The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime; and His song will be with me in the night, a prayer to the God of my life. (Psalm 42:8)

A yearning for God, this psalm expresses the heart of many Christians for a deeper relationship with God. It begins:

As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God? (Ps 42:1–2)

The refrain echoes three times in Psalm 42 and 43 (considered “twin songs”):

Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him for the help of His presence. (Ps 42:5, 11; 43:5)

The anguish of distance saturates virtually every verse: “my soul pants” (vs.1), “my soul thirsts” (vs. 2), “my tears” (vs. 3), “pour out my soul” (vs. 4), “despair” (vs. 5 & 6), “deep calls to deep” (vs.7), “mourning” (vs. 9), “shattering of my bones” (vs. 10), “despair” (vs. 11). Yet there is faith and hope intermingled. Truly this is the honest wrestling of a soul with itself, as the psalmist speaks faith into his own discouraged soul.

This song is attributed to a group of Levites called “the sons of Korah.” This prescript before verse 1 is found in all of the ancient Old Testament manuscripts, so we take it to be divinely inspired. The “sons of Korah” are descendants of the Levite Korah, who rose against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness wanderings years earlier (Num 16:11-3). Because of Korah’s insurrection,14,700 people died of the plague (Num 16:49), and God destroyed Korah and 250 others with an ancient version of a sinkhole (Num 26:9-11). But Korah’s sons were spared—and now we see this psalm attached to his descendants. Does this not remarkably speak life-giving grace, that the descendants of someone like Korah would be used by God?

In an 11-verse song where God is referred to 13 times, the psalmist specifically calls out to “the God of my life.” When depression sets in, and emotional concerns overwhelm your world, life seems more like a living death. The godly person combats depression with a prayer of hope in the God who is life itself. We are reminded of the Lord’s disciples who, even though they did not have everything figured out, said to Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68).

Lord, I look to You, the God of my life, for where else shall I turn? You are Life!