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Psalm 42: A Lament



‘As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God…… I say to God, my Rock, you have forgotten me’- Psalm 42



 In Psalm 42, the psalmist cries out with tears in his eyes, appealing to God, who is described as his Rock (v.9). The Rock—a symbol of power, strength, and immovability—seems unmoved by the psalmist’s anguish. Yet, even as God appears distant, the psalmist doesn't turn away or speak ill behind God’s back. Instead, he remains in raw, honest dialogue with the divine. There is still a connection, fragile but intact. This is a unique kind of faithfulness—one that continues to cry out, even when God seems silent.



The faithful One seems faithless; the Shepherd appears to have abandoned His sheep (v.3). The God who remembers every name is accused of forgetting. The psalmist, who once led the crowds in joyous worship, now feels spiritually dry and desperate (v.4). The ecstatic moments of communal praise have faded, replaced by a profound sense of loss and dislocation.



This ain't a love song. Although modern interpretations—like the popular hymn "As the Deer"—may romanticise this psalm, turning it into devotional longing, the original context is far more raw and visceral. When the psalmist writes, "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God" (v.1), it's not gentle yearning, but life-threatening desperation. The deer pants because there is no water; it’s on the brink of survival, thirsting for the life-giving presence of God that seems to have vanished. The psalmist is spiritually parched, abandoned. The life-giving water that once flowed from the Rock has dried up.




In the midst of this lament, the psalmist does two crucial things. First, he remembers. He recalls times when God’s presence was as overwhelming as "deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls" (v.7)—when God felt close, powerful, and life-giving. These memories become an anchor, holding him from being swept away in despair. Even though God seems absent now, the psalmist clings to the remembrance of past encounters with Him, moments where God's love rushed in like waterfalls.



Secondly, the psalmist leans into hope. Despite his feelings of abandonment, he repeats a refrain of hope: "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" (v.5, 11). The psalmist clings to the hope that the darkest day is not the final day. This refrain is critical—it reveals that the psalmist’s lament isn’t the final word. He believes, perhaps tentatively, there will be a time when praise will return to his lips.

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