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Psalm 42:2
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
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.
Notice
Thirst names an urgent longing for the living God, and the question about appearing before him leaves the pain of waiting unresolved.
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Where else Scripture says this
12 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.
This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Psalm 63:1A Psalm by David, when he was in the desert of Judah. God, you are my God. I will earnestly seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you, in a dry …Both psalms describe the soul thirsting for God, with Psalm 63 extending that longing into the flesh and a waterless land.
John 7:37Now on the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink!Thirst and coming link these passages: the psalm longs to come before God, and Jesus tells thirsty people to come to him.
Psalm 84:10For a day in your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.The desire to appear before God shares Psalm 84’s high regard for time in God’s courts and a place in his house.
Psalm 27:4One thing I have asked of the LORD, that I will seek after: that I may dwell in the LORD’s house all the days of my life, to see the LORD’s beauty, and to …Both express a desire to be before God, with Psalm 27 naming his house and temple as the place sought.
Revelation 22:1He showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb,The connection is water and life associated with God: Psalm 42 describes thirst, while Revelation describes a river flowing from his throne.
Matthew 16:16Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”Both name the living God: the psalm thirsts for him, and Peter confesses Jesus as his Son.
Psalm 84:2My soul longs, and even faints for the courts of the LORD. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.Both describe the soul longing for the living God, and Psalm 84 names his courts as the place desired.
Job 23:3Oh that I knew where I might find him! That I might come even to his seat!Both speakers long to come before God, expressing that desire through an unanswered question or wish.
Jeremiah 10:10But the LORD is the true God. He is the living God, and an everlasting King. At his wrath, the earth trembles. The nations aren’t able to withstand his …Both name the living God, whom the psalm longs for and Jeremiah declares to be the true God and everlasting King.
1 Thessalonians 1:9For they themselves report concerning us what kind of a reception we had from you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God,Both describe movement toward the living God: the psalm voices longing, while Thessalonians recounts turning from idols to serve him.
Jeremiah 2:13“For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut out cisterns for themselves: broken cisterns that can’t …The psalm’s thirst for God shares Jeremiah’s water imagery, where God names himself as the spring his people have forsaken.
John 5:26For as the Father has life in himself, even so he gave to the Son also to have life in himself.Life marks both descriptions of God: the psalm names the living God, while John speaks of life in the Father and the Son.
Where this verse fits
Feeling distant from God. waiting.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
The question remains unanswered here. Your prayer need not sound settled when you long for God; Scripture records this thirst with its waiting still unresolved.
Now put it in your words.
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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).