My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”
Parallel Translations
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My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”
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My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
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(42-4) My tears have been my food day and night, while they say unto me all the day: 'Where is Thy God?'
Cross-references (11)
Passages linked to Psalms 42:3 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 79:10 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Let it be known among the nations, before our eyes, that vengeance for your servants’ blood is being poured out.
- Psalms 115:2 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God, now?”
- Joel 2:17 Let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, “Spare your people, Yahweh, and don’t give your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’ ”
- Psalms 42:10 As with a sword in my bones, my adversaries reproach me, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”
- Psalms 80:5 You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in large measure.
- Psalms 102:9 For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mixed my drink with tears,
- Psalms 79:12 Pay back to our neighbors seven times into their bosom their reproach with which they have reproached you, Lord.
- Micah 7:10 Then my enemy will see it, and shame will cover her who said to me, where is Yahweh your God? Then my enemy will see me and will cover her shame. Now she will be trodden down like the mire of the streets.
- 2 Samuel 16:12 It may be that Yahweh will look on the wrong done to me, and that Yahweh will repay me good for the cursing of me today.”
- Psalms 3:2 Many there are who say of my soul, “There is no help for him in God.”
- Psalms 22:8 “He trusts in Yahweh. Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him, since he delights in him.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 3. My tears have been my bread Here the…
3. My tears have been my bread Here the Psalmist mentions another sharp piercing shaft with which the wicked and malevolent grievously wounded his heart. There can be no doubt that Satan made use of such means as these to fan the flame that consumed him with grief. “What,” we may suppose that adversary to say, “wouldst thou have? Seest thou not that God hath cast thee off? For certainly he desires to be worshipped in the tabernacle, to which you have now no opportunity of access, and from which you are as it were banished.” These were violent assaults, and enough to have overturned the faith of this holy man, unless, supported by the power of the Spirit in a more than ordinary degree, he had made a strong and vigorous resistance. It is evident that his feelings had been really and strongly affected. We may be often agitated, and yet not to such an extent as to abstain from eating and drinking; but when a man voluntarily abstains from food, and indulges so much in weeping, that he daily neglects his ordinary meals, and is continually overwhelmed in sorrow, it is obvious that he is troubled in no light degree; but that he is wounded severely, and even to the heart. Now, David says, that he did not experience greater relief in any thing whatever than from weeping; and, therefore, he gave himself up to it, just in the same manner as men take pleasure and enjoyment in eating; and this he says had been the case every day, and not only for a short time. Let us, therefore, whenever the ungodly triumph over us in our miseries, and spitefully taunt us that God is against us, never forget that it is Satan who moves them to speak in this manner, in order to overthrow our faith; and that, therefore, it is not time for us to take our ease, or to yield to indifference, when a war so dangerous is waged against us. There is still another reason which ought to inspire us with such feelings, and it is this, that the name of God is held up to scorn by the ungodly; for they cannot scoff at our faith without greatly reproaching him. If, then, we are not altogether insensible, we must in such circumstances be affected with the deepest sorrow.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain As others take pleasure in eating and drinking, so…
As others take pleasure in eating and drinking, so he was altogether given to weeping.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 42:3 My tears have been my meat day…
Psa 42:3 My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where [is] thy God?
Ver. 3. My tears have been my meat day and night] Hunters say the hart sheddeth tears, or something like tears, when he is pursued, and not able to escape. Hereunto David might allude. Sure it is, that as hinds calving, so men, by weeping, cast out their sorrows, Job 39:3.
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Expletur lachrymis egeriturque dolor.
