Psalm 42-49

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Psalms 42

If the book of Psalms be, as some have styled it, a mirror or looking-glass of pious and devout affections, this psalm in particular deserves, as much as any one psalm, to be so entitled, and is as proper as any to kindle and excite such in us: gracious desires are here strong and fervent; gracious hopes and fears, joys and sorrows, are here struggling, but the pleasing passion comes off a conqueror. Or we may take it for a conflict between sense and faith, sense objecting and faith answering.... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Psalms 42:1-5

Holy love to God as the chief good and our felicity is the power of godliness, the very life and soul of religion, without which all external professions and performances are but a shell and carcase: now here we have some of the expressions of that love. Here is, I. Holy love thirsting, love upon the wing, soaring upwards in holy desires towards the Lord and towards the remembrance of his name (Ps. 42:1, 2): ?My soul panteth, thirsteth, for God, for nothing more than God, but still for more... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Psalms 42:6-11

Complaints and comforts here, as before, take their turn, like day and night in the course of nature. I. He complains of the dejections of his spirit, but comforts himself with the thoughts of God, Ps. 42:6. 1. In his troubles. His soul was dejected, and he goes to God and tells him so: O my God! my soul is cast down within me. It is a great support to us, when upon any account we are distressed, that we have liberty of access to God, and liberty of speech before him, and may open to him the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 42

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 42 To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah . Of the word "Maschil", See Gill on Psalm 32:1 , title. Korah was he who was at the head of a conspiracy against Moses and Aaron, for which sin the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed alive him and his company, and fire devoured two hundred and fifty more; the history of which is recorded in Numbers 16:1 ; yet all his posterity were not cut off, Numbers 26:11 ; some were in David's time porters, or... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 42:1

As the hart panteth after the water brooks ,.... Either through a natural thirst that creature is said to have; or through the heat of the summer season; and especially when hunted by dogs, it betakes itself to rivers of water, partly to make its escape, and partly to extinguish its thirst, and refresh itself. The word here used denotes the cry of the hart, when in distress for water, and pants after it, and is peculiar to it; and the verb being of the feminine gender, hence the Septuagint... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 42:2

My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God ,.... Who is so called, in opposition to the idols of the Gentiles, which were lifeless statues; and who is the author, giver, and maintainer of natural life; and who has promised and provided eternal life in his Son; and is himself the fountain of life, and the fountain of living waters, and a place of broad rivers and streams: particularly his lovingkindness, which is better than life, is a pure river of water of life, the streams where make... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 42:3

My tears have been my meat day and night ,.... That is, he could not eat for sorrow, like Hannah, 1Sa 1:7,8 ; or while he was eating tears fell in plenty, and they were as common, day and night, as his food, and mixed with it F6 "--lachrymaeque alimenta fuere", Ovid. Metamorph. l. 10. Fab. 1. v. 75. ; see Psalm 80:5 ; while they continually say unto me , his enemies the Philistines, where is thy God ? theirs were to be seen and pointed at, as the host of heaven, the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 42:4

When I remember these things ,.... Either the reproaches of his enemies; or rather his past enjoyments of God in his house, he after makes mention of; I pour out my soul in me , that is, he had no life nor spirit in him, but was quite overwhelmed with distress and anguish; or he poured out his soul in prayer to God, that it might be with him as in times past; for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God ; the place of public worship, whither he had often... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 42:5

Why art thou cast down, O my soul ?.... The psalmist corrects himself, as being too much depressed in spirit with his present circumstances, and expostulates with himself; adding, and why art thou disquieted in me ? which suggests, that the dejections of God's people are unreasonable ones; sin itself is no just cause and reason of them; for though it is very disagreeable, loathsome, and abhorring, troublesome and burdensome, to a spiritual man, and is ingenuously confessed, and... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 42:6

O my God, my soul is cast down within me ,.... Which the psalmist repeats, partly to show the greatness of his dejection, though he had not lost his view of interest in God as his covenant God; and partly to observe another method he made use of to remove his dejection and refresh his spirits; and that was by calling to mind past experiences of divine goodness; therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan ; the country round about it, or rather beyond it; which was at the... read more

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