Mazmur 31:22-23

31:22 I jumped to conclusions and said, ¹ 

“I am cut off from your presence!” ² 

But you heard my plea for mercy when I cried out to you for help.

31:23 Love the Lord, all you faithful followers ³  of his!

The Lord protects those who have integrity,

but he pays back in full the one who acts arrogantly. ⁴ 

Mazmur 40:17

40:17 I am oppressed and needy! ⁵ 

May the Lord pay attention to me! ⁶ 

You are my helper and my deliverer!

O my God, do not delay!

Mazmur 44:2

44:2 You, by your power, ⁷  defeated nations and settled our fathers on their land; ⁸ 

you crushed ⁹  the people living there ¹⁰  and enabled our ancestors to occupy it. ¹¹ 

Mazmur 73:28

73:28 But as for me, God’s presence is all I need. ¹² 

I have made the sovereign Lord my shelter,

as ¹³  I declare all the things you have done.

Mazmur 78:38

78:38 Yet he is compassionate.

He forgives sin and does not destroy.

He often holds back his anger,

and does not stir up his fury. ¹⁴ 

[31:22]  ¹ tn Heb “and I, I said in my haste.”

[31:22]  ² tn Heb “from before your eyes.”

[31:23]  ³ tn A “faithful follower” (חָסִיד, khasid) is one who does what is right in God’s eyes and remains faithful to God (see Pss 4:3; 12:1; 16:10; 31:23; 37:28; 86:2; 97:10).

[31:23]  ⁴ tn The participial forms in the second and third lines characterize the Lord as one who typically protects the faithful and judges the proud.

[40:17]  ⁵ sn See Pss 35:10; 37:14.

[40:17]  ⁶ tn The prefixed verbal form may be taken as a jussive of prayer (as in the present translation; cf. NIV) or as an imperfect, “The Lord will pay attention to me” (cf. NRSV). The parallel in Ps 70:5 has, “O God, hurry to me!” For this reason some prefer to emend יַחֲשָׁב (yakhashav, “may he pay attention”) to חוּשָׁה (khushah, “hurry!”). The syntax of the Hebrew text is awkward; elsewhere when the Qal of חָשַׁב (khashav, “reckon; consider”) is collocated with the preposition -ל (lamed) and a pronominal suffix there is an accompanying direct object or additional prepositional phrase/adverbial accusative (see Gen 15:6; 2 Sam 19:19; Job 13:24; 19:11; 33:10; Pss 32:2; 41:7; Amos 6:5).

[44:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “you, your hand.”

[44:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “dispossessed nations and planted them.” The third masculine plural pronoun “them” refers to the fathers (v. 1). See Ps 80:8, 15.

[44:2]  ⁹ tn The verb form in the Hebrew text is a Hiphil preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive) from רָעַע (ra’a’, “be evil; be bad”). If retained it apparently means, “you injured; harmed.” Some prefer to derive the verb from רָעַע (“break”; cf. NEB “breaking up the peoples”), in which case the form must be revocalized as Qal (since this verb is unattested in the Hiphil).

[44:2]  ¹⁰ tn Or “peoples.”

[44:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and you sent them out.” The translation assumes that the third masculine plural pronoun “them” refers to the fathers (v. 1), as in the preceding parallel line. See Ps 80:11, where Israel, likened to a vine, “spreads out” its tendrils to the west and east. Another option is to take the “peoples” as the referent of the pronoun and translate, “and you sent them away,” though this does not provide as tight a parallel with the corresponding line.

[73:28]  ¹² tn Heb “but as for me, the nearness of God for me [is] good.”

[73:28]  ¹³ tn The infinitive construct with -לְ (lÿ) is understood here as indicating an attendant circumstance. Another option is to take it as indicating purpose (“so that I might declare”) or result (“with the result that I declare”).

[78:38]  ¹⁴ tn One could translate v. 38 in the past tense (“he was compassionate…forgave sin and did not destroy…held back his anger, and did not stir up his fury”), but the imperfect verbal forms are probably best understood as generalizing. Verse 38 steps back briefly from the narrational summary of Israel’s history and lays the theological basis for v. 39, which focuses on God’s mercy toward sinful Israel.