Psalm 42

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

BOOK II

Longing for God and His Help in Distress

To the choirmaster. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah.

42 ^[a]As a hart longs
    for flowing streams,
so longs my soul
    for thee, O God.
²My soul thirsts for God,
    for the living God.
When shall I come and behold
    the face of God?
³My tears have been my food
    day and night,
while men say to me continually,
    “Where is your God?”

⁴These things I remember,
    as I pour out my soul:
how I went with the throng,
    and led them in procession to the house of God,
with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,
    a multitude keeping festival.
⁵Why 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 ⁶and my God.

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

⁹I say to God, my rock:
    “Why hast thou forgotten me?
Why go I mourning
    because of the oppression of the enemy?”
¹⁰As with a deadly wound in my body,
    my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me continually,
    “Where is your God?”

¹¹Why 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.

Footnotes

42 This and the following psalm were originally one, as can be seen from the refrain repeated three times.

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)

The Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1965, 1966 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.