Psalm 42

Introduction

“Welcome to Torah Today Ministries and our continuing series Tehillim Talks, our studies in the Psalms. And in this episode, we find ourselves in Psalm 42, which is the first Psalm of the second book of Psalms. If you’re not familiar with how Psalms is divided up into five books, you can go back to Psalm 41 and review that, or to Psalm 1, where I also discuss this.

But in ancient times, somehow the Psalms were arranged into five books. They’re sometimes called Book 1, Book 2, Book 3. Your Bible may have them listed as the Genesis Book, the Exodus Book or the Leviticus Book.

But either way, these five divisions of the Book of Psalms are well established. And again, go back to ancient times. Now, there are some differences here as we get into the second book of Psalms. In the first book of Psalms, Psalms 1 through 41, we find the name of God, Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh (יְהוָה), or as we say, Adonai. We see it used predominantly throughout these Psalms. But now we get into the second book of Psalms, we find instead that the name Elohim (אֱלֹהִים) is used predominantly.

I don’t know why that is, but that’s something I look forward to exploring as I study these Psalms. And if I get insights, I’ll share them with you. And I welcome your insights. Please share them in the comments. If you have some information about this, that would be helpful to me and to everyone else who’s listening.

Now, Psalm 42 begins the Psalms by the sons of Korah. When you look at the attribution, it says to the choir master, a maskeel of the sons of Korah. Psalms 42 through 49 are composed by the sons of Korah. Now, who were these people? Well, I’m just going to take it at face value that these were Korah’s sons. The Korah we find in the Book of Numbers. If you go back to the Book of Numbers, we find that Korah was a leader in Israel, but he wanted to be even more powerful of a leader. And he grasped for equality with Moses and Aaron. He said, why should you take this all on yourself? It’s too much for you, Moses. You need to share the authority. And this broke Moses’ heart and Aaron’s heart. They fell on their faces in prayer before God because they realized this is pure wickedness.

And it’s a hard thing to grasp when someone who is in a place of authority and should be so grateful and should be such an example to others can harbor such wickedness in their heart. And you remember the story. We’ll find the conclusion of the story in Numbers 26 verses 10 and 11. It says, 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. But the sons of Korah did not die. (Numbers 26:10–11) And I believe it was the sons of this rebellious leader, who had more sense than their father did, who went on to live and to become people who are masters of praise and composed Psalms 42 through 49.

One of the things I find interesting is when we get to Psalm 46, verses one and two, this is what it says. And again, this is a Psalm written by the sons of Korah. It says, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth gives way. (Psalm 46:1–2) That has to be a hint back to what happened to their own father in the Book of Numbers.

Now, we also see that this Psalm is a maskeel. This is the second maskeel that we’ve encountered in Psalms. The first one was Psalm 32. And a maskeel is a contemplative psalm. It’s something that’s causing you to think and to give thought and to contemplate things, deep things. In fact, back in Psalm 41, in verse one, it talks about giving thought to the poor, to contemplate the poor. And that word used there is the word maskeel, to give deep thought to something.

So as we go through this psalm, keep that in mind. One last thing before we get into verse one. Originally, Psalm 42 and 43 were one psalm. And if you read these back to back, you can see it reads as one psalm, using some of the same imagery, some of the same phrases. And Psalm 43 is only five verses. And I plan to record it very shortly after I complete this teaching, so that way you can listen to these back to back. And the only reason I’m going to go ahead and split them into two teachings is because I want to be consistent so that the teaching numbers correspond to the numbers of the psalms.

I had lunch yesterday with a friend and he says, what are you gonna do when you get to Psalm 119, which has 176 verses, I believe it is. And, but I have that already figured out. It’s only gonna be one teaching and it won’t be that long of one. How am I gonna do that? Well, stay tuned. And if I live long enough to get to Psalm 119, we will find out together how we’ll accomplish that.

So, let’s go on and get into verse one. Verses one through four.

Psalm 42:1–4 — As a Deer Pants for Water

As a deer pants for channels of water, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God’s face? (Psalm 42:1–2) My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all day long, where is your God? (Psalm 42:3) These things I remember as I pour out my soul. I will go with you with a throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival. (Psalm 42:4)

Well, let’s start and pick this apart a verse at a time. First of all, you’re going to find seven references to my soul in Psalms 42 and 43 together. Whereas many of the previous Psalms dealt with David’s illnesses and his physical discomfort and physical attacks, this psalm, not written by David, but by the sons of Korah, deals more with the soul.

