Mazmur 17:6

17:6 I call to you for you will answer me, O God.

Listen to me! ¹ 

Hear what I say! ² 

Mazmur 31:5

31:5 Into your hand I entrust my life; ³ 

you will rescue ⁴  me, O Lord, the faithful God.

Mazmur 57:11

57:11 Rise up ⁵  above the sky, O God!

May your splendor cover the whole earth! ⁶ 

[17:6]  ¹ tn Heb “Turn your ear toward me.”

[17:6]  ² tn Heb “my word.”

[31:5]  ³ tn Heb “my spirit.” The noun רוּחַ (ruakh, “spirit”) here refers to the animating spirit that gives the psalmist life.

[31:5]  ⁴ tn Or “redeem.” The perfect verbal form is understood here as anticipatory, indicating rhetorically the psalmist’s certitude and confidence that God will intervene. The psalmist is so confident of God’s positive response to his prayer that he can describe his deliverance as if it had already happened. Another option is to take the perfect as precative, expressing a wish or request (“rescue me”; cf. NIV). See IBHS 494-95 §30.5.4c, d. However, not all grammarians are convinced that the perfect is used as a precative in biblical Hebrew.

[57:11]  ⁵ tn Or “be exalted.”

[57:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “over all the earth [be] your splendor.” Though no verb appears, the tone of the statement is a prayer or wish. (Note the imperative form in the preceding line.)