20:9 The Lord will deliver the king; 1
he will answer us 2 when we call to him for help! 3
44:8 In God I boast all day long,
and we will continually give thanks to your name. (Selah)
44:17 All this has happened to us, even though we have not rejected you 4
or violated your covenant with us. 5
73:11 They say, “How does God know what we do?
Is the sovereign one aware of what goes on?” 6
79:4 We have become an object of disdain to our neighbors;
those who live on our borders taunt and insult us. 7
90:9 Yes, 8 throughout all our days we experience your raging fury; 9
the years of our lives pass quickly, like a sigh. 10
118:24 This is the day the Lord has brought about. 11
We will be happy and rejoice in it.
123:3 Show us favor, O Lord, show us favor!
For we have had our fill of humiliation, and then some. 12
123:4 We have had our fill 13
of the taunts of the self-assured,
of the contempt of the proud.
1 tc This translation assumes an emendation of the verbal form הוֹשִׁיעָה (hoshi’ah). As it stands, the form is an imperative. In this case the people return to the petitionary mood with which the psalm begins (“O
2 tn If the imperative is retained in the preceding line, then the prefixed verbal form is best taken as a jussive of prayer, “may he answer us.” However, if the imperative in the previous line is emended to a perfect, the prefixed form is best taken as imperfect, “he will answer us” (see the note on the word “king” at the end of the previous line).
3 tn Heb “in the day we call.”
4 tn Heb “we have not forgotten you.” To “forget” God refers here to worshiping false gods and thereby refusing to recognize his sovereignty (see v. 20, as well as Deut 8:19; Judg 3:7; 1 Sam 12:9; Isa 17:10; Jer 3:21; Ps 9:17).Thus the translation “we have not rejected you” has been used.
5 tn Heb “and we did not deal falsely with your covenant.”
6 tn Heb “How does God know? Is there knowledge with the Most High?” They appear to be practical atheists, who acknowledge God’s existence and sovereignty in theory, but deny his involvement in the world (see Pss 10:4, 11; 14:1).
7 tn Heb “an [object of] taunting and [of] mockery to those around us.” See Ps 44:13.
8 tn Or “for.”
9 tn Heb “all our days pass by in your anger.”
10 tn Heb “we finish our years like a sigh.” In Ezek 2:10 the word הֶגֶה (hegeh) elsewhere refers to a grumbling or moaning sound. Here a brief sigh or moan is probably in view. If so, the simile pictures one’s lifetime as transient. Another option is that the simile alludes to the weakness that characteristically overtakes a person at the end of one’s lifetime. In this case the phrase could be translated, “we end our lives with a painful moan.”
11 tn Heb “this is the day the
12 tn Heb “for greatly we are filled [with] humiliation.”
13 tn Heb “greatly our soul is full to it.”