Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 42:6
O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar.
6. Within me, or rather, as in Psa 42:4, upon me, stands emphatically at the beginning of the sentence. His own feelings overwhelm him, and therefore he must turn to God, whose goodness he can call to mind, remote though he is from the place where God’s presence is specially manifested. He describes the place from which he speaks as the land of Jordan and the Hermons, probably the neighbourhood of Dan ( Tell-el-Kadi) or Caesarea Philippi ( Banias), where the Jordan rises from the roots of Hermon. The plural Hermons either denotes the Hermon range in general or refers to the three peaks in which Mount Hermon culminates. The hill Mizar or mount Mizar was probably some hill in the immediate neighbourhood of which he was [23] ; perhaps some point whence he could command a view of the hills beyond the Jordan, over which he would fain be travelling to Jerusalem. Its name the little mountain may perhaps be meant to contrast its insignificance with the fame and splendour of God’s holy mountain where he desires to be (Psa 43:3; Psa 48:2).
[23] Prof. G. A. Smith notes that there are in the same neighbourhood “two or three names with the same or kindred radicals,” and suggests that they may be “a reminiscence of the name of a hill in this district.” Hist. Geogr. of the Holy Land, P. 477.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
6 11. From self he turns to God and pleads his cause.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
O my God, my soul is cast down within me – This is the utterance of a soul in anguish, notwithstanding the purpose not to be cast down, and the conviction that hope ought to be cherished. The psalmist cannot but say that, despite all this, he is sad. His troubles come rushing over his soul; they all return at once; his heart is oppressed, and he is constrained to confess that, notwithstanding his solemn purpose not to be sad, and the conviction that he ought to be cheerful, and his wish to be and to appear so, yet his sorrows get the mastery over all this, and his heart is filled with grief. What sufferer has not felt thus? When he really wished to trust in God; when he hoped that things would be better; when he saw that he ought to be calm and cheerful, his sorrows have returned like a flood, sweeping all these feelings away for the time, filling his soul with anguish, compelling him to form these resolutions anew, and driving him afresh to the throne of grace, to beat back the returning tide of grief, and to bring the soul to calmness and peace.
Therefore will I remember thee – I will look to thee; I will come to thee; I will recall thy former merciful visitations. In this lone land; far away from the place of worship; in the midst of these privations, troubles, and sorrows; surrounded as I am by taunting foes, and having no source of consolation here, I will remember my God. Even here, amidst these sorrows, I will lift up my heart in grateful remembrance of him, and will think of him alone. The words which follow are designed merely to give an idea of the desolation and sadness of his condition, and of the fact of his exile.
From the land of Jordan – Referring probably to the fact he was then in that land. The phrase would denote the region adjacent to the Jordan, and through which the Jordan flowed, as we speak of the valley of the Mississippi, that is the region through which that river flows. The lands adjacent to the Jordan on either side were covered with underbrush and thickets, and were, in former times, the favorite resorts of wild animals: Jer 49:19; Jer 50:44. The psalmist was on the eastern side of the Jordan.
And of the Hermonites – The land of the Hermonites. The region in which Mount Hermon is situated. This was on the northeast of Palestine, beyond the Jordan. Mount Hermon was a ridge or spur of Antilibanus: Jos 11:3, Jos 11:17. This spur or ridge lies near the sources of the Jordan. It consists of several summits, and is therefore spoken of here in the plural number, Hermonim, the Hebrew plural of Hermon. These mountains were called by the Sidonians, Sirion. See the notes at Psa 29:6. Different names were given to different parts of these sum mits of the mountain-ranges. The principal summit, or Mount Hermon properly so called, rises to the height of ten or twelve thousand feet, and is covered with perpetual snow; or rather, as Dr. Robinson says (Biblical Researches, iii. 344), the snow is perpetual in the ravines; so that the top presents the appearance of radiant stripes around and below the summit. The word is used here with reference to the mountain-region to which the general name of Hermon was given on the northeast of Palestine, and on the east of the sources of the Jordan. It would seem not improbable that after passing the Jordan the psalmist had gone in that direction in his exile.
From the hill Mizar – Margin, the little hill. So the Septuagint, the Latin Vulgate, and Luther. DeWette renders it as a proper name. The word Mizar, or Mitsar (Hebrew), means properly smallness; and thus, anything small or little. The word seems here, however, to be used as a proper name, and was probably applied to some part of that mountain-range, though to what particular portion is now unknown. This would seem to have been the place where the psalmist took up his abode in his exile. As no such name is now known to be given to any part of that mountain-range, it is impossible to identify the spot. It would seem from the following verse, however, that it was not far from the Jordan.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 42:6
O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan.
Soul sorrows and soul reliefs
I. Soul sorrows.
1. Oppressive. O my God, my soul is cast down within me. They seemed to rest upon his heart as lead. Beneath their weight he sank down into darkness and despair. How often the soul falls prostrate beneath its load of grief and trials.
2. Tumultuous. Deep calleth unto deep. Trials, says our dramatist, come in battalions. In the hour of deep conviction for sin, there comes a moral inundation.
3. Excruciating. As with a sword, etc. As the physical nerves quiver with agony at the entrance of the sword, so his soul writhed at the reproaches of ungodly men.
II. Soul reliefs.
1. Memory.
2. Hope.
3. Prayer.
4. Self-fellowship. David, says Calvin, represents himself here as divided into two parts. In so far as he rests through faith in Gods promises, he raises himself, equipped with the spirit of an invincible valour against the feelings of the flesh, and at the same time blames his weakness. David here–
(1) inquires of his own soul the cause of his own sorrows; and
(2) exhorts it to trust in God. Hope thou in God.
God is the health of my countenance. He will clear away all the gloom, and make it bright with the sunshine of His love. (Homilist.)
My soul is cast down within me
There are times when the soul is cast down within us like Davids. Strength, courage, hope, are dead. We lose the very sense of freedom, and are as a wreck, borne to and fro helpless on the currents, to be dashed at last on some inhospitable shore. There are inward movements of the spirit, known only to God, which bring us to the same prostration. However it may have been reached, no man of deep human experience is ignorant of Davids meaning in our text.
I. Forgetting God is mans natural instinct when his soul is cast down within him. Despair is reckless, and deep misery tends strongly to despair. Jobs state of mind, as described in Job 3:1-26., was anything but gracious. He was so unutterably wretched that he cursed his very existence. And this is the peril of souls when east down. They think no one cares for them. I am but a waif on the great moaning ocean; it may drift me as it pleases, and cast me when it has done with me to rot forgotten on the shore. This is the language of many a natural heart in its hour of anguish; and on a broader scale, times of great social or national misery are constantly found to be times of wild, fierce recklessness of truth, honour, dignity, charity, and God.
