Psalms 6:8

6:8 Turn back from me, all you who behave wickedly, 1 

for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping! 2 

Psalms 10:17

10:17 Lord, you have heard 3  the request 4  of the oppressed;

you make them feel secure because you listen to their prayer. 5 

Psalms 77:18

77:18 Your thunderous voice was heard in the wind;

the lightning bolts lit up the world;

the earth trembled and shook. 6 

1 tn Heb “all [you] workers of wickedness.” See Ps 5:5.

2 sn The Lord has heard. The psalmist’s mood abruptly changes because the Lord responded positively to the lament and petition of vv. 1-7 and promised him deliverance.

3 sn You have heard. The psalmist is confident that God has responded positively to his earlier petitions for divine intervention. The psalmist apparently prayed the words of vv. 16-18 after the reception of an oracle of deliverance (given in response to the confident petition of vv. 12-15) or after the Lord actually delivered him from his enemies.

4 tn Heb “desire.”

5 tn Heb “you make firm their heart, you cause your ear to listen.”

6 tn The prefixed verbal form may be taken as a preterite or as an imperfect with past progressive force.

sn Verses 16-18 depict the Lord coming in the storm to battle his enemies and subdue the sea. There is no record of such a storm in the historical account of the Red Sea crossing. The language the psalmist uses here is stereotypical and originates in Canaanite myth, where the storm god Baal subdues the sea in his quest for kingship. The psalmist has employed the stereotypical imagery to portray the exodus vividly and at the same time affirm that it is not Baal who subdues the sea, but Yahweh.