It is unclear to me when David wrote Psalm 42, if it was David that wrote it. The psalmist mentioned panting after God and feeling despair. He mentions the Jordan, the area east of Jersualem and the promise land. But, the thing of it is is that there were a lot of times in David's life when he felt despair. There was a lot of time when he was in exile from others. Sometimes on the run for his life. But, David is talking more than about a physical despair here, but a spiritual one.
Two times in Psalm 42:5-6 the word despair is used. It is the transliterated word "Shachach" which means to "bow down, humbled, to be cast down". The word "despair" is also used to describe his condition and that word is the word "Hamah" which means to mourn, to roar, to be in a stir. The psalmist was in a state of turmoil and despair. He was in a place where he felt spiritually dry. So, it is almost as if he is talking to himself in this psalm. He looks at his situation and then says to himself and also to us, "Hope in God". Then, in verse 6 it tells us "Therefore I remember from the land of the Jordan". It could mean he means a literal Jordan, but more than that it is a place of exile, a spiritual wilderness, a dry and weak place. It is from this place he tells himself to remember, to look back on much like looking back from a mountain.
