes us struggle a bit with feeling distance from God to be deprived of these things. This is o.k. to feel, as long as it drives us deeper into relationship with Jesus.
Notice also the title “the living God”
This is the first time in the Psalms that we encounter this title. It only shows up in this form in 3 other places in the Old Testament8, most notably Psalm 84:2 "My soul longs, yes, even faints For the courts of the LORD; My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God." (NKJV)
The experience that this psalmist has of being near death makes him reach to the opposite extreme to lay hold on the living God – who is not threatened by death, but for whom life is an essential and unchanging characteristic. The living God is the only one who can give life (John 1:4, 5:26).
This is what we still do. Fifteen times, the apostles in the New Testament also use this title for God. For instance:
Matthew 16:16 “...Simon [Peter] said, ‘You are The Anointed One, The Son of the Living God.’” (NAW, cf. John 6:69)
Paul used this title to contrast the true and living God with false gods and lifeless idols9, and to highlight the living power of our God to actually save – and therefore the importance of trusting in Him: 1 Timothy 4:10 “For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe.” (NKJV, cf. 1 Tim. 6:17).
And as the apostle put it in Hebrews 9:14, “how much more will the blood of the Anointed One (who, through the eternal Spirit offered His faultless self to God) purify y'all's conscience from dead works for devotion to the Living God?” (NAW) Only a God who is alive can do that.
By the same token, only a living God can exercise judgment on enemies: Hebrews 3:12 “Keep watch, brothers, otherwise there will be in some of y'all an evil heart of unbelief in the act of apostatizing from the living God... 10:31 To fall into the hands of the Living God is fearsome!” (NAW, cf. Rev. 7:2)
And only a living God can build actual relationships and community with us, so His living character is emphasized in the epistles which speak of the church, such as in 1 Timothy 3:15 “...so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” (NKJV, cf. 2 Cor. 3:3, Heb. 12:22)
So, in our thirst for a more satisfying experience with the living God who saves and judges, we call out to this God who relates personally to those who believe in Him, and ask “When?”
We are encouraged by the fact that God has promised certain things to those who are thirsty: Isaiah 41:17 “When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I Yahweh will answer them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them... 44:3 I will pour water on the thirsty and cataracts upon the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit upon your seed, and my blessing upon your offspring... 55:1 Hey, all who thirst, step-forward to the waters – and the ones who have no silver. Step-forward, buy, and eat, and step-forward, buy wine and milk without silver and without price!” And Jesus said, (Matt. 5:6) “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for it is they who will be satisfied.” (NAW)
Because God has given us these promises, we are encouraged by the example of this psalmist to ask, “When will these promises be fulfilled? When will my ability to worship you fully be restored?” God probably won’t reply with a specific date, but you can still ask, and you can wait in confidence that some day it will be fulfilled, because “the God who does not lie promised” (Titus 1:2).
Now, insult is added to injury. In addition to thirsting for God...
This question is repeated in the Psalms (79:10, 115:2) and prophets (Joel 2:17, Micah 7:10, Mal. 2:17) as a taunt from the enemies of God.
Notice how different this question is from the previous question (“When can I see God?”). The first question assumes the existence of God and the ability to be in His presence. The second question (“Where is your God?”) assumes that God does not exist or care.
Augustine pointed out that non-Christians naturally don’t understand our faith, so you can hardly blame them for asking the question: “If a Pagan... says, pointing his finger to the Sun, 'Behold there my God! Where, I pray, is your God?' He has found something to point out to the eyes of the flesh; whereas I, on my part, not that I have not a God to show to him, cannot show him what he has no eyes to see."
The answer to the question, of course, is in v.9: The Christian can say, God is “with me.”
But, all over the world, thousands of Christians languish in jails and prisons and concentration camps, many of them beaten and tortured day after day simply because their governors hate Jesus.
