Psalms 42King James Version
The opening of Book Two. As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My tears have been my meat day and night. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Hope thou in God.
Opening psalm of Book 2, a stunning portrait of spiritual thirst and depression. The hart panting for water is one of the Psalter's great images. The psalmist remembers leading worship at the temple, now exiled in the north near Hermon. The famous refrain: 'Why art thou cast down, O my soul?' used twice like a liturgical anchor holding the psalm together while the emotional content swings between longing and trust. Deep calling to deep.
The soul that remembers what it was like to dwell in God's presence is the soul that cannot be satisfied with the absence, which is itself a form of love.
verse: "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God." The image of animal thirst is physical: this is not mild spiritual yearning but desperate biological need.
Superscription: 'To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah.' The geographic references to Jordan, Hermon, and the hill Mizar (v6) place the psalmist in the far north, possibly in Levitical exile or during a period of military displacement. Psalms 42-43 were originally one psalm (no superscription on 43, same refrain); they were separated in the tradition.
The son of Korah as the exiled psalmist who once led the temple procession; God as the living God the soul thirsts for; enemies who taunt daily with 'Where is thy God?'; the soul addressed directly in the refrains.
Psalm 42 opens Book 2 with one of the most recognized images in all poetry. Its combination of remembered worship, present exile, taunting enemies, and self-addressed soul became a template for understanding spiritual depression. The 'deep calleth unto deep' (v7) became a contemplative metaphor for the abyss calling to the abyss of the divine. Teresa of Avila cites this psalm repeatedly.
For when you remember what it felt like to be close to God and cannot get there now and the distance itself is the wound. This psalm is for spiritual depression, not just life circumstances.
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.
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.