I open my mouth and pant, because I long ¹  for your commands.

For the music director; a well-written song ²  by the Korahites. As a deer ³  longs ⁴  for streams of water, so I long ⁵  for you, O God!

Wild donkeys stand on the hilltops and pant for breath like jackals. Their eyes are strained looking for food, because there is none to be found.” ¹ 

“I have been inactive ¹  for a long time; I kept quiet and held back. Like a woman in labor I groan; I pant and gasp. ² 

The hungry ¹  eat up his harvest, ²  and take it even from behind the thorns, ³  and the thirsty ⁴  swallow up ⁵  their fortune. ⁶ 

Even the wild animals ¹  cry out to you; ²  for the river beds ³  have dried up; fire has destroyed ⁴  the grassy pastures. ⁵ 

They trample ¹  on the dirt-covered heads of the poor; ²  they push the destitute away. ³  A man and his father go to the same girl; ⁴  in this way they show disrespect ⁵  for my moral purity. ⁶ 

Can a man hold ¹  fire ²  against his chest ³  without ⁴  burning his clothes?

Like a servant ¹  longing for the evening shadow, ²  and like a hired man looking ³  for his wages, ⁴ 

My heart beats quickly; my strength leaves me; I can hardly see. ¹ 

Then the man ¹  said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” ²  “I will not let you go,” Jacob replied, ³  “unless you bless me.” ⁴ 

“Because of the violence done to the oppressed, ¹  because of the painful cries ²  of the needy, I will spring into action,” ³  says the Lord. “I will provide the safety they so desperately desire.” ⁴ 

None tire or stumble, they don’t stop to nap or sleep. They don’t loosen their belts, or unstrap their sandals to rest. ¹ 

My heart palpitates, ¹  I shake in fear; ²  the twilight I desired has brought me terror.

All their watchmen ¹  are blind, they are unaware. ²  All of them are like mute dogs, unable to bark. They pant, ³  lie down, and love to snooze.

So she went running ¹  to Simon Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

Look up at the sky! Look at the earth below! For the sky will dissipate ¹  like smoke, and the earth will wear out like clothes; its residents will die like gnats. But the deliverance I give ²  is permanent; the vindication I provide ³  will not disappear. ⁴