Psalms 42

1 TO THE OVERSEER. AN INSTRUCTION OF THE SONS OF KORAH. As a deer pants for streams of water, So my soul pants toward 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 thirsted for God, for the living God, When do I enter and see the face of God?

I thirst for God, for my living God. When shall I enter in, and see the face of God?

3 My tear has been bread day and night to me, In their saying to me all the day, “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 These I remember, and pour out my soul in me, For I pass over into the shelter, I go softly with them to the house of God, With the voice of singing and confession, The multitude keeping celebration!

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 Why bow yourself, O my soul? Indeed, are you troubled within me? Wait for God, for I still confess Him: The salvation of my countenance—my God!

Why am I downcast? Why this moaning within me? Hope in God; for yet will I praise him, my help, my God.

6 My soul bows itself in me, Therefore I remember You from the land of Jordan, And of the Hermons, from Mount Mizar.

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 is calling to deep At the noise of Your waterspouts, All Your breakers and Your billows passed 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 YHWH commands His kindness, And by night a song [is] with me, A 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 say to God my Rock, “Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning in the oppression of an enemy?”

I say to God my rock, ‘Why have you forgotten me? Why must I walk so sadly, so hard pressed by the foe?’

10 With a sword in my bones My adversaries have reproached me, In their saying to me all the day, “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 Why bow yourself, O my soul? And why are you troubled within me? Wait for God, for I still confess Him, The salvation 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.