Psalms 42
42
Book 2
(Psalms 42-72)
To the director: A maskil from the Korah family.
1Like a deer drinking from a stream,
I reach out to you, my God.#42:1 Or “As a deer stretches out to drink water from a stream, so my soul thirsts for you, God.”
2My soul thirsts for the living God.
When can I go to meet with him?
3Instead of food, I have only tears day and night,
as my enemies laugh at me and say, “Where is your God?”
4My heart breaks as I remember the pleasant times in the past,
when I walked with the crowds as I led them up to God’s Temple.
I remember the happy songs of praise
as they celebrated the festival.
5-6Why am I so sad?
Why am I so upset?
I tell myself, “Wait for God’s help!
You will again be able to praise him,
your God, the one who will save you.”
In my sadness I say, “I will remember you from here on this small hill,#42:5-6 small hill Or “Mount Mizar.”
where Mount Hermon and the Jordan River meet.”
7I hear the roar of the water coming from deep within the earth.
It shouts to the water below as it tumbles down the waterfall.
God, your waves come one after another,
crashing all around and over me.#42:7 God, your waves … over me These word pictures describe the psalmist’s feelings about the many troubles the Lord has allowed him to experience.
8By day the Lord shows his faithful love,
and at night I have a song for him—a prayer for the God of my life.#42:8 the God of my life Or “my living God.”
9I say to God, my Rock,
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I suffer this sadness that my enemies have brought me?”
10Their constant insults are killing me.
They never stop asking, “Where is your God?”
11Why am I so sad?
Why am I so upset?
I tell myself, “Wait for God’s help!
You will again be able to praise him,
your God, the one who will save you.”
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© 1987, 2004 Bible League International
Psalms 42
42
BOOK TWO
Psalm 42
Thirsting for God in Trouble and Exile.
To the Chief Musician. A skillful song, or a didactic or reflective poem, of the sons of Korah.
1As the deer pants [longingly] for the water brooks,
So my #42:1 The Hebrew word translated “soul” in this psalm and elsewhere in the book of Psalms is nephesh. This word usually refers to a person’s “life” or “self,” but can also mean “throat,” as perhaps in vv 1, 2.soul pants [longingly] for You, O God.
2My soul (my life, my inner self) thirsts for God, for the living God.
When will I come and see the face of God? [Ps 63:1, 2; John 7:37; 1 Thess 1:9, 10]
3My tears have been my food day and night,
While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
4These things I [vividly] remember as I pour out my soul;
How I used to go along before the great crowd of people and lead them in procession to the house of God [like a choirmaster before his singers, timing the steps to the music and the chant of the song],
With the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a great crowd keeping a festival.
5¶Why are you in despair, O my soul?
And why have you become restless and disturbed within me?
Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall again praise Him
For the help of His presence.
6O my God, my soul is in despair within me [the burden more than I can bear];
Therefore I will [fervently] remember You from the land of the Jordan
And the peaks of [Mount] Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
7Deep calls to deep at the [thundering] sound of Your waterfalls;
All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me.
8Yet the Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime,
And in the night His song will be with me,
A prayer to the God of my life.
9¶I will say to God my rock, “Why have You forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10As a crushing of my bones [with a sword], my adversaries taunt me,
While they say continually to me, “Where is your God?”
11Why are you in despair, O my soul?
Why have you become restless and disquieted within me?
Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall yet praise Him,
The #42:11 Or saving acts of.help of my countenance and my God.
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