Book II: Psalms 42–72

¹For the leader. A maskil of the descendants of Korach:

²Just as a deer longs for running streams,

God, I long for you.

³I am thirsty for God, for the living God!

When can I come and appear before God?

⁴My tears are my food, day and night,

while all day people ask me, “Where is your God?”

⁵I recall, as my feelings well up within me,

how I’d go with the crowd to the house of God,

with sounds of joy and praise from the throngs

observing the festival.

⁶My soul, why are you so downcast?

Why are you groaning inside me?

Hope in God, since I will praise him again

for the salvation that comes from his presence.

⁷My God, when I feel so downcast,

I remind myself of you

from the land of Yarden, from the peaks of Hermon,

from the hill Mizar.

⁸Deep is calling to deep

at the thunder of your waterfalls;

all your surging rapids and waves

are sweeping over me.

⁹By day Adonai commands his grace,

and at night his song is with me

as a prayer to the God of my life.

¹⁰I say to God my Rock,

“Why have you forgotten me?

Why must I go about mourning,

under pressure by the enemy?

¹¹My adversaries’ taunts make me feel

as if my bones were crushed,

as they ask me all day long,

‘Where is your God?’ ”

¹²My soul, why are you so downcast?

Why are you groaning inside me?

Hope in God, since I will praise him again

for being my Savior and God.