For the music director; a psalm of David.
31:1 In you, O Lord, I have taken shelter!
Never let me be humiliated!
Vindicate me by rescuing me! 2
37:25 I was once young, now I am old.
I have never seen a godly man abandoned,
or his children 3 forced to search for food. 4
37:28 For the Lord promotes 5 justice,
and never abandons 6 his faithful followers.
They are permanently secure, 7
but the children 8 of evil men are wiped out. 9
58:8 Let them be 10 like a snail that melts away as it moves along! 11
Let them be like 12 stillborn babies 13 that never see the sun!
95:11 So I made a vow in my anger,
‘They will never enter into the resting place I had set aside for them.’” 14
1 sn Psalm 31. The psalmist confidently asks the Lord to protect him. Enemies threaten him and even his friends have abandoned him, but he looks to the Lord for vindication. In vv. 19-24, which were apparently written after the Lord answered the prayer of vv. 1-18, the psalmist thanks the Lord for delivering him.
2 tn Heb “in your vindication rescue me.”
3 tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”
4 tn Heb “or his offspring searching for food.” The expression “search for food” also appears in Lam 1:11, where Jerusalem’s refugees are forced to search for food and to trade their valuable possessions for something to eat.
5 tn Heb “loves.” The verb “loves” is here metonymic; the
6 tn The imperfect verbal form draws attention to this generalizing statement.
7 tn Or “protected forever.”
8 tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”
9 tn Or “cut off”; or “removed.” The perfect verbal forms in v. 28b state general truths.
10 tn There is no “to be” verb in the Hebrew text at this point, but a jussive tone can be assumed based on vv. 6-7.
11 tn Heb “like a melting snail [that] moves along.” A. Cohen (Psalms [SoBB], 184) explains that the text here alludes “to the popular belief that the slimy trail which the snail leaves in its track is the dissolution of its substance.”
12 tn The words “let them be like” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. The jussive mood is implied from the preceding context, and “like” is understood by ellipsis (see the previous line).
13 tn This rare word also appears in Job 3:16 and Eccles 6:3.
14 tn Heb “my resting place.” The promised land of Canaan is here viewed metaphorically as a place of rest for God’s people, who are compared to sheep (see v. 7).