“Whoever drinks of the water that I [Christ] shall give him will never thirst” (Jn 4:14).
Psalm 42 has an obvious pattern. There are two stanzas with a repeated chorus. This pattern follows in Psalm 43 with the same chorus, the reason many think the two psalms were originally one. But we’ll leave them as they are. As you read Psalm 42, the narrative seems clear. The writer has an overwhelming sense of his need for God, “As the deer pants for the water brooks” (v 1). But his critics see his present predicament as evidence that he’s been abandoned by his Elohim (v 3). He feels they have a point, wondering himself why he senses this unassuaged thirst for the Lord. In fact, in desperation his tears seem to be the briny alternative to God’s water brooks. He recalls happier days when he “used to go with the multitude…to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise” (v 4). But now he’s hiding in “the land of the Jordan, and…the heights of Hermon” (v 6). There the melting snows form rushing torrents which he describes: “Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls” (v 7). The cascades remind him both of his thirst for God and of being inundated by life’s problems. Yet he knows that God is in control. “All Your waves and billows have gone over me.” Jonah found that this exactly described his situation as he rode out the storm in the fish’s belly (see Jon 2:3). And our Lord would link Himself with Jonah’s experience, no doubt in an infinitely greater way as wave upon wave of God’s wrath beat against His holy soul. We will leave the chorus to the next psalm, but notice the change of pronouns here. “I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance” and “the help of my countenance (vv 5, 11). Yes, He’s watching us! And when by faith we behold Him, we’re transformed into His image (2 Cor 3:18).