Thirsting for God in Trouble and Exile.

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

1As the deer pants for the water brooks,
         So my soul pants for You, O God.

2My soul thirsts for God, for the living God;
         When shall I come and appear before 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 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.

5Why 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.

6O 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.

7Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls;
         All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me.

8The 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.

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 shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me,
         While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”

11Why 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.

NASB ©1995