BOOK 2

Thirsting for God in Trouble and Exile.

For the choir director. A Maskil of the sons of Korah.

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.