1/ As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.
2/ My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
3/ My tears have been my food
day and night, while people say to me all day long,“Where is your God?”
4/ These things I remember
as I pour out my soul: how I used to go to the house of God under the protection of the Mighty One with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng.
5/ Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
6/ My soul is downcast within me;
therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
7/ Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.
8/ By day the Lord directs his love,
at night his song is with me—a prayer to the God of my life.
9/ I say to God my Rock,
“Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?”
10/ My bones suffer mortal agony
as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long,“Where is your God?”
11/ Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
A gracious soul can take little satisfaction in God's courts, if it do not meet with God himself there. Living souls never can take up their rest any where short of a living God.
To appear before the Lord is the desire of the upright, as it is the dread of the hypocrite. Nothing is more grievous to a gracious soul, than what is intended to shake its confidence in the Lord. It was not the remembrance of the pleasures of his court that afflicted David; but the remembrance of the free access he formerly had to God's house, and his pleasure in attending there.
Those that commune much with their own hearts, will often have to chide them. See the cure of sorrow. When the soul rests on itself, it sinks; if it catches hold on the power and promise of God, the head is kept above the billows. And what is our support under present woes but this, that we shall have comfort in Him. We have great cause to mourn for sin; but being cast down springs from unbelief and a rebellious will; we should therefore strive and pray against it.
The way to forget our miseries, is to remember the God of our mercies. David saw troubles coming from God's wrath, and that discouraged him. But if one trouble follow hard after another, if all seem to combine for our ruin, let us remember they are all appointed and overruled by the Lord. David regards the Divine favour as the fountain of all the good he looked for.
At length, is faith came off conqueror, by encouraging him to trust in the name of the Lord, and to stay himself upon his God. He adds, And my God; this thought enabled him to triumph over all his griefs and fears.
Let us never think that the God of our life, and the Rock of our salvation, has forgotten us, if we have made his mercy, truth, and power, our refuge. Thus the psalmist strove against his despondency: at last his faith and hope obtained the victory. Let us learn to check all unbelieving doubts and fears. Apply
the promise first to ourselves, and then plead it to God.
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