II. Consider the reason, nature, and fruit of Davids remembrance of God when his soul was cast down within him.
1. The reason. I will remember Thee, for I am not my own, but Thine. I am bound to measure myself by the measure of Thy love. What does the Incarnation mean, but that God claims us by a right, and holds us by a bond of infinite strength? Nothing worth in ourselves, in Christ we are precious in His sight.
2. The nature of the remembrance. That the Lord was his portion, of which neither earth nor hell could rob him. God was left if all else was lost. And God was his rock, enduring, unchangeable. And God was the health of his countenance, the spring of his everlasting joy.
3. The fruit of his remembrance of God in the depths–perfect peace. (J. Baldwin Brown, B. A.)
Help in God
I. As appropriation. O my God. In proportion as you feel your need of anything, and value it, you are anxious to make it your own.
II. The confession. O my God, my soul is cast down within me. Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. Observe, here, the speaker himself. David, a great man who had even reached the throne, is the man who says, My soul is cast down. Do you imagine that the head never aches that wears a crown? Or that you are more likely to escape the winds and storms by building your house high on the side of the hill? A Christian merchant, some years ago, who had retired from business, and employed his substance in the cause of God, lately said to me, I have found my troubles increase in life precisely in proportion to the number of my servants, and the growth of my property. Paul says, We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. This is well. It is not the water without a vessel, if it were as large as the Atlantic, that would sink it; but the water that gets in. While the mind is calm, peaceful, and heavenly, outward distresses are of little importance. But when all is dark without, and gloomy within too, then is he tried. A mans spirit may sustain his infirmities, but a wounded spirit who can bear?–and we may add, who can cure?
III. His resolution. Therefore I will remember Thee. At, this is not a natural resolution: we are naturally alienated from the life of God. He destroys every drop of water in our vessels, in order that we may be compelled either to perish of thirst, or to inquire after Him, the fountain of living water. And it is well if we remember Him, and ask, Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night? Thus it was with Manasseh: in his affliction he sought the Lord God of his fathers, and He was found of him. It was thus with the prodigal, in the parable; when he began to be in want, he said, I will arise and go to my father. How many have done this since!
IV. A specification. I will remember thee from the land of Jordan, etc. Are there not spots toward which you can look, where God perhaps freed your mind from a grievous snare and temptation, and made you free indeed–where perhaps God commanded a wonderful deliverance for you–where He turned the valley of death into the morning–where at evening-tide it was made light. These Mizars, these little hills, are worth their weight in gold. (W. Jay.)
The remembrance of God the result of mental depression
I. Devout confidence. O my God.
1. Mine by natural right (Job 10:8; Psa 119:73; Psa 139:13; Zec 12:1; Heb 12:9).
2. Mine by personal preference (Psa 63:1-8; Psa 72:25).
3. Mine by adopting love (Jer 3:19; Rom 8:15; Gal 4:6).
4. Mine by Divine appropriation.
5. Mine by public avowal (Isa 44:5).
II. Mental depression. This may result–
1. From bodily infirmities (Isa 38:14-15).
2. From backsliding of heart. Defects in love, zeal, diligence.
3. From inward conflicts.
4. From afflictive bereavements.
5. From the state of mankind (Psa 119:58; Psa 119:136; Psa 119:158; Php 3:18).
III. A Pious remembrance of God.
1. Wherever we go, God should be in our recollection. His actual presence; His continual agency; what He is in Himself and to His people.
2. The remembrance of God is the most effectual antidote against mental depression (2Co 4:17; Heb 12:11).
The text may serve to remind us, by way of inference–
1. That man is born to trouble. The best of men may be disquieted and depressed: without are fightings, and within are fears.
2. That pious people are accustomed to pour out their complaints to God.
3. That men who have no interest in God have no refuge in the hour of trouble; for vain is the help of man. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.)
Religious melancholy
1. The first case is of those who are apt to think that the reformation of their lives hath not proceeded from a sincere love of God, and an unwillingness to displease Him; but from a mere dread of those punishments which He hath threatened.
(1) Fear is one of the passions God has planted in our souls, as well as love; they are both the creatures of His wisdom and power; and whatever He did put in us was for some end, and may have a good use. Wherefore, when the passion of fear doth serve the end for which God grafted it in our minds, there can be no doubt but He will approve the good effects which it doth produce.
(2) God hath enforced all the laws He hath given to the children of men by threatenings as well as by promises; but as promises are to work upon our love, so threats are to excite our fears; God having made the motives to our obedience to answer the different passions with which He hath endued our souls.
(3) Our Saviour and His disciples address themselves not only to the passion of love, but also to that of fear: which they never would have done had they been conscious that the sacrifices of fear would not have ascended up to heaven with a grateful savour.
2. Some serious Christians complain of a want of inclination to holy things, and a coldness in their devotions. They do not come to Gods house, nor address themselves to their prayers, with such an appetite as they do to the business of the world; but want earliest and fervent desires for the success of the petitions. Now, in abatement of their trouble, give me leave to lay the following observations before them.
(1) The difference of degrees of affections with which men serve God often depends upon the difference of their tempers and constitutions. God will measure their obedience by the sincerity of their minds, that lies in their own power; and not by the difference of their constitutions, which was not made by themselves.
(2) They who are not carried by their passions into the service of God, but render worship to Him upon rational motives, because He is the giver of all good things, seem to act upon a higher and more sublime principle: for notwithstanding they are destitute of that pleasing warmth in their passions which provokes others to pray unto God, and to be thankful unto Him, yet they do not cease to celebrate His praise, because it is their duty to do it, and because reason suggests that they ought to make grateful acknowledgments of His infinite mercies.
(3) The most zealous are not always the best men.
(4) The most holy servants of God cannot maintain an equal warmth in their devotions at all times.
(5) What hitherto hath been said about coldness and damps in the minds of men while they are engaged in religious duty has been to comfort those who are exceedingly grieved at it. Now, notwithstanding it is not to be expected, nor necessary, that these innocent persons should meet with a complete cure of their grief, yet I must tell them that nothing will more enliven their spirits in the service of God than deliberate meditations of Him and of themselves before they enter upon any part of Divine worship.
3. I come to the case of those unhappy persons who have naughty and sometimes blasphemous thoughts start in their minds while they are exercised in the worship of God, and to fear that God hath utterly cast them off. That their case is not so dangerous as they apprehend it, I shall endeavour to show by the following considerations.
(1) Because these frightful thoughts do for the most part proceed from the disorder and indisposition of the body.
(2) Because they are mostly good people who are exercised with them.
