Psalm 42: Desiring God (Part 1)

One reason to love the Psalms is that they serve as a fierce rejoinder to the trendy spirituality of our age. If we are honest, sometimes (whether through the influence of our wider culture or through the influence of other Christians), we find ourselves passively defaulting to this mode of thinking that Christianity should be pleasant. Christians can find themselves deluded into thinking that Jesus equals relief from outward troubles and trials, and if we are experiencing troubles and trials, then our faith is defunct. Following Christ has become hard, but following him should not be so hard. Perhaps we would never put it as crassly as that, but I wonder how many of us have quietly entertained such notions.

And yet, I suspect the experience of most readers would put an immediate end to that line of thinking; Scripture and life experience bear witness to the fact that following the Savior in the midst of hardship is more common than uncommon. So what does a Christian do when following the Lord and when faithfulness is hard?

This is where Psalm 42 is so marvelously helpful. As we read the psalm and hear the anguish of the psalmist’s heart, a soul being poured out, we find a rebuttal to the superficial spirituality of our day. John Piper famously employed the phrase “Desiring God” for the title of his book and his subsequent teaching ministry, and that expression really does capture well the piety of Psalm 42.1 Put another way, we might call Psalm 42 “Desiring God in the midst of hardship.”

For whatever reason, the author of this psalm is unable to be at corporate worship; he is separated from the worship services at the temple, and the very thought of that separation is torturous to him. Worse than that, his enemies are mocking his God. The thought of God’s covenant faithfulness being questioned by the enemies of God is killing him—it drives him almost to the point of despair. Derek Kidner says, “This Psalm is one of the most sadly beautiful in the whole Psalter.”2

We do not know the precise context of this psalm. Perhaps it was written at David’s instruction at the time of Absalom’s rebellion, during which time David would have been excluded from the worship at the tabernacle. Other scholars posit that this psalm was written during the time of exile, as many of the psalm’s themes and language would bear relevance for an exilic people.3

Many scholars also believe Psalms 42 and 43 may originally have been composed as a singular textual unit. The common refrain in 42:5, 11, and 43:5 (“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?”) is perhaps evidence of this original textual unity, as well as the fact that Psalm 42 bears a superscription while Psalm 43 does not. Additionally, the question “Why do I go about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” of 42:9 is echoed closely in 43:2. On the other hand, most Hebrew manuscripts and the Septuagint divide them into separate psalms. In fact, the Septuagint goes so far as to add a distinct superscription at the beginning of Psalm 43. It is possible that Psalm 43, with its slightly different feel and tone, was written as a companion text to be paired with Psalm 42.4 In any event, since Psalms 42 and 43 are presented as distinct psalms in our English Bibles, we will devotionally consider these two psalms separately.

We will look at Psalm 42 in three headings. In verses 1–5 of Psalm 42, the psalmist expresses a longing for God because he is in exile from corporate worship. That is the theme of the first five verses: the prayer of a longing heart. In verses 6–11, we see the cry of a troubled heart. Thirdly, we will consider what this psalm as a whole teaches us about the heart of our Lord.

The Prayer of a Longing Heart

Based on the superscription, “A Maskil of the Sons of Korah,” it is possible the sons of Korah were the authors of this psalm, these men who were among the most important musicians in Old Testament temple and tabernacle worship services. It is also possible that the sons of Korah performed this psalm after David had written it.

Scholars believe the author was way off in the north of Israel,5 separated from the temple, maybe during a time of war. He longs to be back at God’s house, and he turns this longing into a prayer and song of faith. He dedicates this song to the choirmaster; he wants these words to be used in the worship services because there are crucial things for God’s people to learn in them.

Notice verses 1 and 2:

As a deer pants for flowing streams,
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?

