Psalms 42:3

“For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song, etc.] Or, “words of a song”f1820. To repeat the words of one of the songs of Zion, as it is afterwards expressed: this the Babylonians did, as the Targum; who were they that carried the Jews into captivity; and this is given as a reason why they hung their harps on willows, and were so sorrowful, because such a request as this was made; and they that wasted us [required of us] mirth: the Chaldeans, who plundered them of their substance, and reduced their city and temple to heaps of rubbish, as the wordf1821 used signifies; or who heaped reproaches upon them, as Jarchi: these insisted not only on having the words of a song…”

“Where is thy God?--implying that He had forsaken him (compare Sa2 16:7; Psa 3:2; Psa 22:8).”

“My tears have been my meat - The word rendered tears in this place is in the singular number, and means literally weeping. Compare Psalms 39:12. The word meat here means literally bread, and is used in the general signification of food, as the word meat is always used in the English version of the Bible. The English word meat, which originally signified food, has been changed gradually in its signification, until it now denotes in common usage animal food, or flesh. The idea here is, that instead of eating, he had wept. The state described is that which occurs so often when excessive sorrow takes away the appetite, or destroys the relish for food, and occasions fasting. This was the…”

“42:3 Having tears for food speaks of great grief (80:5; 102:9; see 6:6; 56:8; 119:136; 126:5). • The wicked try to hold God to their timetable and deny his power to intervene.”

“tears: Psa 80:5, Psa 102:9; Sa2 16:12 \*marg. while: Psa 42:10, Psa 3:2, Psa 22:8, Psa 79:10, Psa 79:12, Psa 115:2 Psalms 42:4”