And, Affert solatium lugentibus suspiriorum societas, saith Basil, sighs are an ease of sorrow. Of Mr Bradford the martyr it is reported, that in the midst of dinner he used oft to muse, having his hat over his eyes, from whence came commonly plenty of tears dropping on his trencher. - αγαθοι δ αριδακρυες ανθρες. The better any are, the more inclined to weeping; as David than Jonathan, 1Sa 20:41 Here we have him telling us that his tears were his meat, so Psa 80:5, or his bread, as Gregory readeth it; and he giveth this reason, that, like as the more bread we eat the dryer we are, and the more thirsty; so the more tears of godly sorrow we let fall the more we thirst after that living fountain springing from above. David’s greatest grief was, that he was banished from the sanctuary; and next to that, the reproachful blasphemy of his enemies hitting him in the teeth with his God, as if not able or not willing to relieve him now in his necessity, and bitterly upbraiding him with his hopes as altogether vain.
Whiles they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?] Violenti certe impetus, saith Vatablus here. These were violent shocks indeed; and such as wherewith David’s faith might have been utterly overthrown, had it not been the better rooted, and with it upheld, by the special power of the Spirit of grace. Other of God’s suffering saints have met with the like measure. At Orleans, in France, as the bloody Papists murdered the Protestants, they cried out, Where is now your God? What is become of all your prayers and psalms now? Let your God that you called upon save you if he can. Others sang in scorn, Judge and revenge my cause, O Lord; others, Have mercy on us, Lord, &c. The queen mother of Scotland, having received aid from France, forced the Protestants for a while to retire to the highlands, whereupon she scoffingly said, Where is now John Knox’s God? My God is now stronger than his, yea, even in Life; but her brags lasted not long; for within a few days six hundred Protestants beat above four thousand French and Scots, &c. (Mr Knox’s Life, by Mr Clark). God’s servants fare the better for the insolencies of their enemies; who, when they say, Where is now their God? might as well say between the time of the new and old moon, Where is now the moon? when as it is never nearer the sun than at that time.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain My tears have been my meat; which notes both…
My tears have been my meat; which notes both the great abundance and constant course of his tears, and the secret satisfaction and ease which he found in giving vent to his passion this way. Possibly his tears and grief took away his appetite, and so were to him instead of food.
Where is thy God, of whom thou hast so often boasted, as of one so able and ready to help all that trust in him and call upon him, and particularly as one engaged to time by many great and special promises? He is gone and departed from thee, and no where to be found of thee. He is either unable or unwilling to help thee, or regardless of thee.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain My tears have been my meat day and night,....…
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 (f); see Psa 80:5;
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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, Psa 115:2; 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.
(f) "--lachrymaeque alimenta fuere", Ovid. Metamorph. l. 10. Fab. 1. v. 75.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 3. My tears have been my meat day…
Verse 3. My tears have been my meat day and night] My longing has been so intense after spiritual blessings, that I have forgotten to take my necessary food; and my sorrow has been so great, that I have had no appetite for any. I feel more for the honour of my God and his truth than for myself, when the idolaters, who have thy people in captivity, insultingly cry, Where is thy God?
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Psa 42:3-4. My tears have been my meat, &c.…
Psa 42:3-4. My tears have been my meat, &c. — That is, I am wholly given over to grief and sorrow while I hear the continual reproaches of my enemies, saying unto me, Where is thy God? — Of whom thou hast so often boasted, as of one so able and ready to help all that trust in him, and call upon him? and particularly as one engaged to thee by many great and special promises? He is departed from thee, and nowhere to be found of thee. He is either unable or unwilling to help thee, or regardless of thee. When I remember these things — Namely, my banishment from God’s presence, and my enemies’ scoffs and triumphs upon that occasion. I pour out my soul — In fervent prayer and bitter sorrows, whereby his very heart was almost melted or dissolved, and his spirits spent, and he was ready to faint away. For I had gone with the multitude — In the way to Jerusalem, according to the custom, in the company of the Israelites, who went thither in great numbers at the solemn feasts. I went with them to the house of God — Or, I led them, encouraging them by my presence and forwardness. With a multitude that kept holy-day — The feasts, or festival solemnities, which they kept holy unto the Lord.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain My tears have been my meat - The word…
My tears have been my meat - The word rendered tears in this place is in the singular number, and means literally weeping. Compare Psa 39:12. The word meat here means literally bread, and is used in the general signification of food, as the word meat is always used in the English version of the Bible. The English word meat, which originally signified food, has been changed gradually in its signification, until it now denotes in common usage animal food, or flesh. The idea here is, that instead of eating, he had wept. The state described is that which occurs so often when excessive sorrow takes away the appetite, or destroys the relish for food, and occasions fasting. This was the foundation of the whole idea of fasting - that sorrow, and especially sorrow for sin, takes away the desire for food for the time, and leads to involuntary abstinence. Hence arose the correlative idea of abstaining from food with a view to promote that deep sense of sin, or to produce a condition of the body which would be favorable to a proper recollection of guilt.
