Psalm 42:8 (ESV)
By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.
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Bible Commentary
Psalm 42:8 is a Bible verse where the Psalmist in a time of need, reminds himself of the love and comfort of God’s Presence in his life. We see the Psalmist’s desperate need of God in the first two verses of Psalm 42.
As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
This is much more than a physical thirst. He is crying out from the depths of his soul for God.
We know what it feels like to be physically thirsty. Our mouth and throat feel dry, and we’re not satisfied until we get some water to drink. Without Christ, our souls are dry and thirsty. Even if we have accepted Christ, we can still experience dryness in our souls if we do not commune with Him.
That would be like having a nice tall glass of cool water sitting on our kitchen table, but we refuse to acknowledge it is there, so we walk around thirsty all the time…and then probably complain about it.
This is precisely what the Psalmist is doing here in Psalm 42:3-4.
My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” 4 These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.
Unlocking the Truth – Stream In
And then in Psalm 42:5 he seems to have an “aha” moment when he says,
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation 6 and my God.
He remembers that his hope should be in God, like he suddenly realized his hope was in the wrong place–somewhere other than God. He acknowledges that his salvation is in God and then determines he will praise Him.
He gets more of a bird’s eye view… click to continue
