Psalms 42

As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, God. Wesley: Panteth—After the enjoyment of thee in thy sanctuary. Shared thirst: the soul pants for God himself, not for lesser waters.

Name the pant as holy desire for God. Seek him where he has pledged to meet his people; refuse a calm that never thirsts.

Calvin: As the hart crieth for the fountains—extreme ardor; David preferred sanctuary access above riches and honors, that faith might be strengthened by the Law's exercises. God consults weakness and descends; exclusion from outward service grieved him as separation from God—yet he used the means as a ladder, not as a nest.

Pant for the living God. Do not despise the appointed helps; refuse both cold indifference to means and a flight that imagines no need of them.

When shall I come and appear before God? Wesley: Thirsteth—Not after vain useless idols, but after the only true and living God. Appear—In the place of his special presence and publick worship.

Thirst for the living God alone. Ask when you may appear before him; refuse idols that promise and cannot give water.

Calvin: thirst for God, the living God, is not bare presence imagined apart from his word and symbols; David sets before himself tabernacle, altar, and ceremonies by which God testified nearness—beginning with those helps to behold glory otherwise hidden.

Seek the living God as he has revealed himself. Refuse both idol-thirst and visionary notions of his face apart from his word and worship.

My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?” Tears replace meals under the relentless taunt that God is absent.

Bring the taunt to God. Do not swallow Where is your God? as final truth; let grief drive you to him, not away.

Calvin: tears as bread day and night—grief so deep that weeping displaced ordinary meals; the wicked's Where is thy God? is a shaft Satan uses to fan despair when sanctuary access seems cut off.

Treat the taunt as spiritual war, not idle insult. Refuse indifference when God's name is held up to scorn in your misery.

These things I remember, and pour out my soul within me, how I used to go with the crowd, and led them to God’s house, with the voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping a holy day. Wesley: Remember—My banishment from God's presence, and mine enemies triumphs. In me—I breathe out my sorrows and complaints to God within my own breast. Holy-day—the three solemn festival solemnities kept holy unto the Lord.

Remember festival joy without denying present exile. Pour out the soul to God within; refuse a nostalgia that never becomes prayer.

Calvin: remembrance of former processions aggravates present misery—he who led ranks to the holy assemblies is now shut out; to pour out the soul is to have affections melted within by the greatness of sorrow after a godly sort, grieving sanctuary-loss more than house or wife.

Let past public praise deepen hunger for God's house, not bitter envy. Regulate joy and grief by his favor and frown.

Why are you in despair, my soul, and why are you disturbed within me? For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his presence. Wesley: For—Heb. for the salvations of his face, for those supports, deliverances and comforts which I doubt not I shall enjoy both in his presence and sanctuary, and from his presence, and the light of his countenance.

Shared refrain—rebuke the cast-down soul. Hope in God; expect again to praise him for the help of his face; refuse a turmoil that will not hope.

Calvin: David forms two opposing parties—faith armed with promises rebukes flesh, cowardice, and distrust within. Discouragement and disquietude meet one remedy: hope in God. I shall yet praise him—yet confesses present praise stopped, while hope extends to deliverance not yet seen; helps of his countenance are salvations from his manifested favor.

Shared refrain—fight the internal war against unbelief. Hope when grace seems hidden; refuse both collapse and a hope invented without the promises.

“And my God, my soul is in despair within me.” Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar. Wesley: Therefore—that I may revive my drooping spirits. Remember—I will consider thy infinite mercy and power, and faithfulness. Mizar—from all the parts of the land to which I shall be driven, whether beyond Jordan or mount Hermon.

When cast down, remember God from wherever you are driven. Revive the spirit by his mercy, power, and faithfulness; refuse a geography that excuses forgetting him.

Calvin: cast down from Jordan and Hermons and Mizar—exile's map; remembrance of the sanctuary from afar may deepen sorrow, yet he takes refuge in God as witness and physician, not in forgetting him. Deprived of accustomed helps, he still stirs the mind by the word.

Remember God in exile places. Prefer his presence to every recovered comfort; refuse a cure that runs from his hand.

Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and your billows have swept over me. Wesley: Deep—One affliction comes immediately after another, as if it were called for by the former. A metaphor from violent successive showers that come down as at the noise or call of God's water spouts.

Name successive depths without pretending one wave was enough. Bring stacked afflictions to God; refuse the lie that the next deep will not call.

Calvin: depth calleth unto depth—temptations like gulfs cry to one another without end or measure; all thy waves and floods have passed over me. He names foes' cruelty floods of God, that we humble under his mighty hand; when he opens sluices there is no end until he is appeased.

Own the billows as under God's hand. Fear his opened waterspouts more than human spite alone; seek his peace when deep calls to deep.

By day the LORD will command his loving kindness in the daytime. In the night his song shall be with me: a prayer to the God of my life. Wesley: Command—Will effectually confer upon me. Loving-kindness—His blessings, the effects of his loving-kindness.

Expect his commanded love by day and song by night. Pray to the God of your life; refuse a night that has no song because it has no trust.

Calvin: Jehovah will command loving-kindness by day; by night his song and prayer to the God of my life—future confidence set against the dreadful tokens of the prior verse. Prayer here is free access's delight, not merely afflicted complaint; cheerfulness rises from knowing him as God of life.

Oppose despairing billows with expected kindness and night praise. Keep prayer open when waves have just gone over; refuse a reading that buries tomorrow's mercy under today's flood.

I will ask God, my rock: “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” The complaint is spoken to the Rock—even forgottenness is brought to him, not away from him.

Call him Rock while you ask Why. Mourning under oppression may speak freely; refuse a silence that stops saying my rock.

Calvin: I will ask God, my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me?—not utter rejection, for then prayer would be vain; forgetfulness relates to outward appearance and flesh's disquiet, while faith still rests assured that God regards and will not be deaf.

Hold Rock and Why together. Let flesh's sense of being forgotten drive frank prayer, not abandoned unbelief.

As with a sword in my bones, my adversaries reproach me, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?” Wesley: As—As a sword, which cutteth the very bones, so painful are their reproaches. The repeated taunt lands as bone-deep wound.

Admit how sharp the daily Where is your God? feels. Carry the wound to God; refuse matching scorn, and refuse pretending the cut is light.

Calvin: reproach as slaughter in the bones—injury felt more acutely than a soft wound; derision that tears God's majesty and aims to overturn faith is cruel persecution, not a trifle. Bear private wrongs more patiently; burn with zeal when faith and the word are trampled.

Rank the taunt against God's name as the deeper sword. Ask courage for that wound; refuse a calm that cares only for personal insult.

Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? For I shall still praise him, the saving help of my countenance, and my God. The refrain returns unchanged in call: rebuke, hope, and certainty of renewed praise to the God who is salvation.

Shared closing hope with both camps—answer turmoil again with Hope in God. Praise will return; he remains my countenance, and my God.

Calvin: the repetition shows temptation not finished in one encounter—new conflict may renew the same trouble, yet courage must not fail. Helps of my countenance and my God name God himself as visible defender and salvation.

Shared closing hope with both camps—return to the refrain when the assault returns. Hold him as salvation and God; refuse despair that treats one victory as the last battle needed.