Day and night - Constantly; without intermission. See the notes at Psa 1:2. “While they continually say unto me.” While it is constantly said to me; that is, by mine enemies. See Psa 42:10.
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Where is thy God? - See Psa 3:2; Psa 22:8. The meaning here is, “He seems to be utterly forsaken or abandoned by God. He trusted in God. He professed to be his friend. He looked to him as his protector. But he is now forsaken, as if he had no God; and God is treating him as if he were none of his; as if he had no love for him, and no concern about his welfare.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Where is thy God?--implying that He had forsaken him…
Where is thy God?--implying that He had forsaken him (compare Sa2 16:7; Psa 3:2; Psa 22:8).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 3. Tears have been my meat—Because their ceaseless flow…
3. Tears have been my meat—Because their ceaseless flow mingled with his food. Psa_80:5; Psa_102:9.
Where is thy God—This was not the taunt of atheists or heathen, but of men who believed in the Hebrew theism, and affected to believe God had abandoned David. See Psa_41:8; Psa_71:11
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 3. my meat] Lit. my bread. Cp. Psa_80:5; Psa_102:4;…
3. my meat] Lit. my bread. Cp. Psa_80:5; Psa_102:4; Psa_102:9. Tears take the place of his daily food. So Ovid, Metam. x. 75, “Cura dolorque animi lacrimaeque alimenta fuere.”
continually] Lit. all the day, and so in Psa_42:10.
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Where is thy God] Cp. Psa_79:10; Psa_115:2; Joe_2:17; Mic_7:10. The bitterest ingredient in his cup of sorrow is the taunt of the heathen that his plight demonstrates the impotence or indifference of the God Whom he serves.
3, 4. Present sorrow contrasted with past happiness.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (3) My tears.—Comp. Psa_80:5; Psa_102:9; and Ovid Metam. x.…
(3) My tears.—Comp. Psa_80:5; Psa_102:9; and Ovid Metam. x. 75, “Cura dolorque animi lacrimæque alimenta fuere.”
