For You are the God of my strength; why have You rejected me? Why do I go about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
Parallel translations
- WEB For you are the God of my strength. Why have you rejected me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
- KJV For thou art the God of my strength: why dost thou cast me off? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
- BSB For You are the God of my refuge. Why have You rejected me? Why must I walk in sorrow because of the enemy’s oppression?
- NKJV For You are the God of my strength; Why do You cast me off? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
- NLT For you are God, my only safe haven. Why have you tossed me aside? Why must I wander around in grief, oppressed by my enemies?
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
He calls God his strength yet asks why he feels rejected and mournful under oppression. Felt abandonment and faith are held together.
Overview
The psalmist confesses God as his refuge while honestly voicing his sense of rejection. The tension echoes Psalm 42:9. Bringing such questions to the God he still trusts models faithful lament rather than abandoning hope.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Ps 42:9I will ask God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
- Ps 28:7Yahweh is my strength and my shield. My heart has trusted in him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoices. With my song I will thank him.
- Eph 6:10Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might.
- Ps 94:14For Yahweh won’t reject his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.
- Isa 40:31But those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.
- Ps 44:9But now you rejected us, and brought us to dishonor, and don’t go out with our armies.
- Isa 45:24They will say of me, ‘There is righteousness and strength only in Yahweh.’” Even to him shall men come; and all those who raged against him shall be disappointed.
- Ps 140:7Yahweh, the Lord, the strength of my salvation, you have covered my head in the day of battle.
- 1 Chr 28:9You, Solomon my son, know the God of your father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind; for Yahweh searches all hearts, and understands all the imaginations of the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.
- Zech 10:12I will strengthen them in Yahweh; and they will walk up and down in his name,” says Yahweh.
- Ps 77:7“Will the Lord reject us forever? Will he be favorable no more?
- Ps 71:9Don’t reject me in my old age. Don’t forsake me when my strength fails.
- Exod 15:2Yah is my strength and song. He has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise him; my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
- Phil 4:13I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.
- Ps 31:4Pluck me out of the net that they have laid secretly for me, for you are my stronghold.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 43:2 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.