Mazmur 30:9

30:9 “What ¹  profit is there in taking my life, ² 

in my descending into the Pit? ³ 

Can the dust of the grave ⁴  praise you?

Can it declare your loyalty? ⁵ 

Mazmur 32:5

32:5 Then I confessed my sin;

I no longer covered up my wrongdoing.

I said, “I will confess ⁶  my rebellious acts to the Lord.”

And then you forgave my sins. ⁷  (Selah)

Mazmur 40:9

40:9 I have told the great assembly ⁸  about your justice. ⁹ 

Look! I spare no words! ¹⁰ 

O Lord, you know this is true.

Mazmur 71:18

71:18 Even when I am old and gray, ¹¹ 

O God, do not abandon me,

until I tell the next generation about your strength,

and those coming after me about your power. ¹² 

Mazmur 143:8

143:8 May I hear about your loyal love in the morning, ¹³ 

for I trust in you.

Show me the way I should go, ¹⁴ 

because I long for you. ¹⁵ 

[30:9]  ¹ sn The following two verses (vv. 9-10) contain the prayer (or an excerpt of the prayer) that the psalmist offered to the Lord during his crisis.

[30:9]  ² tn Heb “What profit [is there] in my blood?” “Blood” here represents his life.

[30:9]  ³ tn The Hebrew term שָׁחַת (shakhat, “pit”) is often used as a title for Sheol (see Pss 16:10; 49:9; 55:24; 103:4).

[30:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “dust.” The words “of the grave” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[30:9]  ⁵ tn The rhetorical questions anticipate the answer, “Of course not!”

[30:9]  sn According to the OT, those who descend into the realm of death/Sheol are cut off from God’s mighty deeds and from the worshiping covenant community that experiences divine intervention (Pss 6:5; 88:10-12; Isa 38:18). In his effort to elicit a positive divine response, the psalmist reminds God that he will receive no praise or glory if he allows the psalmist to die. Dead men do not praise God!

[32:5]  ⁶ tn The Hiphil of ידה normally means “give thanks, praise,” but here, as in Prov 28:13, it means “confess.”

[32:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “the wrongdoing of my sin.” By joining synonyms for “sin” in this way, the psalmist may be emphasizing the degree of his wrongdoing.

[40:9]  ⁸ sn The great assembly is also mentioned in Pss 22:25 and 35:18.

[40:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “I proclaim justice in the great assembly.” Though “justice” appears without a pronoun here, the Lord’s just acts are in view (see v. 10). His “justice” (צֶדֶק, tsedeq) is here the deliverance that originates in his justice; he protects and vindicates the one whose cause is just.

[40:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Look! My lips I do not restrain.”

[71:18]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and even unto old age and gray hair.”

[71:18]  ¹² tn Heb “until I declare your arm to a generation, to everyone who comes your power.” God’s “arm” here is an anthropomorphism that symbolizes his great strength.

[143:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “cause me to hear in the morning your loyal love.” Here “loyal love” probably stands metonymically for an oracle of assurance promising God’s intervention as an expression of his loyal love.

[143:8]  sn The morning is sometimes viewed as the time of divine intervention (see Pss 30:5; 59:16; 90:14).

[143:8]  ¹⁴ sn The way probably refers here to God’s moral and ethical standards and requirements (see v. 10).

[143:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “for to you I lift up my life.” The Hebrew expression נָאָשׂ נֶפֶשׁ (na’as nefesh, “to lift up [one’s] life”) means “to desire; to long for” (see Deut 24:15; Prov 19:18; Jer 22:27; 44:14; Hos 4:8, as well as H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 16).