Mazmur 31:9

31:9 Have mercy on me, for I am in distress!

My eyes grow dim ¹  from suffering. ² 

I have lost my strength. ³ 

Mazmur 40:9

40:9 I have told the great assembly ⁴  about your justice. ⁵ 

Look! I spare no words! ⁶ 

O Lord, you know this is true.

Mazmur 119:75

119:75 I know, Lord, that your regulations ⁷  are just.

You disciplined me because of your faithful devotion to me. ⁸ 

[31:9]  ¹ tn Or perhaps, “are swollen.”

[31:9]  ² tn Cf. Ps 6:7, which has a similar line.

[31:9]  ³ tn Heb “my breath and my stomach [grow weak].” Apparently the verb in the previous line (“grow dim, be weakened”) is to be understood here. The Hebrew term נפשׁ can mean “life,” or, more specifically, “throat, breath.” The psalmist seems to be lamenting that his breathing is impaired because of the physical and emotional suffering he is forced to endure.

[40:9]  ⁴ sn The great assembly is also mentioned in Pss 22:25 and 35:18.

[40:9]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “Look! My lips I do not restrain.”

[119:75]  ⁷ tn In this context (note the second line) the Hebrew term מִשְׁפָּטִים (mishpatim), which so often refers to the regulations of God’s law elsewhere in this psalm, may refer instead to his decisions or disciplinary judgment.

[119:75]  ⁸ tn Heb “and [in] faithfulness you afflicted me.”