I recall the testimony of Brother Yun in China, from his biography, The Heavenly Man, how his torturers taunted him with similar words, “Where is your God?” They said, in effect, “Here you are in prison, sick, hungry, shivering-cold, and nobody cares for you. Your God has left you, or he never existed in the first place. We are your gods now. Bow down to this picture of the Chairman of the Communist party and promise to stop preaching the gospel, and we’ll let you go back home to your wife and children.” But Brother Yun kept trusting in Jesus. God eventually delivered him in a miraculous way, but he first had to endure persecution for his faith and go hungry and weeping while everyone in the prison mocked his faith.10
It is not wrong to cry over the pain of evil. Jesus wept. And when others don’t understand, know this, that:
God hears your prayers and sees your tears11; He affirmed that in Isaiah 38:5.
God knows exactly how much you have cried: Psalm 56:8 “You... Put my tears into Your bottle; Are they not in Your book?” (NKJV)
And know that, “Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy” Ps. 126:5, “for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” Rev. 7:17 (NASB, cf. Isa. 25:8, Ps. 116).
You may or may not have experienced grief so deep that you lost interest in eating, and all you could do was weep at mealtimes, but it happens.
Psalm 102:4 also speaks of this: “My heart is stricken and withered like grass, So that I forget to eat my bread.” (cf. Ps. 80:6)
And if you ever find yourself in this position, this Psalm tells us what to do: Pant for God. Ask Him when He will fulfill His promises. Talk to Him! And next, Remember...
The poetic description of pouring out his soul over himself sounds to me like a metaphor for crying, and it flows from v.3. It is similar to the wording in:
1 Samuel 1:15 when Hannah “poured out her soul before the presence of the Lord” in the tabernacle, grappling with her barrenness and the provocation of her husband’s other wife.
It’s similar to the description of Job in his sufferings: Job 30:16 “And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me.” (KJV)
And then there’s Jeremiah, the weeping prophet in Lamentations 2:19 “Arise, cry out in the night, At the beginning of the watches; Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift your hands toward Him For the life of your young children, Who faint from hunger at the head of every street.” (NKJV)
It is a full spilling of the emotions to God, letting it all hang out, as it were, and the tears are rolling down his face onto his clothes12.
But this isn’t a pity party. This is mourning the temporary loss of valuable means of God’s grace, and with it is the purposeful remembering of the goodness of what has been lost.
The Korahites were, of course, Levites and songleaders, so he bears this special memory of leading the Jews in worship on one of the annual holy weeks, advancing through the city of Jerusalem with a throng of festive supplicants, singing the Psalms of Ascent as they went up the hill to the temple to offer sacrifices.
You may remember that David danced before the Lord on this same path to the temple, rejoicing to bring the ark into Jerusalem and thrilling to the trumpet fanfares (2 Sam. 6:15-16, James Anderson).
Up this same path, Jesus also came and went to the temple, in the caravan mentioned in Luke 2:44 (Calvin).
Psalm 100 “Enter His gates with singing and His courts with praise...”
This was a happy memory that sustained the desolate man of God who wrote Psalm 42.
Likewise, when you feel distant from God and down in the dumps, remember a time when you felt close to God.
When I was part of a denominational church, I went to a number of their annual national assemblies, and there I would often worry whether they, as a denomination, would remain faithful. I felt keenly that if they compromised on God’s word, there was nothing I could do to restore such a large organization. But during those times, one of the things that drew me back out of anxiety into hope for the church was when they pulled out the hymnals and sang. Oh, it was glorious to stand in the midst of two thousand pastors singing together with gusto the great hymns of the faith. Then the paralyzing anxiety would melt away, and I could trust God again for the church. There is something righteous in remembering that.13
Now, after expressing His longings to God and rebuffing the taunts of unbelievers with remembered joy, the Psalmist speaks to himself with the question, “Why?”
In contrast to the past joyous noise of thanksgiving and praise in the procession going up to the temple, the psalmist comes back to the present, and the noise he is making at present is literally a groaning sound. (Most English versions translate the verb as “disquiet” or “disturbed” here, but in most of the rest of the Psalms, they translate it with words like roar, growl, howl, snarl, cry out, groan, moan, etc.)