(3) Because it is not in the power of those disconsolate Christians, whom these bad thoughts so vex and torment, with all their endeavours to stifle and suppress them.
(4) They who labour under the burden of such dismal thoughts are seldom betrayed into any great or deliberate sin. For they, having a very low opinion of the condition of their souls, are jealous of the least temptations. Which is the cause they commonly set a strict guard over their words and actions.
Advice for behaviour under these perplexing disorders of mind, and for recovery from them.
(1) Frequently observe how your thoughts are employed. Men cannot think foolishly and act wisely. Besides, idle thoughts are neighbours to bad ones, and there is a straight and short passage from one to the other.
(2) Endeavour to keep all your passions within due bounds, since storms of passion confound the soul, and make way for evil thoughts.
(3) Do not leave your calling, nor forsake the post wherein Providence has placed you. There is always more melancholy to be found in a cloister than in the market-place.
(4) When you find these thoughts creeping upon you, be not mightily dejected, as if they were certain tokens of your reprobation. For so far as they depend upon the indisposition of the body, which for the most part they chiefly do, I take them no more to be marks of the Divine displeasure than sickness, or losses, or any other calamity you may meet with in the world. When these troublesome thoughts begin to stir, do not fall into any violent passion, which will abate the courage and shatter the resolutions of your soul; but having first commended your miserable case to the tender care and compassions of your Heavenly Father, who will not let you be afflicted above measure, endeavour with a meek and sedate temper quietly to bear them.
(5) Do not think the worse of God for them, or accuse His providence of want of care of you. For He might have permitted such thoughts to have continued perpetually, or at least to have visited you much oftener, and in a more frightful manner, and all this without the least diminution of His justice.
(6) Let not these afflicting thoughts discourage you from the exercise of your devotions; nor tempt you to omit, or negligently discharge any one Christian office or duty. (Bishop Moore.)
Depression of spirits in Christians
I. The causes.
1. In many cases melancholy proceeds from bodily weakness.
2. Another cause is a habit which some have of judging themselves, not from the Word of God, but from the words of men.
3. They who seek God and endeavour to serve Him, in some instances, form too high expectations of assurance and of comfort. They expect clearer revelations of Divine things; brighter evidence of their justification, and greater joy in the Holy Ghost, than is promised them in this present world.
4. Another cause of discouragement, or deep concern in Christians who have been for some time disciples, is the advancement they have made in spiritual knowledge. Every succeeding year they appear to themselves more sinful and less worthy than in years past. They think more, also, of what is at stake, and what it is to lose their souls.
5. There is also a plain distinction between the doubting of unbelief and the doubting which is through infirmity; as there is also between the sins of infidels and of weak believers.
II. Them use. They are profitable–
1. For the trial of your faith. The Lord would have those who walk in the light never forget what it is to sit in darkness and the shadow of death. A grieved spirit is the best foundation of a faithful heart.
2. These desponding apprehensions are a powerful remedy for self-righteousness and spiritual pride.
3. By this depression of spirits, to which good men are subject, you are taught how little confidence can be placed in your religious feelings, or the mere state of your passions. In a spiritual sense it is sometimes better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting.
III. What is the remedy for this dejection? Do as the psalmist did; put your trust in God. How far religious sorrow may be profitable for you, how far necessary, He only knows. It seems to us more desirable to rejoice in the Lord than to mourn His absence. (Bishop Griswold.)
Sweet stimulants for the fainting soul
I. The complaint.
1. The causes of our being cast down are very numerous. Sometimes it is pain of body; peradventure a wearying pain, which tries the nerves, prevents sleep, distracts our attention, drives away comfort, and hides contentment from our eyes. Often, too, has it been debility of body; some secret disease has been sapping and undermining the very strength of our life.
2. Let us pass now from the most obvious to the more subtle causes of soul-dejection. This complaint is very common among Gods people. When the young believer has first to suffer from it, he thinks that he cannot be a child of God; for, saith he, if I were a child of God, should I be thus? What fine dreams some of us have when we are just converted! We know not what we are born to in our second birth, and when trouble comes upon us it surprises us.
3. Let me go a step further, and say that the disease mentioned in our text, although it is exceedingly painful, is not at all dangerous. When a man has the toothache it is often very distressing, but it does not kill him. In like manner, Gods children are much vexed with their doubts and fears, but they are never killed by them.
4. I would remark, yet further, that a man may actually be growing in grace while he is cast down; aye, and he may really be standing higher when he is cast down than he did when he stood upright. When we sink the lowest in our own esteem, we rise the highest in fellowship with Christ, and in knowledge of Him. To be cast down is often the best thing that could happen to us. Do you ask, Why? Because, when we are cast down, it checks our pride. Were it not for this thorn in the flesh, we should be exalted beyond measure. Besides, when this downcasting comes, it sets us to work at self-examination. Another benefit that we derive from being cast down is that it qualifies us to sympathize with others.
II. The two remedies here mentioned.
1. A reference of ourselves to God. If thou hast a trouble to bear, the best thing for thee to do is not to try to bear it at all, but to cast it upon the shoulders of the Eternal. Often, when I call to see a troubled Christian, do you know what he is almost sure to say? Oh, sir, I do not feel this–and I do fear that–and I cannot help thinking the other! That great I is the root of all our sorrows, what I feel, or what I do not feel; that is enough to make any one miserable. It is a wise plan to say to such an one, Oh yes! I know that all you say about yourself is only too true; but, now, let me hear what you have to say about Christ. What a change would come over our spirits if we were all to act thus!
2. The grateful remembrance of the past. You have known the sweetness of Jesuss love, yet you are cast down! Shame upon you! Pluck off those robes of mourning, lay aside that sackcloth and those ashes, down from the willows snatch your harps, and let us together sing praises unto Him whose love and power and faithfulness and goodness shall ever be the same. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Religious depression and its remedy
I. The sigh of religious depression. What has caused it?
1. The faithlessness of friends and kindred. Bitter as it may be to feel the want of respect, of reverence, of obedience, of love from the children that are dear to us, that bitterness is intensified when memory testifies that we ourselves caused the evil by our unwisdom, neglect, or excess of tenderness.
2. The sneer of enemies. To many sensitive natures this is the most painful form of persecution.
3. The hiding of Gods face.
II. The remedy.
1. Faith remembering.
2. Faith hoping. If you turn your back to the sun your shadow will be before you, but if you turn your face to the sun your shadow will be behind you, and you see it not. If you turn your back on God dark shadows will cross your path, thick darkness will be before you; but with your face towards God you will see light in His light, the darkness is past and the true light shineth.
