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Day and night I have only tears for food, while my enemies continually taunt me, saying, “Where is this God of yours?”
Psalms 42:3 · New Living Translation
Parallel translations
  • WEB My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”
  • KJV My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
  • BSB My tears have been my food both day and night, while men ask me all day long, “Where is your God?”
  • NKJV My tears have been my food day and night, While they continually say to me, “Where is your God?”
  • NASB My tears have been my food day and night, While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

His tears are his food day and night while mockers ask, 'Where is your God?' Grief and taunting compound his distress.

Overview

Cut off from worship, the psalmist weeps continually, his sorrow unrelenting. Enemies sharpen the pain by questioning God's care. Yet the very lament shows faith that still clings to God amid the taunts.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 11

  • Ps 79:10Why 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.
  • Ps 115:2Why should the nations say, “Where is their God, now?”
  • Joel 2:17Let 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?’”
  • Ps 42:10As with a sword in my bones, my adversaries reproach me, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”
  • Ps 80:5You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in large measure.
  • Ps 102:9For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mixed my drink with tears,
  • Ps 79:12Pay back to our neighbors seven times into their bosom their reproach with which they have reproached you, Lord.
  • Mic 7:10Then 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.
  • Ps 22:8“He trusts in Yahweh; let him deliver him. Let him rescue him, since he delights in him.”
  • Ps 3:2Many there are who say of my soul, “There is no help for him in God.” Selah.
  • 2 Sam 16:12It 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.”

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (7)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Psalms videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Psalms 42:3YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on PsalmsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.

How Psalms 42:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.