Thy Strong Word – Psalm 42: My Saving Stream Ever Before Me

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Rev. Kevin Parviz, pastor of Congregation Chai v’Shalom in St. Louis, Missouri, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Psalm 42.

“As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.” This psalm’s beautiful opening line is well known and has found its way into contemporary music. What does it really mean though? What was the psalmist going through when he sang these words?

This psalm is about God’s presence in the Temple. Even though the psalmist longed to go up to the Temple, adversaries would prevent him every time a major festival came around. The imagery of panting thirst, sorrowful tears, and overwhelming waters recalls our Lord’s words when He was teaching in the Temple at the Feast of Booths: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” The God of creation is never far from His faithful, and the purest streams flow from His Messiah, the true Temple.

Underwriter of Thy Strong Word

Thy Strong Word is a daily in-depth study of the books of the Bible with host Rev. AJ Espinosa and guest pastors from across the country. Thy Strong Word is graciously underwritten by the Lutheran Heritage Foundation and produced by the LCMS Office of National Mission.

Psalm 42

Book Two

Why Are You Cast Down, O My Soul?

To the choirmaster. A Maskil[a] of the Sons of Korah.

42 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?[b]
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
a multitude keeping festival.

5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation[c] 6 and my God.

My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
have gone over me.
8 By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God, my rock:
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10 As with a deadly wound in my bones,
my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”

11 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.

Footnotes:

Psalm 42:1 Probably a musical or liturgical term

Psalm 42:2 Revocalization yields and see the face of God

Psalm 42:5 Hebrew the salvation of my face; also verse 11 and 43:5

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. esv.org