9 I will say unto ùGod my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
I am depressed; I am bowed down beyond measure; I go mourning all the day.
For thou art the God of my strength: why hast thou cast me off? why go I about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
Remember, O Jehovah, what is come upon us; consider, and see our reproach. Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens. We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows. Our water have we to drink for money, our wood cometh unto us for a price. Our pursuers are on our necks: we are weary, we have no rest. We have given the hand to Egypt, [and] to Asshur, to be satisfied with bread. Our fathers have sinned, [and] they are not; and we bear their iniquities. Bondmen rule over us: there is no deliverer out of their hand. We have to get our bread at the risk of our lives, because of the sword of the wilderness. Our skin gloweth like an oven, because of the burning heat of the famine. They have ravished the women in Zion, the maids in the cities of Judah. Princes were hanged up by their hand; the faces of elders were not honoured. The young men have borne the mill, and the youths have stumbled under the wood. The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their music. The joy of our heart hath ceased; our dance is turned into mourning. The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, for we have sinned!
Because of the voice of the enemy; because of the oppression of the wicked: for they cast iniquity upon me, and in anger they persecute me.
For I expected good, and there came evil; and I waited for light, but there came darkness. My bowels well up, and rest not; days of affliction have confronted me. I go about blackened, but not by the sun; I stand up, I cry in the congregation. I am become a brother to jackals, and a companion of ostriches. My skin is become black [and falleth] off me, and my bones are parched with heat. My harp also is [turned] to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of weepers.
And I returned and saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors was power, and they had no comforter.
Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Even these forget, but I will not forget thee.
{To the chief Musician. A Psalm of David.} How long, Jehovah, wilt thou forget me for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?
Mine eye consumeth by reason of affliction. Upon thee, Jehovah, have I called every day; I have stretched out my hands unto thee.
Hath ùGod forgotten to be gracious? or hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah.
He only is my rock and my salvation; my high fortress: I shall not be moved. With God is my salvation and my glory; the rock of my strength, my refuge is in God.
Awake, why sleepest thou, Lord? arise, cast [us] not off for ever. Wherefore hidest thou thy face, [and] forgettest our affliction and our oppression?
{[A Psalm] of David.} Unto thee, Jehovah, do I call; my rock, be not silent unto me, lest, [if] thou keep silence toward me, I become like them that go down into the pit.
{To the chief Musician. Upon Aijeleth-Shahar. A Psalm of David.} My ùGod, my ùGod, why hast thou forsaken me? [why art thou] far from my salvation, from the words of my groaning? My God, I cry by day, and thou answerest not; and by night, and there is no rest for me:
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Psalms 42
Commentary on Psalms 42 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
PSALM 42
Ps 42:1-11. Maschil—(See on Ps 32:1, title). For, or of (see Introduction) the sons of Korah. The writer, perhaps one of this Levitical family of singers accompanying David in exile, mourns his absence from the sanctuary, a cause of grief aggravated by the taunts of enemies, and is comforted in hopes of relief. This course of thought is repeated with some variety of detail, but closing with the same refrain.
1, 2. Compare (Ps 63:1).
panteth—desires in a state of exhaustion.
2. appear before God—in acts of worship, the terms used in the command for the stated personal appearance of the Jews at the sanctuary.
3. Where is thy God?—implying that He had forsaken him (compare 2Sa 16:7; Ps 3:2; 22:8).
4. The verbs are properly rendered as futures, "I will remember," &c.,—that is, the recollection of this season of distress will give greater zest to the privileges of God's worship, when obtained.
5. Hence he chides his despondent soul, assuring himself of a time of joy.
help of his countenance—or, "face" (compare Nu 6:25; Ps 4:6; 16:11).
6. Dejection again described.
therefore—that is, finding no comfort in myself, I turn to Thee, even in this distant "land of Jordan and the (mountains) Hermon, the country east of Jordan.
hill Mizar—as a name of a small hill contrasted with the mountains round about Jerusalem, perhaps denoted the contempt with which the place of exile was regarded.
7. The roar of successive billows, responding to that of floods of rain, represented the heavy waves of sorrow which overwhelmed him.
8. Still he relies on as constant a flow of divine mercy which will elicit his praise and encourage his prayer to God.
9, 10. in view of which [Ps 42:8], he dictates to himself a prayer based on his distress, aggravated as it was by the cruel taunts and infidel suggestions of his foes.
11. This brings on a renewed self-chiding, and excites hopes of relief.
health—or help.
of my countenance—(compare Ps 42:5) who cheers me, driving away clouds of sorrow from my face.
my God—It is He of whose existence and favor my foes would have me doubt.