Psalm 42 (NRSV)
Read Psalm 42 on biblegateway.com
Verse 1As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.
Verse 2My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?
Verse 3My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually, "Where is your God?"
Verse 4These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I went with the throng, and led them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.
Verse 5Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help
Verse 6and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
Verse 7Deep calls to deep at the thunder of your cataracts; all your waves and your billows have gone over me.
Verse 8By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.
Verse 9I say to God, my rock, "Why have you forgotten me? Why must I walk about mournfully because the enemy oppresses me?"
Verse 10As with a deadly wound in my body, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me continually, "Where is your God?"
Verse 11Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.
Devotion
This psalm has been described as a prayer for healing in preparation for a pilgrimage. The psalmist is sick and far from the Jerusalem temple. The soul of the psalmist is cast down. We too may be disquieted and in mourning, longing for relief from sadness, feeling forgotten by God. May we be comforted and sustained by the confidence and hope the psalmist expresses in God in this psalm. May we remember God’s faithfulness to us, be strengthened in our faith and trust God’s steadfast love.
Prayer
We give you thanks, faithful one, that your steadfast presence sustains us. Amen.