3. Faith triumphing. On the Welsh coast there is a small rocky island with a lighthouse, and in the lighthouse a bell, which on stormy nights rings out its solemn warning to the approaching mariner. When all is calm the bell is not heard, it hangs mute; but when the winds become fierce, and the waves dash high, the bell is set going. It was the storm of trouble that awoke the full harmony of Davids harp. (R. Roberts.)
Disappointment
The path of life is strewed with the fallen blossoms of hope.
I. God often disappoints us to teach us submission to his will. Many and painful experiences are necessary before the natural self-will and self-sufficiency are expelled from the heart.
II. Disappointments are sent us because God means to cite us something better than what we have chosen for ourselves. This is a most familiar experience. We have set our heart upon the attainment of some particular good. God knew better than we did, and in His love He refused to give us what would have been unsuitable to us.
III. God disappoints us at present, to give us what we seek at some better time. Illustrate by Josephs disappointment when forgotten by the butler. But, when his hopes were at last realized, how much richer the inheritance! Gods choice of time, as well as Gods choice of gift, will always be found to he the wisest and best.
IV. Our sense of disappointment is unreasonable and foolish. We are ready to forget that there is a law of orderly development by which God works out His plans. Would the husbandman have a right to be disappointed when he discovered that the seed he sowed yesterday had not yet even appeared above the soil? And many of our disappointments are as unreasonable. (Evangelical Advocate.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 6. O my God, my soul is cast down] It is impossible for me to lighten this load; I am full of discouragements, notwithstanding I labour to hope in thee.
Therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan] That is, from Judea, this being the chief river of that country.
And of the Hermonites] the Hermons, used in the plural because Hermon has a double ridge joining in an angle, and rising in many summits. The river Jordan, and the mountains of Hermon, were the most striking features of the holy land.
From the hill Mizar.] mehar mitsar, from the little hill, as in the margin. The little hill probably means Sion, which was little in comparison of the Hermons. – Bishop Horsley. No such hill as Mizar is known in India.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
That I may revive my drooping spirits, I will consider thy infinite mercy, and power, and faithfulness, and thy gracious presence in the sanctuary, from whence thou dost hear and answer all those that call upon thee, in all the parts of the land.
From the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar, i.e. from all the places and parts of the land to which I shall be driven; whether from the parts about or beyond Jordan on the east: or, the Hermonim, i.e. either the people inhabiting Hermon; or the mountain of Hermon, which was in the northern parts, Num 34:7; Deu 3:8; Psa 89:12, here called Hermonim, in the plural number, because of its great largeness, and many tops and parts of it, which are called by several names: or,
the hill Mizar; a hill so called, though not mentioned elsewhere, which is supposed to have been in the southern parts of the land; but peradventure it was in the east and beyond Jordan; and David might mention these places, because when he was banished by Absalom, he had been successively at all of them, and in all of them had remembered God, and directed his prayer to him.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. Dejection again described.
thereforethat is,finding no comfort in myself, I turn to Thee, even in this distant”land of Jordan and the (mountains) Hermon, thecountry east of Jordan.
hill Mizaras a name ofa small hill contrasted with the mountains round about Jerusalem,perhaps denoted the contempt with which the place of exile wasregarded.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
O my God, my soul is cast down within me,…. Which the psalmist repeats, partly to show the greatness of his dejection, though he had not lost his view of interest in God as his covenant God; and partly to observe another method he made use of to remove his dejection and refresh his spirits; and that was by calling to mind past experiences of divine goodness;
therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan; the country round about it, or rather beyond it; which was at the farthest parts of the land of Canaan, where David was obliged to flee, and where he had often met with God;
and of the Hermonites; who inhabited the mountain of Hermon; or the Hermonian mountains, as the Targum; see Ps 133:3; a mountain upon the border of the land of Israel eastward, and which was very high; Cocceius thinks the Geshurites are meant; see 1Sa 27:8; here also the Lord had appeared to him, and for him; and
from the hill Mizar; or “the little hill” k; which might be so in comparison of Hermon. The above interpreter thinks Zoar is meant, which Lot so called, Ge 19:20; which was near Sodom and Gomorrah: Kimchi thinks it might be Zior, mentioned in Jos 15:54; but, be it what or where it will, in this little hill David enjoyed the divine Presence; or was indulged with some remarkable favour; from all which he concludes he had no just reason to be dejected and disquieted in his mind: and right it is for the people of God to call to mind past experiences, and make mention of them; partly for the glory of divine grace, and to express their gratitude to God, and their sense of his goodness; and partly to cheer and refresh their own spirits, and prevent dejection and despondency: and delightful it is to call to mind, how, at such a time, and in such a place, the Lord was pleased to manifest his love, apply some gracious promise, or deliver from some sore temptation or distress: all which must tend to encourage faith and hope. The Jewish writers differently interpret these words; Jarchi, of David’s remembrance of the wonderful works God did for the people of Israel of old, in drying up the river Jordan, and giving them the law on Mount Sinai, a little hill, in comparison of some others: Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and Ben Melech, understand them as a reason of his dejection, when he remembered how the Israelites came from those several parts to the solemn feasts at Jerusalem, which he was now deprived of; and the Targum paraphrases them of the inhabitants of those places, and of the people that received the law on Mount Sinai, remembering God; and so Arama thinks “beyond Jordan” is mentioned because the law was given there; and by the hill Mizar he understands Sinai: and some Christian interpreters consider them as a reason why David’s soul was cast down in him, he being in such places as here mentioned, at a distance from his own house, from Jerusalem, and the place of divine worship, and so render the words, “because that I remember thee”, c. l.
