Comment: I have altered the way that this Psalm is set out in the ESV translation, although I have not altered any words! It was written to be chanted or sung and I have obviously messed up the tune with which it was used to be sung! But I have tried to tie the thoughts together.
1/2a As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. – Comment: There is a beautiful hymn which starts like this. “As the deer pants for the water, So my soul longs after You.
You alone are my heart’s desire And I long to worship You.
You alone are my strength, my shield, To You alone may my spirit yield.
You alone are my heart’s desire And I long to worship You.” – there is a ‘God-shaped hole’ in every person which only God can fill!
2b When shall I come and appear before God? – Is this the cry of a person unable to get to the temple or a fear of death? Let us read on!
3 My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?” – Have people been taunting the author or is he, himself, questioning his belief in God? Both of these are true of human experience!
4 These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng
and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival. – memory at work! Pouring out your ‘soul’ before God is good and he mixes his grief with positive memories !
5/6a Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. – A very positive upturn in attitude!
6 My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves
have gone over me.
8 By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life. – Memories of God’s handiwork in Creation and of previous joy in worshipping Jehovah is a very positive step forward in handling spiritual depression!
9 I 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 deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” – Questioning God can be, if not dealt with, a very dangerous ‘deadly wound’.
11 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. – I believe because we read many other psalms written by the ‘sons of Korah’ that this was followed up by renewed trust and hope!
Proverbs 1: 7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. – fear here means ‘reverential awe’. But being on the wrong side of God can be very ‘frightening’!
Prayer: May the hope which Jesus brought when He rose from the dead, fill my living, my Father God.
As I read it! 