Psalm 42-44; Psalm 48-49; Psalm 84; Psalm 87; NKJV               

Psalm 42

1 To the Chief Musician. A Contemplation of the sons of Korah. As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. 2 My 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 say to me, "Where is your God?" 4 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God, With the voice of joy and praise, With a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast.5 Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For the help of His countenance. 6 O my God, my soul is cast down within me; Therefore I will remember You from the land of the Jordan, And from the heights of Hermon, From the Hill Mizar. 7 Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; All Your waves and billows have gone over me. 8 The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, And in the night His song shall be with me-- A prayer to the God of my life. 9 I will say to God my Rock, "Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?" 10 As with a breaking of my bones, My enemies reproach me, While they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?" 11 Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.

Psalm 43

1 Vindicate me, O God, And plead my cause against an ungodly nation; Oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man! 2 For You are the God of my strength; Why do You cast me off? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? 3 Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me; Let them bring me to Your holy hill And to Your tabernacle. 4 Then I will go to the altar of God, To God my exceeding joy; And on the harp I will praise You, O God, my God. 5 Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.

Psalm 44

1 To the Chief Musician. A Contemplation of the sons of Korah. We have heard with our ears, O God, Our fathers have told us, The deeds You did in their days, In days of old: 2 You drove out the nations with Your hand, But them You planted; You afflicted the peoples, and cast them out. 3 For they did not gain possession of the land by their own sword, Nor did their own arm save them; But it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your countenance, Because You favored them. 4 You are my King, O God; Command victories for Jacob. 5Through You we will push down our enemies; Through Your name we will trample those who rise up against us. 6For I will not trust in my bow, Nor shall my sword save me. 7 But You have saved us from our enemies, And have put to shame those who hated us. 8 In God we boast all day long, And praise Your name forever. Selah 9 But You have cast us off and put us to shame, And You do not go out with our armies. 10 You make us turn back from the enemy, And those who hate us have taken spoil for themselves.11 You have given us up like sheep intended for food, And have scattered us among the nations. 12 You sell Your people for next to nothing, And are not enriched by selling them. 13 You make us a reproach to our neighbors, A scorn and a derision to those all around us. 14You make us a byword among the nations, A shaking of the head among the peoples. 15 My dishonor is continually before me, And the shame of my face has covered me, 16 Because of the voice of him who reproaches and reviles, Because of the enemy and the avenger. 17 All this has come upon us; But we have not forgotten You, Nor have we dealt falsely with Your covenant. 18 Our heart has not turned back, Nor have our steps departed from Your way; 19 But You have severely broken us in the place of jackals, And covered us with the shadow of death. 20If we had forgotten the name of our God, Or stretched out our hands to a foreign god, 21 Would not God search this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart.22 Yet for Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 23 Awake! Why do You sleep, O Lord? Arise! Do not cast us off forever.24 Why do You hide Your face, And forget our affliction and our oppression?25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust; Our body clings to the ground. 26Arise for our help, And redeem us for Your mercies' sake.

Psalm 48

1 A Song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised In the city of our God, In His holy mountain. 2 Beautiful in elevation, The joy of the whole earth, Is Mount Zion on the sides of the north, The city of the great King. 3 God is in her palaces; He is known as her refuge. 4 For behold, the kings assembled, They passed by together. 5 They saw it, and so they marveled; They were troubled, they hastened away. 6 Fear took hold of them there, And pain, as of a woman in birth pangs, 7 As when You break the ships of Tarshish With an east wind. 8 As we have heard, So we have seen In the city of the Lord of hosts, In the city of our God: God will establish it forever. Selah 9We have thought, O God, on Your lovingkindness, In the midst of Your temple. 10 According to Your name, O God, So is Your praise to the ends of the earth; Your right hand is full of righteousness. 11 Let Mount Zion rejoice, Let the daughters of Judah be glad, Because of Your judgments. 12Walk about Zion, And go all around her. Count her towers; 13 Mark well her bulwarks; Consider her palaces; That you may tell it to the generation following. 14For this is God, Our God forever and ever; He will be our guide Even to death. 

