Mazmur 2:7

2:7 The king says, ¹  “I will announce the Lord’s decree. He said to me: ² 

‘You are my son! ³  This very day I have become your father!

Mazmur 7:6

7:6 Stand up angrily, ⁴  Lord!

Rise up with raging fury against my enemies! ⁵ 

Wake up for my sake and execute the judgment you have decreed for them! ⁶ 

Mazmur 18:2

18:2 The Lord is my high ridge, ⁷  my stronghold, ⁸  my deliverer.

My God is my rocky summit where ⁹  I take shelter, ¹⁰ 

my shield, the horn that saves me, ¹¹  and my refuge. ¹² 

Mazmur 22:1

Psalm 22 ¹³ 

For the music director; according to the tune “Morning Doe;” ¹⁴  a psalm of David.

22:1 My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? ¹⁵ 

I groan in prayer, but help seems far away. ¹⁶ 

Mazmur 22:10

22:10 I have been dependent on you since birth; ¹⁷ 

from the time I came out of my mother’s womb you have been my God. ¹⁸ 

Mazmur 25:16

25:16 Turn toward me and have mercy on me,

for I am alone ¹⁹  and oppressed!

Mazmur 31:2

31:2 Listen to me! ²⁰ 

Quickly deliver me!

Be my protector and refuge, ²¹ 

a stronghold where I can be safe! ²² 

Mazmur 40:1

Psalm 40 ²³ 

For the music director; By David, a psalm.

40:1 I relied completely ²⁴  on the Lord,

and he turned toward me

and heard my cry for help.

Mazmur 42:3

42:3 I cannot eat, I weep day and night; ²⁵ 

all day long they say to me, ²⁶  “Where is your God?”

Mazmur 42:10

42:10 My enemies’ taunts cut into me to the bone, ²⁷ 

as they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” ²⁸ 

Mazmur 63:1

Psalm 63 ²⁹ 

A psalm of David, written when he was in the Judean wilderness. ³⁰ 

63:1 O God, you are my God! I long for you! ³¹ 

My soul thirsts ³²  for you,

my flesh yearns for you,

in a dry and parched ³³  land where there is no water.

Mazmur 68:24

68:24 They ³⁴  see your processions, O God –

the processions of my God, my king, who marches along in holy splendor. ³⁵ 

Mazmur 69:16

69:16 Answer me, O Lord, for your loyal love is good! ³⁶ 

Because of your great compassion, turn toward me!

Mazmur 71:2

71:2 Vindicate me by rescuing me! ³⁷ 

Listen to me! ³⁸  Deliver me! ³⁹ 

Mazmur 77:1

Psalm 77 ⁴⁰ 

For the music director, Jeduthun; a psalm of Asaph.

77:1 I will cry out to God ⁴¹  and call for help!

I will cry out to God and he will pay attention ⁴²  to me.

Mazmur 86:16

86:16 Turn toward me and have mercy on me!

Give your servant your strength!

Deliver your slave! ⁴³ 

Mazmur 89:26

89:26 He will call out to me,

‘You are my father, ⁴⁴  my God, and the protector who delivers me.’ ⁴⁵ 

Mazmur 101:2

101:2 I will walk in ⁴⁶  the way of integrity.

When will you come to me?

I will conduct my business with integrity in the midst of my palace. ⁴⁷ 

Mazmur 102:2

102:2 Do not ignore me in my time of trouble! ⁴⁸ 

Listen to me! ⁴⁹ 

When I call out to you, quickly answer me!

Mazmur 102:24

102:24 I say, “O my God, please do not take me away in the middle of my life! ⁵⁰ 

You endure through all generations. ⁵¹ 

Mazmur 118:28

118:28 You are my ⁵²  God and I will give you thanks!

You are my God and I will praise you!

Mazmur 119:132

119:132 Turn toward me and extend mercy to me,

as you typically do to your loyal followers. ⁵³ 

Mazmur 140:6

140:6 I say to the Lord, “You are my God.”

O Lord, pay attention to my plea for mercy!

[2:7]  ¹ tn The words “the king says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The speaker is the Lord’s chosen king.

[2:7]  ² tn Or “I will relate the decree. The Lord said to me” (in accordance with the Masoretic accentuation).

[2:7]  ³ sn ‘You are my son!’ The Davidic king was viewed as God’s “son” (see 2 Sam 7:14; Ps 89:26-27). The idiom reflects ancient Near Eastern adoption language associated with covenants of grant, by which a lord would reward a faithful subject by elevating him to special status, referred to as “sonship.” Like a son, the faithful subject received an “inheritance,” viewed as an unconditional, eternal gift. Such gifts usually took the form of land and/or an enduring dynasty. See M. Weinfeld, “The Covenant of Grant in the Old Testament and in the Ancient Near East,” JAOS 90 (1970): 184-203, for general discussion and some striking extra-biblical parallels.

[7:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “in your anger.”