k “de monte modico”, V. L. Musculus “parvo”, Pagninus, Vatablus; so Montanus, Tigurine version, Junius Tremellius, Piscator. l – “propterea quod”, Tigurine version, Piscator, Muis “quia”, Noldius, p. 727, No. 1790.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(Heb.: 42:7-12) The poet here continues to console himself with God’s help. God Himself is indeed dishonoured in him; He will not suffer the trust he has reposed in Him to go unjustified. True, seems at the beginning of the line to be tame, but from and , the beginning and end of the line, standing in contrast, is made emphatic, and it is at the same time clear that is not equivalent to – which Gesenius asserts in his Lexicon, erroneously referring to Psa 1:5; Psa 45:3, is a poetical usage of the language; an assertion for which, however, there is as little support as that in Num 14:43 and other passages is equivalent to . In all such passages, e.g., Jer 48:36, means “therefore,” and the relationship of reason and consequence is reversed. So even here: within him his soul is bowed very low, and on account of this downcast condition he thinks continually of God, from whom he is separated. Even in Jon 2:8 this thinking upon God does not appear as the cause but as the consequence of pain. The “land of Jordan and of Hermonim” is not necessarily the northern mountain range together with the sources of the Jordan. The land beyond the Jordan is so called in opposition to , the land on this side. According to Dietrich ( Abhandlungen, S. 18), is an amplificative plural: the Hermon, as a peak soaring far above all lower summits. John Wilson ( Lands of the Bible, ii. 161) refers the plural to its two summits. But the plural serves to denote the whole range of the Antilebanon extending to the south-east, and accordingly to designate the east Jordanic country. It is not for one moment to be supposed that the psalmist calls Hermon even, in comparison with his native Zion, the chosen of God. , i.e., the mountain of littleness: the other member of the antithesis, the majesty of Zion, is wanting, and the which is repeated before is also opposed to this. Hitzig, striking out the of , makes it an address to Zion: “because I remember thee out of the land of Jordan and of summits of Hermon, thou little mountain;” but, according to Psa 42:8, these words are addressed to Elohim. In the vicinity of Mitzare , a mountain unknown to us, in the country beyond Jordan, the poet is sojourning; from thence he looks longingly towards the district round about his home, and just as there, in a strange land, the wild waters of the awe-inspiring mountains roar around him, there seems to be a corresponding tumult in his soul. In Psa 42:8 he depicts the natural features of the country round about him – and it may remind one quite as much of the high and magnificent waterfalls of the lake of Muzerb as of the waterfall at the course of the Jordan near Paneas and the waters that dash headlong down the mountains round about – and in Psa 42:8 he says that he feels just as though all these threatening masses of water were following like so many waves of misfortune over his head (Tholuck, Hitzig, and Riehm). Billow follows billow as if called by one another (cf. Isa 6:3 concerning the continuous antiphon of the seraphim) at the roar ( as in Hab 3:16) of the cataracts, which in their terrible grandeur proclaim the Creator, God (lxx ) – all these breaking, sporting waves of God pass over him, who finds himself thus surrounded by the mighty works of nature, but taking no delight in them; and in them all he sees nothing but the mirrored image of the many afflictions which threaten to involve him in utter destruction (cf. the borrowed passage in that mosaic work taken from the Psalms, Jon 2:4).
He, however, calls upon himself in Psa 42:9 to take courage in the hope that a morning will dawn after this night of affliction (Psa 30:6), when Jahve, the God of redemption and of the people of redemption, will command His loving-kindness (cf. Psa 44:5, Amos; 3f.); and when this by day has accomplished its work of deliverance, there follows upon the day of deliverance a night of thanksgiving (Job 35:10): the joyous excitement, the strong feeling of gratitude, will not suffer him to sleep. The suffix of is the suffix of the object: a hymn in praise of Him, prayer (viz., praiseful prayer, Hab 3:1) to the God of his life (cf. Sir. 23:4), i.e., who is his life, and will not suffer him to come under the dominion of death. Therefore will he say ( ), in order to bring about by prayer such a day of loving-kindness and such a night of thanksgiving songs, to the God of his rock, i.e., who is his rock ( gen. apos.): Why, etc.? Concerning the different accentuation of here and in Psa 43:2, vid., on Psa 37:20 (cf. Psa 10:1). In this instance, where it is not followed by a guttural, it serves as a “variation” Hitzig); but even the retreating of the tone when a guttural follows is not consistently carried out, vid., Psa 49:6, cf. 1Sa 28:15 (Ew. 243, b). The view of Vaihinger and Hengstenberg is inadmissible, viz., that Psa 42:10 to Psa 42:11 are the “prayer,” which the psalmist means in Psa 42:9; it is the prayerful sigh of the yearning for deliverance, which is intended to form the burthen of that prayer. In some MSS we find the reading instead of ; the is here really synonymous with the , it is the Beth essentiae (vid., Psa 35:2): after the manner of a crushing (cf. Eze 21:27, and the verb in Psa 62:4 of overthrowing a wall) in my bones, i.e., causing me a crunching pain which seethes in my bones, mine oppressors reproach me ( with the transfer of the primary meaning carpere, as is also customary in the Latin, to a plucking and stripping one of his good name). The use of here differs from its use in Psa 42:10; for the reproaching is not added to the crushing as a continuing state, but is itself thus crushing in its operation (vid., Psa 42:4). Instead of we have here the easier form of expression ; and in the refrain , which is also to be restored in Psa 42:6.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Complaints and Consolations. | |
6 O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar. 7 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. 8 Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life. 9 I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? 10 As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God? 11 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.
Complaints and comforts here, as before, take their turn, like day and night in the course of nature.
I. He complains of the dejections of his spirit, but comforts himself with the thoughts of God, v. 6. 1. In his troubles. His soul was dejected, and he goes to God and tells him so: O my God! my soul is cast down within me. It is a great support to us, when upon any account we are distressed, that we have liberty of access to God, and liberty of speech before him, and may open to him the causes of our dejection. David had communed with his own heart about its own bitterness, and had not as yet found relief; and therefore he turns to God, and opens before him the trouble. Note, When we cannot get relief for our burdened spirits by pleading with ourselves, we should try what we can do by praying to God and leaving our case with him. We cannot still these winds and waves; but we know who can. 2. In his devotions. His soul was elevated, and, finding the disease very painful, he had recourse to that as a sovereign remedy. “My soul is plunged; therefore, to prevent its sinking, I will remember thee, meditate upon thee, and call upon thee, and try what that will do to keep up my spirit.” Note, The way to forget the sense of our miseries is to remember the God of our mercies. It was an uncommon case when the psalmist remembered God and was troubled, Ps. lxxvii. 3. He had often remembered God and was comforted, and therefore had recourse to that expedient now. He was now driven to the utmost borders of the land of Canaan, to shelter himself there from the rage of his persecutors–sometimes to the country about Jordan, and, when discovered there, to the land of the Hermonites, or to a hill called Mizar, or the little hill; but, (1.) Wherever he went he took his religion along with him. In all these places, he remembered God, and lifted up his heart to him, and kept his secret communion with him. This is the comfort of the banished, the wanderers, the travellers, of those that are strangers in a strange land, that undique ad clos tantundem est vi–wherever they are there is a way open heavenward. (2.) Wherever he was he retained his affection for the courts of God’s house; from the land of Jordan, or from the top of the hills, he used to look a long look, a longing look, towards the place of the sanctuary, and wish himself there. Distance and time could not make him forget that which his heart was so much upon and which lay so near it.
II. He complains of the tokens of God’s displeasure against him, but comforts himself with the hopes of the return of his favour in due time.
