READ: Ps. 42:1–11: As the deer pants for the water brooks … When shall I come and appear before God? … Why are you cast down … Hope in God … all Your waves and billows have gone over me … Where is your God? … I shall yet praise Him …
This Psalm refers to the time when David fled from Jerusalem because of Absalom without access to the Ark of the Covenant (2 Sam. 15:25). The sons of Korah were at that time Levitical singers and poets.
In verses 2–6 the poet laments the fact that he cannot appear before God. His strong longing for the presence of the living God makes him sick with sorrow, as a deer cries out in thirst.
This absence becomes even heavier for him when his enemies mock him by suggesting that God has now abandoned him. One may think of the taunting curse words of Shimei toward David when he fled from Absalom (2 Sam. 16:7,8).
The poet experiences a mixture of sorrow and joy when in his present situation he thinks back to the festive procession to the house of God when the ark was brought with music (2 Sam. 6). In verse 6 the poet, in his distress, lets his faith speak: Hope in God!
Yet he is still tossed back and forth between hope and despair. In verse 7 he expresses that there is no comfort within himself. He seeks it with the LORD, even though he is in the mountain region east of the Jordan, so far from the Ark. In his isolation he experiences a heavy trial from the LORD. This is depicted as a surging flood of water passing over him (v.8).
But then there is again deliverance from the LORD, to which the poet clings (v.9). In all this he knows himself upheld by the LORD, in which prayer is an important means to express his longing for Him.
Thus the Psalm ends again with the confession of faith in and hope on the LORD.
It is the LORD who also comes to our aid again and again in answer to prayer with His promises and help in weakness or gloom. Therefore it is fitting for us continually to praise Him for this (v.11).
What similar circumstances are there now?
Singing: Ps. 42:1,5,7