Salmi 42:1-6

1 Maschil de’ figliuoli di Core, dato al capo de’ Musici COME il cervo agogna i rivi dell’acque, Così l’anima mia agogna te, o Dio.

2 L’anima mia è assetata di Dio, dell’Iddio vivente. Quando verrò, e comparirò io nel cospetto di Dio?

3 Le mie lagrime sono il mio cibo giorno e notte, Mentre mi è detto tuttodì: Dove è il tuo Dio?

4 Io mi verso addosso l’anima mia Quando mi riduco in memoria queste cose; Che io passava in ischiera, E camminava con essa infino alla Casa di Dio, Con voce di canto e di lode, la moltitudine facendo festa.

5 Anima mia, perchè ti abbatti, e ti commovi in me? Aspetta Iddio; perciocchè ancora lo celebrerò; Il suo aspetto è compiuta salvezza.

6 O Dio mio, l’anima mia si abbatte in me; Perciò mi ricordo di te dal paese del Giordano, E da’ monti di Hermon, dal monte Misar.

Salmi 42:1-6 Meaning and Commentary

To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah. Of the word "Maschil," See Gill on "Ps 32:1," title. Korah was he who was at the head of a conspiracy against Moses and Aaron, for which sin the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed alive him and his company, and fire devoured two hundred and fifty more; the history of which is recorded in Numbers 16:1; yet all his posterity were not cut off, Numbers 26:11; some were in David's time porters, or keepers of the gates of the tabernacle, and some were singers; see 1 Chronicles 6:33; and to the chief musician was this psalm directed for them to sing, for they were not the authors of it, as some {b} have thought; but most probably David himself composed it; and it seems to have been written by him, not as representing the captives in Babylon, as Theodoret, but on his own account, when he was persecuted by Saul, and driven out by men from abiding in the Lord's inheritance, and was in a strange land among the Heathen, where he was reproached by them; and everything in this psalm agrees with his state and condition; or rather when he fled from his son Absalom, and was in those parts beyond Jordan, mentioned in this psalm; see 2 Samuel 17:24; so the Syriac inscription, the song which David sung in the time of his persecution, desiring to return to Jerusalem.

{b} So R. Moses in Muis, Gussetius, Ebr. Comment. p. 918, & others.