Psalms 42:4

_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._ When I remember these (things), I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude - rather, 'I will purposely remember these things, and will pour out my soul in (literally, upon, or with) me.' For there is no proper contrast between remembering the scornful question of the enemy (as "these things" mean in the English version) and the going with the multitude to the house of God. "These things" mean his former happiness in being privileged to take part in the worship of the sanctuary (Psalms 55:14), in contrast to his present exclusion from it. 'I will remember thee' (Psalms 42:6) thu

4._When I remember these things _This verse is somewhat obscure, on account of the variation of the tenses in the Hebrew. And yet I have no doubt that the true and natural sense is, that David, when he called to remembrance his former condition, experienced so much the greater sadness by comparing it with his present condition. The remembrance, I say, of the past had no small influence in aggravating his misery, from the thought that he, who had formerly acted the part of a leader and standard-bearer in conducting others to the holy assemblies, should now be debarred from access to the temple. We know that those who have been accustomed to suffering from their childhood become insensible to it, and the very continuance of misery produces in us a certain degree of callousness, so that we cease to think of it, or to regard it as anything unusual. It is different with those who have not bee...

1-5 The psalmist looked to the Lord as his chief good, and set his heart upon him accordingly; casting anchor thus at first, he rides out the storm. A gracious soul can take little satisfaction in God's courts, if it do not meet with God himself there. Living souls never can take up their rest any where short of a living God. To appear before the Lord is the desire of the upright, as it is the dread of the hypocrite. Nothing is more grievous to a gracious soul, than what is intended to shake its confidence in the Lord. It was not the remembrance of the pleasures of his court that afflicted David; but the remembrance of the free access he formerly had to God's house, and his pleasure in attending there. Those that commune much with their own hearts, will often have to chide them. See the cure of sorrow. When the soul rests on itself, it sinks; if it catches hold on the power and promise...

Verse Psalms 42:4. _WHEN I REMEMBER THESE_ THINGS] Or, _these things I shall_ _remember_. They often occur to me, and sharpen my distressful feelings. My soul is dissolved, becomes weak as water, when I reflect on what I have had, and on what I have lost. Or, _I pour_ _out my soul to myself_ in deep regrets and complaints, when reflecting on these things. I once enjoyed all the ordinances of God, and now I have none. I once had the joyous communion of saints in God's ordinances; but that communion no longer exists, for there are no ordinances to support it. There was a _multitude_ to worship God in public; with these _I often went_: but, alas, this is no more; now there are found only a few _solitary individuals_ who sigh for the desolations of Zion. _There_ we had our holy days, our appointed _feasts_, to commemorate the wonderful works...

WHEN I REMEMBER THESE THINGS - These sorrows; this banishment from the house of God; these reproaches of my enemies. The verb used here is in the future tense, and would be appropriately rendered “I will remember these things, and I will pour out my soul within me.” That is, it is not a mere recollection of the past, but it indicates a state or purpose of mind - a solemn resolution to bear these things ever in remembrance, and to allow them to produce a proper impression on his mind and heart that would not be effaced by time. Though the future tense is used as denoting what the state of his mind would be, the immediate reference is to the past. The sorrows and afflictions which had overwhelmed him were the things he would remember. I POUR OUT MY SOUL IN ME - Hebrew, upon me. See the notes at Job 30:16. The idea is derived f

EXPOSITION THIS psalm, committed (like so many others) to the precentor, or. chief musician, for its musical setting, is entitled "Maschil of the sous of Korah"—_i.e._ an "instruction," or didactic psalm, composed by the Korahite Levites—a Levitical family of singers (1 Chronicles 26:1, 1 Chronicles 26:2; 2 Chronicles 20:19). To the same family are assigned Psalm 45-49; in the present book, and Psalms 84:1; Psalms 85:1;...

WHEN I REMEMBER THESE [THINGS],.... Either the reproaches of his enemies; or rather his past enjoyments of God in his house, he after makes mention of; I POUR OUT MY SOUL IN ME, that is, he had no life nor spirit in him, but was quite overwhelmed with distress and anguish; or he poured out his soul in prayer to God, that it might be with him as in times past; FOR I HAD GONE WITH THE MULTITUDE, I WENT WITH THEM TO THE HOUSE OF GOD; the place of public worship, whither he had often gone, with great pleasure and delight; and, which added thereto, there were many that went along with him; or whom he had "caused to go" g, had brought along with him; which is the sense of the word, only used here and in Isaiah 38:15; as Dr. Hammond from R. Tanchum and Aben Walid, has shown: a good man will not only attend divine worship himself, but will bring o

We often read this Psalm, because we are very often in the same state that the psalmist was in when he wrote it, and the language seems to suit us at many periods of our life. Psalms 42:1. _As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God._ It is the «hart» that panteth; and, in the Hebrew, the word is in the feminine. The old naturalists say that the female has greater thirst than the male, and that it shows it more, having more feebleness of body, and less power of endurance. The hart is said to be, naturally, a thirsty creature, and when it has been long hunted, its thirst seems to be insatiable. The psalmist does not say, «thy soul hungereth,» but, «My soul thirsteth.» As man can bear hunger much longer than he can bear thirst; he may continue without food for days, but not without drink; so the psalmist mentions the most thirsty creat

II. THE EXODUS SECTION: BOOK TWO:PSALM 42-72 The second division of the book of Psalms corresponds to the book of Exodus, the second book of the Pentateuch. That book begins with the groans and moans of a suffering people in Egypt and after redemption by blood and by power, ends with the glory of the Lord filling the tabernacle when the work was finished. Ruin, oppression, suffering and sorrow, ending in deliverance and redemption, is the order in which the Psalms in this section are arranged. It is a most interesting study and we regret that we cannot enter into all the details, to explore these mines of prophecy. The oppressed, persecuted people, who suffer surrounded by the ungodly, is that same godly remnant of Israelites. Their deliverance comes by the visible manifestation of the Lord, the second coming of our Lord. The Psalm which concludes this Exodus of the Psalms is 72, the gre...

PSALMS 42, 43. Originally these two Pss. were one. This is proved by the long refrain common to each, Why art thou cast down, O my soul, etc. It recurs in Psalms 42:5; Psalms 42:11 and Psalms 43:5, and thus divides the Ps. into fairly equal portions. The theme, moreover, is the same in both, and Psalms 43 is an orphan Ps. (p. 366), _i.e._ it has no title, because it did not originally rank as an independent poem. PSALMS 42:1. The misery of exile from the Temple and the memory of happy worship there. PSALMS 42:1. For hart read with many sc