Our author thoughtfully asks why he’s doing this and why his soul is sinking itself down in depression. (Delitzsch describes this depression literally as “to sit down upon the ground like a mourner, and to bend one's self downwards.”)
Then he exhorts himself with the command to “hope in God” – “wait for” Him. This command is in the Hebrew Hiphal stem which denotes causality, so I tried to bring that into English as “develop hope” - The ability to wait patiently with hope is low right now in him, but he can take steps to build and develop hope again directed toward God.
This is a key point. Emotions are not the engine to drive the train, they are the caboose that should follow the direction of the engine of the will. The Psalmist is not accepting his depression, he is questioning it, analyzing why he feels the way he does, and directing himself to hope in God instead. As my childhood pastor, Frank Barker, said in his sermon on this Psalm: “[W]hen you start experiencing spiritual depression, talk to yourself instead of listening to yourself.”
Look at the logical reasoning at the end of this verse: He says that the reason why he can wait on God is that he knows he will one day be delivered from exile and will worship God again without hindrances. Translators have taken the second half of this verse in different directions:
The NIV followed the Syriac and Greek Septuagint which says that God is the “savior” of “my countenance.”
Most other English versions follow the Hebrew Masoretic text that says “help” – literally salvations – could come “from the presence/countenance” of God.
In my translation, I tried to tie together the Hebrew word for “before His face” [paniv], which occurs both at the end of v.2 and at the end of this verse. In other words, in verse 2, the Psalmist asked literally, “When shall I be seen before God’s face?” and here in verse 6, he says, “I don’t know when – I’ll make myself wait for it, but I rest assured that I will praise Him again before His face, because He’s going to save me out of this mess, and I’m going to be worshipping Him in His temple before long.”
We also saw that kind of reasoning with one’s own soul with David in Psalm 33:18-22 “Look, the eye of Yahweh is on those who respect Him (because they are hoping for His lovingkindness) in order to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive during the famine. Our soul waits [חִכְּתָה] for Yahweh; He is our helper and our shield, for it is in Him that our heart is happy, because we have trusted in His holy name. Let Your lovingkindness be upon us, Yahweh, just as we have hoped for You.” (NAW)
We also see it with Jeremiah in Lamentations 3:20-26 “My soul still remembers And sinks within me. This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. Through the LORD'S mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. ‘The LORD is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘Therefore I hope in Him!’ The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly For the salvation of the LORD.” (NKJV)
How can we develop a similar hope in God? John Calvin offered some good thoughts on this: “David contended strongly against his sorrow, lest he should yield to temptation: but what we ought chiefly to observe is, that he had experienced a strong and bitter contest before he obtained the victory over it; or we might rather say, that he was not delivered from it after [only] one alarming assault, but was often called upon to enter into new scenes of conflict. It need not excite our wonder that he was so much disquieted and cast down, since he could not discern any sign of the divine favor towards him. But... he set himself, in opposition to the affections of his flesh, to restrain and subdue them; and, at the same time, he rebuked his own cowardice and imbecility of heart… [he] regards himself as the enemy against whom he desires chiefly to contend. And doubtless the best way to overcome Satan is, not to go out of ourselves, but to maintain an internal conflict against the desires of our own hearts... [O]ur infirmities rise up in vast array, and, like the waves of the sea, are ready to overwhelm us; our faith seems to us to fail, and, in consequence we are so overcome by mere fear, that we lack courage, and are afraid to enter into the conflict. Whenever, therefore, such a state of indifference and faint-heartedness shall seize upon us, let us remember, that to govern and subdue the desires of their hearts, and especially to contend against the feelings of distrust which are natural to all, is a conflict to which the godly are not unfrequently called. " ~J. Calvin
This is the internal battle in your heart and mind which God calls you to fight.
