Psalms 42-44

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.