Now, I want to pause here for a moment to discuss something that’s really important, a concept that we need to grasp to be able to really take hold of this psalm. You know, it’s very easy for a person from the viewpoint of their soul, their mind and will and emotions, to look at their clothing and say my clothes need washed or they need replaced or they need repaired or something’s wrong, they’re faded. We can look at our clothes and not take it personally because it’s just our clothing.

Something a little more personal, so look at our own bodies and say, need to get a haircut or I need to lose some weight or I need to exercise a bit more. I think it’s a little bit more personal. But still, we’re very used to standing from the viewpoint of the soul and from that perspective to look down at our bodies, our clothing, our homes, and the things around us and to make sound judgments as to what we should do about them.

But how do you make sound judgments about your own soul? How can your soul look at your soul? That’s like a camera trying to take a picture of itself.

So how do we as human beings look at our souls impersonally and be able to make a neutral assessment of what needs to be done at our own mind, in our own wills and in our own emotions, the things that make up our very selves, our very souls? The only way that can be done is if we quit being soulish people and become spiritual people. And from the perspective of the spirit, we can look at our souls neutrally and personally and say, that needs fixed. That thought needs to go. This practice needs to be changed into this. I need to quit feeling this way. I need to change my emotions. And people who are not spiritual, they cannot comprehend. They cannot comprehend this concept. All they can say is, that’s how I feel. This is how I feel. This is how I have to act because it’s how I feel.

But a spiritual person could look down and say, but I shouldn’t feel that way. And so I’m not going to act upon my feelings. I want to do what’s right.

And to take this one step further, I would like you to picture yourself as one of the authors of the Psalm. And you’re talking to God about your own soul. Because one of the questions we’ll encounter here in the Psalm is, why are you sunk down, oh my soul? And we have to ask the question, well, who’s doing the talking and who’s doing the listening? How do I talk to I? How does my soul talk to my soul? That sounds a little nuts.

But from the perspective of the spiritual, we can stand shoulder to shoulder with God. And in fellowship with the spirit, we can address the soul. We can see what needs to be done in the soul. What is lacking that needs to be filled? What is there that needs to be removed? In fellowship with God through His spirit, we can listen to Him and what His perspective is on us. And we can look neutrally at a soul that He created. Yes, it’s my soul. But I can look at it as His creation. I can look at it as His property. And I can stand with Him and agree with Him as to what needs to be done in this soul, which has been assigned to me.

If we can do that, then we are on our way to truly growing into the people God wants us to be. If we can do that, we can really begin to appreciate this Psalm and the ones that follow. Now it says here,

As a deer pants for channels of water, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God’s face? (Psalm 42:1–2) Now what’s interesting is biologically, if you’re thirsty, you know how to quench that thirst.

You know that if you feel thirst, that going and laying in the sun is not going to quench that thirst. Eating a bag of potato chips is not going to quench that thirst. Climbing a tree, running a marathon is not going to quench that thirst. Only the liquid is going to quench your thirst. And my opinion is that everyone is thirsting for the living God. Everyone, every soul on earth is thirsting for God.

But spiritually we are so stupid, we don’t know what is required to quench that thirst. We don’t know that this thirst we feel deep in our souls is a thirst that can only be quenched by the living God. And so we turn to things like money. And that doesn’t quench this thirst. We look to pleasures. That doesn’t quench our thirst. We look to fame and to honor and success, thinking some higher position in life will satisfy that thirst. And none of these things do. No wonder the suicide rate is so high among people who are wealthy and famous, have everything this world has to offer. But they kill themselves. Why? They can’t quench this thirst they have for God. Because they don’t know it’s God that they’re thirsty for.

Now some people will turn to maybe Eastern religion or to the occult to quench their thirst. But if anything, this just aggravates their thirst and they’re trying to quench their thirst with something that’s poisonous. But the spiritual person recognizes that my thirst is for God. After all, our bodies are what? About 80, 85, 90% water? Therefore, when we get thirsty, we know that water is what will once again supply our body with its essence and what it needs. Well, my soul is something that’s breathed into me by God. And God is spirit. And so a spiritual person knows that when my soul is thirsty, the only thing that will quench it is a return to my source. As my body, which is made mostly of water, needs water. My soul, which is made and breathed into me by God’s spirit, needs God.

