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: As the Hart Panteth

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?"


`The two and fourtithe salm. God, deme thou me, and departe thou my cause fro a folc not hooli; delyuere thou me fro a wickid man, and gileful.

For thou art God, my strengthe; whi hast thou put me abac, and whi go Y soreuful, while the enemy turmentith me?

Sende out thi liyt, and thi treuthe; tho ledden me forth, and brouyten in to thin hooli hil, and in to thi tabernaclis.

And Y schal entre to the auter of God; to God, that gladith my yongthe. God, my God, Y schal knowleche to thee in an harpe; my soule,

whi art thou sory, and whi troblist thou me? Hope thou in God, for yit Y schal knouleche to hym; he is the helthe of my cheer, and my God.

Twice the psalmist questions his own despair, asking "why art thou cast down, O my soul?" before choosing to hope in God despite waves and billows going over him. That same yearning reappears in <a href="/bible/wycliffe/psalms/chapter-63/1">Psalms 63:1-2</a>; step back to <a href="/bible/wycliffe/psalms/chapter-41">Psalms 41</a> or forward to <a href="/bible/wycliffe/psalms/chapter-43">Psalms 43</a>.