Psalm 42

This psalm is titled 'Yearning for God in the midst of Distress".It is written by the Sons of Korah. Korah was killed by God for leading a rebellion against Moses and Aaron. However his sons were spared and they end up contributing a total of 11 psalms. Psalm 42 is also the start of Book 2 of psalms.

The first line of this psalm was made famous when General Patton was praying just before a battle in the movie Patton. It is unclear what the issues were surrounding this psalm, but what is clear is the author is in extreme distress !  This psalm is easily divided in half. The first half describes his drought of not having God with him in his distress. This is seen right from the start with that famous verse," As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for you, O God."  (Verse 1) He goes on for 6 verses to talk about being without God. This shows us our life before being saved !  Our soul pants after God and we do not respond but go with the crowd.  The second part of this psalm is when God fills him and answers his pleading ! "All of your waves and billows have gone over me." (verse 7) The rest of this psalm talks about the continuing between his soul missing God and his Faith in God no matter what the circumstances !  This can be seen here, "Why do I go mourning because of the mourning of the oppression of the enemy?" (verse 9) This psalm is a great example of the battle that goes on for our soul. Even when saved and have much faith in God, we are human and the battle is constant for our soul !!!