And so the author of this Psalm recognized what the only thing was that could quench his thirst. And that thirst is for God, but then he clarifies and says for the living God. Not just any God, it has to be the only one true God, the only God who truly lives. And that’s the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our Messiah Yeshua. And so the only way he can have this thirst quenched is to come and appear before God’s face. In Hebrew, to be in one’s presence means to be before their face. And we find face and presence used a number of times throughout this Psalm and the next. And we find that coming before God, seeking his face and finding it is the only thing that satisfies. He says,

My tears have been my food day and night while they say to me all day long, Where is your God? (Psalm 42:3)

We have enemies as we seek the living God. And as we proclaim that he is the answer to all of our thirst in this world, we will have enemies, we’ll have resistance. They’ll ask you, Where is your God? Things aren’t going so great, are they? So where is your God you claim to follow? Where is the God you claim that will answer to your needs and rescue you?

Now it’s one thing when our enemies ask us, Where is your God? But it’s quite a different thing when we begin to doubt God’s presence in our lives. When I was studying this Psalm and I came to this question, Where is your God? I immediately thought back to Exodus chapter 17. After the Israelites had come out of Egypt, they’d seen the plagues, the splitting of the Red Sea, the death of the Egyptian cavalry, and God had supplied, He’d made the bitter water sweet, He’d supplied manna, He brought forth water from a rock, He’s done all these things. And then it says in Exodus 17, 17 and 8, and He called the name of the place Masa and Meribah because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, because they tested Adonai by saying, here’s the question, is Adonai among us or not? (Exodus 17:7–8)

Then boom, Amalek attacked. I think the most wicked question, the most wrongheaded question we who claim to be believers could possibly ask is, is God among us or not?

That is the question that will invite the attack of Amalek, which is fleshliness into our lives. To ask that question, is God among us or not? Yes, he’s among us. The God who cannot lie promised I’ll always be with you, I’ll never leave you or forsake you. (Hebrews 13:5; Joshua 1:5) But when we begin to doubt that and question that, we’re in essence calling God a liar. And things can get very lonely when we begin to ask that wicked question.

So, our enemies ask, where is your God? That’s one thing. But when we begin to ask, is God with me or not?

That’s quite another thing. These things I remember, verse 4, as I pour out, there’s my soul again, I pour out my soul. But again, who is the soul and who is the I who is pouring it out? If you talk to yourself, you’re not crazy. But you do need to understand and ask the question, who is the I who is talking and who is the I who is listening? And if you find yourself talking to yourself, if you find yourself telling yourself, I probably shouldn’t do that, or I need to do that, what that is, that is your soul talking—I’m sorry— your spirit speaking advice to your soul. And that’s a very healthy thing to do. So here the psalmist says, I pour out my soul, I pour out my thoughts, my mind, and my will. These are things I desire, God. These are things I’m asking for. My emotions. You’re allowed to be emotional in prayer. There’s no better place to be emotional than in your prayer between you and God. Being emotional in front of people often is a good idea. Sometimes it’s appropriate, but many times not. How I would go with a throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival. (Psalm 42:4) Here the psalmist says, longing for the days when his enemies seem to be a million miles away. And he was with the throng. He was with all the people leading them into the house of God to bring sacrifices, to celebrate, to praise and worship God. But somehow right now, those days seem so far away. It’s going through a difficult time.

Psalm 42:5–6 — Why Are You Sunken Down, O My Soul?

Then we come to verse five. Why are you sunken down, O my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me?(Psalm 42:5) So here the psalmist is talking to himself. His spirit is speaking to his soul, asking it a question.

Why are you sunken down, O my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me?

Now what I find interesting is that these two words in Hebrew, sunken down is shecha, there you see it, and turmoil is the word hama. Sunken down, something means what it says, to sink down.

