Psalm 45 New International Version – UK (NIVUK)

For the director of music. To the tune of ‘Lilies’. Of the Sons of Korah. A maskil. A wedding song.

¹ My heart is stirred by a noble theme
    as I recite my verses for the king;
    my tongue is the pen of a skilful writer.

² You are the most excellent of men
    and your lips have been anointed with grace,
    since God has blessed you for ever.

³ Gird your sword on your side, you mighty one;
    clothe yourself with splendour and majesty.
⁴ In your majesty ride forth victoriously
    in the cause of truth, humility and justice;
    let your right hand achieve awesome deeds.
⁵ Let your sharp arrows pierce the hearts of the king’s enemies;
    let the nations fall beneath your feet.
⁶ Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever;
    a sceptre of justice will be the sceptre of your kingdom.
⁷ You love righteousness and hate wickedness;
    therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions
    by anointing you with the oil of joy.
⁸ All your robes are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia;
    from palaces adorned with ivory
    the music of the strings makes you glad.
⁹ Daughters of kings are among your honoured women;
    at your right hand is the royal bride in gold of Ophir.

¹⁰ Listen, daughter, and pay careful attention:
    Forget your people and your father’s house.
¹¹ Let the king be enthralled by your beauty;
    honour him, for he is your lord.
¹² The city of Tyre will come with a gift,
    people of wealth will seek your favour.
¹³ All glorious is the princess within her chamber;
    her gown is interwoven with gold.
¹⁴ In embroidered garments she is led to the king;
    her virgin companions follow her –
    those brought to be with her.
¹⁵ Led in with joy and gladness,
    they enter the palace of the king.

¹⁶ Your sons will take the place of your fathers;
    you will make them princes throughout the land.

¹⁷ I will perpetuate your memory through all generations;
    therefore the nations will praise you for ever and ever.

Psalm 44 English Standard Version (ESV)

To the choirmaster. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah.

44 O God, we have heard with our ears,
    our fathers have told us,
what deeds you performed in their days,
    in the days of old:
² you with your own hand drove out the nations,
    but them you planted;
you afflicted the peoples,
    but them you set free;
³ for not by their own sword did they win the land,
    nor did their own arm save them,
but your right hand and your arm,
    and the light of your face,
    for you delighted in them.

⁴ You are my King, O God;
    ordain salvation for Jacob!
⁵ Through you we push down our foes;
    through your name we tread down those who rise up against us.
⁶ For not in my bow do I trust,
    nor can my sword save me.
⁷ But you have saved us from our foes
    and have put to shame those who hate us.
⁸ In God we have boasted continually,
    and we will give thanks to your name forever. Selah

⁹ But you have rejected us and disgraced us
    and have not gone out with our armies.
¹⁰ You have made us turn back from the foe,
    and those who hate us have gotten spoil.
¹¹ You have made us like sheep for slaughter
    and have scattered us among the nations.
¹² You have sold your people for a trifle,
    demanding no high price for them.
¹³ You have made us the taunt of our neighbors,
    the derision and scorn of those around us.
¹⁴ You have made us a byword among the nations,
    a laughingstock among the peoples.
¹⁵ All day long my disgrace is before me,
    and shame has covered my face
¹⁶ at the sound of the taunter and reviler,
    at the sight of the enemy and the avenger.

¹⁷ All this has come upon us,
    though we have not forgotten you,
    and we have not been false to your covenant.
¹⁸ Our heart has not turned back,
    nor have our steps departed from your way;
¹⁹ yet you have broken us in the place of jackals
    and covered us with the shadow of death.
²⁰ If we had forgotten the name of our God
    or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
²¹ would not God discover this?
    For he knows the secrets of the heart.
²² Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long;
    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

²³ Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord?
    Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!
²⁴ Why do you hide your face?
    Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?
²⁵ For our soul is bowed down to the dust;
    our belly clings to the ground.
²⁶ Rise up; come to our help!
    Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!

Psalm 43 King James Version (KJV)

43 Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.

² 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?

³ O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.

⁴ Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God.

⁵ Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

Psalm 42 Good News Translation (GNT)

42 As a deer longs for a stream of cool water,
    so I long for you, O God.
² I thirst for you, the living God.
    When can I go and worship in your presence?
³ Day and night I cry,
    and tears are my only food;
all the time my enemies ask me,
    “Where is your God?”

⁴ My heart breaks when I remember the past,
    when I went with the crowds to the house of God
    and led them as they walked along,
    a happy crowd, singing and shouting praise to God.
⁵ Why am I so sad?
    Why am I so troubled?
I will put my hope in God,
    and once again I will praise him,
    my savior and my God.

^6-7 Here in exile my heart is breaking,
    and so I turn my thoughts to him.
He has sent waves of sorrow over my soul;
    chaos roars at me like a flood,
    like waterfalls thundering down to the Jordan
    from Mount Hermon and Mount Mizar.
⁸ May the Lord show his constant love during the day,
    so that I may have a song at night,
    a prayer to the God of my life.

⁹ To God, my defender, I say,
    “Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go on suffering
    from the cruelty of my enemies?”
¹⁰ I am crushed by their insults,
    as they keep on asking me,
    “Where is your God?”

¹¹ Why am I so sad?
    Why am I so troubled?
I will put my hope in God,
    and once again I will praise him,
    my savior and my God.