Psalms 42:3

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹For the choirmaster. A Maskil of the sons of Korah. As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul longs after You, O God. ²My soul thirsts for God, the living God. When shall I come and appear in God's presence? ³My tears have been my food both day and night, while men ask me all day long, "Where is your God?"⁴These 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. ⁵Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why the unease within me? Put your hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the salvation of His presence.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

tears: Psalms 80:5, Psalms 102:9, 2 Samuel 16:12, *marg.

while: Psalms 42:10, Psalms 3:2, Psalms 22:8, Psalms 79:10, Psalms 79:12, Psalms 115:2

Reciprocal: 1 Samuel 4:18 - when he made 1 Samuel 7:6 - drew water 2 Samuel 15:30 - and wept as he went up Psalms 6:6 - I water Psalms 22:2 - I cry Psalms 88:9 - Mine Ecclesiastes 4:1 - the tears Isaiah 36:4 - What Jeremiah 9:1 - weep Micah 7:10 - Where Luke 6:21 - ye that weep

Cross-References

Genesis 42:5
So the sons of Israel were among those who came to buy grain, since the famine had also spread to the land of Canaan.

Genesis 42:13
But they answered, "Your servants are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. The youngest is now with our father, and one is no more."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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 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; 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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

My tears have been my meat - The word rendered tears in this place is in the singular number, and means literally weeping. Compare Psalms 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 Psalms 1:2. “While they continually say unto me.” While it is constantly said to me; that is, by mine enemies. See Psalms 42:10.

Where is thy God? - See Psalms 3:2; Psalms 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.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Psalms 42:3. 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?