Book II · Psalms 42–72
Songs from far away
Thirsty songs about missing God, and the bravest apology in the Bible.
31 psalms · about a 4 minute read
Book II holds Psalms 42 to 72. If Book I was mostly written at home, Book II often sounds like it was written a long way from it.
These are songs for when you can't get to the place you want to be — when you're homesick, or left out, or stuck somewhere you didn't choose.
It opens with a thirsty deer
Book II starts with one of the best pictures in the whole Bible.
Picture a deer in dry country. Not peckish — properly thirsty, the kind of thirsty where finding water is the only thought left in its head. The songwriter says: that's me, and God is the water.
It's an honest way to start a book. He isn't saying he feels close to God. He's saying he desperately wants to.
As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for You, O God.
New voices join in
Book I was almost entirely David. Book II opens the microphone up.
Several of these songs say “of the sons of Korah” at the top. The sons of Korah were a whole family whose job at God's house was music — parents, children, grandchildren, all singers. Imagine a family where everybody is in the choir, for generations.
Another name that shows up is Asaph, one of the chief musicians. David is still here, but he's sharing the songbook now.
Songs about missing home
A lot of Book II aches for God's house — the temple in Jerusalem, where people went to worship together.
Somebody writing these is remembering what it felt like to walk in with a crowd, everyone singing, and they can't get there any more. So they do the only thing left: they sing about it from where they are.
That's worth knowing if you've ever felt far away from God. The Bible has whole songs for exactly that feeling, and God kept them.
The bravest apology in the Bible
Psalm 51 is David after he did something seriously wrong and hurt people badly.
He could have hidden it. Kings usually did. Instead he wrote a song admitting it, and then let the song be sung in public, out loud, by everybody — for thousands of years.
What he asks for isn't “make me look good again.” It's a clean heart. He wants to be different on the inside, not just forgiven on the outside.
If you have ever done something you wish you hadn't, this is the psalm to read. It doesn't make excuses, and it doesn't give up either.
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Go and read
A safe place, and a good king
Right in the middle of all that longing sits Psalm 46, one of the steadiest psalms there is: even if the mountains fall into the sea, God is a safe place.
And Book II finishes with Psalm 72, a prayer for the king — that he'd be fair to poor people, kind to people nobody else defends, and good for the whole earth. It's a prayer about what power is supposed to be for.
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in times of trouble.
How Book II ends
Book II closes with its doxology, and then one extra line that no other book has — something like a signature at the bottom of a stack of letters.
David wrote more psalms after this one, and you'll find them later on. But at this point in the collection, someone drew a line and wrote: that's the end of David's prayers. It's a small thing, and it tells you these five books were carefully arranged by people who cared how they fit together.
Praise be to His glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen.
This concludes the prayers of David son of Jesse.
The ones people know best
- Psalm 42 · Longing for God
As the deer pants for water. The thirsty psalm.
- Psalm 46 · God Is Our Refuge
God is our refuge and strength, even if the mountains fall.
- Psalm 51 · Create in Me a Clean Heart
David's honest apology, and a request for a clean heart.
- Psalm 63 · Thirsting for God
Looking for God early, like looking for water in a dry land.
- Psalm 72 · Prayer for the King
A prayer that the king would be fair to the people nobody protects.