Psalm 42

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 To the choirmaster. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah.

1-4  As a deer pants for channels of water, so pants my soul for you, O God. ² My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God’s face? ³ My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” ⁴ These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.

5-10  Why are you sunken down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him for His saving presence.

שחח (shachach) = “sink down”

המה (hamah) = “murmur, roar”

⁶ My God, my soul is sunken down within me; therefore I remember You from the land of Jordan, from the Hermons and Mount Mizar. ⁷ Deep is calling to deep at the roar of Your waterfalls; all Your breakers and Your waves passed over me. ⁸By day Adonai commands His steadfast love, and 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 do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” ¹⁰ As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”

11  Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, His saving presence and my God.

REFERENCES:

Approbation

Psalm 41:1  Contented is the one who considers (משכיל, maskil) the poor! …

Numbers 26:10-11   And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up along with Korah, when that company died, when the fire devoured 250 men, so that they became a warning. The sons of Korah, however, did not die.

1Chronicles 6:33  These are the men who served and their sons. Of the sons of the Kohathites: Heman the singer the son of Joel, son of Samuel…

Psalm 46:1-2 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way …

Verse 1

Joel 1:20  Even the beasts of the field pant for You because the water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

Verse 3

Exodus 17:7-8  And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested Adonai by saying, “Is Adonai among us or not?” Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim.

Verse 5

Proverbs 2:18  For her house sinks down(שוח, shu’ach) to death, and her paths to the departed.

Proverbs 23:27  For a prostitute is a deep pit (שוחה, shuchah) …

Proverbs 7:11  She is loud (המה, hamah) and wayward; her feet do not stay at home;

1Kings 1:41  … When Joab heard the sound of the trumpet, he said, “Why is the city making such an uproar (המה, hamah)?”

Verse 7

Jonah 2:3  For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all Your breakers and Your waves passed over me.