For the music director; a psalm of David.
13:1 How long, Lord, will you continue to ignore me? 2
How long will you pay no attention to me? 3
22:24 For he did not despise or detest the suffering 4 of the oppressed; 5
he did not ignore him; 6
when he cried out to him, he responded. 7
42:9 I will pray 8 to God, my high ridge: 9
“Why do you ignore 10 me?
Why must I walk around mourning 11
because my enemies oppress me?”
A song, a psalm of Asaph.
83:1 O God, do not be silent!
Do not ignore us! 13 Do not be inactive, O God!
102:2 Do not ignore me in my time of trouble! 14
Listen to me! 15
When I call out to you, quickly answer me!
104:29 When you ignore them, they panic. 16
When you take away their life’s breath, they die
and return to dust.
1 sn Psalm 13. The psalmist, who is close to death, desperately pleads for God’s deliverance and affirms his trust in God’s faithfulness.
2 tn Heb “will you forget me continually.”
3 tn Heb “will you hide your face from me.”
4 tn Or “affliction”; or “need.”
5 sn In this verse the psalmist refers to himself in the third person and characterizes himself as oppressed.
6 tn Heb “he did not hide his face from him.” For other uses of the idiom “hide the face” meaning “ignore,” see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9. Sometimes the idiom carries the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 27:9; 88:14).
7 tn Heb “heard.”
8 tn The cohortative form indicates the psalmist’s resolve.
9 tn 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; Pss 18:2; 31:3.
10 tn Or “forget.”
11 sn Walk around mourning. See Ps 38:6 for a similar idea.
12 sn Psalm 83. The psalmist asks God to deliver Israel from the attacks of foreign nations. Recalling how God defeated Israel’s enemies in the days of Deborah and Gideon, he prays that the hostile nations would be humiliated.
13 tn Heb “do not be deaf.”
14 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).
15 tn Heb “turn toward me your ear.”
16 tn Heb “you hide your face, they are terrified.”