Psalm 42

Setting

As pants the deer for flowing streams,

Free Church of Scotland psalter · L.M.

The words

As pants the deer for flowing streams, So longs my soul, O God, for you. I thirst for God, the living God; When can I meet with God anew?

My tears have been my constant food Both in the night and in the day, While all day long insistently, “Where is this God of yours?” they say.

As I pour out my soul in grief, These things I do remember still: How with the multitude I went Up to God’s house on Zion hill.

In their procession I would lead As we approached with cheerful song And shouts of joy and thankfulness, Rejoicing with the festive throng.

Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why are you so disturbed in me? Trust God, for I will praise him yet; My Saviour and my God is he.

My soul within me is depressed; I therefore will recall you still From Jordan’s land, from Hermon’s heights And from the top of Mizar hill.

Deep calls to deep, as with a roar Your waterfalls cascading roll. Your waves and breakers fall on me; They overwhelm my very soul.

By day the LORD directs his love; His song remains with me at night— A prayer to him who is my God, My only source of life and light.

This I will say to God my Rock, “Why have you so forgotten me? Why must I go about in grief, Downtrodden by the enemy?”

My bones in mortal agony Are groaning, while my en’mies say, “Wherever is this God of yours?” They scoff at me throughout the day.

Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why are you so disturbed in me? Trust God, for I will praise him yet; My Saviour and my God is he.

Source & provenance

Free Church of Scotland psalter · psalter

An unedited transcription of the Sing Psalms (Free Church of Scotland, 2003) edition.

Full provenance & rights
Base edition
Sing Psalms (Free Church of Scotland, 2003)
Editor
Psalmody Committee of the Free Church of Scotland
Editing
unedited transcription

Rights

Copyright
rights-verified (display held); FCS terms recorded 2026-10-08 — verbatim text in a notated setting with independent tune MIDI is within terms (text free, FCS attribution displayed); copy/print/offline not granted; no audio derivatives
Access
free
Display
permitted

Tunes it can be sung to

2 tunes

  • Finnart

    curated well-matched

    LM

  • Marrel

    curated well-matched

    LM

How is this list ordered?

Curated pairings come first — a tune a curator recorded against this text, with the fitness they recorded. A tune that merely shares the meter is listed as a tune in the same meter and never as a pairing.

Nothing here is ranked by popularity or use. The page reports what a curator recorded, not a verdict of its own.