Ps. 42 (intro: an admittedly amibitous reading)

“As a deer long / for streams of water – so does my soul / long for you / O God. – My soul thirsts / for God / the God of life – when may I enter / and see / the face of God.” I want to propose a rather ambitious reading of this psalm. It is fascinating that Book 1 of the psalter opens (with Psalms 1,2) on the note of “blessedness” whereas this one opens on the note of exile. Furthermore, Psalm 2 alludes to the blessed man being ‘transplanted’ next to ‘streams of living water’. Here, the very first line signals that those waters are now missing (and are missed). Are we to see here a ‘transplanting’ but now away from these ‘streams of water’ and into exile? If Psalm 1 and this Psalm are to be read together in a type of ‘responsorial’ manner, the effect is very profound. Just as the ‘wise man’ of Psalm 1 is entirely unified within himself as he meditates on God’s torah, here, as we will see, the psalmist is incredibly divided; rather than being able to live in a time of security, he must draw his consolation almost entirely from his memory (and his hope for the future); his continuous refrain is that he is “shaken” and his soul is “downcast”. Likewise, in Psalm 1 the blessed man is placed next to waters that keep his leaves green and allow him to produce fruit in season. Here, the psalmist has been removed from this water and “the God of life”. A perhaps more ambitious comparison is as to how Psalm 1 and 2 were, originally, one psalm. Therefore, if this psalm is a response to Psalm 1 & 2 it would have to be responding, as well, to the Davidic covenant with the king in psalm 2 (that dual source of blessedness along with Torah). Here, we may find something interesting. Psalm 3 is a prayer of David as he has been chased out of Jerusalem by his rebellious son Absalom. In that Psalm David alludes to his enemies taunting him with, “There is no victory for him from his God”. David then prays to the “holy mountain” for deliverance. This taunt by enemies is echoed here, throughout (vs. 3, 9, 10). Furthermore, Psalm 42 and 43 are the same Psalm. In Psalm 43, the psalmist asks for deliverance “from your holy mountain” (vs. 3), and, likewise, continuously alludes to God’s “victory”, just as David does in Psalm 3. There is, in addition, the fact that Psalm 3 is a psalm David sings at night, certainly highlighting his exile and the impending doom of his son. Here, in Psalm 42 and 43 “darkness” and “night” are a continuous refrain, specifically related to the oppression of enemies and their ‘daytime’ taunts. (42.8, 9, 43.2, 3). The point: it may be that what we see at the opening of this Book 2 of the Psalter is the exiled king of Israel, and the aching desire on his part to be reunited with Temple and “God’s face/presence”. In him, and in him specifically, the exile from the land has created a massive yearning for unity. Importantly, as we will develop in our next reflection, his exile is one that produces desire, the desire of the blessed man in Psalm 1 who is transplanted next to “streams of living water”. If one hears this psalm as being prayed by Christ, a tremendous amount of depth is imported into it: the exiled king who carries within himself the memory of his “leading his flock” in liturgical praise to God; who, therefore, experiences the exile of this appointed role and joy; who suffers the taunt of enemies “all day” and is torment “at night”; and who desires nothing more than to enter into the Temple of his father, with his flock, after his enemies have been destroyed…