Let us seek God – Run for the fountain. Pant for Him and Him alone.
Let us talk to Him in prayer, wherever we are, asking Him when He will fulfill His promises.
Let us rebuff the taunts of unbelievers by remembering past joys with God and His people.
And let us fight despair by arguing with our flesh and directing it to hope and wait on God.
This is how we can learn the “worth of [God’s] mercies by the want of them” and make the most of this time of quarantine.
LXX (Ps.41) |
Brenton (LXX) |
DRB (Vulgate) |
KJV |
NAW |
MT |
1
Εἰς τὸ τέλος·
εἰς σύνεσιν
τοῖς
υἱοῖς Κορε. |
1 For the end, [a Psalm] for instruction, for the sons of Core. As the hart earnestly desires the fountains of water, so my soul earnestly longs for thee, O God. |
1
Unto the end,
understanding
for
the sons of Core. |
1 To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah. As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. |
1 For the concertmaster, a thought-provoking one by the sons of Korah: Like a deer pants over bodies of water, so my soul pants for You, God. |
1
לַמְנַצֵּחַ
מַשְׂכִּיל
לִבְנֵי־קֹרַח׃ |
3 ἐδίψησεν ἡ ψυχή μου πρὸς τὸν θεὸν X τὸν ζῶντα· πότε ἥξω καὶ ὀφθήσομαι τῷ προσώπῳ τοῦ θεοῦ; |
2 My soul has thirsted for the living God: when shall I come and appear before X X God? |
3 My soul hath thirsted after the strongH living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God? |
2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? |
2 My soul was thirsty for God, for the Living God: “When can I go and be seen before the face of God?” |
3 צָמְאָה נַפְשִׁי לֵאלֹהִים לְאֵל חָי מָתַי אָבוֹא וְאֵרָאֶהI פְּנֵי אֱלֹהִים׃ |
4 ἐγενήθη μοι τὰ δάκρυά μου ἄρτος ἡμέρας καὶ νυκτὸς ἐν τῷ λέγεσθαί μοι καθ᾿ ἑκάστην ἡμέραν Ποῦ ἐστιν ὁ θεός σου; |
3 My tears have been bread to me day and night, while they daily said to me, Where is thy God? |
4 My tears have been my bread day and night, whilst it is said to me daily: Where is thy God? |
3 My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? |
3 My tears were a daily and nightly meal to me while they were saying to me all the day, “Where is your God?” |
4 הָיְתָה־לִּי דִמְעָתִי לֶחֶם יוֹמָם וָלָיְלָה בֶּאֱמֹרJ אֵלַי כָּל־הַיּוֹם אַיֵּה אֱלֹהֶיךָ׃ |
5
ταῦτα ἐμνήσθηνK
καὶ
ἐξέχεα ἐπ᾿L
ἐμὲ τὴν ψυχήν
μου, ὅτι διελεύσομαι
ἐν [τόπῳ]
σκηνῆς |
4
I remembered these things, and
poured out my soul |
5
These things I remembered, and
poured out my soul |
4
When
I remember these things,
I pour out my soul |
4 It is these things I will remember while I spill my soul out on myself: that I would pass through with the throng; I would lead them to the house of God with the sound of singing and thanksgiving - a multitude celebrating the feast. |
5 אֵלֶּה אֶזְכְּרָהQ וְאֶשְׁפְּכָה עָלַיR נַפְשִׁי כִּי אֶעֱבֹר בַּסָּךְ אֶדַּדֵּם עַד־בֵּית אֱלֹהִים בְּקוֹל־רִנָּה וְתוֹדָה הָמוֹן חוֹגֵג׃ |
6 ἵνα τί περίλυποςS εἶ, ψυχή, καὶ [ἵναT] τί συνταράσσειςU X με; ἔλπισονV ἐπὶ τὸν θεόν, ὅτι X ἐξομολογήσομαι αὐτῷ· σωτήριον τοῦ προσώπου μουW |
5 Wherefore art thou very sad, O my soul? and wherefore dost thou trouble me? hope in God; for I will give thanks to him; [he is the] salvation of my countenance. |
6 Why art thou sad, O my soul? and why dost thou trouble me? Hope in God, for I will still give praise to him: the salvation of my countenance, |
5 Why 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 helpX of his countenance. |
5 My soul, why are you depressing yourself and moaning over me? Develop hope towards God, because I shall praise Him again before His face [for] salvations. |
6מַה־תִּשְׁתּוֹחֲחִיX נַפְשִׁי וַתֶּהֱמִי עָלָי הוֹחִילִי לֵאלֹהִים כִּי־עוֹד אוֹדֶנּוּ יְשׁוּעוֹת פָּנָיו׃ |
1The governor of our state of Kansas decreed last month that no groups larger than 10 could meet together until the threat of out-of-control transmission of a corona virus was over, so our church has been meeting by videoconference.
