My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
My tears have been my meat day and night - I cannot eat with sadness. Instead of "meat," or food, tears are my continual portion, as in Psalms 80:5 (cf. Psalms 102:4; Job 3:24; 1 Samuel 1:7).
While they continually (literally, all the day) say unto me, Where is thy God? - What part hast thou in Him, seeing He casts thee away from His sanctuary? (Psalms 42:10) Though this cavil of his enemies was not always sounding in his bodily ears, yet it rang continually in the ear of his soul; because it found in his despondency, and his self-accusing conscience, a true echo (2 Samuel 15:25-26). His exclusion from the sanctuary he felt peculiarly painful, because it seemed the mark of God's wrath. Compare Shimei's words, "The Lord hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul," etc. (2 Samuel 16:8; also Psalms 3:2; Psalms 71:11; Psalms 115:2).