Chapter Overview
Summary
Psalm 42 (MT) / Psalm 41 (LXX) opens Book II of the Psalter — a Korahite (sons of Korah) maskil lamenting exile from the sanctuary. The opening image — 'as a deer pants for flowing streams, so my soul pants for you, O God' (v. 1) — is the Psalter's signature thirst-for-God metaphor. Psalms 42 and 43 share the same three-verse refrain ('why are you cast down, O my soul?') and may originally have been a single psalm; the LXX and MT alike preserve them as separate, though the liturgy treats them as a unit. The psalm's 'deep calls to deep' (v. 7) is one of the Hebrew Bible's most resonant images of psychic-cosmic dialogue.
Notable Variants
42:5, 42:11, 43:5 shared-refrain structure ('why are you cast down, O my soul'); 42:1 'as the deer pants' as thirst-for-God metaphor; 42:7 'deep calls to deep' as inner-tumult cosmology.
Structural Notes
MT Ps 42 = LXX Ps 41. 12 verses (MT/LXX), 11 verses (English). Opens Book II (Pss 42–72). Paired liturgically with Ps 43.
For the choirmaster. A maskil of the Sons of Korah.
Superscription 'a Maskil of the sons of Korah' tracks MT. The Korahite collection (Pss 42, 44–49, 84–85, 87–88) — descendants of the Korah of Numbers 16 — became Levitical gatekeepers and temple musicians (1 Chr 9:19, 2 Chr 20:19). Maskil ('instruction, contemplation') is a psalm-genre designation.
As a deer pants for channels of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.
'As the deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God' tracks MT. The deer-and-water imagery supplies the Psalter's foundational thirst-for-God metaphor. John 7:37–38 ('if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink') and Revelation 22:17 ('let the one who is thirsty come') develop the drink-Christological theology. The 'flowing streams' (literally 'water channels,' aphesin hydatōn) anticipates the Johannine 'living water' tradition.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When will I come and see the face of God?
'My soul thirsts for God, for the living God' tracks MT. Living-God language — a monotheistic polemic against dead-idol theology. Psalm 84:2, Matthew 16:16 ('Son of the living God'), Revelation 7:2 extend the phrase.
My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
'My tears have been my food day and night' tracks MT. The tears-as-food image for the intensity-of-grief. Matthew 5:4 ('blessed are those who mourn') and Revelation 21:4 ('he will wipe away every tear') engage the tear-theology.
These things I remember, and I pour out my soul within me: how I used to walk with the throng, leading them in procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving — a multitude keeping festival.
'These things I remember, as I pour out my soul' tracks MT. The pilgrimage-to-the-sanctuary memory — worshipping with the festal throng — is the exile's pain: not physical pain but nostalgia for the divine presence.
Why are you cast down, my soul, and why do you groan within me? Hope in God, for I will yet praise him — the salvation of his face.
'Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?' tracks MT — FIRST OCCURRENCE of the refrain (repeats at v. 12 and Ps 43:5). The soul-addressing-itself — the psalmist coaching his own interior life — is the contemplative-pattern Augustine develops in the Confessions.
My God, my soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan and the Hermons, from Mount Mizar.
'My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar' tracks MT. The northern exile-location — far from Jerusalem's Mount Zion — is the psalm's geographic crisis. The Jordan-Hermon-Mizar triad locates the psalmist in the northern hill-country.
Deep calls to deep at the sound of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have swept over me.
'Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls' tracks MT. ABYSS-CALLS-TO-ABYSS (abyssos abysson epikaleitai). The cosmic-deep imagery — the primordial chaos-waters of Genesis 1:2 — the flood-overwhelming of the soul is both the psalmist's inner-crisis and a theological cosmology of being-in-divine-presence. 'All your breakers and your waves have gone over me' anticipates Jonah 2:3's flood-imagery and the baptismal death-to-life theology of Romans 6.
By day the LORD commands his faithful love, and at night his song is with me — a prayer to the God of my life.
'By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me' tracks MT. Day-and-night divine-presence — a confession of chesed-continuity even in exile.
I say to God my rock, "Why have you forgotten me? Why must I walk in darkness under the pressure of the enemy?"
'I say to God, my Rock: Why have you forgotten me?' tracks MT. The 'why have you forgotten' petition — intensifying the Ps 42:6 refrain; a proto-Psalm-22 lament-pattern.
Like a shattering blow to my bones, my adversaries taunt me, saying to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
'As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me' tracks MT. The 'where is your God?' taunt — same formula as Ps 79:10, 115:2, and the Joel 2:17 liturgical intercession.
Why are you cast down, my soul, and why do you groan within me? Hope in God, for I will yet praise him — the salvation of my face and my God.
'Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?' tracks MT — SECOND OCCURRENCE of the refrain. The doxological closure ('hope in God, for I shall again praise him') is the psalm's faith-over-despair resolution.