Psalms 42:3

3 My tears have been my food day and night, while all day long people say to me, "Where is your God?"

Psalms 42:3 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 42:3

My tears have been my meat day and night
That is, he could not eat for sorrow, like Hannah, 1Sa 1:7,8;
or while he was eating tears fell in plenty, and they were as common, day and night, as his food, and mixed with it F6; see ( Psalms 80:5 ) ;

while they continually say unto me,
his enemies the Philistines,

where [is] thy God?
theirs were to be seen and pointed at, as the host of heaven, the sun, moon, and stars, and idols of gold, silver, brass, wood, and stone; wherefore they ask, where was his? but David's God was invisible; he is in the heavens, and does what he pleases, ( Psalms 115:2 Psalms 115:3 ) ; or the sense is, that if there was such a God he believed in and professed, and he was his servant, surely he would never have suffered him to fall into so much distress and calamity, but would have appeared for his relief and deliverance; and therefore tauntingly, and by way of reproach, ask where he was.


FOOTNOTES:

F6 "--lachrymaeque alimenta fuere", Ovid. Metamorph. l. 10. Fab. 1. v. 75.

Psalms 42:3 In-Context

1 As a deer longs for streams of water, so I long for You, God.
2 I thirst for God, the living God. When can I come and appear before God?
3 My tears have been my food day and night, while all day long people say to me, "Where is your God?"
4 I remember this as I pour out my heart: how I walked with many, leading the festive procession to the house of God, with joyful and thankful shouts.
5 Why am I so depressed? Why this turmoil within me? Put your hope in God, for I will still praise Him, my Savior and my God.
Holman Christian Standard Bible ® Copyright © 2003, 2002, 2000, 1999 by Holman Bible Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.