And this is used quite a few times in scripture. Let me give you a few examples. Proverbs 2:18. It refers to the adulteress’ house. For her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the departed. (Proverbs 2:18) It’s the word shuach from the word shecha. It sinks down to death in her path to the departed. Proverbs 23:27. For a prostitute is a deep pit; an adulteress is a narrow well. (Proverbs 23:27) For a prostitute is a shucha. It’s a deep pit. So again, something that’s sunken. But hama means to murmur or to roar, to be in turmoil, to be moving up and down. It’s the very opposite of to sink down. This means to rise up and almost to erupt forth. A couple examples of how it’s used. Proverbs 7:11, once again referring to the adulteress. She is loud and wayward; her feet do not stay at home.(Proverbs 7:11) In 1 Kings 1:41, when Joab heard the sound of the trumpet, he said, “Why is the city in such an uproar?” (1 Kings 1:41) Why is the city making such a hama, such an uproar? So think about this for a second. Here the psalmist is asking his soul, why do you sink low? And then why are you breaking out? And then you sink low. What’s going on? And as I look at these two words, they almost give the impression of a storm at sea. I’ve been on ships when the sea is just smooth as glass. It’s beautiful sailing. But I’ve been at sea at other times when everything is doing this [Chaos]. And that is not a pleasant time. And we in our lives are going to experience times when there’s the sinking down, then there’s the turmoil. There’s going to be the shecha, and there’s going to be the shechak, and there’s going to be the hama. And during those times, we need to rock. During those times, we need to be able to ask our souls, why are you going through this? Why is this your experience? And one of the things I try to do when I’m in those periods, and they do come, is I remind myself, I shouldn’t get worried until God gets worried. And I don’t see God getting worried, and therefore I shouldn’t either. And then I think of the great heroes of the Bible. I think Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who refused to bend the knee to Nebuchadnezzar’s idol. So there’s the fiery furnace. (Daniel 3) And they said, well, God can preserve us in the fire, and if He doesn’t, it’s all right. But we know what we’re going to do. And though there must have been some, there had to be some butterflies in their stomach to say the least, they kept calm, and they allowed themselves to be cast into the fire. And in the fire, they remained calm. I think of Daniel being thrown into the lion’s den. (Daniel 6) That would get your heart going, wouldn’t it? But he was there and he’s at peace. So were the lions. And he spent the night there as part of the lion den, at peace, at perfect shalom. So, if you get emotional, it doesn’t mean you’re immature. But when the emotions come, as spiritual people who stand on the rock, we need to learn how to deal with them. In the Garden of Gethsemane, we see Yeshua become very emotional. And so emotional, he sweat drops of blood and begged the Father, if it’s possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done. (Matthew 26:39; Luke 22:42–44) And then when they came and arrested him and carried him away, he was peaceful, like a lamb being led to slaughter. (Isaiah 53:7) Didn’t say a peep. He was in utter, total self-control. He was in total possession of his emotions and of his actions and of his words. That’s how Messiah walked in the deepest and most intense testing that any human being has ever experienced. And that’s the example for us. Don’t let your emotions control you. Self-control, not emotional fervor, but self-control is a fruit of God’s Spirit. (Galatians 5:22–23) Be in control of yourself. So, let’s move on. So he asked the question of his soul, why are you sunken down? Why are you in turmoil within me? And then he talks to his soul. This is what he says, hope in God. For I shall again praise him for his saving presence. (Psalm 42:5) And the word presence there in Hebrew is the word face again. And it’s, this is translated all different kinds of ways. We don’t really quite know how to translate this, but this phrase is saving presence is found three times in the Bible, twice here in Psalm 42, and once in the next Psalm, Psalm 43. And so only with those three occurrences, it’s difficult to know just how to render it. So I’m following the rendering that one of my favorite translators uses. And he puts his saving presence. So that’s what I’m going with, but I’m not going to be adamant about that. And then verse six, my God, my soul is sunken down within me. Therefore, I remember you from the land of Jordan, and of Hermons, from Mount Mizar. (Psalm 42:6) We see that again. We’ll see the word turmoil again too before this Psalm is over. My God, my soul is sunken down within me. Therefore, I remember you from the land of Jordan, from the Hermans and Mount Mazar. Now, your Bible probably says from Mount Hermon, but the word Hermon is plural here. So it’s referring to the Hermon Mountains, these really huge mountains. And Mount Mazar. This is the only occurrence of this in the Bible. And literally means the small mountain. So he says, from the land of Jordan, I remember the big mountains. I remember the little mountain. The Targum, the Aramaic translation of Psalms, puts in Mount Sinai here for Mount Mazar. And the Midrash Tehillim puts in the Temple Mount for Mount Mazar. They’re trying to figure out what this Mount Mazar is. We don’t know. So, your guess is as good as mine.

