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Psalm 42 :: Amplified Bible (AMP)

Thirsting for God in Trouble and Exile.

Psa 42:1

To the Chief Musician. A skillful song, or a didactic or reflective poem, of the sons of Korah.

As the deer pants [longingly] for the water brooks,

So my [fn]soul pants [longingly] for You, O God.

Psa 42:2

My soul (my life, my inner self) thirsts for God, for the living God.

When will I come and see the face of God?

Psa 42:3

My tears have been my food day and night,

While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”

Psa 42:4

These things I [vividly] remember as I pour out my soul;

How I used to go along before the great crowd of people and lead them in procession to the house of God [like a choirmaster before his singers, timing the steps to the music and the chant of the song],

With the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a great crowd keeping a festival.

Psa 42:5

Why are you in despair, O my soul?

And why have you become restless and disturbed within me?

Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall again praise Him

For the help of His presence.

Psa 42:6

O my God, my soul is in despair within me [the burden more than I can bear];

Therefore I will [fervently] remember You from the land of the Jordan

And the peaks of [Mount] Hermon, from Mount Mizar.

Psa 42:7

Deep calls to deep at the [thundering] sound of Your waterfalls;

All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me.

Psa 42:8

Yet the LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime,

And in the night His song will be with me,

A prayer to the God of my life.

Psa 42:9

I will say to God my rock, “Why have You forgotten me?

Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”

Psa 42:10

As a crushing of my bones [with a sword], my adversaries taunt me,

While they say continually to me, “Where is your God?”

Psa 42:11

Why are you in despair, O my soul?

Why have you become restless and disquieted within me?

Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall yet praise Him,

The [fn]help of my countenance and my God.

AMP Footnotes
The Hebrew word translated “soul” in this psalm and elsewhere in the book of Psalms is nephesh. This word usually refers to a person’s “life” or “self,” but can also mean “throat,” as perhaps in vv 1, 2.
Or saving acts of.
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