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Psalm 42:8
The LORD will command his loving kindness in the daytime. In the night his song shall be with me: a prayer to the God of my life.
6My God, my soul is in despair within me. Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar.
7Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and your billows have swept over me.
8The LORD will command his loving kindness in the daytime. In the night his song shall be with me: a prayer to the God of my life.
9I will ask God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10As with a sword in my bones, my adversaries reproach me, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”
Notice
Daytime loving kindness and a song in the night express trust in God while the surrounding lines still speak of despair and feeling forgotten.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What changes when you read this night song between despair and the question about being forgotten?
Write on thisWhat would you want to say tonight to the “God of my life”?
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Where else Scripture says this
12 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.
This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Psalm 133:3like the dew of Hermon, that comes down on the hills of Zion; for there the LORD gives the blessing, even life forever more.Both speak of the LORD as the source of good: loving kindness in Psalm 42, blessing and life in Psalm 133.
Psalm 63:6when I remember you on my bed, and think about you in the night watches.Night is a time of turning toward God in both passages, through song and prayer or remembrance on a bed.
Psalm 143:8Cause me to hear your loving kindness in the morning, for I trust in you. Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul to you.Both connect God's loving kindness with daylight, one expressing confidence and the other asking to hear it in the morning.
Psalm 92:2to proclaim your loving kindness in the morning, and your faithfulness every night,Both pair daytime loving kindness with devotion at night, expressed through prayer in Psalm 42 and proclamation in Psalm 92.
Job 35:10But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night,Both associate God with songs in the night, though Job's speaker describes people failing to seek the God who gives them.
Deuteronomy 28:8The LORD will command the blessing on you in your barns, and in all that you put your hand to. He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God gives you.Both describe the LORD commanding good for his people: loving kindness in the psalm and blessing on work and barns in Deuteronomy.
Acts 16:25But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.Both passages join nighttime singing with prayer to God, with Acts naming Paul and Silas as the singers.
Lamentations 2:19Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches! Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift up your hands toward him for the …Both turn toward God in prayer at night amid distress; Lamentations names the hunger threatening young children's lives.
Colossians 3:3For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.Both connect life with God; the psalm addresses him in prayer, while Colossians speaks of life hidden with Christ.
Matthew 8:8The centurion answered, “Lord, I’m not worthy for you to come under my roof. Just say the word, and my servant will be healed.Both express confidence in the Lord's authority: one to command loving kindness, the other to heal with a word.
Isaiah 30:29You will have a song, as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a flute to come to the LORD’s mountain, to …Both speak of a song at night in relation to the LORD, though Isaiah describes gladness and the psalm's setting includes despair.
Leviticus 25:21then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it shall bear fruit for the three years.Both describe God commanding good: loving kindness in the psalm and a blessing that produces food in Leviticus.
Where this verse fits
Feeling distant from God. grief. wanting a steady prayer habit.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
Your prayer need not wait for sorrow to lift. The speaker still mourns after these words, yet trusts God's loving kindness and addresses him as the God of his life.
Now put it in your words.
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).