Five-minute study · Day 217 · Psalms 42
Psalm 42:1
A word worth stopping on: pants/longs עָרַג arag
'As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.' The verb 'panteth' is arag. It describes the desperate, gasping cry of an animal in extreme thirst, tongue out, sides heaving, searching for water with its whole body. The word appears only two times in the Hebrew Bible: here and in Joel 1:20, where the beasts of the field arag toward God because the rivers have dried up. The psalmist compares his spiritual longing to a deer dying of thirst. He is not casually interested in God's presence. He is suffocating without it.
Word study: pants/longs
- Hebrew
- עָרַג
- Pronounced
- arag
- Strong's
- H6165
- Definition
- To long for, to pant after, to cry out with desire. Describes the desperate, physical longing of a creature in extreme need. Used for animals in severe thirst.
Arag appears twice in the Hebrew Bible: Psalm 42:1 and Joel 1:20. BDB defines it as 'to long for, to pant for.' The word is onomatopoetic: the sound of it mimics the gasping, rasping breath of a panting animal. The choice of arag over more common verbs for longing (such as chamad, to desire, or avah, to wish) anchors the metaphor in the body. This longing is physical. It has a sound. It comes from the diaphragm.
Tate's Word Biblical Commentary on Psalms 51-100 (which covers the Korahite collection beginning at Psalm 42) notes that the psalm's superscription attributes it to 'the sons of Korah,' a guild of Temple singers and musicians (1 Chronicles 6:31-37, 2 Chronicles 20:19). Psalms 42 and 43 are often read as a single poem because they share a repeated refrain ('Why art thou cast down, O my soul?' in 42:5, 42:11, and 43:5) and Psalm 43 has no independent superscription.
The deer (ayyalah, a female deer or hind) searching for water is a wilderness image. The Judean desert, east of Jerusalem, is cut by deep wadis (seasonal streambeds) that fill during the rainy season and go dry in summer. A deer searching for water in a dried wadi would be desperate: surrounded by the landscape where water should be, finding only dust. The image captures the psalmist's condition. He knows where God's presence should be (the Temple), and he cannot get there.
Psalm 42:6 places the psalmist geographically: 'from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar.' This is far north, near the headwaters of the Jordan, distant from Jerusalem and the Temple. The psalmist is in exile from worship. He can hear waterfalls (42:7, 'Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts'), surrounded by physical water, and dying of spiritual thirst. The irony is precise. He is at the source of the Jordan River, the most water-rich landscape in Israel, and his soul is a deer panting in a dry wadi.
Joel 1:20 uses arag in a context of agricultural devastation: 'The beasts of the field cry (arag) also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up.' The animals cry out to God because their water sources have failed. Joel applies to literal animals what Psalm 42 applies to the human soul. Both uses describe a creature that has exhausted its own resources and turns, gasping, toward the only remaining source of life.
Historical context · Pre-exilic or early exilic period, attributed to the sons of Korah
A Deer at a Dry Wadi
The sons of Korah were a Levitical family with a long history in Israel's worship. Their ancestor Korah led a rebellion against Moses in Numbers 16 and was swallowed by the earth. His sons, however, 'died not' (Numbers 26:11) and continued to serve in the Tabernacle and later the Temple. By David's time, the Korahites were established as Temple gatekeepers and musicians (1 Chronicles 9:19, 26:1). The superscription 'for the sons of Korah' appears on Psalms 42-49, 84-85, and 87-88.
The psalmist's physical displacement from the Temple is the emotional engine of the poem. Tate notes that Psalm 42:4 recalls past worship: 'When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday.' The memory of corporate worship intensifies the pain of separation. He has been there. He knows what it sounds like, what it feels like, what the crowd sounds like on a festival day. Now he is in the north, near Mount Hermon, hearing waterfalls while the worship he aches for happens hundreds of miles south.
The reference to 'the land of the Hermons' (42:6) places the psalmist in the region of Mount Hermon, the highest peak in the area (over 9,000 feet), located at the northern boundary of Israel. The region is lush: snowmelt from Hermon feeds springs that become the Jordan River. The Banias spring (Caesarea Philippi) emerges from a cave at the base of a cliff near Mount Hermon, producing a powerful flow of clear water. The psalmist is surrounded by water. His body is not thirsty. His soul is.
The 'hill Mizar' (42:6) is unidentified. The name means 'small' or 'insignificant.' Tate suggests it may be a small hill near Hermon, a specific landmark the psalmist could see from his place of exile. The detail is personal and geographic: he names the exact place where he is standing, far from where he wants to be.
The repeated refrain, 'Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him,' appears three times (42:5, 42:11, 43:5). The psalmist is preaching to himself. He names the depression, acknowledges the disquiet, and commands his own soul to hope. The self-address is striking. He does not pretend the despair is absent. He argues with it.
For reflection
Arag is the gasping of a dying animal at a dry streambed. The psalmist used this word for his longing for God. He was in the most water-rich region of Israel, surrounded by rivers and waterfalls, and his soul was a deer panting in a dry wadi. You can be surrounded by activity, noise, people, and entertainment, and still be spiritually gasping. How thirsty are you? If you are honest, is your soul panting for God, or are you comfortable enough that the thirst has gone quiet? The psalmist's thirst was sharpened by distance from the Temple. What sharpens yours?
The psalmist preached to himself: 'Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Hope thou in God.' He did not wait for the thirst to pass. He argued with his own despair.
Sources: BDB; Tate, 'Psalms 51-100' (WBC); Joel 1:20; Numbers 26:11; 1 Chronicles 6:31-37