This vivid language depicts not just a slight dehydration, but a kind of agonizing thirst in the midst of a fierce drought that must be quenched. Franz Delitzsch puts it graphically when he writes that it expresses “not merely a quiet languishing, but a strong, audible thirsting or panting for water.”6 He employs the word “soul,” speaking of the whole person and the essence of a man at his core, as panting for God and thirsting for the “living God” (literally, “the God of life”) (v. 2). In stark contrast to false, dead idols who have nothing to offer, as water is to the desperate deer, so is this God of life to the longing believer. “Only God can satisfy the soul.”7

It is not just the outward magnificence of Old Testament temple worship that the psalmist misses. He does mention that later on in the psalm, but right here at the outset, he says quite explicitly that what he misses is God. He misses communing with his God in worship, in the singing and the prayers and the praises and the Scripture in which he would have participated at the temple. For this believer, not being able to participate in those means of grace, not being able to worship in God’s house, is absolutely agonizing to him.

There is a principle disclosed here: for the believer in both the old covenant and the new, love for God’s house is of the essence of true piety.8 Of course, what we mean by that is not a devotion to or an affection for a particular building or assembly hall per se, “God’s house” being shorthand for the worship of God, the presence of God, communion with God in worship, the assembly of God’s people together in fellowship and shared adoration of their common Lord, and so forth. Love for God’s house and all that it represents stands at the core of Christian piety and devotion.

William Swan Plumer wrote, “Those who go into voluntary exile from God’s worship, should they not suspect that not all is right with them?” 9 That is a convicting suggestion! And that question is raised for us as we look at the grief of this Old Testament saint as he considers the worship of God, which he is being denied!

You see, godliness is not simply being satisfied with where we are. It is not simply being satisfied with our status quo spiritual maturity. Yes, godliness with contentment is great gain (1 Tim 6:6). But from Psalm 42, we find that the godly man or woman has a desire for more of God’s grace, for more fellowship with him, and for more knowledge of him. We see it in Psalm 42, do we not? This Old Testament believer cannot get enough of God! And he knows that in the midst of God’s people, there is a presence of God which is present like it is nowhere else. Jesus promises this very thing later on: he promises to be present in a unique way with his people as they are the church of God (Matt 18:20).

Notice as well that the psalmist’s longing is not for some isolated, mystical experience of God off by himself, but rather an experience of God together with the people of God—his temple, his house (Eph 2:19–22), worshipping him together.

Therein is a lesson for us. This is a picture of a believer. A deer (v. 1), running through the woods, galloping along, tired and thirsty, panting for a refreshing drink from cooling streams—the psalmist likens the believer to just such an existence. To long after the living God so much is like ardently desiring cold water in an arid, parched, and desperately dry season—craving it, needing it, not being satisfied until we have drunk our fill.

Is this true of us? Is such a longing for communion with the Lord, a longing for God himself, particularly in the communion of the saints, descriptive of and emblematic of our piety? Nothing else will satisfy. Nothing else will do.

There is more for us to unearth in this beautiful chapter of Scripture, and we will do just that when we return next week to Part 2 of our ongoing Saturday Psalm Series.

Notes

  1. John Piper, Desiring God, rev. and exp. (Colorado Springs: Multnomah Books, 2011).
  2. Derek Kidner, Psalms 1–72, reprint ed. (Lisle, Il: IVP Academic, 2014), 182.
  3. Christopher Ash, The Psalms: A Christ-Centered Commentary, vol. 2 (Wheaton: Crossway, 2024), 516–17.
  4. Ash, The Psalms, 515.
  5. Kidner, Psalms, 182.
  6. Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms, trans. Francis Bolton (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1892), 2:55.
  7. Ash, The Psalms, 519.
  8. W. S. Plumer, Studies in the Book of Psalms (Philadelphia; Edenborough: J. B. Lippincott Company; A & C Black, 1872), 499.
  9. Plumer, Psalms, 499.

©Sean Morris. All Rights Reserved.

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    Post authored by:

  • Sean Morris
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    Sean was educated at Grove City College, Reformed Theological Seminary (Jackson, MS), and the University of Glasgow (Scotland). He is an ordained teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America, and serves as a minister at the Covenant Presbyterian Church in Oak Ridge, TN. He also serves as the Academic Dean of the Blue Ridge Institute for Theological Education. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Historical Theology at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Sean lives in Oak Ridge with his wife, Sarah, along with their children and useless beagle.

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