Where is thy God?—For this bitter taunt comp. Psa_79:10; Psa_115:2; Joe_2:17, etc.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain My tears have been my meat day and night,…
My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? (comp. Psa_80:9, "Thou feedest them with the bread of tears;" and Ovid, "Metaph.," 10:288, "Cure dolorque animi, lachrymaeque, alimenta fuere who grieve deeply do not eat; they only weep;" yet they live on, so that their tears appear to be their aliment) David"s grief at being shut out from God"s presence is intensified by the reproaches of his enemies, "Where is thy God?" i.e. "Is he not wholly gone from thee? Has he not utterly cast thee off?". (comp. 2Sa_16:8)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 3. My tears have been my meat day…
Ver. 3. My tears have been my meat day and night. Salt meats, but healthful to the soul. When a man comes to tears, constant tears, plenteous tears, tears that fill his cup and trencher, he is in earnest indeed. As the big tears stand in the stag's eyes in her distress, so did the salt drops glitter in the eyes of David. His appetite was gone, his tears not only seasoned his meat, but became his only meat, he had no mind for other diet. Perhaps it was well for him that the heart could open the safety valves; there is a dry grief far more terrible than showery sorrows. His tears, since they were shed because God was blasphemed, were "honourable dew, "drops of holy water, such as Jehovah putteth into his bottle. While they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? Cruel taunts come naturally from coward minds. Surely they might have left the mourner alone; he could weep no more than he didit was a supererogation of malice to pump more tears from a heart which already overflowed. Note how incessant was their jeer, and how artfully they framed it! It cut the good man to the bone to have the faithfulness of his God impugned. They had better have thrust needles into his eyes than have darted insinuations against his God. Shimei may here be alluded to who after this fashion mocked David as he fled from Absalom. He roundly asserted that David was a bloody man, and that God was punishing him for supplanting Saul and his house; his wish was father to his thought. The wicked know that our worst misfortune would be to lose God's favour, hence their diabolical malice leads them to declare that such is the case. Glory be to God, they lie in their throats, for our God is in the heavens, aye, and in the furnace too, succouring his people.
Ver. 3. My tears have been my meat day and night. The psalmist could eat nothing because of his extreme grief. John Gadsby.
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Ver. 3. They say unto me. It is not only of me, but to me; they spake it to his very face, as those who were ready to justify it and make it good, that God had forsaken him. Backbiting argues more baseness, but open reproach carries more boldness, and shamelessness, and impudence in it; and this is that which David's enemies were guilty of here in this place. Thomas Horton.
Ver. 3. Where is thy God? God's children are impatient, as far as they are men, of reproaches; but so far as they are Christian men, they are impatient of reproaches in religion; Where is now thy God? They were not such desperate Atheists as to think there was no God, to call in question whether there were a God or no, though, indeed, they were little better; but they rather reproach and upbraid him with his singularity, where is thy God? You are one of God's darlings; you are one that thought nobody served God but you; you are one that will go aloneyour God! So this is an ordinary reproach, an ordinary part for wicked men to cast at the best people, especially when they are in misery. What it become of your profession now? What is become of your forwardness and strictness now? What is become of your God that you bragged so of, and thought yourselves so happy in, as if he had been nobody's God but yours? We may learn hence the disposition of wicked men. It is a character of a full of poison, cursed disposition to upbraid a man with his religion. But what is the scope? The scope is worse than the words Where is thy God? The scope is to shake his faith and his confidence in God, and this is that which touched him so nearly while they upbraided him. For the devil knows well enough that as long as God and the soul join together, it is in vain to trouble any man, therefore he labours to put jealousies, to accuse God to man, and man to God. He knows there is nothing in the world can stand against God. As long as we make God our confidence, all his enterprises are in vain. His scope is, therefore, to shake our affiance in God. Where is thy God? So he dealt with the head of the church, our blessed Saviour himself, when he came to tempt him. "If thou be the Son of God, command these stones to be made bread." Mt 4:3. He comes with an "if, "he laboured to shake him in his Sonship. The devil, since he was divided from God himself eternally, is become a spirit of division; he labours to divide even God the Father from his own Son; "If thou be the Son of God?" So he labours to sever Christians from their head Christ. Where is thy God? There was his scope, to breed division if he could, between his heart and God, that he might call God into jealousy, as if he had not regarded him: thou hast taken a great deal of pains in serving thy God; thou seest how he regards thee now; Where is thy God? Richard Sibbes.
Ver. 3. How powerfully do the scoffs and reproaches of the ungodly tend to shake the faith of a mind already dejected! How peculiarly afflictive to the soul that loves God, is the dishonour cast upon him by his enemies! Henry March, in "Sabbaths at Home, "1823.
Ver. 3. Where is thy God?
"Where is now thy God!" Oh, sorrow!
Hourly thus to hear him say,
Finding thus the longed for morrow,
Mournful as the dark to day.
