Morning Repost: Psalms 42 To the Chief Musician. A Maschil of the sons of Korah. 1 As the hart pants for the water brooks, 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? 3 My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually say to me, “Where is your God?” “This is the second Maschil Psalm, for instruction of the godly of that day." (Gaebelein)—the sons of Korah. “Korah and his compilers were swallowed up quick by the earth in the wilderness for their gainsaying, Numbers 16:1-50, but some of his sons, disliking his practice, escaped, and of them came Heman (the nephew of Samuel), a chief singer, 1 Chronicles 6:23.”(Trapp) They were to seek the Lord, as David did, who composed this psalm beyond the Jordan, “in the vicinity of mount Hermon, when he fled from Absalom.” (Sutcliffe) “These were Levites and the office of keepers of the door of the sanctuary had been hereditary in their family from the time of Moses… The ascription of authorship to a group is remarkable, and has led to the suggestion that the superscription does not specify the authors, but the persons for whose use the psalms in question were composed.” (A. Maclaren) “It was the will of God to raise up saints where they could have been least looked for. Who should imagine that from the posterity of him who said, ‘Ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Aaron,’ should have risen those whose sweet Psalms would be the heritage of the church of God...?" (J. M. Neale) “‘As the hart panteth after the water brooks ‘— The hart is not only fond of feeding near some water for the benefit of drinking, ‘but when he is hard hunted, and nearly spent, he will take to some river or brook, in which,’ says Tuberville, ‘he will keep as long as his breath will suffer him. Understand that when a hart is spent and sore run, his last refuge is to the water; and he will commonly descend down the streame and swimme in the very middest thereof; for he will take as good heede as he can to touch no boughes or twygges that grow upon the sides of the river, for feare lest the hounds should there take scent of him. And sometimes the hart will lye under the water, all but his very nose; and I have seene divers lye so until the hounds have been upon them, before they would rise; for they are constrayned to take the water as their last refuge.’ [Tuberville's Art of Venerie, chapter 40: Lond. 4th., 1611.] The above extracts will give a fine illustration of this passage. The hart feels himself almost entirely spent; he is nearly hunted down; the dogs are in full pursuit; he is parched with thirst; and in a burning heat pants after the water, and when he comes to the river, plunges in as his last refuge. Thus pursued, spent, and nearly ready to give up the ghost, the psalmist pants for God, for the living God! [that Living Water] for Him who can give life, and save from death.” (Adam Clarke) “’When shall I come and appear before God?’- at the house of God, particularly at the mercyseat. “Those are the sweetest remembrances, however mingled with tears, which callback past enjoyments of grace and divine fellowship. What can be more refreshing, in a dark hour, when all comfort seems for a season to be withdrawn, than the recollection that in such a place, at such a time, and upon such an occasion, the Lord did manifest himself to my soul? Jacob's Bethel, and Moses' bush, opened sources of relief upon numberless occasions of this sort. Genesis 32:12; Exodus 3:2; Deuteronomy 33:16.” (Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary) “In the mouth of a Christian these words would import: ‘When shall I see my heavenly country? When shall I come to God, the Judge of all, and to Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant?’ He who is a stranger and a pilgrim here below, and feels a heart full of piety to God, may use these words in this sense; but he who feels himself here at home, whose soul is not spiritual, wishes the earth to be eternal, and himself eternal on it - feels no panting after the living God.” (Adam Clarke) “‘Tears have been my meat.’— my food— “‘day and night’; that is, constantly; without intermission.” (Albert Barnes)— “While they continue say to me, “Where is your God?’”— This is the voice of the prince of the air: “‘Where is thy God?’ So he dealt with the head of the church, our blessed Savior Himself, when he came to tempt Him. ‘If thou be the Son of God, command these stones to be made bread.’ Mt 4:3. He comes with an ‘if,’ he labored to shake Him in His Sonship. The devil, since he was divided from God himself eternally, is become a spirit of division; he labors to divide even God the Father from His own Son; ‘If thou be the Son of God?’ So he labors to sever Christians from their head Christ. ‘Where is thy God?’” (Richard Sibbes) 4 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast. 5 Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of my countenance. His brethren, derided his confidence that he had publicly confessed. “Hearing of his flight, and presuming he was now forever lost, they exclaimed, ‘Where is now thy God.’ This was the more afflictive, as he had gone with those men to the house of God, and headed their devotion in all public days of joy and thanksgiving. Hence we should learn to trust in God alone, and not repose too much confidence in men.” (Sutcliffe) 6 O my God, my soul is cast down within me; therefore I will remember You from the land of the Jordan, and from the heights of Hermon, from the Hill Mizar. “Biblical poetry praises Hermon for its height and for causing dew on Zion (Ps 133:3), and it was famed for its wildlife (Sg 4:8). It also appears in tandem with Mt Tabor (Ps 89:12) and with the Jordan (Ps 42:6). The mountain itself is about 13 miles (21 kilometers) long and rises to a height of 9,166 feet (2.8 kilometers).” (Tyndale Bible Dictionary) Mt. Herman represented the source of water, that is the Spirit. It was not mentioned by name in the New Testament. Yet it is the likely site of one major recorded event - the transfiguration. The included description in the text concerning the location all are met in this prominent locale: In the region of Caesarea Philippi (Matthew 16:13, Mark 8:27)- A ‘high mountain’ (Matthew 17:1, Mark 9:2) 3)-A mountain not needing a name as it would be known by all (Luke 9:28). Let us fix our eyes on our Living God. 7 Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; all Your waves and billows have gone over me. 8 The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me— a prayer to the God of my life. 9 I will 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 breaking of my bones, my enemies reproach me, while they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” 11 Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God. These waters of renewal of God call unto the waters of afflictions of God. “Deep calleth unto deep, i.e. one affliction comes immediately after another, as if it were called for and invited by the former; which he expresseth by a metaphor taken— From the old flood, when the upper deep, or abyss of waters, (in the clouds,) called the lower deep, or abyss of waters in the sea and rivers, that both might unite their forces together to drown the world. And thus the Chaldee understands it... From violent and successive showers of rain [of Hermon]; which frequently come down from heaven, as it were, at the noise or call of God’s water-spouts, to wit, the clouds; which by their rattling noises and terrible thunders do in a manner invite and call forth the showers which are contained in their bowels. ‘All thy waves and thy billows;’ thou hast sent one sharp trial or affliction upon me after another. ‘Are gone over me’, i.e. are gone over my head, as this same verb is used, Psalms 38:4. They do not lightly sprinkle me, but almost overwhelm me.” (Matthew Poole) But then come the change. “'[Yet] the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his [new] song [shall be] with me, [and] my prayer unto the God of my life.' etc. ” The worshippers will be renewed by His Spirit- through His Word and ordinances.