Psalms 42:5

_WHY ART THOU CAST DOWN, O MY SOUL? AND WHY ART THOU DISQUIETED IN ME? HOPE THOU IN GOD: FOR I SHALL YET PRAISE HIM FOR THE HELP OF HIS COUNTENANCE._ Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? He is affected in a double manner: (1) by dejection (Hebrew, 'bowed down'); (2) by tumultuous, noisy restlessness (_ TEHEMIY_ (H1993)) - literally, disquiet like that of the roaring sea (Psalms 46:3; Jeremiah 5:22). His spiritual self debates with his flesh in its unbelieving despondency. HOPE THOU IN GOD the remedy against the weakness of the flesh HOPE THOU IN GOD - the remedy against the weakness of the flesh. FOR I SHALL YET PRAISE HIM (FOR) THE HELP OF HIS COUNTENANCE. Faith

5_O my soul! why art thou cast down? _From this it appears that David contended strongly against his sorrow, lest he should yield to temptation: but what we ought chiefly to observe is, that he had experienced a strong and bitter contest before he obtained the victory over it; or we might rather say, that he was not delivered from it after one alarming assault, but was often called upon to enter into new scenes of conflict. It need not excite our wonder that he was so much disquieted and cast down, since he could not discern any sign of the divine favor towards him. But David here represents himself as if he formed two opposing parties. In so far as in the exercise of faith he relied upon the promises of God, being armed with the Spirit of invincible fortitude, he set himself, in opposition to the affections of his flesh, to restrain and subdue them; and, at the same time, he rebuked his...

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 42:5. _WHY ART THOU CAST DOWN, O MY SOUL?_] Bad as the times are, desolate as Jerusalem is, insulting as are our enemies, hopeless as in the sight of man our condition may be, yet there is no room for _despair_. All things are possible to God. We have a promise of restoration; he is as good as he is powerful; hope therefore in him. _I SHALL YET PRAISE HIM_] For my restoration from this captivity. He is the health of my soul. I shall have the _light and help of_ _his countenance_, his approbation, and a glorious deliverance wrought by his right hand....

WHY ART THOU CAST DOWN, O MY SOUL? - Margin, bowed down. The Hebrew word means to bow down, to incline oneself; then, usually, to prostrate oneself as in public worship; and then, to sink down under the weight of sorrow; to be depressed and sad. The Septuagint renders it, “Why art thou grieved?” - περίλυπος _perilupos_. So the Vulgate. This is an earnest remonstrance addressed by himself to his own soul, as if there were really no occasion for this excessive depression; as if he cherished his grief improperly. There was a brighter side, and he ought to turn to that, and take a more cheerful view of the matter. He had allowed his mind to rest on the dark side, to look at the discouraging things in his condition. He now felt that this was in some measure voluntary, or had been indulged too freely, and that it was wrong: that it was proper for a man like him to seek for comfort in brighter

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;...

WHY ART THOU CAST DOWN, O MY SOUL?.... The psalmist corrects himself, as being too much depressed in spirit with his present circumstances, and expostulates with himself; adding, AND [WHY] ART THOU DISQUIETED IN ME? which suggests, that the dejections of God's people are unreasonable ones; sin itself is no just cause and reason of them; for though it is very disagreeable, loathsome, and abhorring, troublesome and burdensome, to a spiritual man, and is ingenuously confessed, and heartily mourned over, and is matter of humiliation; yet no true reason of dejection: because there is forgiveness of it with God; the blood of Christ has been shed for the remission of it; it has been bore and done away by him; nor is there any condemnation for it to them that are in him; and though it rages, and threatens to get the ascendant; yet it is promised it shall not have the dominion over the saints; n...

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