1. He saw his troubles coming from God’s wrath, and that discouraged him (v. 7): “Deep calls unto deep, one affliction comes upon the neck of another, as if it were called to hasten after it; and thy water-spouts give the signal and sound the alarm of war.” It may be meant of the terror and disquietude of his mind under the apprehensions of God’s anger. One frightful thought summoned another, and made way for it, as is usual in melancholy people. He was overpowered and overwhelmed with a deluge of grief, like that of the old world, when the windows of heaven were opened and the fountains of the great deep were broken up. Or it is an allusion to a ship at sea in a great storm, tossed by the roaring waves, which go over it, Ps. cvii. 25. Whatever waves and billows of affliction go over us at any time we must call them God’s waves and his billows, that we may humble ourselves under his mighty hand, and may encourage ourselves to hope that though we be threatened we shall not be ruined; for the waves and billows are under a divine check. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of these many waters. Let not good men think it strange if they be exercised with many and various trials, and if they come thickly upon them; God knows what he does, and so shall they shortly. Jonah, in the whale’s belly, made use of these words of David, Jonah ii. 3 (they are exactly the same in the original), and of him they were literally true, All thy waves and thy billows have gone over me; for the book of psalms is contrived so as to reach every one’s case.
2. He expected his deliverance to come from God’s favour (v. 8): Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness. Things are bad, but they shall not always be so. Non si male nunc et olim sic erit–Though affairs are now in an evil plight, they may not always be so. After the storm there will come a calm, and the prospect of this supported him when deep called unto deep. Observe (1.) What he promised himself from God: The Lord will command his lovingkindness. He eyes the favour of God as the fountain of all the good he looked for. That is life; that is better than life; and with that God will gather those from whom he has, in a little wrath, hid his face,Isa 54:7; Isa 54:8. God’s conferring his favour is called his commanding it. This intimates the freeness of it; we cannot pretend to merit it, but it is bestowed in a way of sovereignty, he gives like a king. It intimates also the efficacy of it; he speaks his lovingkindness, and makes us to hear it; speaks, and it is done. He commands deliverance (Ps. xliv. 4), commands the blessing (Ps. cxxxiii. 3), as one having authority. By commanding his lovingkindness, he commands down the waves and the billows, and they shall obey him. This he will do in the daytime, for God’s lovingkindness will make day in the soul at any time. Though weeping has endured for a night, a long night, yet joy will come in the morning. (2.) What he promised for himself to God. If God command his lovingkindness for him, he will meet it, and bid it welcome, with his best affections and devotions. [1.] He will rejoice in God: In the night his song shall be with me. The mercies we receive in the day we ought to return thanks for at night; when others are sleeping we should be praising God. See Ps. cxix. 62, At midnight will I rise to give thanks. In silence and solitude, when we are retired from the hurries of the world, we must be pleasing ourselves with the thoughts of God’s goodness. Or in the night of affliction: “Before the day dawns, in which God commands his lovingkindness, I will sing songs of praise in the prospect of it.” Even in tribulation the saints can rejoice in hope of the glory of God, sing in hope, and praise in hope, Rom 5:2; Rom 5:3. It is God’s prerogative to give songs in the night, Job xxxv. 10. [2.] He will seek to God in a constant dependence upon him: My prayer shall be to the God of my life. Our believing expectation of mercy must not supersede, but quicken, our prayers for it. God is the God of our life, in whom we live and move, the author and giver of all our comforts; and therefore to whom should we apply by prayer, but to him? And from him what good may not we expect? It would put life into our prayers in them to eye God as the God of our life; for then it is for our lives, and the lives of our souls, that we stand up to make request.
III. He complains of the insolence of his enemies, and yet comforts himself in God as his friend, v. 9-11.
1. His complaint is that his enemies oppressed and reproached him, and this made a great impression upon him. (1.) They oppressed him to such a degree that he went mourning from day to day, from place to place, v. 9. He did not break out into indecent passions, though abused as never man was, but he silently wept out his grief, and went mourning; and for this we cannot blame him: it must needs grieve a man that truly loves his country, and seeks the good of it, to see himself persecuted and hardly used, as if he were an enemy to it. Yet David ought not hence to have concluded that God had forgotten him and cast him off, nor thus to have expostulated with him, as if he did him as much wrong in suffering him to be trampled upon as those did that trampled upon him: Why go I mourning? and why hast thou forgotten me? We may complain to God, but we are not allowed thus to complain of him. (2.) They reproached him so cuttingly that it was a sword in his bones, v. 10. He had mentioned before what the reproach was that touched him thus to the quick, and here he repeats it: They say daily unto me, Where is thy God?–a reproach which was very grievous to him, both because it reflected dishonour upon God and was intended to discourage his hope in God, which he had enough to do to keep up in any measure, and which was but too apt to fail of itself.
2. His comfort is that God is his rock (v. 9) –a rock to build upon, a rock to take shelter in. The rock of ages, in whom is everlasting strength, would be his rock, his strength in the inner man, both for doing and suffering. To him he had access with confidence. To God his rock he might say what he had to say, and be sure of a gracious audience. He therefore repeats what he had before said (v. 5), and concludes with it (v. 11): Why art thou cast down, O my soul? His griefs and fears were clamorous and troublesome; they were not silenced though they were again and again answered. But here, at length, his faith came off a conqueror and forced the enemies to quit the field. And he gains this victory, (1.) By repeating what he had before said, chiding himself, as before, for his dejections and disquietudes, and encouraging himself to trust in the name of the Lord and to stay himself upon his God. Note, It may be of great use to us to think our good thoughts over again, and, if we do not gain our point with them at first, perhaps we may the second time; however, where the heart goes along with the words, it is no vain repetition. We have need to press the same thing over and over again upon our hearts, and all little enough. (2.) By adding one word to it; there he hoped to praise God for the salvation that was in his countenance; here, “I will praise him,” says he, “as the salvation of my countenance from the present cloud that is upon it; if God smile upon me, that will make me look pleasant, look up, look forward, look round, with pleasure.” He adds, and my God, “related to me, in covenant with me; all that he is, all that he has, is mine, according to the true intent and meaning of the promise.” This thought enabled him to triumph over all his griefs and fears. God’s being with the saints in heaven, and being their God, is that which will wipe away all tears from their eyes,Rev 21:3; Rev 21:4.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
