Psalm 42 - As the Hart Panteth After the Water Brooks
A psalm of deep longing for God's presence amid tears and distant memory.
Psalm 42 opens in Psalms 42:1 comparing the soul's thirst for God to a hart panting after water brooks, while tears have become the psalmist's food day and night. He remembers leading festive worship at God's house, a memory now sharpened by distance and taunts of "Where is thy God?"
As, the hart, cometh panting up to the channels of water, So my soul, panteth for thee, O God.
My soul thirsteth for God, for a GOD who liveth,—When shall I enter in, and see the face of God?
My tears have been my food day and night, While it hath been said unto me all the day, Where is thy God?
These things, I keep calling to mind, and pouring out, over me, my own soul, For I used to cross over with a crowd, Lead them in procession up to the house of God, With the voice of shouting and praise.—a throng keeping festival.
Why shouldst thou be cast down, O my soul? And [why] shouldst thou moan over me? Wait thou for God, for yet shall I praise him, As the triumph of my presence.
My God! over myself, my soul is cast down,—For this cause, will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, And the Hermons, from the hill Mizar.
Roaring deep unto roaring deep, is calling, at the voice of thy cataracts, All thy breakers and thy rolling waves, over me, have passed.
By day, will Yahweh command his lovingkindness, And, in the night, shall His song be with me, My prayer be to the GOD of my life.
I will say onto GOD,—my rock, Wherefore hast thou forgotten me? Wherefore in gloom should I go, because of oppression by the enemy?
With a crushing of my bones, have my adversaries reproached me,—While they keep saying unto me all the day, Where is thy God?
Why shouldst thou be sat down, O my soul? And why shouldst thou moan over me? Wait thou for God, for yet shall I praise him, As the triumph of my presence and my God.