Psalm 42–50

The Prayer of a Man in Exile^s

42 As a deer longs for a stream of cool water,

so I long for you, O God.

²I thirst for you, the living God;

when can I go and worship in your presence?

³Day and night I cry,

and tears are my only food;

all the time my enemies ask me,

“Where is your God?”

⁴My heart breaks when I remember the past,

when I went with the crowds to the house of God

and led them as they walked along,

a happy crowd, singing and shouting praise to God.

⁵Why am I so sad?

Why am I so troubled?

I will put my hope in God,

and once again I will praise him,

my saviour and my God.

^6–7Here in exile my heart is breaking,

and so I turn my thoughts to him.

He has sent waves of sorrow over my soul;

chaos roars at me like a flood,

like waterfalls thundering down to the Jordan

from Mount Hermon and Mount Mizar.

⁸May the Lord show his constant love during the day,

so that I may have a song at night,

a prayer to the God of my life.

⁹To God, my defender, I say,

“Why have you forgotten me?

Why must I go on suffering

from the cruelty of my enemies?”

¹⁰I am crushed by their insults,

as they keep on asking me,

“Where is your God?”

¹¹Why am I so sad?

Why am I so troubled?

I will put my hope in God,

and once again I will praise him,

my saviour and my God.

The Prayer of a Man in Exile

43O God, declare me innocent,

and defend my cause against the ungodly;

deliver me from lying and evil people!

²You are my protector;

why have you abandoned me? Why must I go on suffering

from the cruelty of my enemies?

³Send your light and your truth;

may they lead me

and bring me back to Zion, your sacred hill,^t

and to your Temple, where you live.

⁴Then I will go to your altar, O God;

you are the source of my happiness.

I will play my harp and sing praise to you,

O God, my God.

⁵Why am I so sad? Why am I so troubled?

I will put my hope in God, and once again I will praise him, my saviour and my God.

A Prayer for Protection^u

44 With our own ears we have heard it, O God—

our ancestors have told us about it,

about the great things you did in their time,

in the days of long ago:

²how you yourself drove out the heathen

and established your people in their land;

how you punished the other nations

and caused your own to prosper.

³Your people did not conquer the land with their swords;

they did not win it by their own power;

it was by your power and your strength,

by the assurance of your presence,

which showed that you loved them.

⁴You are my king and my God;

you give^v victory to your people,

⁵and by your power we defeat our enemies.

⁶I do not trust in my bow

or in my sword to save me;

⁷but you have saved us from our enemies

and defeated those who hate us.

⁸We will always praise you

and give thanks to you for ever.

⁹But now you have rejected us and let us be defeated;

you no longer march out with our armies.

¹⁰You made us run from our enemies,

and they took for themselves what was ours.

¹¹You allowed us to be slaughtered like sheep;

you scattered us in foreign countries.

¹²You sold your own people for a small price

as though they had little value.^w

¹³Our neighbours see what you did to us,

and they mock us and laugh at us.

¹⁴You have made us an object of contempt among the nations;

they shake their heads at us in scorn.

¹⁵I am always in disgrace;

I am covered with shame

¹⁶from hearing the sneers and insults

of my enemies and those who hate me.

¹⁷All this has happened to us,

even though we have not forgotten you

or broken the covenant you made with us.

¹⁸We have not been disloyal to you;

we have not disobeyed your commands.

¹⁹Yet you left us helpless among wild animals;

you abandoned us in deepest darkness.

²⁰If we had stopped worshipping our God

and prayed to a foreign god,

²¹you would surely have discovered it,

because you know our secret thoughts.

^22*But it is on your account that we are being killed all the time,

that we are treated like sheep to be slaughtered.

²³Wake up, Lord! Why are you asleep?

Rouse yourself! Don’t reject us for ever!

²⁴Why are you hiding from us?

Don’t forget our suffering and trouble!

²⁵We fall crushed to the ground; we lie defeated in the dust.

²⁶Come to our aid!

Because of your constant love save us!

A Royal Wedding Song^x

45 Beautiful words fill my mind,

as I compose this song for the king.

Like the pen of a good writer

my tongue is ready with a poem.

²You are the most handsome of men;

you are an eloquent speaker.

God has always blessed you.

³Buckle on your sword, mighty king;

you are glorious and majestic.

⁴Ride on in majesty to victory

for the defence of truth and justice!^y

Your strength will win you great victories!

⁵Your arrows are sharp,

they pierce the hearts of your enemies;

nations fall down at your feet.

^6*The kingdom that God has given you^z

will last for ever and ever.

You rule over your people with justice;

^7*you love what is right and hate what is evil.

That is why God, your God, has chosen you

and has poured out more happiness on you

than on any other king.

