Psalm 42

 

As the deer pants for streams of water,

    so my soul pants for you, my God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

    When can I go and meet with God?

My tears have been my food

    day and night,

while people say to me all day long,

    “Where is your God?”

These things I remember

    as I pour out my soul:

how I used to go to the house of God

    under the protection of the Mighty One

with shouts of joy and praise

    among the festive throng.

 

Why, my soul, are you downcast?

    Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

    for I will yet praise him,

    my Savior and my God.

 

My soul is downcast within me;

    therefore I will remember you

from the land of the Jordan,

    the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.

Deep calls to deep

    in the roar of your waterfalls;

all your waves and breakers

    have swept over me.

 

By day the Lord directs his love,

    at night his song is with me—

    a prayer to the God of my life.

 

I say to God my Rock,

    “Why have you forgotten me?

Why must I go about mourning,

    oppressed by the enemy?”

My bones suffer mortal agony

    as my foes taunt me,

saying to me all day long,

    “Where is your God?”

 

Why, my soul, are you downcast?

    Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

    for I will yet praise him,

    my Savior and my God. Psalm 42