To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah. Of the word "Maschil", See Gill on "Ps 32:1", title. Korah was he who was at the head of a conspiracy against Moses and Aaron, for which sin the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed alive him and his company, and fire devoured two hundred and fifty more; the history of which is recorded in Nu 16:1; yet all his posterity were not cut off, Nu 26:11; some were in David's time porters, or keepers of the gates of the tabernacle, and some were singers; see 1Ch 6:33; and to the chief musician was this psalm directed for them to sing, for they were not the authors of it, as some have thought; but most probably David himself composed it; and it seems to have been written by him, not as representing the captives in Babylon, as Theodoret, but on his own account, when he was persecuted by Saul, and driven out by men from abiding in the Lord's inheritance, and was in a strange land among the Heathen, where he was reproached by them; and everything in this psalm agrees with his state and condition; or rather when he fled from his son Absalom, and was in those parts beyond Jordan, mentioned in this psalm; see 2Sa 17:24; so the Syriac inscription, the song which David sung in the time of his persecution, desiring to return to Jerusalem.
So R. Moses in Muis, Gussetius, Ebr. Comment. p. 918, & others.Ver. 1. As the hart panteth after the water brooks,.... Either through a natural thirst that creature is said to have; or through the heat of the summer season; and especially when hunted by dogs, it betakes itself to rivers of water, partly to make its escape, and partly to extinguish its thirst, and refresh itself.
The word here used denotes the cry of the hart, when in distress for water, and pants after it, and is peculiar to it; and the verb being of the feminine gender, hence the Septuagint render it the "hind"; and Kimchi conjectures that the reason of it may be, because the voice of the female may be stronger than that of the male; but the contrary is asserted by the philosopher , who says, that the male harts cry much stronger than the females; and that the voice of the female is short, but that of the male is long, or protracted.
Schindler gives three reasons why these creatures are so desirous of water; because they were in desert places, where water was wanting; and another, that being heated by destroying and eating serpents, they coveted water to refresh themselves; and the third, when followed by dogs, they betake themselves into the water, and go into that for safety;so panteth my soul after thee, O God; being persecuted by men, and deprived of the word and worship of God, which occasioned a vehement desire after communion with him in his house and ordinances: some render the words, "as the field", or "meadow, desires the shower", &c.
; or thirsts after it when parched with drought; see Isa 35:7; and by these metaphors, one or the other, is expressed the psalmist's violent and eager thirst after the enjoyment of God in public worship.
Aristot. Hist. Animal. l. 4. c. 11. Lexic. Pentaglott. col. 68. so Kimchi. Sept.