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Psalm 42

Psalm 42 holds longing for God and unresolved despair together as the speaker calls his soul to hope.

A worshiper remembers leading a joyful crowd to God’s house and now longs to return while enemies taunt him about God’s absence. The heading attributes the psalm to the sons of Korah; the individual speaker and the cause of his separation remain uncertain. He names the Jordan and Hermon as places from which he remembers God. His prayer moves between thirst, tears, and overwhelming waters, with a repeated call to his own soul to hope in God.

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1For the Chief Musician. A contemplation by the sons of Korah. As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, God.
2My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
3My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”
4These things I remember, and pour out my soul within me, how I used to go with the crowd, and led them to God’s house, with the voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping a holy day.
5Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his presence.
6My God, my soul is in despair within me. Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar.
7Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and your billows have swept over me.
8The LORD will command his loving kindness in the daytime. In the night his song shall be with me: a prayer to the God of my life.
9I will ask God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10As with a sword in my bones, my adversaries reproach me, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”
11Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him, the saving help of my countenance, and my God.
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Key verses
Psalm 42:11The closing refrain renews hope in God while leaving the speaker’s grief and unanswered questions in view.
Psalm 42:1The thirsty deer establishes the psalm’s central longing: the speaker needs God with the urgency of a creature needing water.
Psalm 42:5The first refrain turns from remembered worship to self-address, placing the prospect of praise beside present despair.
Where this chapter reaches

Isaiah and Jeremiah share the psalm’s use of water imagery to speak about life and dependence on God, including thirst and the source of living water. Lamentations shares its language of overwhelming waters and its movement between grief, remembrance of God’s kindness, and hope.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

How does the memory of shared worship shape the speaker’s sorrow and longing?

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What do you notice about the repeated call to hope after the speaker’s unanswered questions?

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Questions people ask about Psalm 42

Who wrote Psalm 42?

The heading attributes Psalm 42 to the sons of Korah and calls it a contemplation for the Chief Musician. It does not name an individual author. The speaker remembers leading worshipers to God’s house, but the text does not identify him as David or explain the event behind his separation.

What does “Deep calls to deep” mean in Psalm 42?

The phrase belongs to an image of roaring waterfalls, waves, and billows sweeping over the speaker. Water, first pictured as something he thirsts for, now conveys overwhelming distress. He addresses these waters as God’s, placing his suffering within his prayer to God. The exact landscape behind the image remains uncertain.

Why does Psalm 42 repeat “Hope in God!”?

The command appears in verses 5 and 11, each time after the speaker questions his own despair. It forms a refrain that holds the poem together. Between these calls to hope, sorrow and protest continue. The ending expresses confidence in future praise without describing a change in his circumstances.

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Psalms · 150 chapters
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What the Bible says about doubt →What the Bible says about grief →What the Bible says about loneliness →

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).