2Cohen cited Meiri and the Talmud as advocating for this position. Calvin, Delitzsch, and Plumer also supported this position (some of them placing it in David’s lips), and Plumer also cited Hengstenberg, Tholuck, Syriac, Rabbi Moses, Bellarmine, Gussetius, Piscator, Fabritius, Cocceius, Patrick, Gill, Dodd, Jebb, Hammond, Morison, Home, Scott and Alexander in support, with the further note that the view “that they descended from him who perished for his gainsaying... is taken by Ainsworth with entire confidence, by Gill and others.”
3Ewald put this Psalm in the mouth of Jehoiachin on his way to exile in Babylon, Hitzig in the mouth of high priest Onias III when he was taken captive by the Egyptian army, Oesterly in the mouth of an Israelite of the Northern kingdom who had been driven out by the Assyrians, and Gerald Wilson in the mouth of a Levitical musician carried into exile.
4“[T]he rebellion of Absalom was of too short continuance to make the language of this Psalm so appropriate to that occasion as to David's former exile.” ~Wm. Plumer, 1872
5Deut. 12:15-22, 14:5, 15:22, 1 Kings 4:23, and Psalms 42:1 are the only citations of this Hebrew word in the first half of the Bible. See also Lam. 1:6. Canticles and Isaiah contain the only other citations of this word, and they reference the wildness or jumping ability of this animal.
6 cf. Sampson's desperate plea to God for a drink after one of his battles against his enemies in Judges 15:18.
7“This too proceeds from that longing, of which in another place comes that cry, ‘One thing have I desired of the Lord; that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.’ Wherefore so? ‘That I may behold’ (he saith) ‘the beauty of the Lord.’” ~Augustine, quoting Ps. 27:4
8The other three places that this singular form el chai occur are Josh. 3:10, Dan. 6:21-26 (Aramaic אלהא חיא), and Hos. 1:10 (quoted in Rom. 9:26). (Job 27:2 also has a form of this title in the singular but with the word order transposed.) An additional 9 OT passages render this title in the plural “elohim hay[yim]”: Deut. 5:26; 1Sam. 17:26,36; 2Ki. 19:4,16; Isa. 37:4,17; Jer. 10:10; 23:36. David’s preference for the plural in 1 Sam. could be an argument against Davidic authorship of Ps. 42 and 84, both of which are attributed to the sons of Korah.
9Acts 14:15 "...We also are men with the same nature as you, and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them” 2 Cor. 6:16a “And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God...” (NKJV)
10“Whenever the ungodly triumph over us in our miseries, and spitefully taunt us, saying that God is against us, let us never forget that it is Satan who moves them to speak in this manner to overthrow our faith." ~Calvin
11 “...Thus says Yahweh, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears...” (NAW)
12 I will tip my hat to Augustine, however, who made a case for “pours above myself” (i.e. unto God), which the Hebrew preposition could support and which would parallel Hannah pouring out her soul “before the presence of the Lord.”