Psalm 42:7–8 — Deep Calls to Deep

And then this amazing verse, verse 7. Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me. (Psalm 42:7) The two halves of this verse don’t seem to go together. This phrase deep calls to deep or deep is called into deep seems to refer to the deep parts of me, God, are calling out and thirsty for the deep parts of you. There’s something deeper than me that wants you. And that’s a good thing. That’s a good kind of a hunger to have. But then all your breakers and your waves passed over me. This is never a good thing. And these things tend to be mixed. I know my own life and I have a pretty good life. It’s pretty peaceful. But I always have these niggling urgencies all the time, emails and texts and things I need to do and conversations and calls I need to make and things I need to read. And, you know, there’s always just this constant percolating of stuff. And inside I’m just thinking, I just want to be still. The deep part of me is just calling the deep part of God. And yet I feel like I’m always having waves of stuff come over me, things I have to do, places I have to be. And it’s all good. I’m not complaining. But I think this is a pretty typical human experience where there’s a hunger for peace and stillness and oneness of God. And yet we live life in this world that’s like a sea that’s in a storm. Now this phrase, all your breakers and your waves passed over me, when I read that, I thought that sounds really familiar. And it’s five words in Hebrew. And that exact same phrase, word for word is found in Jonah’s prayer in the Book of Jonah, chapter two, verse three: “all your waves and your billows passed over me.” (Jonah 2:3) And as I went there and read Jonah’s prayer, it’s I think it’s eight or nine verses, maybe ten. His entire prayer that he prayed out of the belly of the fish, the entire prayer reflects Psalm 42 and 43. He talks about his soul. There’s this five word phrase that’s found in the Psalm and in Jonah’s prayer. There are other things that are similar between the prayer and these Psalms. So I don’t know which came first. I assume the Psalm did. But it’s interesting to go and to read that prayer of Jonah in chapter two. And so as you read these two Psalms, maybe you feel like you’re in the belly of the fish and you can’t see a way out and you’re just holding on for dear life. Well, tell your soul to do what the Psalmist told his soul to do. Hope in God. Write it out. The story is not over yet. By day Adonai commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. (Psalm 42:8) So in light of verse 7, verse 8 is still true. Though I feel like I’m in the middle of a storm being tossed around, by day Adonai commands his steadfast love and at night his song is with me. A prayer to the God of my life.

Psalm 42:9–11 — Where Is Your God? Hope in God

I say to God, my rock: “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” (Psalm 42:9) Now this sounds very odd until we understand what forget means whenever it’s used in the context of God. God forgets nothing. There’s nothing faulty with his memory. But this is a figure of speech. Whenever the scriptures refer to God forgetting, it means he does not take action. So when he says he forgets our sins, doesn’t mean he doesn’t still remember them. What it means is he’s not going to act on them. He’s forgiven us and forgotten them. (Jeremiah 31:34; Hebrews 8:12) Which means we can also forgive and forget. But remember, forget doesn’t mean you don’t remember. Forget means you don’t take action. So I can still remember possibly something somebody did to me, but because I’ve forgiven them, I’m not taking any action on that. I’m going to treat them as if that thing never happened, as if that word was never said. So when God forgets, it means he’s not taking action at the moment. And when God remembers, it means he’s acting. Now he’s taking action. So let’s read it in that context. I say to God, my rock, why aren’t you doing something now? Why aren’t you acting yet? When are you going to do something? And that’s a good question. It’s a question asked many times in the Scriptures. Ma’tai (מָתַי), when, at what time are you going to take action? I know you’re going to. How much longer do I have to wait? And the answer to that question is until it’s exactly the right time. And then God will do what God will do. Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? I don’t want to be in mourning because of the things the enemy are doing. Does this have to continue? Is it necessary for more time to be spent in this pain and distress? And it says, 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?” (Psalm 42:10) A better translation, this word for deadly wound is actually the word murder, with murder in my bones. Very odd phrase, found nowhere else in the scriptures. But it’s almost like they want to murder me. I can almost feel like they’re killing me now. But as with a deadly wound to my bones, my adversaries taunt me while they say to me all the day long, where is your God? When your enemies, and when your spiritual enemy, Satan, whispers to you, yeah, where’s God now? Answer him, because you know the answer. And the answer is this, he’s sitting on his throne. (Isaiah 6:1; Psalm 11:4) He’s watching this conversation right now. And since he’s watching, I’m going to stand strong, because I know he’s going to remember, I know he’s going to act. But that’s where God is right now, sitting on his throne, undisturbed. So I’m going to be undisturbed as well. Because when he acts, all will be well. He will remember. Verse 11, the last verse, 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, my salvation and my God. (Psalm 42:11) And there’s the second appearance of that word. Why are you erupting, exploding within me? And again, hear the psalmist from the position of this spirit can look at his soul and say, Why are you getting all worked up? And then it’s like he’s calming his soul. Are you able to do that? That’s a skill we must be able to develop, especially in these days that the world is shaken. We have got to be able to tell our souls, to speak to our minds, our wills and emotions and say, calm down, take a breath, be still, stand on the rock. (Psalm 46:10; Matthew 7:24–25) God is going to act at exactly the right time. So hope in God. So again, why are you cast down? Why are you sunken down, oh my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him for his saving presence, his face and my God. Wonderful Psalm. And again, the next five verses in Psalm 43 are a continuation of this. And so I will see you back here with Psalm 43 shortly. But until then, I wish you shalom and may God bless.”

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