Psalms 42:1
As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
Study Note
Study Note
'As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God' — the opening simile of the Korah psalm captures acute spiritual thirst through the image of a deer driven to the wadi by physical necessity. The context is exile from Jerusalem and the temple — verses 4 and 6 locate the writer in the region of Hermon and the Jordan — making the longing both spatial (for the sanctuary) and relational (for God's presence). Augustine's Confessions opens with 'our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee,' drawing on this verse's theology of divinely implanted desire; it has since become one of Christianity's most cited texts for the phenomenology of the soul's longing for God.
Other Translations
As the hart panteth after the water brooks, So panteth my soul after thee, O God.
To the Overseer. --An Instruction. By sons of Korah. As a hart doth pant for streams of water, So my soul panteth toward Thee, O God.
Like the desire of the roe for the water-streams, so is my soul's desire for you, O God.
Cross References
With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee …
Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O Lord, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is …
All these were the sons of Heman the king’s seer in the words of God, to lift up the horn. …
Moreover David and the captains of the host separated to the service of the sons of Asaph, and of Heman, …
The son of Tahath, the son of Assir, the son of Ebiasaph, the son of Korah,
And these are they that waited with their children. Of the sons of the Kohathites: Heman a singer, the son …
Hear me speedily, O Lord: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them …
I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah.
I opened my mouth, and panted: for I longed for thy commandments.
Lord, thou hast been favourable unto thy land: thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob.