Psalms 42:1. As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
It is said that when they cannot find water, they sometimes let loose a hart, which, flying over the desert sand, by instinct seems to scent out the water-brook. If he cannot find it, however, the stag is subject to a burning thirst. He stands and pants. His sides heave while he thirsts. So says David, «As the hart panteth (or «brayeth») «after the water-brooks.»
Psalms 42:2. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?
Not God's worship only; not God's people, but God himself he pants for. Oh! for such a thirst. The next best thing to having God is to have an insatiable thirst after him. Do you think a soul ever could be cast away that longed for God? Impossible. There is never a soul in hell that had any sincere longings after God. Grace is in thy heart, dear hearer. That thirst is grace if thou art longing after the living God.
Psalms 42:3. My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
«Thou art forsaken. God has forgotten thee.» At the very thought of this, he had the salt meat of his tears, and nothing else, for there is nothing that touches a Christian's heart and wounds him to the quick like that. «Where is thy God?»
Psalms 42:4-5. When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holy day. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.
See how he clings to God in the dark. When the question cuts through his soul, «Where is thy God?» he seems to say, «I will none but him. I will follow hard after him. He is everything to me. I will be sick till he heals me. I will be in the dark till he gives me light. I look to none, but to my God.»
Psalms 42:6. O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar.
Or the little hill. I did know thee there. These were thy trysting-places. There didst thou meet with me, and I do remember this, and canst thou have met me in love so often, and wilt thou cast me away now? Thou didst there manifest thyself to me as thou dost not unto the world, and thou art an unchanging lover. Wilt thou not come to me again?
Psalms 42:7. Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts:
Heaven's troubles and earth's trials seem to clasp hands and form a waterspout. The deep of thy dark purposes seems to echo to the deep of human malice and Satanic wrath. «Deep calleth to deep.»
Psalms 42:7. All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
Thou haste concentrated an ocean upon my devoted head.
Psalms 42:8. Yet.
Oh! what a glorious «yet» that is. How it swims! Never was there a swimming suit like that which is made of hope.
Psalms 42:8. The LORD will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.
How dear God gets to be to a gracious man in the time of trouble. Just now he called God the health of his countenance. Now he calls him his very life. «My prayer unto the God of my life.»
Psalms 42:9-11. I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God? Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.
Or, as the old psalm puts it: «Yea, mine own God is he.» A sweet collocation of words, indeed! «Yea, mine own God is he.» He seems to revel in God; to find intense delight in God. God is everything to him.