Psalm 42:9 Komentář

If the book of Psalms be, as some have styled it, a mirror or looking-glass of pious and devout affections, this psalm in particular deserves, as much as any one psalm, to be so entitled, and is as proper as any to kindle and excite such in us: gracious desires are here strong and fervent; gracious hopes and fears, joys and sorrows, are here struggling, but the pleasing passion comes off a conqueror. Or we may take it for a conflict between sense and faith, sense objecting and faith answering. I. Faith begins with holy desires towards God and communion with him (Psa 42:1, Psa 42:2). II. Sense complains of the darkness and cloudiness of the present condition, aggravated by the remembrance of the former enjoyments (Psa 42:3, Psa 42:4). III. Faith silences the complaint with the assurance of a good issue at last (Psa 42:5). IV. Sense renews its complaints of the present dark and melancholy state (Psa 42:6, Psa 42:7). V. Faith holds up the heart, notwithstanding, with hope that the day will dawn (Psa 42:8). VI. Sense repeats its lamentations (Psa 42:9, Psa 42:10) and sighs out the same remonstrance it had before made of its grievances. VII. Faith gets the last word (Psa 42:11), for the silencing of the complaints of sense, and, though it be almost the same with that (Psa 42:5) yet now it prevails and carries the day. The title does not tell us who was the penman of this psalm, but most probably it was David, and we may conjecture that it was penned by him at a time when, either by Saul's persecution or Absalom's rebellion, he was driven from the sanctuary and cut off from the privilege of waiting upon God in public ordinances. The strain of it is much the same with Psa 63:1-11, and therefore we may presume it was penned by the same hand and upon the same or a similar occasion. In singing it, if we be either in outward affliction or in inward distress, we may accommodate to ourselves the melancholy expressions we find here; if not, we must, in singing them, sympathize with those whose case they speak too plainly, and thank God it is not our own case; but those passages in it which express and excite holy desires towards God, and dependence on him, we must earnestly endeavour to bring our minds up to. To the chief musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah.

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 42 To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah. Of the word "Maschil", See Gill on Psa 32:1, title. Korah was he who was at the head of a conspiracy against Moses and Aaron, for which sin the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed alive him and his company, and fire devoured two hundred and fifty more; the history of which is recorded in Num 16:1; yet all his posterity were not cut off, Num 26:11; some were in David's time porters, or keepers of the gates of the tabernacle, and some were singers; see Ch1 6:33; and to the chief musician was this psalm directed for them to sing, for they were not the authors of it, as some (b) have thought; but most probably David himself composed it; and it seems to have been written by him, not as representing the captives in Babylon, as Theodoret, but on his own account, when he was persecuted by Saul, and driven out by men from abiding in the Lord's inheritance, and was in a strange land among the Heathen, where he was reproached by them; and everything in this psalm agrees with his state and condition; or rather when he fled from his son Absalom, and was in those parts beyond Jordan, mentioned in this psalm; see Sa2 17:24; so the Syriac inscription, the song which David sung in the time of his persecution, desiring to return to Jerusalem. (b) So R. Moses in Muis, Gussetius, Ebr. Comment. p. 918, & others.

I will say unto God my rock,.... A name frequently given to the eternal God, Father, Son, and Spirit, Deu 32:4; See Gill on Psa 18:2; why hast thou forgotten me? See Gill on Psa 13:1; why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? meaning perhaps Saul; though it may be applied to any spiritual enemy, sin, Satan, and the world; who are very oppressive and afflicting, and occasion continual mourning to the children of God.

"I will say unto God, You are my lifter up. Why have You forgotten me?" [Psalm 42:9]. For I am suffering here, even as if You had forgotten me. But You are trying me, and I know that Thou dost but put off, not take utterly from me, what You have promised me. But yet, "Why have You forgotten me?" So cried our Head also, as if speaking in our name. "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" I will say unto God, "You are my lifter up; why have You forgotten me?"

Next the prayer is set forth: "And I will say to God: You are my protector," etc. In which he does two things. First he gives thanks for benefits received; second he inquires about the reason for the evils he suffers. First a man ought to acknowledge, because one who is not grateful for benefits received is unworthy of those yet to be received. Wis. 16: "The hope of the ungrateful," etc. And therefore he says, "You are my protector." Jerome has, "You are my rock," that is, my strength. And therefore he is called protector, for defending. Ps. 3: "But you, O Lord, are my protector," etc. Or, "You are my protector," that is, of my nature. Is. 42: "Behold my servant, I will uphold him." Or, "my protector in Baptism." Ps. 18: "He took me from many waters." And if you are my protector, I wonder at the evils I suffer. And first he inquires about the reason for the evils; second he sets forth certain things that are signs of the one and the cause of the other, at "While the enemy afflicts." From the evils he considers two things. One on the part of God: namely, that he seems to have forgotten him. Another on his own part, because he is oppressed by sadness. On the part of God, because he permits him to be afflicted; and therefore he says, "Why have you forgotten me?" because formerly you upheld me thus. Is. 49: "The Lord has forgotten me." But in truth he has not forgotten; on the part of him who was being afflicted, he says, "And why do I go about in sadness," that is, what is the reason that you give me over to sadness? Ps. 38: "All the day I went about in sadness, while the enemy afflicts me." Here he shows the pain he suffers from adversaries, and he assigns the effect of the persecution; as if to say: this is the cause why I go about in sadness, because I am afflicted by enemies—sometimes by temporal ones, sometimes by spiritual ones. Mt. 13: "An enemy has done this."

Maschil--(See on Psa 32:1, title). For, or of (see Introduction) the sons of Korah. The writer, perhaps one of this Levitical family of singers accompanying David in exile, mourns his absence from the sanctuary, a cause of grief aggravated by the taunts of enemies, and is comforted in hopes of relief. This course of thought is repeated with some variety of detail, but closing with the same refrain. (Psa 42:1-11) Compare (Psa 63:1). panteth--desires in a state of exhaustion.

in view of which [Psa 42:8], he dictates to himself a prayer based on his distress, aggravated as it was by the cruel taunts and infidel suggestions of his foes.