5 What! bowest thou thyself, O my soul? Yea, art thou troubled within me? Wait for God, for still I confess Him: The salvation of my countenance -- My God!
And I continually do wait with hope, And have added unto all Thy praise.
For, not by their sword Possessed they the land, And their arm gave not salvation to them, But Thy right hand, and Thine arm, And the light of Thy countenance, Because Thou hadst accepted them.
What! bowest thou thyself, O my soul? And what! art thou troubled within me? Wait for God, for still I confess Him, The salvation of my countenance, and my God!
Be silent for Jehovah, and stay thyself for Him, Do not fret because of him Who is making prosperous his way, Because of a man doing wicked devices.
Who, against hope in hope did believe, for his becoming father of many nations according to that spoken: `So shall thy seed be;' and not having been weak in the faith, he did not consider his own body, already become dead, (being about a hundred years old,) and the deadness of Sarah's womb, and at the promise of God did not stagger in unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, having given glory to God,
My portion `is' Jehovah, hath my soul said, Therefore I hope for Him. Good `is' Jehovah to those waiting for Him, To the soul `that' seeketh Him. Good! when one doth stay and stand still For the salvation of Jehovah.
I remember God, and make a noise, I meditate, and feeble is my spirit. Selah.
From the end of the land unto Thee I call, In the feebleness of my heart, Into a rock higher than I Thou dost lead me.
My heart is pained within me, And terrors of death have fallen on me. Fear and trembling come in to me, And horror doth cover me.
and David hath great distress, for the people have said to stone him, for the soul of all the people hath been bitter, each for his sons and for his daughters; and David doth strengthen himself in Jehovah his God.
`Jehovah lift up His countenance upon thee, and appoint for thee -- peace.
and he taketh Peter, and James, and John with him, and began to be amazed, and to be very heavy, and he saith to them, `Exceeding sorrowful is my soul -- to death; remain here, and watch.'
teaching them to observe all, whatever I did command you,) and lo, I am with you all the days -- till the full end of the age.'
`Lo, the virgin shall conceive, and she shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel,' which is, being interpreted `With us `he is' God.'
For an enemy hath pursued my soul, He hath bruised to the earth my life, He hath caused me to dwell in dark places, As the dead of old. And my spirit in me is become feeble, Within me is my heart become desolate.
He doth call Me, and I answer him, I `am' with him in distress, I deliver him, and honour him. With length of days I satisfy him, And I cause him to look on My salvation!
I have been bent down, I have been bowed down -- unto excess, All the day I have gone mourning.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 42
Commentary on Psalms 42 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 42
If the book of Psalms be, as some have styled it, a mirror or looking-glass of pious and devout affections, this psalm in particular deserves, as much as any one psalm, to be so entitled, and is as proper as any to kindle and excite such in us: gracious desires are here strong and fervent; gracious hopes and fears, joys and sorrows, are here struggling, but the pleasing passion comes off a conqueror. Or we may take it for a conflict between sense and faith, sense objecting and faith answering.
The title does not tell us who was the penman of this psalm, but most probably it was David, and we may conjecture that it was penned by him at a time when, either by Saul's persecution or Absalom's rebellion, he was driven from the sanctuary and cut off from the privilege of waiting upon God in public ordinances. The strain of it is much the same with 63, and therefore we may presume it was penned by the same hand and upon the same or a similar occasion. In singing it, if we be either in outward affliction or in inward distress, we may accommodate to ourselves the melancholy expressions we find here; if not, we must, in singing them, sympathize with those whose case they speak too plainly, and thank God it is not our own case; but those passages in it which express and excite holy desires towards God, and dependence on him, we must earnestly endeavour to bring our minds up to.
To the chief musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah.
Psa 42:1-5
Holy love to God as the chief good and our felicity is the power of godliness, the very life and soul of religion, without which all external professions and performances are but a shell and carcase: now here we have some of the expressions of that love. Here is,
Psa 42:6-11
Complaints and comforts here, as before, take their turn, like day and night in the course of nature.