Psalms
Chapter 42
A singer is far from God's house and deeply sad. He remembers leading crowds to worship and misses it, while people around him mock him by asking where his God is. Twice he speaks to himself, telling his own heart to stop sinking and to keep hoping in God. The psalm holds sorrow and hope side by side without settling either one.
Plain reading written for preteens. Clear and complete, at about a fifth grade reading level.
As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
1A deer pants for streams of water. In the same way I long for you, O God.
2My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?
2I am thirsty for God, the living God. When can I come and stand before him?
3My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
3My tears have been my food day and night, while people keep asking me, "Where is your God?"
"My tears have been my meat" — in 1611 "meat" meant food of any kind, not just animal flesh. The line means his tears were all he took in.
4When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday.
4When I remember, my heart spills over. I used to go with the crowd to God's house. I led them there with shouts of joy and thanks, a whole crowd keeping a feast day.
5Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.
5Why am I so low, my soul? Why am I so upset inside? Put your hope in God. I will praise him again for the help that comes when he is near.
6O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar.
6My God, I feel crushed inside. So I will remember you from the land of the Jordan River, from the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
7Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
7Deep water calls out to deep water in the roar of your rushing falls. All your waves and breakers have washed over me.
"Waterspouts" here does not mean a storm at sea. It pictures water pouring down hard, like a waterfall or a cloudburst.
8Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the day time, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.
8Still, the LORD sends out his faithful love by day. At night his song stays with me, a prayer to the God who gives me life.
9I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
9I say to God, my rock, "Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about sad while my enemy grinds me down?"
10As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?
10My enemies' insults feel like my bones being crushed. All day long they say to me, "Where is your God?"
11Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.
11Why am I so low, my soul? Why am I so upset inside? Put your hope in God. I will praise him again. He is the one who saves me. He is my God.
"The health of my countenance" is old English for the one who makes his face bright again, that is, the one who rescues him.
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