Psalms 42-48

Psalm 42

¹To the chief Musician. An instruction; of the sons of Korah. As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

²My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?

³My tears have been my bread day and night, while they say unto me all the day, Where is thy God?

⁴These things I remember and have poured out my soul within me: how I passed along with the multitude, how I went on with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, a festive multitude.

⁵Why art thou cast down, my soul, and art disquieted in me? hope in God; for I shall yet praise him, for the health of his countenance.

⁶My God, my soul is cast down within me; therefore do I remember thee from the land of the Jordan, and the Hermons, from mount Mizar.

⁷Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy cataracts; all thy breakers and thy billows are gone over me.

⁸In the day-time will Jehovah command his loving-kindness, and in the night his song shall be with me, a prayer unto the God of my life.

⁹I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

¹⁰As with a crushing in my bones mine adversaries reproach me, while they say unto me all the day, Where is thy God?

¹¹Why art thou cast down, my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God; for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

Psalm 43

¹Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; deliver me from the deceitful and unrighteous man.

²For thou art the God of my strength: why hast thou cast me off? why go I about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

³Send out thy light and thy truth: *they* shall lead me, *they* shall bring me to thy holy mount, and unto thy habitations.

⁴Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto the God of the gladness of my joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God, my God.

⁵Why art thou cast down, my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God; for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

Psalm 44

¹To the chief Musician. Of the sons of Korah. An instruction. O God, with our ears have we heard, our fathers have told us, the work thou wroughtest in their days, in the days of old:

²Thou, by thy hand, didst dispossess the nations, but them thou didst plant; thou didst afflict the peoples, but them didst thou cause to spread out.

³For not by their own sword did they take possession of the land, neither did their own arm save them; but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst delight in them.

⁴Thou thyself art my king, O God: command deliverance for Jacob.

⁵Through thee will we push down our adversaries; through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us.

⁶For I will not put confidence in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.

⁷For thou hast saved us from our adversaries, and hast put them to shame that hate us.

⁸In God will we boast all the day, and we will praise thy name for ever. Selah.

⁹But thou hast cast off, and put us to confusion, and dost not go forth with our armies;

¹⁰Thou hast made us to turn back from the adversary, and they that hate us spoil for themselves;

¹¹Thou hast given us over like sheep appointed for meat, and hast scattered us among the nations;

¹²Thou hast sold thy people for nought, and hast not increased thy wealth by their price;

¹³Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a mockery and a derision for them that are round about us;

¹⁴Thou makest us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples.

¹⁵All the day my confusion is before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me,

¹⁶Because of the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth; by reason of the enemy and the avenger.

¹⁷All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely against thy covenant:

¹⁸Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy path;

¹⁹Though thou hast crushed us in the place of jackals, and covered us with the shadow of death.

²⁰If we had forgotten the name of our God, and stretched out our hands to a strange god,

²¹Would not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.

²²But for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are reckoned as sheep for slaughter.

²³Awake, why sleepest thou, Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever.

²⁴Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression?

²⁵For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our belly cleaveth unto the earth.

²⁶Rise up for our help, and redeem us for thy loving-kindness' sake.

Psalm 45

¹To the chief Musician. Upon Shoshannim. Of the sons of Korah. An instruction; -- a song of the Beloved. My heart is welling forth with a good matter: I say what I have composed touching the king. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.

²Thou art fairer than the sons of men; grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever.

³Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O mighty one, in thy majesty and thy splendour;

⁴And in thy splendour ride prosperously, because of truth and meekness and righteousness: and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things.

⁵Thine arrows are sharp -- peoples fall under thee -- in the heart of the king's enemies.

⁶Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a sceptre of uprightness is the sceptre of thy kingdom:

⁷Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated wickedness; therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy companions.

⁸Myrrh and aloes, cassia, are all thy garments; out of ivory palaces stringed instruments have made thee glad.

⁹Kings' daughters are among thine honourable women; upon thy right hand doth stand the queen in gold of Ophir.

¹⁰Hearken, daughter, and see, and incline thine ear; and forget thine own people and thy father's house:

¹¹And the king will desire thy beauty; for he is thy Lord, and worship thou him.

¹²And the daughter of Tyre with a gift, the rich ones among the people, shall court thy favour.

¹³All glorious is the king's daughter within; her clothing is of wrought gold:

¹⁴She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of embroidery; the virgins behind her, her companions, shall be brought in unto thee:

¹⁵With joy and gladness shall they be brought; they shall enter into the king's palace.

¹⁶Instead of thy fathers shall be thy sons; princes shalt thou make them in all the earth.

¹⁷I will make thy name to be remembered throughout all generations; therefore shall the peoples praise thee for ever and ever.

Psalm 46

¹To the chief Musician. Of the sons of Korah. On Alamoth. A song. God is our refuge and strength, a help in distresses, very readily found.

²Therefore will we not fear though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the heart of the seas;

³Though the waters thereof roar and foam, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.

⁴There is a river the streams whereof make glad the city of God, the sanctuary of the habitations of the Most High.

⁵God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her at the dawn of the morning.

⁶The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved; he uttered his voice, the earth melted.

⁷Jehovah of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our high fortress. Selah.

⁸Come, behold the works of Jehovah, what desolations he hath made in the earth:

⁹He hath made wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariots in the fire.

¹⁰Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.

¹¹Jehovah of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our high fortress. Selah.

Psalm 47

¹To the chief Musician. Of the sons of Korah. A Psalm. All ye peoples, clap your hands; shout unto God with the voice of triumph!

²For Jehovah, the Most High, is terrible, a great king over all the earth.

³He subdueth the peoples under us, and the nations under our feet.

⁴He hath chosen our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved. Selah.

⁵God is gone up amid shouting, Jehovah amid the sound of the trumpet.

⁶Sing psalms of God, sing psalms; sing psalms unto our King, sing psalms!

⁷For God is the King of all the earth; sing psalms with understanding.

⁸God reigneth over the nations; God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness.

⁹The willing-hearted of the peoples have gathered together, with the people of the God of Abraham. For unto God belong the shields of the earth: he is greatly exalted.

Psalm 48

¹A Song; a Psalm. Of the sons of Korah. Great is Jehovah, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the hill of his holiness.

²Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.

³God is known in her palaces as a high fortress.

⁴For behold, the kings assembled themselves, they passed by together;

⁵They saw, -- so they marvelled; they were troubled, they fled in consternation:

⁶Trembling took hold upon them there; anguish, as of a woman in travail.

⁷With an east wind thou hast broken the ships of Tarshish.

⁸As we have heard, so have we seen, in the city of Jehovah of hosts, in the city of our God: God doth establish it for ever. Selah.

⁹We have thought, O God, of thy loving-kindness, in the midst of thy temple.

¹⁰According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth: thy right hand is full of righteousness.

¹¹Let mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of thy judgments.

¹²Walk about Zion, and go round about her: count the towers thereof;

¹³Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces: that ye may tell it to the generation following.

¹⁴For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide until death.