The Prayer of Someone in Exile (PSA 42:1-11)

[42:1] As a deer longs for a stream of cool water, so I long for you, O God.

[42:2] I thirst for you, the living God. When can I go and worship in your presence?

[42:3] Day and night I cry, and tears are my only food; all the time my enemies ask me, “Where is your God?”

[42:4] My heart breaks when I remember the past, when I went with the crowds to the house of God and led them as they walked along, a happy crowd, singing and shouting praise to God.

[42:5] Why am I so sad? Why am I so troubled? I will put my hope in God, and once again I will praise him, my savior and my God. and so I turn my thoughts to him. He has sent waves of sorrow over my soul; chaos roars at me like a flood, like waterfalls thundering down to the Jordan from Mount Hermon and Mount Mizar.

[42:8] May the Lord show his constant love during the day, so that I may have a song at night, a prayer to the God of my life.

[42:9] To God, my defender, I say, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go on suffering from the cruelty of my enemies?”

[42:10] I am crushed by their insults, as they keep on asking me, “Where is your God?”

[42:11] Why am I so sad? Why am I so troubled? I will put my hope in God, and once again I will praise him, my savior and my God.