BOOK II  
Psalm 42 Jan. 23 For the Chief Musician. A contemplation by the sons of Korah.  1As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after You, God. 2My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? 3My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually ask me, Where is your God? 4These things I remember and pour out my soul within me, how I used to go with the crowd, and led them to God’s house, with the voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping a holy day. 5Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise Him for the saving help of His presence. 6My God, my soul is in despair within me. Therefore I remember You from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar. 7Deep calls to deep at the noise of Your waterfalls. All Your waves and Your billows have swept over me.  8Yahweh will command His grace in the daytime. In the night His song shall be with me: a prayer to the God of my life. 9I will ask God, my rock, Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? 10As with a sword in my bones, my adversaries reproach me, while they continually ask me, Where is your God? 11Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise Him, the saving help of my countenance, and my God.   

Commentary

42 Korah died in the wilderness and is often highlighted as the ringleader of the rebellion against Moses. But his sons were faithful, and they or their descendants wrote Psalms which are preserved within the book of Psalms. The lesson is that we can rise above our backgrounds and the influence of unbelieving parents, even when it seems that humanly speaking we are victims of our backgrounds. But in Christ we can be a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). 
42:9 Even in times of doubt and misunderstanding at God’s apparent silence, we are to still feel that God is our rock.