Psalms 42:1 - Meaning and Application

Holy love for God, as our highest good and our happiness, is the power of true religion, the very life and soul of it. Without that love, all outward faith and religious actions are only an empty shell and dead body. Here, then, we see some of the expressions of that love.

First, holy love thirsts. Love is on the wing here, rising upward in deep desire toward the Lord and toward the memory of his name (Psalm 42:1-2). “My soul pants, it thirsts, for God, for nothing less than God, and still for more of him.” Notice when David, the psalmist and king of Israel, spoke this way. It was when he was kept away from the outward help of worship, banished to the land of Jordan, far from the courts of God’s house. God sometimes teaches us the value of his gifts by taking them away for a time. He also sharpens our hunger for the means of grace by limiting our access to them. We often grow tired of manna when it is plentiful, but it becomes precious when we feel its scarcity.

David spoke this way also when he lost much of the inward comfort he once had in God. He was now walking in grief, yet he was still longing. If God’s grace has truly worked in us sincere desire for him, we can take comfort from that even when we do not feel the rich joy we once knew. Mourning after God is as sure a sign of love as rejoicing in God. Before David tells us about his doubts, fears, and griefs, he first says that he sees the living God as his chief good. He has set his heart on God and is resolved to live and die by him. By fastening his anchor there at the start, he rides out the storm.

What, then, is the object of this desire? David pants after God himself, not just the outward forms of worship, but the God of worship. A gracious soul can find little comfort in God’s courts if it does not meet with God there. It says, “Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might have more signs of his favor, more of the Spirit’s grace and comfort, and more of the hope of glory.” He looks to God as the living God, the one who has life in himself and is the source of life and joy for his people. He is the living God, not only in contrast with dead idols made by human hands, but also in contrast with the fading comforts of this world, which slip away as they are used. Living souls can never rest in anything less than a living God.

David also longs to come before God and appear before him. He wants to make himself known to God, because he is conscious of his own sincerity. He wants to attend on God as a servant appears before his master, to show respect and receive commands. He also wants to give an account to him, since all judgment comes from him. To appear before God is the desire of the upright, but the dread of the hypocrite. David knew that coming into God’s courts would cost him something, since the law said no one should appear before God empty. Yet he longs to come and does not grudge the cost.

This desire is very intense. It is his soul that pants, his soul that thirsts. That shows both the truth and the strength of his longing. His desire for the water of the well of Bethlehem was nothing compared with this. He compares himself to a deer panting for streams of water, especially a hunted deer, hot and dry after the chase. In the same way, a gracious soul longs for communion with God. It grows restless when that communion is missing. Nothing less can satisfy it, and when the chance comes again, it delights in God’s presence but still keeps longing for the full joy of him in heaven.

Second, holy love mourns when God seems to withdraw and when the help of public worship is missing (Psalm 42:3). “My tears have been my food day and night” during this forced absence from God’s house. David’s condition was sorrowful, and he matched his heart to it. He received the impression of his grief and showed its signs. Even the royal prophet, David, was a weeping prophet when he lacked the comforts of God’s house. His tears were mixed with his food, and in a sense they became his food day and night. He lived on his tears when there was good reason for them, and he took some comfort in seeing how deeply his heart was moved by such a trouble.

He did not think it was enough to shed one or two tears when leaving the sanctuary, or to say a quick farewell prayer on the way out. As long as he remained away from that place of joy, he kept weeping day and night. Those who are shut out from the help of public worship keep missing it, so they should keep mourning for its loss until they are restored to it again.

Two things made his grief worse. One was the mocking of his enemies: “Where is your God?” they kept saying. They said this because he was away from the ark, the sign of God’s presence. Judging the God of Israel by the gods of the nations, they assumed he had lost his God. But they were wrong. Men do not rob us of God when they take away our Bibles, our ministers, and our worship gatherings, though God has joined us to those means when we have them. He has not bound himself to them. We know where our God is and where to find him, even when we do not know where the ark is. Wherever we are, heaven is still open to us.

