Psalm 42 - New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Book II

(Psalms 42–72)

Psalm 42

Longing for God and His Help in Distress

To the leader. A Maskil of the Korahites.

1 As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.(A)
2 My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and behold
the face of God?(B)
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while people say to me continually,
“Where is your God?”(C)

4 These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I went with the throng[a]
and led them in procession to the house of God,
with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,
a multitude keeping festival.(D)
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God, for I shall again praise him,
my help(E)6 and my God.

My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
at the thunder of your torrents;
all your waves and your billows
have gone over me.(F)
8 By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.(G)

9 I say to God, my rock,
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I walk about mournfully
because the enemy oppresses me?”(H)
10 As with a deadly wound in my body,
my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me continually,
“Where is your God?”(I)

11 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God, for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.(J)

Footnotes

  1. 42.4Meaning of Heb uncertain

Cross references

  1. 42.1 : Ps 119.131
  2. 42.2 : Ps 43.4; 63.1; Jer 10.10
  3. 42.3 : Ps 79.10; 80.5
  4. 42.4 : Ps 62.8; 100.4; Isa 30.29
  5. 42.5 : Ps 38.6; 44.3; 77.3; Lam 3.24
  6. 42.7 : Ps 88.7; Jon 2.3
  7. 42.8 : Job 35.10; Ps 57.3; 63.6; 149.5
  8. 42.9 : Ps 38.6
  9. 42.10 : v 3
  10. 42.11 : v 5