PSALMS 42-46

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Thirsting for God in Trouble and Exile.For the choir director. A Maskil of the sons of Korah.
42:1 As the deer pants for the water brooks,

So my soul pants for You, O God.

2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God;

When shall I come and appear before God?

3 My tears have been my food day and night,

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

4 These things I remember and I pour out my soul within me.

For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God,

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

5 Why are you in despair, O my soul?

And why have you become disturbed within me?

Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him

For the help of His presence.

6 O my God, my soul is in despair within me;

Therefore I remember You from the land of the Jordan

And the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.

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

All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me.

8 The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime;

And His song will be with me in the night,

A prayer to the God of my life.

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?”

10 As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me,

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

11 Why are you in despair, O my soul?

And why have you become disturbed within me?

Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him,

The help of my countenance and my God.

Prayer for Deliverance.43:1 Vindicate me, O God, and plead my case against an ungodly nation;

O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man!

2 For You are the God of my strength; why have You rejected me?

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

3 O send out Your light and Your truth, let them lead me;

Let them bring me to Your holy hill

And to Your dwelling places.

4 Then I will go to the altar of God,

To God my exceeding joy;

And upon the lyre I shall praise You, O God, my God.

5 Why are you in despair, O my soul?

And why are you disturbed within me?

Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him,

The help of my countenance and my God.

Former Deliverances and Present Troubles.For the choir director. A Maskil of the sons of Korah.
44:1 O God, we have heard with our ears,

Our fathers have told us

The work that You did in their days,

In the days of old.

2 You with Your own hand drove out the nations;

Then You planted them;

You afflicted the peoples,

Then You spread them abroad.

3 For by their own sword they did not possess the land,

And their own arm did not save them,

But Your right hand and Your arm and the light of Your presence,

For You favored them.

4 You are my King, O God;

Command victories for Jacob.

5 Through You we will push back our adversaries;

Through Your name we will trample down those who rise up against us.

6 For I will not trust in my bow,

Nor will my sword save me.

7 But You have saved us from our adversaries,

And You have put to shame those who hate us.

8 In God we have boasted all day long,

And we will give thanks to Your name forever. Selah.

9 Yet You have rejected us and brought us to dishonor,

And do not go out with our armies.

10 You cause us to turn back from the adversary;

And those who hate us have taken spoil for themselves.

11 You give us as sheep to be eaten

And have scattered us among the nations.

12 You sell Your people cheaply,

And have not profited by their sale.

13 You make us a reproach to our neighbors,

A scoffing and a derision to those around us.

14 You make us a byword among the nations,

A laughingstock among the peoples.

15 All day long my dishonor is before me

And my humiliation has overwhelmed me,

16 Because of the voice of him who reproaches and reviles,

Because of the presence of the enemy and the avenger.

17 All this has come upon us, but we have not forgotten You,

And we have not dealt falsely with Your covenant.

18 Our heart has not turned back,

And our steps have not deviated from Your way,

19 Yet You have crushed us in a place of jackals

And covered us with the shadow of death.

20 If we had forgotten the name of our God

Or extended our hands to a strange god,

21 Would not God find this out?

For He knows the secrets of the heart.

22 But for Your sake we are killed all day long;

We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

23 Arouse Yourself, why do You sleep, O Lord?

Awake, do not reject us forever.

24 Why do You hide Your face

And forget our affliction and our oppression?

25 For our soul has sunk down into the dust;

Our body cleaves to the earth.

26 Rise up, be our help,

And redeem us for the sake of Your lovingkindness.

A Song Celebrating the King’s Marriage.For the choir director; according to the Shoshannim. A Maskil of the sons of Korah. A Song of Love.
45:1 My heart overflows with a good theme;

I address my verses to the King;

My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.

2 You are fairer than the sons of men;

Grace is poured upon Your lips;

Therefore God has blessed You forever.

3 Gird Your sword on Your thigh, O Mighty One,

In Your splendor and Your majesty!

4 And in Your majesty ride on victoriously,

For the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness;

Let Your right hand teach You awesome things.

5 Your arrows are sharp;

The peoples fall under You;

Your arrows are in the heart of the King’s enemies.

6 Your throne, O God, is forever and ever;

A scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom.

7 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;

Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You

With the oil of joy above Your fellows.

8 All Your garments are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia;

Out of ivory palaces stringed instruments have made You glad.

9 Kings’ daughters are among Your noble ladies;

At Your right hand stands the queen in gold from Ophir.

10 Listen, O daughter, give attention and incline your ear:

Forget your people and your father’s house;

11 Then the King will desire your beauty.

Because He is your Lord, bow down to Him.

12 The daughter of Tyre will come with a gift;

The rich among the people will seek your favor.

13 The King’s daughter is all glorious within;

Her clothing is interwoven with gold.

14 She will be led to the King in embroidered work;

The virgins, her companions who follow her,

Will be brought to You.

15 They will be led forth with gladness and rejoicing;

They will enter into the King’s palace.

16 In place of your fathers will be your sons;

You shall make them princes in all the earth.

17 I will cause Your name to be remembered in all generations;

Therefore the peoples will give You thanks forever and ever.

God the Refuge of His People.For the choir director. A Psalm of the sons of Korah, set to Alamoth. A Song.
46:1 God is our refuge and strength,

A very present help in trouble.

2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change

And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea;

3 Though its waters roar and foam,

Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Selah.

4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,

The holy dwelling places of the Most High.

5 God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved;

God will help her when morning dawns.

6 The nations made an uproar, the kingdoms tottered;

He raised His voice, the earth melted.

7 The LORD of hosts is with us;

The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah.

8 Come, behold the works of the LORD,

Who has wrought desolations in the earth.

9 He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth;

He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two;

He burns the chariots with fire.

10 “Cease striving and know that I am God;

I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

11 The LORD of hosts is with us;

The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah.

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