Psalm 42: words of one who suffers but trusts in God

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Psalm 42 should probably form a single poem with the 43rd Psalm. By all indications, having become a very long one, it was divided into two parts for better use in praise. Psalm 42 is a psalm of lament, with emphasis on trust in God. See our interpretation.

The power of the sacred words of psalm 42

Read carefully and faithfully the words of the psalm:

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1 As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.
²My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
³My tears have been my food
day and night,
while people say to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
⁴These things I remember
as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go to the house of God
under the protection of the Mighty One
with shouts of joy and praise
among the festive throng.

⁵Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.

⁶My soul is downcast within me;
therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
⁷Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me.

⁸By day the Lord directs his love,
at night his song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life.

⁹I say to God my Rock,
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
oppressed by the enemy?”
¹⁰My bones suffer mortal agony
as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”

¹¹Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.

Psalm 42

Interpretation of psalm 42

In order for you to interpret the entire message of this mighty Psalm 42, the WeMystic Team made a detailed description of each passage of this passage, see below:

Verses 1 to 4

In these verses, the psalmist shows his eagerness to feel the presence of God. He shows his constant suffering and comes to question the Lord where he is. He ends this passage by saying “with shouts of joy and praise” using the roaring verb to express his spiritual thirst for God. When he mentioned the crowds he celebrated, he recalls the Temple in Jerusalem and the longing he felt for worshiping God.

Verse 5

These words present in Psalm 42 are also present in Psalm 43, reinforcing the idea that they would be a single text. The psalmist remembers that one day he will experience the presence of God and his heart is full of hope. Here, one perceives the intention of devotion to the goodness of God.

Verse 6

This passage may seem complex to those who do not know the story. From the Land of Jordan and since the Hermonites it refers to the promised land that the exiled people one day believed it belonged to them.

Verses 7 and 8

In these verses of Psalm 42 the psalmist speaks of the abyss and the waves that have passed over him, showing his difficulties and sufferings. However, his hope is not shaken because he knows the eternal goodness of God and prays to Him.

Verses 9 and 10

The last passages of this psalm are confusing and disturbing because it goes through moments of doubting the Lord to others who put all their hope in their salvation. He says that God is his rock, his protection, his foundation, but at the same time he questions God where He is when his adversaries have hurt him.

Verse 11

Even in the midst of difficulties, doubts, and pain, the psalmist knows that nothing else he can do unless he expects God to have mercy on him and save him.

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