My Soul Pants for God! - Psalm 42

Psalm 42 A Psalm of David with Commentaries by Dennis Edwards.

Psalm 42:1-3 As the hart pants after the water brooks, so pants my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is your God?

Israel's King David is comparing his desire and need for God to a deer who is panting in its search for a watery brook to drink from. We need God’s presence in our lives. We need His Spirit within us to bring us happiness and to fill that aching void in our heart which He has made for Himself alone to fill.

In Isaiah we find a similar picture.

Isaiah 55:1-3a “Ho, everyone that thirsts, come to the waters, and he that has no money; come buy, and eat; yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread? And your labour for that which satisfies not? Hearken diligently unto Me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto Me: hear, and your soul shall live.”

We thirst for God, but not realizing it, we go to other fountains that do not quench our thirst. We lust after the things of the world: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; but they do not satisfy our soul. We come up dry and empty.

Jesus tells us to come to Him. Speaking to the woman who had had five husbands, He said, “But whosoever drinks from the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life,” John 4:14.

“If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believes on Me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spoke He of the (Holy) Spirit, which they that believe should receive),” John 7:37b-39a.

Jesus is claiming that our thirst for happiness and satisfaction of soul will only be found in Him.

The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah called God, “the fountain of living waters,” Jeremiah 17:13. The Lord through Jeremiah said, “My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me the fountain of living waters, and have hewed them out cisterns (drinking vessels), broken cisterns, that can hold no water,” Jeremiah 2:13.

All our attempts to satisfy the deepest longings of our soul outside of God fall flat. They do not satisfy. Even the world’s pop idols have sung, “I can’t get no satisfaction.” The world and the things of the world cannot satisfy our need for God, our need for forgiveness of sin, our need for unconditional love and understanding. For that reason, our spirits within us cry out for God.

The fulfilment of our cry is found in Jesus. He tells us, “You shall seek Me and find Me when you shall search for Me with all your heart,” Jeremiah 29:13. That’s the secret: desperation, and an honest search for God and the things of God. Jesus has promised, “They which hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled,” Matthew 5:6.

Psalm 42:4-5 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday.  Why are you cast down, O my soul? and why are you disquieted in me? Hope in God: for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance.

Even though, like David, we may go to a Christian gathering or service; we may go and sing and praise with fellow believers, but in the end, we may still feel empty, lonely, and far from God, battling discouragement and depression. When that happens, we need to continue to fight with extreme praise and thanksgiving, knowing that God has heard our prayer and will answer, if we hold on.

Psalm 42:6-7 O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore, will I remember You from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar. Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterspouts: all Your waves and Your billows are gone over me.

David is trying to hold onto the victory, that he is claiming by faith. But “the waters are come into his soul. He is sinking in deep mire, where there is no standing: He is come into deep waters, where the floods overflow him. He is weary of his crying: his throat is dried: his eyes fail while He waits for his God.” Psalm 69:1b-3. We may, also, have experienced the same in moments of testing and proving. God’s presence seems to be far from us.

In moments of depression and anxiety we need to remember God’s promise. “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you: when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned; neither hsall the flame kindle upon you,” Isaiah 43:2.

Psalm 42:8-9 Yet the Lord will command His lovingkindness in the day time, and in the night His song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.  I will say unto God my rock, Why have You forgotten me? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

David is sure that God’s love will not fail him. He will seek God in the night and praise Him in song. He will continue to fight the good fight of faith and praise and give thanksgiving even if he does not feel God’s presence with him.

Psalm 42:10-11 As with a sword in my bones, my enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is your God?  Why are you cast down, O my soul? and why are you disquieted (anxious) within me? Hope in God: for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

Finally, David reminds himself to not lose his hope in God. He finishes his song with “Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.” Please do not lose hope in God, if you are feeling down and out and with no sunrise on the horizon. God loves you and will work things out as He always has before. Do not lose hope! Call upon Him with all your heart. He is not far from any of us, as the apostle Paul so wisely put it: “God did this so that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from any one of us. ‘For in Him we live and move and have our being,’” Acts 17:27-28 NIV.

Lift up your hands in praise unto Him, the God of all flesh. He loves you and is going to take care of you somehow. Trust Him. Meditate on His promises. His Word will be “a lamp unto your feet, and a light unto your path,” Psalm 119:105. For “the path of the just is like a shining light that shines more and more until that perfect day,” Proverbs 4:18. Or as Apostle Peter expressed it, “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto you do well that you take heed, as unto a light that shines in a dark place, until the day star arise in your hearts,” 1 Peter 1:19, and your hearts and minds are illuminated by the power of the Holy Ghost.

And remember what C. S. Lewis wrote, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” Or as the author of Hebrews has written, “But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he has prepared for them a city,” Hebrews 11:16.

That city, New Jerusalem, will one day come down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, Revelation 21:2. “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things will be passed away,” Revelation 21:4.

Keep desiring and thirsting for God, and He will do His part to prepare a place for you in that heavenly abode, John 14:2. Keep following Jesus’ words and He will manifest Himself to you, “He that has My commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves Me: and he that loves Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him, John 14:21. “If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him,” John 14:23.

Hold on. God will answer your prayers and manifest Himself to you. He loves you and is in the process of rescuing you. Do not give up prematurely. Keep on believing the answer is on its way! Hold on!