Psalm 42:1-2 vs. “As the Deer”

Martin Nystrom · checked 2026-07-25

What we checked

PassagePsalm 42:1-2 chapter ↗

Translation shownBSB (Berean Standard Bible)

Presents itself asparaphrase

Categoryadditions / omissions

Album1984

Words addressed toGod, person unspecified

Teaching or experienceexperience (the singer’s story)

Graded against the standard

Quotation criteria this song presents words as scripture, so these apply

✓Text-faithful

✗Translation named

✓Context kept

Applies to every song the Name held holy · God shown holy · true of God · the standard

✓Reverent treatment

✓ What's good

The opening follows Psalm 42:1 closely, keeping the image and the direction of the longing
Stays in the psalm's own first-person voice rather than switching to God speaking
The chorus's images are drawn from real psalm language, including the strength and shield of Psalm 28:7
Asks rather than tells: the chorus is a request for God's presence, not a promise made on God's behalf

⚠ Cautions

The chorus is not in Psalm 42. Its strength-and-shield language belongs to Psalm 28:7
Psalm 42 is a lament by someone cut off from the temple and taunted for it. The song keeps the thirst and drops the tears, which changes the emotional register of the passage
No translation is named, and as a paraphrase the wording matches no translation word for word, so there is no stated text to check it against

Verse Proof

Psalm 42:1-2

The text in BSB (Berean Standard Bible)

“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul longs after You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, the living God. When shall I come and appear in God’s presence?”

A lament, not a love song. The psalmist is cut off from the temple and grieving it: a few verses on he says his tears have been his food day and night while people ask him where his God is. The thirst in verse 1 is the thirst of absence. He is remembering how he used to go up with the crowd and asking when he will get back.

What the song says, described not quoted

The first verse follows Psalm 42:1 closely, the deer panting for water and the soul longing for God, then continues in the psalm's first-person voice with lines about God being the singer's heart's desire and the object of their worship. The chorus turns to address God directly as strength, shield, and the one to whom the singer's spirit yields, and asks Him to be their friend as well as their king.

The first line is the psalm. The chorus is not, and it is worth knowing where its images come from: "my strength and my shield" is the language of Psalm 28:7, "The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped." Nothing in the chorus contradicts Psalm 42, and each phrase has a home somewhere in the Psalter, but the song is stitched from more than one psalm while carrying the name of one.

~ Faithful & Labeled: The opening follows Psalm 42:1 without changing what it says, and the chorus is the songwriter's own composition drawing on other psalms, notably the strength-and-shield language of Psalm 28:7. No translation is named.

▸ Official upload. Now listen with the proof in mind.

Psalm 42 is a man in tears asking when he can get back to worship. The song keeps the longing and leaves the grief.

Why it matters

Martin Nystrom wrote it in 1981 on the nineteenth day of a fast, at a piano, with a Bible open to Psalm 42. That origin explains the shape: one verse read, then a song that keeps going in the same voice. It is honest work, and the reason it sits at Faithful rather than lower is that the continuation never pretends to be the psalm.

What gets lost is the setting. Psalm 42 is written by someone in exile from worship, taunted about it, arguing with his own downcast soul. The song keeps the longing and leaves the grief, and a singer who only knows the song will meet the psalm expecting tenderness and find a man in tears asking God why He has forgotten him. That is not a fault in the song. It is a reason to read the whole psalm.

Is it safe to dwell on?

Sung on repeat, this song fixes your attention on God.

What repetition plants here is a longing, and the object of it is God rather than a feeling about God, which is the right direction. The song is gentle and it stays gentle, and that is worth naming honestly rather than grading: a quiet song about thirsting for God is a good thing to have running in your head. The gap to be aware of is that Psalm 42 gives you words for a worse day than this song does. Its refrain, repeated twice in the psalm, is the singer interrogating his own despair and telling himself to hope in God. If this song is your Psalm 42, read the psalm through once so you also have that sentence when you need it.

Helpful comparison

The two halves are doing different things, and it helps to name them. The verse is scripture-shaped: it takes the psalm's image and its grammar. The chorus is prayer-shaped: it addresses God with titles gathered from elsewhere in the Psalter. Neither is wrong, but only one of them is Psalm 42, and the song's title points at the psalm. Compare "On Eagle's Wings" elsewhere on this site, where a similar splice sits a full tier lower. The difference is not the splicing. It is that the hymn's imported material is spoken in God's own voice as a promise, while this chorus stays in the singer's voice as a request.

Sources

Wikipedia — As the Deer · (Martin Nystrom, 1984; based on Psalm 42:1; the chorus's strength-and-shield imagery)
UMC Discipleship Ministries — History of Hymns: "As the Deer" · (the paraphrase of verse 1 and the song's continuation in the psalm's first-person voice)
Songfacts — As the Deer · (Nystrom's account of writing it during a nineteen-day fast with the Bible open to Psalm 42)
The Berean Test — As the Deer · (line-by-line comparison)

Corrections

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