The animal translated as “hart,” from the Hebrew word ayzal, refers to a mature, male red deer or stag. Harts are gentle, affectionate creatures with beautiful branching horns.

These animals are quite graceful in motion, and incredibly swift—while running it appears that their feet scarcely touch the ground. When hunted by humans, these deer are so fast the hunters often have to use trained hawks or falcons to begin the pursuit until the fastest dogs can manage to catch up in the chase.

The male of this species is monogamous and loving to his mate (Proverbs 5:19). In the mountains he is amazingly surefooted.

The hind “ayzalah” is the female counterpart of the hart. In Psalm 42:1, the verb is feminine—her sensitivity intensifying her thirst. All red deer have a four-month-long “solitary season” when they isolate themselves from their normal groups. It is often at times when we feel completely alone in this world that we have a certain thirst that only Heaven can quench.

At the time Psalm 42 was written, David had not yet become king. He was fleeing from place to place to escape the jealous wrath of Saul, who was hunting him unmercifully. David’s very soul thirsted for the tabernacle where the presence of God rested.

C. H. Spurgeon quotes Psalm 42:1 about the hart panting after the water brooks and the soul panting after God. He brings out some interesting points:

“There is something to be lamented in this state of mind, for if the psalmist had maintained unbroken communion with his God, he would not have been so much panting after Him as enjoying Him. Why do we wander? Why do we grieve His Holy Spirit? Why do we turn aside from God, our exceeding joy? Why do we provoke Him to jealousy, and cause Him to make us grope in darkness, and sigh out of a lonely and desolate heart? . . .

“The deer pants after the water brooks, and David pants after his God, the living God. I do not find him expressing a single word of regret as to his absence from his throne. Probably he wrote this psalm when he had been expelled from his country by his ungrateful son, Absalom. But he does not say, ‘My soul pants after my royalties and the splendor of the kingdom of Judah.’ No, not a word of it. He lets the baubles go. He gives up these uneasy pomps, content to let all go forever if he may but find his God. Well may we let the chaff go if we retain the wheat. I do not find him even mentioning his home, and yet he was a man of a loving spirit who delighted to bless his household. But here I read not a word concerning his palace, his gardens, or his treasuries—not even for his children can he spare a sigh! Let him be banished from his own house, and it will not displease him if only he is not banished from the House of God, also. To him his dwelling place was the Lord, and dwelling in the secret place of the Most High, his joys were all complete. Nor is there even a word about his much loved country; David was a very prince of patriots, yet he sighs not for Jerusalem. He pines not for the well of Bethlehem—neither the roses of Sharon nor the lilies of the valley command his lamentations—for the excellency of Carmel or the glory of Lebanon he utters no cry of desire.

“His one sigh is for his God, the God of his life, his exceeding joy! When shall he come and appear before God? When shall he join in the assembly and keep the Sabbath? This one grief, like a huge torrent, swept away all minor streams, absorbing themselves into its own rush and volume. Like an avalanche which binds the snow masses to itself as it descends, so his one desire concentrated all the vehemence and force of his nature. His God, his God—he cannot live without his God! He cries for Him as a lost child for its father. As a bleating lamb he will not be content till he finds his parent.

“David pined for permission to enjoy, again, the means of divine grace. He longed to go up to the tabernacle once again. He desired to see the priests offering the sacrifices, and himself go unto the altar of God. But observe, beloved, that he does not dwell upon the outward worship, nor dilate upon its symbolic pomp, and sacred splendor—he passes right through them all, as the priest of old passed through the outer court! Only the innermost court will satisfy him. He penetrates within the shell and desires the inward kernel. The carnal ordinance cannot content him—he must have the spiritual life and substance.

Is it not delightful to listen to the Word when the morsel is dipped in honey just for you?

He does not so much pine for the sacrifices as for his God—neither for the priest, nor for the altar, nor for the tabernacle does he cry—but for his God! He had learned what modern professors have not learned—that the outward is nothing, and the inward is everything! ‘The kingdom of God is within you’ (Luke 17:21). It is not meat, nor drink, nor outward worship. And the God whom you adore is not pleased with your words and your genuflections. He is not pleased with your outward forms of speech and observance. He is only pleased when you press through all this and come to HIM—come into fellowship with Him and speak to Him as a spirit speaking with a Spirit—as one possessing a secret life speaking in the power of that life to the invisible and ever-living God! This is what David longed after, then. Not his throne, nor his house, nor his country, nor even the outward means of grace by themselves, but his God he panted after, his God alone! And this was his cry, ‘When shall I come and appear before God?’. . .

“[The psalmist] longed to appear before his God, that is to say, heartily to unite in the worship of the assembled crowd. He could have worshipped alone, but sympathy has great power over the human mind—and to join with our brothers and sisters of one faith is very helpful to our devotion. . . .

“Is it not delightful to listen to the Word preached in the great congregation, when the morsel is dipped in the honey for you in particular? What joy when I can glean among the sheaves for myself and gather the handfuls that are let fall on purpose for me, and can carry home my part of the day’s provision with humble gratitude! Is it not so, Beloved? And if you have fallen into such a state of mind that you do not, now, enjoy the services of God’s House as you once did, I would persuade you to ask the Lord to give you the strong desire of David—that you may, again, in spirit in very truth appear before God—for I beseech you, never let the mere coming together content you! But let your panting be like that of the stag—after the water brook and nothing else—for God, for God, for God Himself, and nothing short of Him!”