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What Is The Meaning Of The Literary Analysis Of Psalm 42

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Not only did psalm 42 stand out immediately to me for its literary elements within the first verse, but for its poetic style and language as well. This psalm is a lyrical one with plenty of emotion and literary figures. The latter ranges from similes to parallelism and everything in-between, all accumulating to form the psalm’s meaning. To begin with, I will point out that the psalm is told through first-person point of view. The speaker or persona is present throughout the entire psalm, using “I” and “my” to describe his thoughts, feelings, and memories. One instance is in the beginning stanza where he asks himself, “[when] shall I come and behold the face of God?” (Ps. 42.2). Already this tells the reader that this will be a very personal psalm, allowing insight into the speaker’s mind. The speaker is filled with anguish, but also strongly desires God’s presence in his life. The setting of this psalm takes place in both the past and present. In the past, the speaker mentions “how I went with the throng and led them in procession to the house of God” (Ps.42.4). The footnotes provide information about how the speaker recollects his memories of the Temple, seemingly homesick for its protection. The present location for the speaker is “from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar” (Ps.42.6). As the footnotes point out, this is far from Jerusalem. God is addressed directly in the psalm as the speaker declares that his soul “longs for you, O God,” (Ps.42.1).

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