Psalms 42:1,2 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

As the hart panteth תערג, tagnarog, brayeth: “The word is strong, and expresses that eagerness and fervency of desire, which extreme thirst may be supposed to raise in an animal almost spent in its flight from the pursuing dogs. Nothing can give us a higher idea of the psalmist's ardent and inexpressible longing to attend the public worship of God than the burning thirst of such a hunted creature for a cooling and refreshing draught of water.” So panteth my soul after thee, O God After the enjoyment of thee in thy sanctuary, as appears from Psalms 42:4. My soul thirsteth for God Thirst is more vehement than hunger, and more impatient of dissatisfaction; for the living God Him who is the eternal spring of life and comfort. This he mentions as a just cause of his thirst. He did not thirst after vain, useless idols, but after the only true and living God, who was his life, and the length of his days, Deuteronomy 30:20; without whose presence and favour David accounted himself for a dead and lost man; when shall I come and appear before God In the place of his special presence and public worship? When, when will the happy hour return that I shall once more have access to his tabernacle, where he manifests his presence, and from which I am now driven by them who seek my life? Archbishop Sharp's Sermons, vol. 3. p. 2.