Psalm 42

Book II

Psalms 42–72

For the director of music. A maskil of the Sons of Korah.

¹As the deer pants for streams of water,

so my soul pants for you, my God.

²My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

When can I go and meet with God?

³My tears have been my food

day and night,

while people say to me all day long,

“Where is your God?”

⁴These 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.

⁵Why, 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.

⁶My soul is downcast within me;

therefore I will remember you

from the land of the Jordan,

the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.

⁷Deep calls to deep

in the roar of your waterfalls;

all your waves and breakers

have swept over me.

⁸By day the Lord directs his love,

at night his song is with me—

a prayer to the God of my life.

⁹I say to God my Rock,

“Why have you forgotten me?

Why must I go about mourning,

oppressed by the enemy?”

¹⁰My bones suffer mortal agony

as my foes taunt me,

saying to me all day long,

“Where is your God?”

¹¹Why, 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.