Catholic Commentary on Psalm 42

"As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God." (Psalm 42:1)

The Thirsting Soul

Psalm 42 opens with one of the most beloved images in the Psalter: As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? The deer panting for water is not a peaceful image. It is an image of urgent, life-threatening need. The animal has been running, probably from a predator, and now it is in desperate need of water. Without it, it will die. The psalmist uses this image deliberately: the soul's need for God is not a mild preference or a spiritual luxury. It is as urgent as thirst, as necessary as water. To be without God is to be in the condition of the dying animal.

The immediate context of this urgent longing is exile: the psalmist is separated from the Temple, from the place of worship, surrounded by enemies who taunt him, asking where his God is. He remembers what it was like to lead the procession to the house of God with shouts of joy and praise. Now he is far from that, by the waters of the Jordan and the heights of Hermon, and the memory of worship intensifies the longing.

Why Are You Downcast, O My Soul?

Three times in Psalms 42 and 43 (which were originally one psalm) the same refrain appears: Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God. The psalmist speaks to his own soul, interrogates his own depression, challenges his own despair with the counter-question: why? The soul does not answer the question, but the asking is itself an act of faith. It refuses to let the downcast condition have the last word. Put your hope in God. I will yet praise him.

The Catechism cites this psalm in its teaching on prayer: the longing of the soul for God is itself a prayer, a form of seeking that God honours (CCC 2560). The panting deer is already a prayer. The thirst is already an orientation toward the one who alone can satisfy it.

Living the Word

Brothers and sisters, when your soul is downcast and your spirit is within you in turmoil, speak to it the refrain of Psalm 42. Why are you downcast, O my soul? Put your hope in God. I will yet praise him. Not because the darkness has lifted, but because the God in whom you hope is the same God who will bring the light. The panting is the prayer. Bring your thirst to the only source that satisfies it.

Prayer

My soul thirsts for you, the living God. As the deer pants for streams of water, I pant for you. Why are you downcast, O my soul? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

BOOK II
42
Psalms 42—72
As the Deer Pants for the Water
 
For the choirmaster. A Maskil of the sons of Korah.* 42:0 In many Hebrew manuscripts Psalms 42 and 43 constitute one psalm. Maskil is probably a musical or liturgical term; used for Psalms 32, 42, 44–45, 52–55, 74, 78, 88–89, and 142.
 
1 As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul longs after You, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, the living God.
When shall I come and appear in God’s presence?† 42:2 Or and see the face of God?
3 My tears have been my food
both day and night,
while men ask me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
4 These things come to mind as I pour out my soul:
how I walked with the multitude,
leading the procession to the house of God
with shouts of joy and praise.
 
5 Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why the unease within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him
for the salvation of His presence.
 
6 O my God, my soul despairs within me.
Therefore I remember You
from the land of Jordan and the peaks of Hermon—
even from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
in the roar of Your waterfalls;
all Your breakers and waves
have rolled over me.
8 The LORD decrees His loving devotion by day,
and at night His song is with me
as a prayer to the God of my life.
 
9 I say to God my Rock,
“Why have You forgotten me?
Why must I walk in sorrow
because of the enemy’s oppression?”
10 Like the crushing of my bones,
my enemies taunt me,
while they say to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
 
11 Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why the unease within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him,
my Savior and my God.

*^ 42:0 In many Hebrew manuscripts Psalms 42 and 43 constitute one psalm. Maskil is probably a musical or liturgical term; used for Psalms 32, 42, 44–45, 52–55, 74, 78, 88–89, and 142.

†42:2 42:2 Or and see the face of God?

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