(To the chief Musician. An instruction; of the sons of Korah.) As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
Psalm 42 is sung by a man far from home. He is shut out of the place of worship, mocked by enemies, and left with nothing but God Himself. The picture of a thirsty deer raises the question the whole psalm turns on: do we want God's gifts, or God Himself?
The psalm's heading names the sons of Korah. Who they were shapes how one writer reads the whole psalm.
Psalm 42 is addressed to the chief Musician, who is Christ, but it is called "a contemplation of the sons of Korah." The earth opened and swallowed Korah, but his sons did not die in his rebellion (Num. 26:11). So they picture the future remnant of Israel: sons of a rebellious father, but brought in faith to God through tribulation.
The psalm is not sung from comfort. Where the singer stands explains what his faith holds on to.
The great theme of the psalm is the faith of the soul in God Himself. Cast out of the land, and cut off from the blessings of the sanctuary, the soul clings to God as its only resource, when all else is gone.
Two things come out of the picture: what God becomes to the thirsty soul, and what the streams stand for.
God has become to the soul the one great Circumstance. And this is no exaggerated estimate, but the simplest reckoning that can be. The Living One is also the Life-giving One, and the very life itself of the soul. The water brooks are the fitting picture, as we well know, of the Spirit of God, who both awakens these desires and satisfies them.
Nobody arrives at this longing on their own. One writer traces it back to the trial itself. He also reads the water as a picture of God's word, so commentators differ on that detail.
There is no doubt that the trial of lonely suffering is the reason for the psalmist's thirsting for the living God, for sadly, this thirst needs to be awakened. We do not long for water until we are thirsty. So it is God who brings us down to such a point of thirst by allowing hard circumstances. In the heat of the day a deer pants for the water brooks (v. 1). Water symbolizes the word of God (Eph. 5:26), and when it flows, as a brook does, this emphasizes the energy of the Spirit of God in making God's word vital to the soul (John 7:38-39).
What this man misses looks at first like homesickness for the crowd. But losing that is what drives his longing past it.
It thirsts after God Himself… No doubt the psalm refers to the circumstances. The soul has lost God in the happy circumstances that supported it more or less. That loss forces the soul to lean on God Himself and look for Him more completely, and, as we shall see, to draw its joy from there… His soul is athirst for God. He had lost the joy of the crowd, but he now panted after God Himself, where there was none of this… The individual heart wants God for itself.
The same writer names what that loss exposed.
He was taunted about the public enjoyment of Him — "where was his God?" He had lost the outward display, the shared joy. The soul may lean upon that, and in our case may depend on it heavily without realizing, drinking at the streams and pools.
A soul like this will pray. One writer draws the line straight from the verse to prayer.
When we speak of prayer, we do not mean a duty done at set times, carried out faithfully no matter how tiresome it feels. We mean something we cannot live without… "As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God," cried the Psalmist. The man who feels like that will pray. He must; he cannot live without it.
- Stripped — The singer is driven from his land and his place of worship. Every other support is gone, so God alone is left.
- Thirsty — The panting is not natural. God allows the hard circumstances that create the thirst. No one longs for water until they are dry.
- Purified — The trial takes away the crowd and the shared joy. Those are the very things a soul can lean on without noticing.
- Satisfied — The streams picture the Spirit of God. He stirs up the desire, and He meets it.
- Personal — What is left is a heart that wants God for itself. Such a heart prays, because it cannot live without it.
My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God when shall I come and appear before God?
This psalm opens with a man far from the place where Israel worshipped God. His cry is not for relief but for God Himself. What makes a soul thirst like this, and what can answer it?
This longing did not grow in comfort. Being driven away from everything he once enjoyed left the psalmist with only God to want.
The godly man had been going with the multitude to the house of God, but that is all over. He is driven away... It was a dreadful trial. It was so with Christ on the cross, and with Him even more, for He declared He was forsaken. The trial tested what God was to them by faith. The heart of the godly pants after God. It was not just for His blessings; they were gone. What He Himself was became all the more precious.
Stripped of everything else, the soul does not overrate God. It sees Him as He is. And the thirst is not something the soul works up on its own.
God has brought this about by withdrawing Himself. To the awakened heart that withdrawal is now a deep bitterness. God has become to it the One great Circumstance. This is not an exaggeration. It is the plainest reckoning there can be. The Living One is also the Life-giving One; and the very life itself of the soul. The water brooks are the fitting picture, as we well know, of the Spirit of God, who both awakens these desires and satisfies them.
The title is not decoration. It appears here for the first time in the Psalms. It points back to two moments in Israel's history: a mountain where they heard His voice, and a river He brought them through.
Here, for the first time in the Psalms, we meet the term the living God. Israel heard His voice at Sinai (Deut. 5:26), and He showed His presence among His people when they crossed the Jordan (Joshua 3:10). To appear before Him was the Psalmist's desire. But circumstances were against him, and his enemies taunted him with the question, Where was his God? The living God, he affirms, is his God.
That title also rules out every substitute. Nothing lifeless will do for a heart in trouble.
Their fathers had understood what this name meant. It marked out their God, the Lord Jehovah, as completely different from the idols of the nations. Those idols had no life... Nothing short of being in the presence of the true God, who is the living God, could fulfil his desire. Idols could not satisfy him. Heathen mythology afforded no rest for the heart in its trouble.
The psalmist wants to stand in God's presence. That desire runs in both directions.
God wants us to learn this. He not only desires us to know His mercy. He also delights to have us before Him, where we find every desire satisfied in His own company... The presence of the Lord was a delight for the Psalmist, and so it should be for His people now.
The psalm speaks for someone driven out of his land. What he has lost shows what his faith now rests on.
The great theme of the psalm is the faith of the soul in God Himself. Cast out of the land, and cut off from the blessings of the sanctuary, the soul clings to God as its only resource, when all else is gone... The water brooks revive the panting deer. In the same way the soul looks to God as the life-giving One to revive it, while it waits for the time when it will appear before God in His sanctuary.
Where does such a thirst come from? It is not something a dead soul produces.
How different the expression of a soul that is born again in Ps. 42:2, "My soul thirsts for God!" So, if a soul is really seeking God, it is not death, but the first movement of life.
That first movement is not optional, and it has a deadline.
If we do not thirst here we shall thirst when it is too late; if we do not thirst as David did, "My soul thirsts for God" (Ps. 42:2), we shall thirst as the rich man did for a drop of water.
- Thirst begins — when the blessings are gone, God Himself becomes the one thing the heart must have.
- Thirst is given — the water brooks picture the Spirit of God, who both awakens the desire and satisfies it.
- Thirst names its object — not a lifeless idol, but the living God, whose voice Israel heard and whose power Israel saw.
- Thirst asks for presence — we long to appear before Him, and He delights to have us there.
- Thirst proves life — seeking God is the first movement of life. Whoever will not thirst now will thirst when it is too late.