6. O my God! my soul is cast down within me. If we suppose that this verse requires no supplement, then it will consist of two distinct and separate sentences. Literally it may be read thus: O my God! my soul is cast down within me, therefore will I remember thee, etc. But the greater number of expositors render the word על-כן , al-ken, by forasmuch as, or because, so that it is employed to express the reason of what is contained in the preceding clause. And certainly it would be very appropriate in this sense, That as often as David, from the land of Jordan, in which he now lay hid as an exile, set himself to think of the sanctuary, his sorrow was so much the more increased. If, however, any would rather, as I have already observed, distinguish this verse into two parts, it must be understood as meaning that David thought of God in his exile, not to nourish his grief, but to assuage it. He did not act the part of those who find no relief in their afflictions but in forgetting God; for although wounded by his hand, he, nevertheless, failed not to acknowledge him to be his physician. Accordingly, the import of the whole verse will be this, I am now living in a state of exile, banished from the temple, and seem to be an alien from the household of God; but this will not prevent me from regarding him, and having recourse to him. I am now deprived of the accustomed sacrifices, of which I stand much in need, but he has not taken from me his word. As, however, the first interpretation is the one more generally received, and this also seems to be added by way of exposition, it is better not to depart from it. David then complains that his soul was oppressed with sorrow, because he saw himself cast out of the Church of God. At the same time, there is in these words a tacit contrast; (119) as if he had said, It is not the desire to be restored to my wife, or my house, or any of my possessions, which grieves me so much as the distressing consideration, that I now find myself prevented from taking part in the service of God. We ought to learn from this, that although we are deprived of the helps which God has appointed for the edification of our faith and piety, it is, nevertheless, our duty to be diligent in stirring up our minds, that we may never suffer ourselves to be forgetful of God. But, above all, this is to be observed, that as in the preceding verse we have seen David contending courageously against his own affections, so now we here see by what means he steadfastly maintained his ground. He did this by having recourse to the help of God, and taking refuge in it as in a holy sanctuary. And, assuredly, if meditation upon the promises of God do not lead us to prayer, it will not have sufficient power to sustain and confirm us. Unless God impart strength to us, how shall we be able to subdue the many evil thoughts which constantly arise in our minds? The soul of man serves the purpose, as it were, of a workshop to Satan in which to forge a thousand methods of despair. And, therefore, it is not without reason that David, after a severe conflict with himself, has recourse to prayer, and calls upon God as the witness of his sorrow. By the land of Jordan is to be understood that part of the country which, in respect of Judea, was beyond the river of that name. This appears still more clearly from the word Hermonim or Hermons. Hermon was a mountainous district, which extended to a considerable distance; and because it had several tops, was called in the plural number Hermonim. (120)
Perhaps David also has purposely made use of the plural number on account of the fear by which he was forced frequently to change his place of abode, and wander hither and thither. As to the word Mizar, some suppose that it was not the proper name of a mountain, and therefore translate it little, supposing that there is here an indirect comparison of the Hermons with the mountain of Sion, as if David meant to say that Sion, which was comparatively a small hill, was greater in his estimation than the lofty Hermons; but it appears to me that this would be a constrained interpretation.
(119) “ C’est a dire, consideration d’autres choses a l’opposite.” — Fr. marg. “That is to say, the consideration of other things quite opposite.”
(120) Just as we say the Alps and the Appenines. The Hermons formed part of the ridge of the high hills called Antilibanus. The sources of the Jordan are in the vicinity. Davidson reads, “ From the land of Jordan, even of the Hermons; the two espressions signifying the same district.” — Sacred Hermeneutics, p. 667.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(6) Cast down.The poet, though faith condemns his dejection, still feels it, and cannot help expressing it. The heart will not be tranquil all at once, and the utterance of its trouble, so natural, so pathetic, long after served, in the very words of the LXX., to express a deeper grief, and mark a more tremendous crisis (Joh. 12:27; Mat. 26:38).
Therefore will I.Better, therefore do I remember thee. (Comp. Jon. 2:7.)
From the land of Jordani.e., the uplands of the north-east, where the river rises. The poet has not vet passed quite into the land of exile, the country beyond Jordan, but already he is on its borders, and as his sad eyes turn again and again towards the loved country he is leaving, its sacred summits begin to disappear, while ever nearer and higher rise the snow-clad peaks of Hermon.
Hermonites.Rather, of the Hermons, i.e., either collectively for the whole range (as generally of mountains, the Balkans, etc.) or with reference to the appearance of the mountain as a ridge with a conspicuous peak at either end. (See Thomson, Land and Book, p. 177.) In reality, however, the group known especially as Hermon has three summits, situated, like the angles of a triangle, a quarter of a mile from each other, and of almost equal elevation. (See Smiths Bible Dict., Hermon. Comp. Our Work in Palestine, p. 246.)
The hill Mizar.Marg., the little hill. So LXX. and Vulg., a monte modico. (Comp. the play on the name Zoar in Gen. 19:20.) Hence some think the poet is contrasting Hermon with Zion. In such a case, however, the custom of Hebrew poetry was to exalt Zion, and not depreciate the higher mountains, and it is very natural to suppose that some lower ridge or pass, over which the exile may be supposed wending his sad way, was actually called the little, or the less.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. Therefore That is, because of my distress.
From the land of Jordan From beyond Jordan, or east of Jordan.
Hermonites Mount Hermon bounded Palestine proper on the northeast, and the Hermonites inhabited the adjacent lower lands south and southeast of the mountain.
Hill Mizar Or the small mountain. It applies to some hill of Gilead, or more probably, some peak of Anti-Lebanon. Nothing definite is known of it, but these references to place indicate that David’s flight would be northeastward if compelled to go beyond Mahanaim. The facts illustrate the faith, courage, and resolution of the king.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘O my God, my soul is cast down within me,
Therefore do I remember you from the land of the Jordan,
And the Hermons, from the hill Mizar.
Deep calls to deep at the noise of your downpourings,
All your waves and your billows are gone over me.
His disquietude is not, however, totally removed by his previously expressed confidence. The struggle goes on within him. And now he calls on God to witness the cast down state of his soul. Nevertheless this causes him to remember God, even from where he is. But even this only makes him think of overflowing and unfriendly waters. His faith is fluctuating between confidence and despair.
The description suggests that he is in the north west part of land around the River Jordan, near Mount Hermon (‘the Hermons’ probably refers either to the Hermon range, or possibly to the three peaks at different levels discernible on Mount Hermon itself). He would appear to be on the hill Mizar (‘the little mountain’). The identity of this latter is not known. Possibly he had been taken by bandits, or by marauding invaders, and was held in one of their mountain strongholds, but he certainly felt a long way away from Jerusalem.
He describes his emotions very powerfully. He feels as though he is being drowned at sea in a storm, ‘all your waves and billows are gone over me’. Perhaps he was familiar with fishing boats on the Sea of Galilee where violent storms tended to erupt. If so, he may well have witnessed the drowning of his fellow countrymen at sea. He might also have had in mind the story of the Flood, or have called to mind what had happened to the Egyptian forces at the Red Sea. This was what happened to those of whom God disapproved. Whichever it was he felt as though he himself was almost drowning in torrents of water, as though his end was not far away.
