Psalms 42:3

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

Psalms 42:3 in Other Translations

KJV
3 My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
ESV
3 My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, "Where is your God?"
NLT
3 Day and night I have only tears for food, while my enemies continually taunt me, saying, “Where is this God of yours?”
MSG
3 I'm on a diet of tears - tears for breakfast, tears for supper. All day long people knock at my door, Pestering, "Where is this God of yours?"
CSB
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 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 Onewith 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.

Cross References 2

  • 1. S Job 3:24; Psalms 80:5
  • 2. ver 10; Psalms 79:10; Psalms 115:2; Joel 2:17; Micah 7:10
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