Psalms 42:6

O my God, my soul is cast down within me,.... Which the psalmist repeats, partly to show the greatness of his dejection, though he had not lost his view of interest in God as his covenant God; and

O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar. O my God, my soul is cast down within me.

That I may revive my drooping spirits, I will consider thy infinite mercy, and power, and faithfulness, and thy gracious presence in the sanctuary, from whence thou dost hear and answer all those that call upon thee, in all the parts of the land. From the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar, i.e. from all the places and parts of the land to which I shall be driven; whether from the parts about or beyond Jordan on the east: or, the Hermonim, i.e. either the people inhabiting Hermon; or the mountain of Hermon, which was in the northern parts, , here called Hermonim, in the plural number, because of its great largeness, and many tops and parts of it, which are called by several names: or, the hill Mizar; a hill so called, though not mentioned elsewhere, which is supposed to have been in the southern parts of the land; but peradventure it was in the east and beyond Jordan; and David might mention these places, because when he was banished by Absalom, he had been successively at all of them, and in all of them had remembered God, and directed his prayer to him.

Psalms 42:6 O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar.Ver. 6. O my God, my soul is cast down within me] Though before he had schooled himself out of his distempers yet now he is troubled again; such are the vicissitudes and interchanges of joy and sorrow that the saints are here subject unto; as soon as the spirit gets the better, as soon the flesh; sometimes good affections prevail, sometimes unruly passions. Affections are the wind of the soul, passions the storm. The soul is well carried when neither so becalmed that it moves not when it should, nor yet tossed with tempests to move disorderly. Therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan] That is, saith one, I will call to mind former experiments there, and take comfort. Or, I will remember thee, as I may, here at Mahanaim beyond Jordan, under the mount Hermon, and that other little hill (where I have found thee in my meditations and prayers propitious unto me), though I cannot now worship thee in the beauty of holiness, being driven out by my ungracious son Absalom from the place where thine honour dwelleth.

(6) Cast down.—The poet, though faith condemns his dejection, still feels it, and cannot help expressing it. The heart will not be tranquil all at once, and the utterance of its trouble, so natural, so pathetic, long after served, in the very words of the LXX., to express a deeper grief, and mark a more tremendous crisis (John 12:27; Matthew 26:38). Therefore will I.—Better, therefore do I remember thee. (Comp. Jonah 2:7.) From the land of Jordan—i.e., the uplands of the north-east, where the river rises. The poet has not vet passed quite into the land of exile, the country beyond Jordan, but already he is on its borders, and as his sad eyes turn again and again towards the loved country he is leaving, its sacred summits begin to disappear, while ever nearer and higher rise the snow-clad peaks of Hermon. Hermonites.—Rather, of the Hermons, i.e., either collectively for the whole range (as generally of mountains, the Balkans, etc.) or with reference to the appearance of the mountain as a ridge with a conspicuous peak at either end. (See Thomson, Land and Book, p. 177.) In reality, however, the group known especially as Hermon has three summits, situated, like the angles of a triangle, a quarter of a mile from each other, and of almost equal elevation. (See Smith’s Bible Dict., “Hermon.” Comp. Our Work in Palestine, p. 246.) The hill Mizar.—Marg., the little hill. So LXX. and Vulg., a monte modico. (Comp. the play on the name Zoar in Genesis 19:20.) Hence some think the poet is contrasting Hermon with Zion. In such a case, however, the custom of Hebrew poetry was to exalt Zion, and not depreciate the higher mountains, and it is very natural to suppose that some lower ridge or pass, over which the exile may be supposed wending his sad way, was actually called “the little,” or “the less.”

Verse 6. O my God, my soul is cast down] It is impossible for me to lighten this load; I am full of discouragements, notwithstanding I labour to hope in thee. Therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan] That is, from Judea, this being the chief river of that country. And of the Hermonites] הרמונים the Hermons, used in the plural because Hermon has a double ridge joining in an angle, and rising in many summits. The river Jordan, and the mountains of Hermon, were the most striking features of the holy land. From the hill Mizar.] מהר מצער mehar mitsar, from the little hill, as in the margin. The little hill probably means Sion, which was little in comparison of the Hermons. - Bishop Horsley. No such hill as Mizar is known in India.

6–11. From self he turns to God and pleads his cause.

O my God, my soul is cast down within me - This is the utterance of a soul in anguish, notwithstanding the purpose not to be cast down, and the conviction that hope ought to be cherished.

6. Therefore—That is, because of my distress. From the land of Jordan—From beyond Jordan, or east of Jordan.