< Psalms 42 >
1 For the end, [a Psalm] for instruction, for the sons of Core. As the hart earnestly desires the fountains of water, so my soul earnestly longs for you, O God.
For the leader. A maskil of the Korahites. Like the hart which longs for brooks of water, I long for you, God.
2 My soul has thirsted for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?
I thirst for God, for my living God. When shall I enter in, and see the face of God?
3 My tears have been bread to me day and night, while they daily said to me, Where is your God?
My tears have been my food by day and by night; for they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”
4 I remembered these things, and poured out my soul in me, for I will go to the place of your wondrous tabernacle, [even] to the house of God, with a voice of exultation and thanksgiving and of the sound of those who keep festival.
My heart floods with sorrow, as I call to mind: how I used to pass on with the throng, at their head, to the house of God, with glad shouts and giving of thanks, in the throng who kept festival.
5 Therefore are you very sad, O my soul? and therefore do you trouble me? hope in God; for I will give thanks to him; [he is] the salvation of my countenance.
Why am I downcast? Why this moaning within me? Hope in God; for yet will I praise him, my help, my God.
6 O my God, my soul has been troubled within me: therefore will I remember you from the land of Jordan, and of the Ermonites, from the little hill.
I am sunk in my misery; I will therefore call you to mind from the land of Jordan and Hermon, the mountain Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep at the voice of your cataracts: all your billows and your waves have gone over me.
Flood is calling to flood at the noise of your cataracts; all your waves and your breakers have passed over me.
8 By day the Lord will command his mercy, and manifest [it] by night: with me [is] prayer to the God of my life.
In the day I cry to the Lord to summon his kindness; and the song that I sing in the night is a prayer to the living God.
9 I will say to God, You are my helper; why have you forgotten me? therefore do I go sad of countenance, while the enemy oppresses [me]?
I say to God my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I walk so sadly, so hard pressed by the foe?”
10 While my bones were breaking, they that afflicted me reproached me; while they said to me daily, Where is your God?
It pierces me to the heart to hear the enemy’s taunts, as all the day long they say to me, “Where is your God?”
11 Therefore are you very sad, O my soul? and therefore do you trouble me? hope in God; for I will give thanks to him; [he is] the health of my countenance, and my God.
Why am I downcast? Why this moaning within me? Hope in God; for yet will I praise him, my help, my God.