This is one of those psalms made famous in song - "As the deer panteth for the water, so my soul longeth after thee" and "Why so downcast, oh my soul? Put your hope in God". The title says it is of the Sons of Korah, but it sounds very similar to David's voice in many of the psalms previous.
It starts out with the cry of the author's soul - it thirsts and hungers for God. The author relays a longing to go and be with God. This is truly a lament as the writer looks back on his past, feels the oppression of the present and searches for hope in the future. Yet, we are able to pray through this psalm which pairs so nicely with Job and see how the eternal overshadows the temporal even in the midst of persecution.
All around the writer people are speaking doubt "Where is your God?". He himself feels forgotten by God and mourns his current circumstances. Still, in all this he responds to poison with the antidote "Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God." Nowhere else is there a place to turn, and I can't help but think the author knows that he is not forgotten by God, but only feels that way.
Psalm 43 continues the dialogue (and is often considered part of 42) and is worth exploring. In some ways, it seems like he is asking a rhetorical question " Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?" The proper response is "I mustn't" as he lifts up God as his refuge, stronghold and vindicator. Do the circumstances of life really indicate a rejection from God? Isn't this Job's complaint? Why have you rejected me? God, of course, hadn't rejected Job. Quite the contrary - God had chosen Job. Both Job and the author of these psalms throw a pity party, and not without justification, but their choice was either to wallow in their pity or recognize it for what it is and move beyond the temporal. "Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God."
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