Yet not thus my soul would languish,
Would not thus be grieved and shamed,
But for that severer anguish,
When I hear the Lord defamed.
"Where is now thy God!" Oh, aid me,
Lord of mercy, to reply
"He is HEREthough foes invade me,
Know his outstretched arm is nigh."
Help me thus to be victorious,
While the shield of faith I take;
Lord, appear, and make thee glorious:
Help me for thy honour's sake. Henry March.
Ver. 3. The believer's Lent, and its salt meats.
1. What causes the sorrow?
2. What will remove it?
3. What benefit will come of it?
Ver. 3,10. The carriage of David's enemies.
1. The nature of it, and that was reproach.
2. The expression of it, They say unto me.
3. The constancy of it: daily, or, all the day long.
4. The specification of it, in a scornful and opprobrious question: Where is (now) thy God? Thomas Horton.
Psalms 42:4*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain My tears have been my meat day and night,…
Psa_42:3
My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
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.
Where is thy God?
Surely a searching, solemn query. Not a question, notice, of having, or not having, a god; not a question as to what, but where? Every man has some kind of god, for the religious instinct is an important part of every mans constitutional make-up. Every child is born with the germ of conscience. It must be so, else why do we find in our children a chord that vibrates at the touch of religious story or appeal? Upon our idea of God centres our ideas of religion, of sin, of prayer, of consecration, and of service.
I. Your religion will be whatever your idea of God is. Religion has two acts--to know what is true of God, and to express that knowledge in life. It is personal experience that gives life to ones creed, not cold type. A blind mans world can be measured with a cane. But to be able to say, Now I see, speedily leads on to I believe that Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Experience is the soil out of which the best creeds grow. Conduct must tally with conviction.
II. Your idea of sin will be shaped by your idea of God. They stand or fall together. The exceeding sinfulness of sin will never fill you with shrinking abhorrence until you see God as a God of holiness and purity and righteousness. If your idea of God be that of the Pantheist, or that of the philosopher, or that of the materialist, your standard of holiness will rise no higher than your idea of God. What greater reason can we have for hating sin than to know that it drove the nails into the hands of our blessed Lord?
III. Your idea of the value of prayer will hinge upon your idea of God. Look at Davids prayer: My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. How could David utter a prayer like that if he believed God to be an impersonal force at work in the universe? The value and power of true prayer lies in its reflex action of the man who prays. You cannot say our Father to an impersonal force; nor hold sweet communion with a law, nor pour out your souls need to a sacred cow. The Pharisee prayed with himself. The Publican talked with God. Penitence is heavens latch-key. So, too, prayer becomes a good test of character. To prove it, note the objects for which many people pray; the temper in which they pray; the regularity with which they pray, and the period during which they pray.
IV. Your conception of consecration will rest upon your idea of God. To say, I do now consecrate myself to the service of Christ, is the most solemn thing you can say. You remember what consecration meant to the high priest of old. That it must mean to you and me; for anything less noble, less sacred, is unworthy the professed follower of the Master.
V. Your idea of christian service will depend upon your idea of God. If every man of us is to be judged according to the light he has, how can any one afford to spend his time picking out flaws in his neighbours conduct, instead of improving the little span of life that God has given him by whole-hearted devotion to the service of God. If you believe in the Church as a Divinely-ordained institution, and in the preaching of the Gospel as the Divinely-ordained means of bringing this world back to God; and if you believe that God is able and willing to forgive your sins and to cleanse you from your iniquity, then I call heaven and earth to witness against you that, so long as you hold back your whole-hearted allegiance from Him, you are trifling, you are trifling with God! (C. H. Jones.)
Where is thy God?
