Psalm 42 by Burl Horniachek For the choirmaster. A Maskil for the sons of Korah. As the deer pants for the water of the brook, So does my soul pant for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my bread, day and night, While is spoken to me all day, Where is your God? This I remember and I pour out my soul within me, For I went with the multitude; I accompanied them to the house of God With a voice of joy and thanksgiving, A multitude making observance. Why are you cast down, O my soul? Or unquiet within me? Hope in God, For I will again praise his presence’s salvation. O my God, my soul is cast down within me; Therefore I will remember you from the land of Jordan, Of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. Deep calls unto deep at the voice of your springs; All your waves and billows rolled over me In the day, Yahweh commands his mercy; In the night, his song is with me, With a prayer to the God of my life. I will say to God, my rock, Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go dim with the oppression of the enemy. With a sword in my bones, my enemies revile me. When they say to me all day, Where is your God? Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you unquiet within me? Wait for God, and I will again praise His presence’s salvation and my God.
Burl Horniachek is a Canadian teacher, poet and translator, and the editor of To Heaven’s Rim, a major anthology of world Christian poetry. He was born in Saskatoon and grew up south of Edmonton. He studied Ancient Near Eastern Studies (Hebrew/Ancient Israel) at the University of Toronto and creative writing at the University of Alberta with Nobel Prize winner Derek Walcott. He currently lives near Winnipeg, with his wife, a surgeon, and their two kids.
