Mazmur 3:4

3:4 To the Lord I cried out, ¹ 

and he answered me from his holy hill. ²  (Selah)

Mazmur 4:3

4:3 Realize that ³  the Lord shows the godly special favor; ⁴ 

the Lord responds ⁵  when I cry out to him.

Mazmur 14:4

14:4 All those who behave wickedly ⁶  do not understand – ⁷ 

those who devour my people as if they were eating bread,

and do not call out to the Lord.

Mazmur 17:6

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

Listen to me! ⁸ 

Hear what I say! ⁹ 

Mazmur 22:2

22:2 My God, I cry out during the day,

but you do not answer,

and during the night my prayers do not let up. ¹⁰ 

Mazmur 31:17

31:17 O Lord, do not let me be humiliated,

for I call out to you!

May evil men be humiliated!

May they go wailing to the grave! ¹¹ 

Mazmur 34:6

34:6 This oppressed man cried out and the Lord heard;

he saved him ¹²  from all his troubles.

Mazmur 42:7

42:7 One deep stream calls out to another ¹³  at the sound of your waterfalls; ¹⁴ 

all your billows and waves overwhelm me. ¹⁵ 

Mazmur 49:11

49:11 Their grave becomes their permanent residence,

their eternal dwelling place. ¹⁶ 

They name their lands after themselves, ¹⁷ 

Mazmur 50:1

Psalm 50 ¹⁸ 

A psalm by Asaph.

50:1 El, God, the Lord ¹⁹  speaks,

and summons the earth to come from the east and west. ²⁰ 

Mazmur 53:4

53:4 All those who behave wickedly ²¹  do not understand ²²  –

those who devour my people as if they were eating bread,

and do not call out to God.

Mazmur 56:9

56:9 My enemies will turn back when I cry out to you for help; ²³ 

I know that God is on my side. ²⁴ 

Mazmur 61:2

61:2 From the most remote place on earth ²⁵ 

I call out to you in my despair. ²⁶ 

Lead me ²⁷  up to an inaccessible rocky summit! ²⁸ 

Mazmur 69:3

69:3 I am exhausted from shouting for help;

my throat is sore; ²⁹ 

my eyes grow tired of looking for my God. ³⁰ 

Mazmur 81:7

81:7 In your distress you called out and I rescued you.

I answered you from a dark thundercloud. ³¹ 

I tested you at the waters of Meribah. ³²  (Selah)

Mazmur 86:5

86:5 Certainly ³³  O Lord, you are kind ³⁴  and forgiving,

and show great faithfulness to all who cry out to you.

Mazmur 88:9

88:9 My eyes grow weak because of oppression.

I call out to you, O Lord, all day long;

I spread out my hands in prayer to you. ³⁵ 

[3:4]  ¹ tn The prefixed verbal form could be an imperfect, yielding the translation “I cry out,” but the verb form in the next line (a vav [ו] consecutive with the preterite) suggests this is a brief narrative of what has already happened. Consequently the verb form in v. 4a is better understood as a preterite, “I cried out.” (For another example of the preterite of this same verb form, see Ps 30:8.) Sometime after the crisis arose, the psalmist prayed to the Lord and received an assuring answer. Now he confidently awaits the fulfillment of the divine promise.

[3:4]  ² sn His holy hill. That is, Zion (see Pss 2:6; 48:1-2). The psalmist recognizes that the Lord dwells in his sanctuary on Mount Zion.

[4:3]  ³ tn Heb “and know that.”

[4:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “that the Lord sets apart a faithful one for himself.” The psalmist states a general principle, though the singular form and the parallel line indicate he has himself in mind as the representative godly person. A חָסִיד (khasid; here translated as “the godly”) is one who does what is right in God’s eyes and remains faithful to God (see Pss 12:1; 18:25; 31:23; 37:28; 86:2; 97:10).

[4:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “hears.”

[14:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “all the workers of wickedness.” See Pss 5:5; 6:8.

[14:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “Do they not understand?” The rhetorical question (rendered in the translation as a positive affirmation) expresses the psalmist’s amazement at their apparent lack of understanding. This may refer to their lack of moral understanding, but it more likely refers to their failure to anticipate God’s defense of his people (see vv. 5-7).

[17:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “Turn your ear toward me.”

[17:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “my word.”

[22:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “there is no silence to me.”

[31:17]  ¹¹ tn The verb יִדְּמוּ (yiddÿmu) is understood as a form of דָּמַם (damam, “wail, lament”). Another option is to take the verb from דָּמַם (“be quiet”; see BDB 198-99 s.v. I דָּמַם), in which case one might translate, “May they lie silent in the grave.”

[34:6]  ¹² tn The pronoun refers back to “this oppressed man,” namely, the psalmist.

[42:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “deep calls to deep.” The Hebrew noun תְּהוֹם (tÿhom) often refers to the deep sea, but here, where it is associated with Hermon, it probably refers to mountain streams. The word can be used of streams and rivers (see Deut 8:7; Ezek 31:4).

[42:7]  ¹⁴ tn The noun צִנּוֹר (tsinnor, “waterfall”) occurs only here and in 2 Sam 5:8, where it apparently refers to a water shaft. The psalmist alludes to the loud rushing sound of mountain streams and cascading waterfalls. Using the poetic device of personification, he imagines the streams calling out to each other as they hear the sound of the waterfalls.