[7:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “Lift yourself up in the angry outbursts of my enemies.” Many understand the preposition prefixed to עַבְרוֹת (’avrot, “angry outbursts”) as adversative, “against,” and the following genitive “enemies” as subjective. In this case one could translate, “rise up against my furious enemies” (cf. NIV, NRSV). The present translation, however, takes the preposition as indicating manner (cf. “in your anger” in the previous line) and understands the plural form of the noun as indicating an abstract quality (“fury”) or excessive degree (“raging fury”). Cf. Job 21:30.

[7:6]  ⁶ tc Heb “Wake up to me [with the] judgment [which] you have commanded.” The LXX understands אֵלִי (’eliy, “my God”) instead of אֵלַי (’elay, “to me”; the LXX reading is followed by NEB, NIV, NRSV.) If the reading of the MT is retained, the preposition probably has the sense of “on account of, for the sake of.” The noun מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat, “judgment”) is probably an adverbial accusative, modifying the initial imperative, “wake up.” In this case צִוִּיתָ (tsivvita, “[which] you have commanded”) is an asyndetic relative clause. Some take the perfect as precative. In this case one could translate the final line, “Wake up for my sake! Decree judgment!” (cf. NIV). However, not all grammarians are convinced that the perfect is used as a precative in biblical Hebrew.

[18:2]  ⁷ sn My high ridge. This metaphor pictures God as a rocky, relatively inaccessible summit, where one would be able to find protection from enemies. See 1 Sam 23:25, 28.

[18:2]  ⁸ sn My stronghold. David often found safety in such strongholds. See 1 Sam 22:4-5; 24:22; 2 Sam 5:9, 17; 23:14.

[18:2]  ⁹ tn Or “in whom.”

[18:2]  ¹⁰ sn Take shelter. “Taking shelter” in the Lord is an idiom for seeking his protection. Seeking his protection presupposes and even demonstrates the subject’s loyalty to the Lord. In the psalms those who “take shelter” in the Lord are contrasted with the wicked and equated with those who love, fear and serve the Lord (Pss 5:11-12; 31:17-20; 34:21-22).

[18:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the horn of my salvation”; or “my saving horn.”

[18:2]  sn Though some see “horn” as referring to a horn-shaped peak of a hill, or to the “horns” of an altar where one could find refuge, it is more likely that the horn of an ox underlies the metaphor (cf. Deut 33:17; 1 Kgs 22:11; Ps 92:10). The horn of the wild ox is frequently a metaphor for military strength; the idiom “exalt the horn” signifies military victory (see 1 Sam 2:10; Pss 89:17, 24; 92:10; Lam 2:17). In the ancient Near East powerful warrior-kings would sometimes compare themselves to a goring bull that uses its horns to kill its enemies. For examples, see P. Miller, “El the Warrior,” HTR 60 (1967): 422-25, and R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 135-36. Ps 18:2 uses the metaphor of the horn in a slightly different manner. Here the Lord himself is compared to a horn. He is to the psalmist what the horn is to the ox, a source of defense and victory.

[18:2]  ¹² tn Or “my elevated place.” The parallel version of this psalm in 2 Sam 22:3 adds at this point, “my refuge, my savior, [you who] save me from violence.”

[22:1]  ¹³ sn Psalm 22. The psalmist cries out to the Lord for deliverance from his dangerous enemies, who have surrounded him and threaten his life. Confident that the Lord will intervene, he then vows to thank the Lord publicly for his help and anticipates a time when all people will recognize the Lord’s greatness and worship him.

[22:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “according to the doe of the dawn.” Apparently this refers to a particular musical tune or style.

[22:1]  ¹⁵ sn From the psalmist’s perspective it seems that God has abandoned him, for he fails to answer his cry for help (vv. 1b-2).

[22:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “far from my deliverance [are] the words of my groaning.” The Hebrew noun שְׁאָגָה (shÿ’agah) and its related verb שָׁאַג (sha’ag) are sometimes used of a lion’s roar, but they can also describe human groaning (see Job 3:24 and Pss 32:3 and 38:8.

[22:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “upon you I was cast from [the] womb.”

[22:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “from the womb of my mother you [have been] my God.”

[22:10]  sn Despite the enemies’ taunts, the psalmist is certain of his relationship with God, which began from the time of his birth (from the time I came out of my mother’s womb).

[25:16]  ¹⁹ tn That is, helpless and vulnerable.

[31:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “turn toward me your ear.”

[31:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “become for me a rocky summit of refuge.”

[31:2]  ²² tn Heb “a house of strongholds to deliver me.”

[40:1]  ²³ sn Psalm 40. The psalmist combines a song of thanksgiving for a recent act of divine deliverance (vv. 1-11) with a confident petition for renewed divine intervention (vv. 12-17).