13cf. Plumer: “Even the memory of hours spent in the delights of public worship is cheering to one deprived of the ordinances.” Augustine also suggested that we could contemplate the joys of heaven to the same effect: “In the house of God there is a never-ending festival: for there it is not an occasion celebrated once, and then to pass away. The angelic choir makes an eternal holiday: the presence of God's face, joy that never fails. This is a holiday of such a kind, as neither to be opened by any dawn, nor terminated by any evening. From that everlasting perpetual festivity, a certain sweet and melodious strain strikes on the ears of the heart, provided only the world do not drown the sounds... the sound of that festivity charms his ears, and bears the hart away to the water-brooks."
AMy
original chart includes the NASB and NIV, but their copyright
restrictions have forced me to remove them from the
publicly-available edition of this chart. I have included the ESV in
footnotes when it employs a word not already used by the KJV, NASB,
or NIV. (NAW is my translation.) When a translation adds words not
in the Hebrew text, but does not indicate it has done so by the use
of italics (or greyed-out text), I put the added words in [square
brackets]. When one version chooses a wording which is different
from all the other translations, I underline it. When a
version chooses a translation which, in my opinion, either departs
too far from the root meaning of the Hebrew word or departs too far
from the grammar form of the original text, I use strikeout.
And when a version omits a word which is in the Hebrew text, I
insert an X. (I also place an X at the end of a word if the original
word is plural but the English translation is singular.) I
occasionally use colors to help the reader see correlations between
the various editions and versions when there are more than two
different translations of a given word. The only known Dead Sea
Scrolls containing Psalm 42 are 4Q85PsalmsC and
4Q98PsalmsU, both of which contain fragments of verse 5
(v.4 in English), highlighted in purple.
B Α= πεπρασιασμενος (“having rushed”?), Σ= σπευδει (“hurries”), Ε=πρασιασθη (“beds down”)
C Α=αυλων (“pipes”?), Ε=πεδιον (“plain”/”ground”)
D Aq= εκχουσεις (“outpouring”), Σ = διεξοδους (“exit”)
EKeil & Delitzsch commented that the masculine stag "... is construed with a feminine predicate in order to indicate the stag (hind) as an image of the soul" (the gender of which is feminine). Calvin’s commentary editor, James Anderson, on the other hand, contended that it was the female “hart” that was meant, but the gender of the deer isn’t terribly important. Joel 1:20 is the only other instance of the ensuing verb in the Hebrew Bible. Commentators debate whether its root meaning is a gasping sound (Anderson, Plumer, KJV) or whether its root meaning is to desire or to reach out (Delitzsch, LXX). Surely the opening verb of the next verse is intended to be a synonym, so that helps narrow down the meaning.
FThe basic meaning of this word has to do with holding together, containing, being connected. “Streams” does connote confluence, but I thought that the word “body” communicates more in English the idea of a contiguous mass of water.
G Two manuscripts plus the Syriac and the Targums read YHWH instead of elohim, but it refers to the same person.
H Jerome must have misinterpreted אל (God of) as “strength” (א’ל).
IThe MT pointing indicates this to be Niphal Imperfect (lit. “be seen”), and the LXX interprets it that way. The consonants would remain the same if it were Qal, however, and the Syriac and Targums interpreted it actively, as the NIV did.
JThe second half of this verse is repeated verbatim in the second half of v.11 except that in v.11, a 3rd person plural pronomial suffix is added to this word (“their saying”). The BHS cites manuscripts and the Syriac version reconciling the two verses with this addition in v.4.
K Σ=αναπολων
L Augustine made much of the upward direction of επι/עָלַ as in prayer directed upward to God, but that seems forced.
MΑ= εν συσκιω προβιβαζων αυτους (“in a crowd? as they advance” = MT), Σ= εις την σκηνην, διαβασταχθησομαι (“into the tabernacle, I was being lead through”?) Both comport with the MT rather than the LXX & the Vulgate. The LXX seems to have read אדדם (“I lead them”) as אדרם (“wonderful ones”). These two letters can be difficult to distinguish in handwritten manuscripts. How I wish a little more of the Dead Sea Scrolls had been preserved to settle the question!
