The Song of Soul Longing for God

Book Two

Why Are You Cast Down, O My Soul?

To the choirmaster. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah.

As a deer pants for flowing streams,
  so pants my soul for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
  for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?[b]
My tears have been my food
  day and night,
while they say to me all the day long,
  “Where is your God?”
These things I remember,
  as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
  and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
  a multitude keeping festival.

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
  and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
  my salvation[c] 6 and my God.

My soul is cast down within me;
  therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
  from Mount Mizar.
Deep calls to deep
  at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
  have gone over me.
By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
  and at night his song is with me,
  a prayer to the God of my life.
I say to God, my rock:
  “Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
  because of the oppression of the enemy?”
As with a deadly wound in my bones,
  my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me all the day long,
  “Where is your God?”

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
  and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
  my salvation and my God.

Send Out Your Light and Your Truth

Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause
  against an ungodly people,
from the deceitful and unjust man
  deliver me!
For you are the God in whom I take refuge;
  why have you rejected me?
Why do I go about mourning
  because of the oppression of the enemy?
Send out your light and your truth;
  let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy hill
  and to your dwelling!
Then I will go to the altar of God,
  to God my exceeding joy,
and I will praise you with the lyre,
  O God, my God.

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
  and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
  my salvation and my God.

(Psalms 42:1-43:5, ESV)