9 I will ask God, my rock, "Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?"
I am pained and bowed down greatly. I go mourning all day long.
For you are the God of my strength. Why have you rejected me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
Remember, Yahweh, what has come on us: Look, and see our reproach. Our inheritance is turned to strangers, Our houses to aliens. We are orphans and fatherless; Our mothers are as widows. We have drunken our water for money; Our wood is sold to us. Our pursuers are on our necks: We are weary, and have no rest. We have given the hand to the Egyptians, To the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread. Our fathers sinned, and are no more; We have borne their iniquities. Servants rule over us: There is none to deliver us out of their hand. We get our bread at the peril of our lives, Because of the sword of the wilderness. Our skin is black like an oven, Because of the burning heat of famine. They ravished the women in Zion, The virgins in the cities of Judah. Princes were hanged up by their hand: The faces of elders were not honored. The young men bare the mill; The children stumbled under the wood. The elders have ceased from the gate, The young men from their music. The joy of our heart is ceased; Our dance is turned into mourning. The crown is fallen from our head: Woe to us! for we have sinned.
Because of the voice of the enemy, Because of the oppression of the wicked. For they bring suffering on me. In anger they hold a grudge against me.
When I looked for good, then evil came; When I waited for light, there came darkness. My heart is troubled, and doesn't rest. Days of affliction have come on me. I go mourning without the sun. I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help. I am a brother to jackals, And a companion to ostriches. My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burned with heat. Therefore is my harp turned to mourning, And my pipe into the voice of those who weep.
Then I returned and saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and, behold, the tears of those who were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.
Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yes, these may forget, yet I will not forget you.
> How long, Yahweh? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
My eyes are dim from grief. I have called on you daily, Yahweh. I have spread out my hands to you.
Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he, in anger, withheld his compassion?" Selah.
He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. I will not be shaken. With God is my salvation and my honor. The rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.
Wake up! Why do you sleep, Lord? Arise! Don't reject us forever. Why do you hide your face, And forget our affliction and our oppression?
> To you, Yahweh, I call. My rock, don't be deaf to me; Lest, if you are silent to me, I would become like those who go down into the pit.
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.