Psalms 42-48

Psalm 42

¹For the Chief Musician; Maschil 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 meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?

⁴These things I remember, and pour out my soul within me, how I went with the throng, and led them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping holyday.

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

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

⁷Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.

⁸Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the day-time, and in the night his song shall be with me, even 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 sword in my bones, mine adversaries reproach me; while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?

¹¹Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou 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: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.

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

³O send out thy light and thy truth; let them lead me: let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.

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

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

Psalm 44

¹For the Chief Musician; a Psalm of the sons of Korah. Maschil. We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the days of old.

²Thou didst drive out the nations with thy hand, and plantedst them in; thou didst afflict the peoples, and didst spread them abroad.

³For they gat not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them.

⁴Thou 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 trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.

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

⁸In God have we made our boast all the day long, and we will give thanks unto thy name for ever. Selah

⁹But now thou hast cast us off, and brought us to dishonour; and goest not forth with our hosts.

¹⁰Thou makest us to turn back from the adversary: and they which hate us spoil for themselves.

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

¹²Thou sellest thy people for nought, and hast not increased thy wealth by their price.

¹³Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to 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 long is my dishonour before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me,

¹⁶For 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 in thy covenant.

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

¹⁹That thou hast sore broken us in the place of jackals, and covered us with the shadow of death.

²⁰If we have forgotten the name of our God, or spread forth our hands to a strange god;

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

²²Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.

²³Awake, why sleepest thou, O 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 lovingkindness’ sake.

Psalm 45

¹For the Chief Musician; set to Shoshannim; a Psalm of the sons of Korah. Maschil. A Song of loves. My heart overfloweth with a goodly matter: I speak the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.

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

³Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O mighty one, thy glory and thy majesty.

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

⁵Thine arrows are sharp; the peoples fall under thee; they are in the heart of the king’s enemies.

⁶Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of equity 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 fellows.

⁸All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia; out of ivory palaces stringed instruments have made thee glad.

⁹Kings’ daughters are among thy honourable women: at thy right hand doth stand the queen in gold of Ophir.

¹⁰Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house;

¹¹So shall the king desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him.

¹²And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift; even the rich among the people shall entreat thy favour.

¹³The king’s daughter within the palace is all glorious: her clothing is inwrought with gold.

¹⁴She shall be led unto the king in broidered work: the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee.

¹⁵With gladness and rejoicing shall they be led: they shall enter into the king’s palace.

¹⁶Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou shalt make princes in all the earth.

¹⁷I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations: therefore shall the peoples give thee thanks for ever and ever.

Psalm 46

¹For the Chief Musician: a Psalm of the sons of Korah; set to Alamoth. A Song. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

²Therefore will we not fear, though the earth do change, and though the mountains be moved in the heart of the seas;

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

⁴There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High.

⁵God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.

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

⁷The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah

⁸Come, behold the works of the LORD, what desolations he hath made in the earth.

⁹He maketh 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.

¹¹The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah

Psalm 47

¹For the Chief Musician; a Psalm of the sons of Korah. O clap your hands, all ye peoples; shout unto God with the voice of triumph.

²For the LORD Most High is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth.

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

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

⁵God is gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet.

⁶Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises.

⁷For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding.

⁸God reigneth over the nations: God sitteth upon his holy throne.

⁹The princes of the peoples are gathered together to be the people of the God of Abraham: for the shields of the earth belong unto God; he is greatly exalted.

Psalm 48

¹A Song; a Psalm of the sons of Korah. Great is the LORD, and highly to be praised, in the city of our God, in his holy mountain.

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 hath made himself known in her palaces for a refuge.

⁴For, lo, the kings assembled themselves, they passed by together.

⁵They saw it, then were they amazed; they were dismayed, they hasted away.

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

⁷With the east wind thou breakest the ships of Tarshish.

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

⁹We have thought on thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple.

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

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

¹²Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof.

¹³Mark ye welt 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 even unto death.