Thirsting for God in Trouble and Exile.

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

1As the deer pants [longingly] for the water brooks,

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

2My soul (my life, my inner self) thirsts for God, for the living God.

When will I come and see the face of God?

3My tears have been my food day and night,

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

4These 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.

5Why 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.

6O 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.

7Deep calls to deep at the [thundering] sound of Your waterfalls;

All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me.

8Yet 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.

9I will say to God my rock, “Why have You forgotten me?

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

10As a crushing of my bones [with a sword], my adversaries taunt me,

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

11Why 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 [b]help of my countenance and my God.