They also said this because God did not immediately rescue him, so they concluded that God had left him. But that was wrong too. Saints do not lose their God because they lose their other friends. Still, by throwing this cruel insult at God’s people, they added suffering to suffering, and that was exactly their aim. Nothing hurts a gracious soul more than words meant to shake its hope and confidence in God.

The second thing that deepened David’s grief was his memory of former freedom and joy (Psalm 42:4). “Remember your good things” is a hard blow when present troubles are already heavy. Our power to look back and to look ahead can make the present pain feel much worse. David remembered the days long ago, and his soul was poured out within him. He seemed to melt away, and the thought almost broke his heart. He poured out his soul in sorrow, and then poured it out before God in prayer. But what caused this painful melting of spirit? It was not the pleasures of court or the comforts of his own home, from which he was now cut off. It was the memory of how freely he had once gone to God’s house and how deeply he had delighted in the holy services there.

He went to the house of God, even though in his day it was only a tent. If this psalm was written, as many think, while Saul was persecuting him, the ark of God was then kept in a private house (2 Samuel 6:3). Still, the plainness, obscurity, and inconvenience of the place did not lessen David’s respect for that holy sign of God’s presence. David was a courtier, a prince, a man of honor, and a man of business, yet he was also careful to attend God’s house and join in public worship, even in Saul’s day, when Saul and his great men did not seek God’s guidance (1 Chronicles 13:3). Whatever others did, David and his house would serve the Lord.

He also went with the crowd, and he did not think it beneath his rank to be at the front of a throng in worshiping God. In fact, the company made it better, and that is why the psalm repeats this thought. He greatly missed that public fellowship now that it was gone. The more people there are in God’s service, the better, for it is more like heaven and it helps us feel the comfort of fellowship with God’s people.

He went with the voice of joy and praise, not only feeling joy and praise in his heart, but showing it openly. He spoke of his joy and gave high praise to his God. When we come before God in public worship, we should do it with both cheerfulness and gratitude, taking comfort for ourselves and giving glory to God for our freedom to come near him.

He also went to keep holy days, not to spend them in empty fun or recreation, but in worship and other sacred duties. Holy days are best spent in holy gatherings.

Holy love now hopes: “Why are you cast down, O my soul?” His sorrow had a good cause, yet it must not go beyond its proper limits or pull down his spirit. So he talks with his own heart for relief. “Come, my soul, I have something to say to you in your sadness.” We should consider, first, the cause of this heaviness. “You are cast down,” like someone bending under a burden (Proverbs 12:25). “You are restless and out of order. Why are you so?” This can be taken as a question that asks us to examine ourselves. Let the cause of this trouble be carefully weighed, and see whether it is a real cause. In many cases, our worries would disappear if we looked closely at the reasons for them. “Why am I cast down? Is there truly a cause? Do others not have more reason to be troubled, yet they complain less? Do we not also have reasons to be encouraged?”

Or it can be read as a rebuke. Those who often speak with their own hearts will often need to correct them, as David does here. “Why do I dishonor God by sinking into gloom? Why do I discourage others and hurt myself so much? Can I give a good account of this inner storm?”

Then comes the cure: hope in God, for I will yet praise him. Faith-filled trust in God is a strong remedy against deep discouragement and unrest in the soul. So when we correct ourselves, we must call ourselves back to hope in God. When the soul turns inward on itself, it sinks. When it takes hold of God’s power and promise, it stays above the water.

Hope in God, first, because he will receive glory from us: “I will yet praise him.” I will see a change in my situation, so I will not lack reason to praise. I will also see a change in my heart, so I will not lack the will to praise. It is the highest honor and happiness of a person, and the chief desire and hope of every good person, to be for God a name and a praise. And what is the joy of heaven except this, that there we will praise God forever? What supports us now in our troubles except this, that we will still praise God, and that our present suffering will not stop or lessen our endless praise?

Hope in God, second, because we will find comfort in him. We will praise him for the help of his face, that is, for his favor, the support it gives us, and the comfort we find in it. Those who know how to value and use the light of God’s face will find in it a fitting, timely, and enough help in the worst times. It will also give them constant reason for praise. David’s sure hope in this kept him from falling down, and even from losing heart. His harp could only ease Saul’s sadness for a moment, but his hope was a real cure for his own sorrow.