Commonplace –
Psalm 42: 2 “My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? (KJV).
“When it was that David thus expressed his vehement desire towards God. It was,
(1.) When he was debarred from his outward opportunities on waiting on God, when he was banished to the land of Jordan, a great way off from the courts of God’s house.
Note, Sometimes God teaches us effectually to know the worth of merceis by the want of them, and whets our appetite for the means of grace by cutting us short in those means. We are apt to loathe that manna, when we have plenty of it, whihc will be very precious to us if ever we come to know the scarcity of it.
(2.) When [David] was deprived, in a great measure, of the inward comfort he used to have in God. He now went mourning, but he went on panting.
Note, If God, by his grace, has wrought in us sincere and earnest desires towards him, we may take comfort from these when we want those ravishing delights we have sometimes had in God, because lamenting after God is as sure an evidence that we love him as rejoicing in God.
Before the psalmist records his doubts, and fears, and griefs, which had sorely shaken him, he premises this, That he looked upon the living God as his chief good, and had set his heart upon him accordingly, and was resolved to live and die by him; and, casting anchor thus at first, he rides out the storm” (Henry 321; emphasis added).
Verses 5 and 11 are almost identical : “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why are thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him” is the same in both. 5 ends with “for the help of his countenance and 11 ends with “who is the health of my countenance, and my God”.
Works Cited
Henry, Matthew. “Psalm 42.” Matthew Henry’s Commentary On the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition. Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., March 1996.
Holy Bible: Giant Print with Study Aids. Dugan Publishers, Inc., 1984.
© 2024 Angela Hormberg
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