As you read, keep in mind our two questions:

1. What things in this Psalm can I relate to?

2. Is there anything in the Psalm that makes me think of Jesus?

PSALM 42

For the choirmaster. A Maskil of the sons of Korah.

42 As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul longs after You, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, the living God.
When shall I come and appear in God’s presence?
3 My tears have been my food
both day and night,
while men ask me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
4 These things come to mind as I pour out my soul:
how I walked with the multitude,
leading the procession to the house of God
with shouts of joy and praise.

5 Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why the unease within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him
for the salvation of His presence.

6 O my God, my soul despairs within me.
Therefore I remember You
from the land of Jordan and the peaks of Hermon—
even from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
in the roar of Your waterfalls;
all Your breakers and waves
have rolled over me.
8 The LORD decrees His loving devotion by day,
and at night His song is with me
as a prayer to the God of my life.

9 I say to God my Rock,
“Why have You forgotten me?
Why must I walk in sorrow
because of the enemy’s oppression?”
10 Like the crushing of my bones,
my enemies taunt me,
while they say to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”

11 Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why the unease within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him,
my Savior and my God.

PSALM 43

1 Vindicate me, O God, and plead my case
against an ungodly nation;
deliver me from deceitful and unjust men.

2 For You are the God of my refuge.
Why have You rejected me?
Why must I walk in sorrow
because of the enemy’s oppression?

3 Send out Your light and Your truth;
let them lead me.
Let them bring me to Your holy mountain,
and to the place where You dwell.
4 Then I will go to the altar of God,
to God, my greatest joy.
I will praise You with the harp,
O God, my God.

5 Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why the unease within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him,
my Savior and my God.

REFLECTIONS

Now think about the two questions:

1. What things in this Psalm can I relate to?

2. Is there anything in the Psalm that makes me think of Jesus?

Then pray, seeking to delight in God or to depend on God.