For the music director; according to the tune “Morning Doe;” 2 a psalm of David.
22:1 My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? 3
I groan in prayer, but help seems far away. 4
28:7 The Lord strengthens and protects me; 5
I trust in him with all my heart. 6
I am rescued 7 and my heart is full of joy; 8
I will sing to him in gratitude. 9
39:5 Look, you make my days short-lived, 10
and my life span is nothing from your perspective. 11
Surely all people, even those who seem secure, are nothing but vapor. 12
43:4 Then I will go 13 to the altar of God,
to the God who gives me ecstatic joy, 14
so that I express my thanks to you, 15 O God, my God, with a harp.
For the music director, to be accompanied by stringed instruments; a well-written song 17 by David.
55:1 Listen, O God, to my prayer!
Do not ignore 18 my appeal for mercy!
59:16 As for me, I will sing about your strength;
I will praise your loyal love in the morning.
For you are my refuge 19
and my place of shelter when I face trouble. 20
69:4 Those who hate me without cause are more numerous than the hairs of my head.
Those who want to destroy me, my enemies for no reason, 21 outnumber me. 22
They make me repay what I did not steal! 23
71:22 I will express my thanks to you with a stringed instrument,
praising 24 your faithfulness, O my God!
I will sing praises to you accompanied by a harp,
O Holy One of Israel! 25
84:3 Even the birds find a home there,
and the swallow 26 builds a nest,
where she can protect her young 27
near your altars, O Lord who rules over all,
my king and my God.
The prayer of an oppressed man, as he grows faint and pours out his lament before the Lord.
102:1 O Lord, hear my prayer!
Pay attention to my cry for help! 29
137:6 May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth,
if I do not remember you,
and do not give Jerusalem priority
over whatever gives me the most joy. 30
1 sn Psalm 22. The psalmist cries out to the Lord for deliverance from his dangerous enemies, who have surrounded him and threaten his life. Confident that the Lord will intervene, he then vows to thank the Lord publicly for his help and anticipates a time when all people will recognize the Lord’s greatness and worship him.
2 tn Heb “according to the doe of the dawn.” Apparently this refers to a particular musical tune or style.
3 sn From the psalmist’s perspective it seems that God has abandoned him, for he fails to answer his cry for help (vv. 1b-2).
4 tn Heb “far from my deliverance [are] the words of my groaning.” The Hebrew noun שְׁאָגָה (shÿ’agah) and its related verb שָׁאַג (sha’ag) are sometimes used of a lion’s roar, but they can also describe human groaning (see Job 3:24 and Pss 32:3 and 38:8.
5 tn Heb “The
6 tn Heb “in him my heart trusts.”
7 tn Or “I am helped.”
8 tn Heb “and my heart exults.”
9 tn Heb “and from my song I will thank him.” As pointed in the Hebrew text, מִשִּׁירִי (mishiri) appears to be “from my song,” but the preposition “from” never occurs elsewhere with the verb “to thank” (Hiphil of יָדָה, yadah). Perhaps משׁיר is a noun form meaning “song.” If so, it can be taken as an adverbial accusative, “and [with] my song I will thank him.” See P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (WBC), 236.
10 tn Heb “Look, handbreadths you make my days.” The “handbreadth” (equivalent to the width of four fingers) was one of the smallest measures used by ancient Israelites. See P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (WBC), 309.
11 tn Heb “is like nothing before you.”
12 tn Heb “surely, all vapor [is] all mankind, standing firm.” Another option is to translate, “Surely, all mankind, though seemingly secure, is nothing but a vapor.”
13 tn The cohortative expresses the psalmist’s resolve. Prefixed with the vav (ו) conjunctive it also expresses the result or outcome of the preceding verbs “lead” and “escort.”
14 tn Heb “to God, the joy of my happiness.” The phrase “joy of my happiness” employs an appositional genitive. Synonyms are joined in a construct relationship to emphasize the degree of the psalmist’s joy. For a detailed discussion of the grammatical point with numerous examples, see Y. Avishur, “Pairs of Synonymous Words in the Construct State (and in Appositional Hendiadys) in Biblical Hebrew,” Semitics 2 (1971): 17-81.
15 tn The cohortative with vav (ו) conjunctive probably indicates purpose (“so that”) or intention.
16 sn Psalm 55. The suffering and oppressed author laments that one of his friends has betrayed him, but he is confident that God will vindicate him by punishing his deceitful enemies.
17 tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. See the note on the phrase “well-written song” in the superscription of Ps 52.
18 tn Heb “hide yourself from.”
19 tn Or “my elevated place” (see Ps 18:2).
20 tn Heb “and my shelter in the day of my distress.”
21 tn Heb “[with] a lie.” The Hebrew noun שֶׁקֶר (sheqer, “lie”) is used here as an adverb, “falsely, wrongfully” (see Pss 35:19; 38:19).
22 tn The Hebrew verb עָצַם (’atsam) can sometimes mean “are strong,” but here it probably focuses on numerical superiority; note the parallel verb רָבַב (ravav, “be many”).
23 tn Heb “that which I did not steal, then I restore.” Apparently אָז (’az, “then”) is used here to emphasize the verb that follows.
sn They make me repay what I did not steal. The psalmist’s enemies falsely accuse him and hold him accountable for alleged crimes he did not even commit.
24 tn The word “praising” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
25 sn The basic sense of the word “holy” is “set apart from that which is commonplace, special, unique.” The
26 tn The word translated “swallow” occurs only here and in Prov 26:2.
27 tn Heb “even a bird finds a home, and a swallow a nest for herself, [in] which she places her young.”
sn The psalmist here romanticizes the temple as a place of refuge and safety. As he thinks of the birds nesting near its roof, he envisions them finding protection in God’s presence.
28 sn Psalm 102. The psalmist laments his oppressed state, but longs for a day when the Lord will restore Jerusalem and vindicate his suffering people.
29 tn Heb “and may my cry for help come to you.”
30 tn Heb “if I do not lift up Jerusalem over the top of my joy.”