[42:7]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “pass over me” (see Jonah 2:3). As he hears the sound of the rushing water, the psalmist imagines himself engulfed in the current. By implication he likens his emotional distress to such an experience.

[49:11]  ¹⁶ tc Heb “their inward part [is] their houses [are] permanent, their dwelling places for a generation and a generation.” If one follows the MT, then קֶרֶב (qerev, “inward part”) must refer to the seat of these people’s thoughts (for other examples of this use of the term, see BDB 899 s.v., though BDB prefers an emendation in this passage). In this case all three lines of v. 11 expose these people’s arrogant assumption that they will last forever, which then stands in sharp contrast to reality as summarized in v. 12. In this case one might translate the first two lines, “they think that their houses are permanent and that their dwelling places will last forever” (cf. NASB). Following the lead of several ancient versions, the present translation assumes an emendation of קִרְבָּם (qirbam, “their inward part”) to קְבָרִים (qÿvarim, “graves”). This assumes that the letters bet (ב) and resh (ר) were accidentally transposed in the MT. In this case the first two lines support the point made in v. 10, while the third line of v. 11 stands in contrast to v. 12. The phrase בֵּית עוֹלָם (bet ’olam, “permanent house”) is used of a tomb in Eccl 12:5 (as well as in Phoenician tomb inscriptions, see DNWSI 1:160 for a list of texts) and מִשְׁכָּן (mishkan, “dwelling place”) refers to a tomb in Isa 22:16. Cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV.

[49:11]  ¹⁷ sn Naming their lands after themselves is a claim of possession.

[50:1]  ¹⁸ sn Psalm 50. This psalm takes the form of a covenant lawsuit in which the Lord comes to confront his people in a formal manner (as in Isa 1:2-20). The Lord emphasizes that he places priority on obedience and genuine worship, not empty ritual.

[50:1]  ¹⁹ sn Israel’s God is here identified with three names: El (אֵל [’el], or “God”), Elohim (אֱלֹהִים [’elohim], or “God”), and Yahweh (יְהוָה [yÿhvah] or “the Lord”). There is an obvious allusion here to Josh 22:22, the only other passage where these three names appear in succession. In that passage the Reubenites, Gadites, and half-tribe of Manasseh declare, “El, God, the Lord! El, God, the Lord! He knows the truth! Israel must also know! If we have rebelled or disobeyed the Lord, don’t spare us today!” In that context the other tribes had accused the trans-Jordanian tribes of breaking God’s covenant by worshiping idols. The trans-Jordanian tribes appealed to “El, God, the Lord” as their witness that they were innocent of the charges brought against them. Ironically here in Ps 50 “El, God, the Lord” accuses his sinful covenant people of violating the covenant and warns that he will not spare them if they persist in their rebellion.

[50:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and calls [the] earth from the sunrise to its going.”

[53:4]  ²¹ tn Heb “the workers of wickedness.” See Pss 5:5; 6:8. Ps 14:4 adds כֹּל (kol, “all of”) before “workers of wickedness.”

[53:4]  ²² tn Heb “Do they not understand?” The rhetorical question expresses the psalmist’s amazement at their apparent lack of understanding. This may refer to their lack of moral understanding, but it more likely refers to their failure to anticipate God’s defense of his people (see vv. 5-6).

[56:9]  ²³ tn Heb “then my enemies will turn back in the day I cry out.” The Hebrew particle אָז (’az, “then”) is probably used here to draw attention to the following statement.

[56:9]  ²⁴ tn Heb “this I know, that God is for me.”

[61:2]  ²⁵ tn Heb “from the end of the earth.” This may indicate (1) the psalmist is exiled in a distant land, or (2) it may be hyperbolic (the psalmist feels alienated from God’s presence, as if he were in a distant land).

[61:2]  ²⁶ tn Heb “while my heart faints.”

[61:2]  ²⁷ tn The imperfect verbal form here expresses the psalmist’s wish or prayer.

[61:2]  ²⁸ tn Heb “on to a rocky summit [that] is higher than I.”

[69:3]  ²⁹ tn Or perhaps “raw”; Heb “burned; enflamed.”

[69:3]  ³⁰ tn Heb “my eyes fail from waiting for my God.” The psalmist has intently kept his eyes open, looking for God to intervene, but now his eyes are watery and bloodshot, impairing his vision.

[81:7]  ³¹ tn Heb “I answered you in the hidden place of thunder.” This may allude to God’s self-revelation at Mount Sinai, where he appeared in a dark cloud accompanied by thunder (see Exod 19:16).

[81:7]  ³² sn The name Meribah means “strife.” Two separate but similar incidents at the place called Meribah are recorded in the Pentateuch (Exod 17:1-7; Num 20:1-13). In both cases the Israelites complained about lack of water and the Lord miraculously provided for them.

[86:5]  ³³ tn Or “for.”

[86:5]  ³⁴ tn Heb “good.”

[88:9]  ³⁵ tn Heb “I spread out my hands to you.” Spreading out the hands toward God was a prayer gesture (see Exod 9:29, 33; 1 Kgs 8:22, 38; 2 Chr 6:12-13, 29; Ezra 9:15; Job 11:13; Isa 1:15). The words “in prayer” have been supplied in the translation to clarify this.