Psalm 49

1 To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. Hear this, all peoples; Give ear, all inhabitants of the world, 2 Both low and high, Rich and poor together. 3My mouth shall speak wisdom, And the meditation of my heart shall give understanding. 4 I will incline my ear to a proverb; I will disclose my dark saying on the harp. 5 Why should I fear in the days of evil, When the iniquity at my heels surrounds me? 6 Those who trust in their wealth And boast in the multitude of their riches, 7 None of them can by any means redeem his brother, Nor give to God a ransom for him-- 8 For the redemption of their souls is costly, And it shall cease forever-- 9 That he should continue to live eternally, And not see the Pit. 10 For he sees wise men die; Likewise the fool and the senseless person perish, And leave their wealth to others. 11 Their inner thought is that their houses will last forever, Their dwelling places to all generations; They call their lands after their own names. 12Nevertheless man, though in honor, does not remain; He is like the beasts that perish. 13 This is the way of those who are foolish, And of their posterity who approve their sayings. Selah 14 Like sheep they are laid in the grave; Death shall feed on them; The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; And their beauty shall be consumed in the grave, far from their dwelling. 15 But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave, For He shall receive me. Selah 16 Do not be afraid when one becomes rich, When the glory of his house is increased; 17 For when he dies he shall carry nothing away; His glory shall not descend after him. 18 Though while he lives he blesses himself (For men will praise you when you do well for yourself), 19 He shall go to the generation of his fathers; They shall never see light. 20 A man who is in honor, yet does not understand, Is like the beasts that perish.

Psalm 84

1 To the Chief Musician. On an instrument of Gath. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. How lovely is Your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts! 2 My soul longs, yes, even faints For the courts of the Lord; My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. 3 Even the sparrow has found a home, And the swallow a nest for herself, Where she may lay her young-- Even Your altars, O Lord of hosts, My King and my God. 4 Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; They will still be praising You. Selah 5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, Whose heart is set on pilgrimage. 6 As they pass through the Valley of Baca, They make it a spring; The rain also covers it with pools. 7 They go from strength to strength; Each one appears before God in Zion. 8 O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; Give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah 9 O God, behold our shield, And look upon the face of Your anointed. 10 For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold From those who walk uprightly. 12 O Lord of hosts, Blessed is the man who trusts in You!

Psalm 87

1 A Psalm of the sons of Korah. A Song. His foundation is in the holy mountains.2 The Lord loves the gates of Zion More than all the dwellings of Jacob. 3Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God! Selah 4 "I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to those who know Me; Behold, O Philistia and Tyre, with Ethiopia: 'This one was born there.' " 5And of Zion it will be said, "This one and that one were born in her; And the Most High Himself shall establish her." 6 The Lord will record, When He registers the peoples: "This one was born there." Selah7 Both the singers and the players on instruments say, "All my springs are in you."

Psalms 42-44 carries the thread of Hope through these psalms of the sons of Korah. This is explicit in Psalm 42 and 43 and more implicit as the Psalmist cries out for God in 44. Our Hope must always be in the Lord, and may we understand the deep passion of longing for the Lord as the deer pants for water.

Psalm 48 has the city of God as a primary focus, but one important notion for us is to consider the ground we walk as being set apart for Him. Jerusalem will always hold a special place for God, but the Lord is also looking to redeem the world!

Psalm 49 has a special feature of the grave, but also life after death. God has always had the ultimate control and power over death, and this hope is realized in Christ. The psalmist looks through the Old Testament Covenants realizing that this is destination for man!

Psalm 84 has a geographical notion of dwelling place throughout. The crescendo of the psalm is felt as the contrast is made between dwelling with the security of evil compared to the anonymity of simply serving in the Lord's kingdom. God's riches dwarf all else combined.

Psalm 87 contains geography as well, but that is transcended by the notion that the Lord is the source of the psalmists "springs," or supply. There are plenty of other regions mentioned in the Psalm, but you see that the testimony of the Lord is known far and wide.

Regardless of emotion, we can our heart be like the Psalmist as it is always set on the Lord! Even in times of question or crying out for enemies to be crushed, the Lord is always at the forefront. In this age of the new covenant, there are times where are our attention can shift to other things. May this never be the case for long, as we pray for a continual quickening in our spirit, back to His!

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