Psalm 42:1-8

1 Como el ciervo anhela las corrientes de agua, así suspira por ti, oh Dios, el alma mía.

2 Mi alma tiene sed de Dios, del Dios viviente; ¿cuándo vendré y me presentaré delante de Dios?

3 Mis lágrimas han sido mi alimento de día y de noche, mientras me dicen todo el día: ¿Dónde está tu Dios?

4 Me acuerdo de estas cosas y derramo mi alma dentro de mí; de cómo iba yo con la multitud y la guiaba hasta la casa de Dios, con voz de alegría y de acción de gracias, con la muchedumbre en fiesta.

5 ¿Por qué te abates, alma mía, y por qué te turbas dentro de mí? Espera en Dios, pues he de alabarle otra vez por la salvación de su presencia.

6 Dios mío, mi alma está en mí deprimida; por eso me acuerdo de ti desde la tierra del Jordán, y desde las cumbres del Hermón, desde el monte Mizar.

7 Un abismo llama a otro abismo a la voz de tus cascadas; todas tus ondas y tus olas han pasado sobre mí.

8 De día mandará el SEÑOR su misericordia, y de noche su cántico estará conmigo; elevaré una oración al Dios de mi vida.

Psalm 42:1-8 Meaning and Commentary

To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah. Of the word "Maschil," See Gill on "Ps 32:1," title. Korah was he who was at the head of a conspiracy against Moses and Aaron, for which sin the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed alive him and his company, and fire devoured two hundred and fifty more; the history of which is recorded in Numbers 16:1; yet all his posterity were not cut off, Numbers 26:11; some were in David's time porters, or keepers of the gates of the tabernacle, and some were singers; see 1 Chronicles 6:33; and to the chief musician was this psalm directed for them to sing, for they were not the authors of it, as some {b} have thought; but most probably David himself composed it; and it seems to have been written by him, not as representing the captives in Babylon, as Theodoret, but on his own account, when he was persecuted by Saul, and driven out by men from abiding in the Lord's inheritance, and was in a strange land among the Heathen, where he was reproached by them; and everything in this psalm agrees with his state and condition; or rather when he fled from his son Absalom, and was in those parts beyond Jordan, mentioned in this psalm; see 2 Samuel 17:24; so the Syriac inscription, the song which David sung in the time of his persecution, desiring to return to Jerusalem.

{b} So R. Moses in Muis, Gussetius, Ebr. Comment. p. 918, & others.