Phil's comments on this song:

This song is based on the text of Psalm 42 and 43. I love to use Scripture, when leading worship services, to introduce and tie songs together. I think it usually provides the best possible transitions in our singing times together. I especially like to do this for songs when it is evident what passage of Scripture a song is based upon.

I have so appreciated many of the songwriters that provide music and lyrics that direct our hearts and mind to God through song. They serve the church in such a crucial way. Sometimes, though, when I have selected a song and gone to a Scripture passage to use it as a transition, I find that the passage that a phrase in the song is taken from does not match up in regards to the theme or context of the whole passage. Ultimately, this is not a problem if the song lyrics are not unbiblical. Songwriters have freedom to write as God leads them, if they are faithful to the Word. However, I think it is best to keep a verse with the context of the whole passage when writing songs.

Psalm 42 has one of these phrases that have been used by many people in songs. "As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God." (Psalm 42:1). Most, if not all, songs I have seen written using this verse go on to express a love and desire for God, with intimate expressions of worship. However, when you read through chapters 42 and 43, it is a song that expresses frustration, sorrow, and even questions on why God has rejected them. There is a remembrance of joyful times with the congregation and a longing expressed to return to the temple of the Lord to worship with the people. But exceeding joy and closeness with God is not what the psalmist seems to be currently experiencing in his life.

It seems to me that the reason the psalmist is panting like a deer for water is because he is troubled by spiritual dryness and feeling distant from God. He is depressed and sorrowful. There is a desire for a return to intimacy, which he does not seem to be experiencing when he writes this. He says that is soul is cast down and he feels forgotten by God.

However, there is something so crucial in this Psalm, which cannot be overlooked. The psalmist does not leave us with only his exclamations of sorrow and distress. He reminds himself, three times, of the faithfulness of God and that he will once praise His Name. He recalls his distress, but each time he follows it with a reminder to himself of his God. Why can he have such confidence? Because God is God, and He does not change. He is always faithful and He is our only true source of hope and salvation. Therefore, we can cry out to God with our sorrows, but, at the same time, must always remember Who He is and that He is always with us. And after we remind ourselves, we must do so over and over again. We must stay in His Word and let it speak to our hearts and minds and our situation.

So, may we say and sing with the psalmist, "Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall praise Him him, my salvation and my God." Psalm 42:5, 42:11, 43:5