Others see in it a reference to the waters of Chaos which constantly threaten mankind. But there is nothing about the description to especially suggest this. He may well, however, have been able to hear the sound of powerful, rushing waterfalls nearby, and have seen them as calling to each other to drown him in their torrents as he is ‘caught’ between them (‘deep calls to deep’), especially if it was at the time of the winter rains when such torrents would pour down in majestic fashion from Mount Hermon and other mountains, before flowing down to swell the waters of the Sea of Galilee. Flood water would be very much in mind. Possibly it was a combination of a number of these factors, brought to mind by the raging torrents and waterfalls caused by the winter rains, that made him think in these terms. But the final point is that he is drowning in despair.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Psa 42:6. And of the Hermonites, &c. And Hermonim from the little hill. See Wall, and the version of the Liturgy of the Church of England. Mudge reads, from the little mountain of the Hermons. His soul being cast down, he knows no better way of raising his spirits than by reflecting upon God, where he now is, even beyond Jordan. This he does, Psa 42:8-9. Hermon probably rose in more eminences than one, and therefore is expressed plurally; one of them, perhaps smaller than the rest, is called here Mitsaar, the little one; from whence probably he used to cast a wistful eye towards Jerusalem. But Bishop Hare observes, that Hermon being nowhere read in the plural, should not be so read here.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
The holy mourner again seems to feel reviving affliction. But the same looking back from Jordan, to the very spot where now arrived, and every step in the path strewed with mercies, again brings up the soul. Mizar bitters, and Mizar sweets, when blended, make a mixture palatable, and more than palatable, to the believer’s taste. Reader, depend upon it, the children of Jesus would have lost some of their sweetest views and enjoyments of Jesus, had they never known what difficulties and crosses the hill of Mizar produced to them. Blessed Lord! those souls are highly favored of thee, who are most blessed with a conformity to the fellowship of thy sufferings.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 42:6 O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar.
Ver. 6. O my God, my soul is cast down within me ] Though before he had schooled himself out of his distempers yet now he is troubled again; such are the vicissitudes and interchanges of joy and sorrow that the saints are here subject unto; as soon as the spirit gets the better, as soon the flesh; sometimes good affections prevail, sometimes unruly passions. Affections are the wind of the soul, passions the storm. The soul is well carried when neither so becalmed that it moves not when it should, nor yet tossed with tempests to move disorderly.
Therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
O my God. In some codices this is joined on to the end of Psa 42:5 = “the great deliverance of me, and [praise]my God”. Compare Psa 42:11 with Psa 43:5.
Jordan. The reference is to 2Sa 17:22.
the Hermonites = the Hermons. Refers to the two peaks.
hill = mountain.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 42:6-8
Psa 42:6-8
“O My God, my soul is cast down within me:
Therefore do I remember thee from the land of the Jordan,
And the Hermons from the hill Mizar.
Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterfalls:
All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
Yet Jehovah will command his lovingkindness in the daytime;
And in the night his song shall be with me
Even a prayer unto the God of my life.”
“All thy waves and thy billows have gone over me” (Psa 42:7). The psalmist here remembers the experience of Jonah, making the same determination that God will yet bless him, just as he blessed Jonah. The passage recalled here is:
“All thy waves and thy billows passed over me … the waters compassed me about, even to the soul; the deep was round about me. Yet I will look again toward thy holy temple” (Jon 2:3-5).
It is easy to see that the psalmist here was appealing to God, that just as he had blessed Jonah, so might the same blessings come to the psalmist.
“Jehovah will command his lovingkindness in the daytime; and in the night his song shall be with me” (Psa 42:8). The future tenses here, “will command,” and “shall be with me” are changed to the present tense in the RSV which reads, “By day the Lord commands his stedfast love; and at night his song is with me.” “Owing to the flexibility of the meaning of Hebrew tenses, it may be legitimately translated either way.
If we translate the passage as present (RSV) it means that the psalmist is at the present time receiving comfort and consolation from his confessed sense of God’s overruling; and, if we translate it future as in ASV, then the psalmist is “stating his assurance that God will enable him to triumph in the midst of storms.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 42:6. This verse is more along the line of the preceding one. Land of Jordan means the land made famous by the noted river. David recalled the multitude of wonders that God had wrought in that land and took renewed courage by trusting in Him.
Psa 42:7. Waters and floods and other like terms are used to compare the trials to which man is often subjected. David was not criticizing God, yet he believed that the afflictions his enemies were suffered to pour upon him was due to the will of God and for some good reason.
Psa 42:8. This is another effort at self-cheer over the final goodness of God. Daytime and night are opposite terms and used to indicate completeness of divine favor.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
my God: Psa 22:1, Psa 43:4, Psa 88:1-3, Mat 26:39, Mat 27:46
therefore: Psa 77:6-11, Jon 2:7
from the: Psa 61:2, 2Sa 17:22, 2Sa 17:27
Hermonites: Deu 3:8, Deu 3:9, Deu 4:47, Deu 4:48
the hill Mizar: or, the little hill, Psa 133:3
Reciprocal: 1Ki 8:38 – the plague Psa 55:5 – horror Psa 57:6 – my soul Psa 69:20 – I am Psa 102:4 – heart Psa 143:5 – remember Jer 4:19 – O my Lam 3:20 – humbled Joh 14:1 – not
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 42:6. My soul is cast down within me I am overcome with grief, while I am forced to hide myself in this wilderness beyond Jordan, and wander up and down on these solitary mountains, far distant from thy tabernacle; therefore That I may revive my drooping spirits; I will remember thee from the land of Jordan I will consider thy infinite mercy, and power, and faithfulness, and thy gracious presence in the sanctuary, from whence thou dost hear and answer all those that call upon thee. From the hill Mizar From all the places and parts of the land to which I shall be driven; whether from the parts about, or beyond Jordan on the east; or mount Hermon, which was in the northern parts, here called Hermonim, in the plural number, because of its great extent, and many tops and parts of it called by several names.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
42:6 O my God, my soul is cast down within me: {f} therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar.
(f) That is, when I remember you in this land of my banishment among the mountains.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
2. The psalmist’s lamentation because of his enemies 42:6-11
In this stanza the writer focused on his enemies rather than on God. However, he came back to the same expression of confidence with which he ended the first stanza.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The psalmist was far from Jerusalem and the central sanctuary. Evidently he was near the Hermon range of mountains that stood north of the Sea of Chinnereth (Galilee). The Jordan Valley is quite wide north of this sea and the mountains of Hermon rise up to the east from it. Mount Mizar is one of the hills in that area. It was a long way from Mount Zion where the ark dwelt in David’s day.