This is a question which, in every age, the doubting heart has propounded to itself; and every time it recurs it bespeaks a deeper agony of soul, and demands a profounder answer. The contradictions of our life can neither be ignored nor annihilated. But all depends on how we view the whole--whether in the gloom of despondency, or the shining light of hope. If God is with us anywhere and ever, then everywhere and always. Not only in the height of our exultation, but in the depth of grief and woe. Not only in the glad communion of our sweetest fellowship, but in the chilly isolation of our sheer bereavement. In all the evils of existence--in shame and crime and want--we must believe he is no further from us than in plenty and peace and virtuous delight. There are periods of depression incidental to all flesh, when all around is gloomy, and the outlook drear and blank; when the joys of life appear so few, so fleeting, and so faded: when sin and suffering seem so vast and sure, our lot so hard and burdensome, our whole existence so beset with toil, that the pulse of the spirit beats feeble, faint and low, and the dead weight of sombre misgiving clips the pinions which we spread, and drags us downward to despondency. At such times we learn the value of example. We call to mind the stories we have heard of peaceful death-beds and triumphant departures. We think of Socrates, with the cup of hemlock in his hand, discoursing sweetly--like the dying swan, his noblest strain his last--concerning the immortality of the soul. We think of Christian martyrs and the saints of old. We see them dying for divergent creeds, yet all alike serene. They walked by faith, not by sight; and therefore they were strong. And anon, as we review that noble host, there rises one above the rest, who is the chief among ten thousand, and the leader of an army by Himself. Who was a man of sorrows, who was acquainted with grief, like this our elder brother, the despised and rejected of men? Are our discouragements to be compared to His? If in the midst of a priest-ridden world, a corrupt and worn-out society, even out of the unpromising materials which were all that lay ready to His hand, He never relinquished His sublime idea of building up the kingdom of God, shall we not also rise above our griefs, and lift the drooping head--we in whose cup is mingled that more even measure that God metes out to ordinary men? There is nothing so bad but it may be well, if we wait to see the end. But oh, the good which we discern already! what shall explain that away? The mere refusal of our hearts to acquiesce in despondency--whence comes it, if not from a God in whose embrace we lie secure? The desire which springs spontaneous, like the fountain in the desert, to help and befriend the distressed; the anodyne of sympathy, and the balm of compassion, which gushes in most abundance where sorest need prevails; the love which many waters cannot quench; the devotion of a mother; the attachment of a child; all that makes suffering tender, and sheds beauty upon grief--are these no signs of God? Signs! They are more. They are the beating of a universal pulse, the breathing of a universal soul; they constitute the Godhead of the World. And when we have once discovered the great Father in our hearts, we may go forth courageously to find Him everywhere. (E. M. Geldart, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 My tears have been my food
My tears have been my food
The author refers to his tears as if they are food that he eats. This means that he is so sad that he cannot eat. AT: "My tears are like my food and I eat nothing else" (See: Metaphor and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
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day and night
This phrase refers to the entire day by referring to both its beginning and end. AT: "all day long" (See: Merism)
my enemies are always saying to me
This is an exaggeration. His enemies are not saying this constantly; they are saying it often. (See: Hyperbole and Generalization)
Where is your God?
The author's enemies use this question to mock him and to express that they do not see his God helping him. AT: "Your God is not here to help you" (See: Rhetorical Question)
call to mind
This is an idiom that means to remember or think about something. AT: "remember" (See: Idiom)
I pour out my soul
Here the word "soul" refers to the emotions. The author speaks of his soul as if it is a liquid that he pours out. The phrase means that he is expressing his emotional grief. AT: "I express my sorrow" (See: Metonymy and Metaphor)
the throng
"the crowd of people"
joy and praise
This phrase uses two different words to express one idea. AT: "joyful praise" (See: Hendiadys)
translationWords
adversary
call
mind
soul
house of God
voice
joy
praise
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 42:3 Having tears for food speaks of great grief…
42:3 Having tears for food speaks of great grief (80:5; 102:9; see 6:6; 56:8; 119:136; 126:5). • The wicked try to hold God to their timetable and deny his power to intervene.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.