The psalm describes the despair of a man separated from the community of the faithful, and oppressed and taunted by unbelievers. He tries unsuccessfully to forget the ridicule through memories of other times, when in communal worship or alone in his homeland he had sensed the presence of God; but now his isolation and oppression suggests that God had abandoned him. The thought continues through Psalm 43, with a prayer that God would again give him opportunity to share in the community's worship.

The general idea is made clear through recurring themes, although the imagery is unusually complex: for instance, various "water" images (the stream, the tears, the waterfall, the sea) carry sharply contrasting meanings.

This psalm is unusual in including a refrain (42:5,11; 43:5). This is not "vain repetition"; it takes on a deeper meaning with each repeat.

Such a complex text poses challenges for any translator, let alone one who is constrained to poetic form. This hymn doesn't preserve the refrain, or many of the repeated thoughts. But it does represent the main ideas in a logical order: desire to worship God, sorrow at the taunting, compounded by a despairing sense that there is some truth in the taunts, faith finally recognizing that so long as he can pray to God and desire God's presence, God will be present regardless of the circumstances.

Both the meter and rhyme scheme are unusual, but should not cause difficulty.

This modern tune contains a mixture of Eastern and Western styles. It is in a major key, and its four-part harmony is basically Western,¹ but the melody occasionally reflects a modal turn of phrase.² It should be reasonably easy to sing in harmony.

Use:

This song speaks to modern religiosity in several ways. It has affinities to Paul's Areopagus speech: contrary to what some practical pantheists suggest, experience of nature doesn't provide contact with God: it merely arouses the desire for contact. Anyone who says, "I can be closer to God out in the woods than in church" has altogether missed the point of both the woods and the psalm. Private worship is good in its place; it is no substitute for worship with the community of believers.

Christians worldwide are often keenly aware of being in a society that generally doesn't believe in God, and tolerates scorn or oppression of those who do It is an experience that should make us appreciate our family in Christ even more.

This psalm eloquently presents the promise that God is with us always, even when we are away from friends or fellow-Christians. It would therefore make an excellent opening or closing song. The second verse may be omitted if the circumstances of the congregation do not immediately fit.

Excursus: "As the Deer Pants For"

It will be enlightening to contrast this psalm with the popular chorus "As the deer pants For". The two, despite the surface stylistic similarities, are hardly comparable. This version represents the major themes and thought process of the psalm: multiple reasons from the psalmist's own experience, that led to the desire to join in the public worship (of which this psalm might well be a part.) That chorus merely expresses the desire -- absurdly, in the context of that worship! (One can imagine God responding: "All right already: just do it!" This version creatively adds detail to make the psalmist's metaphors more vivid; that chorus incoherently brings in Biblical expressions³ completely out of Biblical or logical context, providing the attar of piety without any provision for thought. It is so completely devoid of thought that, by changing a couple of words, it could be made into a teen-band pop lust song.⁴

Notes:

¹It will not seem so alien as "Sri Lampang."

²Unlike the more westernized "Applegate"; compare the review of modes.

³E.g., "joygiver", "apple of eye".

⁴Since that chorus is such a bad song, it doesn't matter how poorly it was written. Therefore, without being swayed by our emotional response to its tune, we can consider whether it is appropriate for those words. In fact, it provides a textbook example of perverse clash between poetic and musical meter.