⁸The perfume of myrrh and aloes is on your clothes;

musicians entertain you in palaces decorated with ivory.

⁹Among the ladies of your court are daughters of kings,

and on the right of your throne stands the queen,

wearing ornaments of finest gold.

¹⁰Bride of the king, listen to what I say—

forget your people and your relatives.

¹¹Your beauty will make the king desire you;

he is your master, so you must obey him.

¹²The people of Tyre will bring you gifts;

rich people will try to win your favour.

¹³The princess is in the palace—how beautiful she is!

Her gown is made of gold thread.

¹⁴In her colourful gown she is led to the king,

followed by her bridesmaids, and they also are brought to him.

¹⁵With joy and gladness they come

and enter the king’s palace.

¹⁶You, my king, will have many sons

to succeed your ancestors as kings,

and you will make them rulers over the whole earth.

¹⁷My song will keep your fame alive for ever,

and everyone will praise you for all time to come.

God Is with Us^a

46 God is our shelter and strength,

always ready to help in times of trouble.

²So we will not be afraid, even if the earth is shaken

and mountains fall into the ocean depths;

³even if the seas roar and rage,

and the hills are shaken by the violence.

⁴There is a river that brings joy

to the city of God, to the sacred house of the Most High.

⁵God is in that city, and it will never be destroyed;

at early dawn he will come to its aid.

⁶Nations are terrified, kingdoms are shaken;

God thunders, and the earth dissolves.

⁷The Lord Almighty is with us;

the God of Jacob is our refuge.

⁸Come and see what the Lord has done.

See what amazing things he has done on earth.

⁹He stops wars all over the world;

he breaks bows, destroys spears,

and sets shields on fire.

¹⁰“Stop fighting,” he says, “and know that I am God,

supreme among the nations,

supreme over the world.”

¹¹The Lord Almighty is with us;

the God of Jacob is our refuge.

The supreme Ruler^b

47 Clap your hands for joy, all peoples!

Praise God with loud songs!

²The Lord, the Most High, is to be feared;

he is a great king, ruling over all the world.

³He gave us victory over the peoples;

he made us rule over the nations.

⁴He chose for us the land where we live,

the proud possession of his people, whom he loves.

⁵God goes up to his throne.

There are shouts of joy and the blast of trumpets,

as the Lord goes up.

⁶Sing praise to God;

sing praise to our king!

⁷God is king over all the world;

praise him with songs!

⁸God sits on his sacred throne;

he rules over the nations.

⁹The rulers of the nations assemble

with the people^c of the God of Abraham.

More powerful than all armies is he;

he rules supreme.

Zion, the City of God^d

48 The Lord is great and is to be highly praised

in the city of our God, on his sacred hill.^e

^2*Zion, the mountain of God, is high and beautiful;

the city of the great king brings joy to all the world.

³God has shown that there is safety with him

inside the fortresses of the city.

⁴The kings gathered together

and came to attack Mount Zion.

⁵But when they saw it,

they were amazed; they were afraid and ran away.

⁶There they were seized with fear and anguish,

like a woman about to bear a child,

⁷like ships tossing in a furious storm.

⁸We have heard what God has done,

and now we have seen it

in the city of our God, the Lord Almighty;

he will keep the city safe for ever.

⁹Inside your Temple, O God,

we think of your constant love.

¹⁰You are praised by people everywhere,

and your fame extends over all the earth.

You rule with justice;

¹¹let the people of Zion be glad!

You give right judgements;

let there be joy in the cities of Judah!

¹²People of God, walk round Zion and count the towers;

¹³take notice of the walls and examine the fortresses,

so that you may tell the next generation:

¹⁴“This God is our God for ever and ever;

he will lead us for all time to come.”

The Foolishness of Trusting in Riches^f

49 Hear this, everyone!

Listen, all people everywhere,

²great and small alike,

rich and poor together.

³My thoughts will be clear;

I will speak words of wisdom.

⁴I will turn my attention to proverbs

and explain their meaning as I play the harp.

⁵I am not afraid in times of danger

when I am surrounded by enemies,

⁶by evil people who trust in their riches

and boast of their great wealth.

⁷A person can never redeem himself;

he cannot pay God the price for his life,

⁸because the payment for a human life is too great.

What he could pay would never be enough

⁹to keep him from the grave,

to let him live for ever.

¹⁰Anyone can see that even the wise die,

as well as the foolish and stupid.

They all leave their riches to their descendants.

¹¹Their graves^g are their homes for ever;

there they stay for all time,

though they once had lands of their own.

¹²No one’s greatness can save him from death;

he will still die like the animals.

¹³See what happens to those who trust in themselves,

the fate of those^h who are satisfied with their wealth-

¹⁴they are doomed to die like sheep,

and Death will be their shepherd.

The righteous will triumph over them,

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