N cf. synonymns from Aquila (αινεσεως… ευχαριστιας) & Symmachus (ευφημιας… πανηγυριζοντων)
OThe Hebrew word chamon can be interpreted as the sound of a crowd (as the LXX interpretation went) or as the crowd itself, as English translators of the MT went, as did Aquila (οχλου) & Symmachus (πληθους).
PThe Vaticanus and Sinaiticus pluralized this participle, but it doesn’t change the meaning because the singular already refers to a plurality of persons.
QVerb
tenses in Hebrew are not as precise in time as English. According to
Plumer, the verbs in this verse are interpreted as future by Venema,
Marloratus, Hengstenberg and Alexander, they are interpreted as past
by the Syriac, Arabic, Septuagint, Vulgate and Ethiopic, and in the
present by Calvin, church of England, Vatablus, Piscator, Amesius,
Ainsworth, Fabritius, Mudge, Green, Waterland, Edwards, Jebb,
Horsley, Fry and Tholuck. I prefer the future to bring out the
optative sense of the cohortative (“The cohortative lays
stress on the determination underlying the action, and the personal
interest in it.” ~Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar)
"[T]he
cohortatives affirm that he yields himself up most thoroughly to
this bittersweet remembrance and to this free outward expression of
his pain" ~Delitzsch
Note that the only other place the
cohortative he is found with a first person imperfect form of
this verb is Psalm 77 (vs. 4, 7, & 12), where Asaph speaks. When
God speaks using the same verb (Lev. 26:42; Isa. 43:25; Jer. 31:34),
the cohortative never appears.
The demonstrative pronoun which
is the object of this verb is in the emphatic position, first in the
sentence. Delitzsch explained that it “points forwards... [to]
the כִּי
...
which follows opens up the expansion of this word. The futures, as
expressing the object of the remembrance, state what was a habit in
the time past.”
R "עָלַי used here and further on instead of בִּי or בְּקִרְבִּי... distinguishing between the ego and the soul..."~Delitzsch
S cf. Α=κατακυπτεις (“stoop down”) & Σ=κατακαμπτη (“bend down”)
TThe LXX and Syriac versions have a second interrogative in v.11 where it is absent in the Hebrew text of this verse, but it doesn’t change the meaning because it can be supplied by ellipsis.
U Αq=οχλαζεις (“mob”), Σ=θορυβη (“make an uproar”)
V Αq & Sym=αναμεινον (“stay fixed upon”)
WSince at least the first century AD (and probably longer), scholars have debated whether it should be “my presence” or “His presence” in this verse and in the last verse of this psalm. Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotian, and more read, as the MT, autou “him,” in this verse, and “my” in v.11/12 and in 43:5. On the other hand, there are several Hebrew manuscripts – as well as the Syriac version – which support the LXX “my” here (thus the NIV), and there are Hebrew manuscripts and ancient Coptic, Aramaic, and Greek versions which read “him” in v.11/12. Since the word “and” and the word “his” in Hebrew are spelled the same, and since early manuscripts had no spaces between words, one part of the explanation for this variant is that different translators divided the words in different places. At any rate, both statements are true, and it doesn’t change the theology presented either way. And, for what it’s worth, no Dead Sea Scroll has been discovered with this verse visible for comparison.
XThis verb is only used in these psalms of the sons of Korah - Ps. 42-44. BDB defined it as “sink down,” Holladay as “melt away,” and Delitzsch as “to sit down upon the ground like a mourner, and to bend one's self downwards,” I’m not sure where James Ward got “buckled over deep down” for lyrics to his musical setting of this psalm, but it also seems fitting. “In both verses [5 & 6] the form is reflexive, q. d.. My soul casts itself down.” ~Plumer