[40:1]  ²⁴ tn Heb “relying, I relied.” The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verbal form to emphasize the verbal idea. The emphasis is reflected in the translation through the adverb “completely.” Another option is to translate, “I waited patiently” (cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[42:3]  ²⁵ tn Heb “My tears have become my food day and night.”

[42:3]  ²⁶ tn Heb “when [they] say to me all the day.” The suffixed third masculine plural pronoun may have been accidentally omitted from the infinitive בֶּאֱמֹר (be’ÿmor, “when [they] say”). Note the term בְּאָמְרָם (bÿ’omram, “when they say”) in v. 10.

[42:10]  ²⁷ tc Heb “with a shattering in my bones my enemies taunt me.” A few medieval Hebrew mss and Symmachus’ Greek version read “like” instead of “with.”

[42:10]  ²⁸ sn “Where is your God?” The enemies ask this same question in v. 3.

[63:1]  ²⁹ sn Psalm 63. The psalmist expresses his intense desire to be in God’s presence and confidently affirms that God will judge his enemies.

[63:1]  ³⁰ sn According to the psalm superscription David wrote the psalm while in the “wilderness of Judah.” Perhaps this refers to the period described in 1 Sam 23-24 or to the incident mentioned in 2 Sam 15:23.

[63:1]  ³¹ tn Or “I will seek you.”

[63:1]  ³² tn Or “I thirst.”

[63:1]  ³³ tn Heb “faint” or “weary.” This may picture the land as “faint” or “weary,” or it may allude to the effect this dry desert has on those who are forced to live in it.

[68:24]  ³⁴ tn The subject is probably indefinite, referring to bystanders in general who witness the procession.

[68:24]  ³⁵ tn The Hebrew text has simply “in holiness.” The words “who marches along” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[69:16]  ³⁶ tn Or “pleasant”; or “desirable.”

[71:2]  ³⁷ tn Heb “in your vindication rescue me and deliver me.” Ps 31:1 omits “and deliver me.”

[71:2]  ³⁸ tn Heb “turn toward me your ear.”

[71:2]  ³⁹ tn Ps 31:2 adds “quickly” before “deliver.”

[77:1]  ⁴⁰ sn Psalm 77. The psalmist recalls how he suffered through a time of doubt, but tells how he found encouragement and hope as he recalled the way in which God delivered Israel at the Red Sea.

[77:1]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “my voice to God.” The Hebrew verb קָרָא (qara’, “to call out; to cry out”) should probably be understood by ellipsis (see Ps 3:4) both here and in the following (parallel) line.

[77:1]  ⁴² tn The perfect with vav (ו) consecutive is best taken as future here (although some translations render this as a past tense; cf. NEB, NIV). The psalmist expresses his confidence that God will respond to his prayer. This mood of confidence seems premature (see vv. 3-4), but v. 1 probably reflects the psalmist’s attitude at the end of the prayer (see vv. 13-20). Having opened with an affirmation of confidence, he then retraces how he gained confidence during his trial (see vv. 2-12).

[86:16]  ⁴³ tn Heb “the son of your female servant.” The phrase “son of a female servant” (see also Ps 116:16) is used of a son born to a secondary wife or concubine (Exod 23:12). In some cases the child’s father is the master of the house (see Gen 21:10, 13; Judg 9:18). The use of the expression here certainly does not imply that the Lord has such a secondary wife or concubine! It is used metaphorically and idiomatically to emphasize the psalmist’s humility before the Lord and his status as the Lord’s servant.

[89:26]  ⁴⁴ sn You are my father. The Davidic king was viewed as God’s “son” (see 2 Sam 7:14; Ps 2:7). The idiom reflects ancient Near Eastern adoption language associated with covenants of grant, by which a lord would reward a faithful subject by elevating him to special status, referred to as “sonship.” Like a son, the faithful subject received an “inheritance,” viewed as an unconditional, eternal gift. Such gifts usually took the form of land and/or an enduring dynasty. See M. Weinfeld, “The Covenant of Grant in the Old Testament and in the Ancient Near East,” JAOS 90 (1970): 184-203, for general discussion and some striking extra-biblical parallels.

[89:26]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “the rocky summit of my deliverance.”

[101:2]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “take notice of.”

[101:2]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “I will walk about in the integrity of my heart in the midst of my house.”

[102:2]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “do not hide your face from me in the day of my trouble.” The idiom “to hide the face” can mean “to ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or carry the stronger idea of “to reject” (see Pss 29:7; 30:7; 88:14).

[102:2]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “turn toward me your ear.”

[102:24]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “do not lift me up in the middle of my days.”

[102:24]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “in a generation of generations [are] your years.”

[118:28]  ⁵² sn You are my God. The psalmist speaks again (see v. 21), responding to the words of the worshipers (vv. 22-27).

[119:132]  ⁵³ tn Heb “according to custom toward the lovers of your name.” The “lovers of” God’s “name” are the Lord’s loyal followers. See Pss 5:11; 69:36; Isa 56:6.