61:2 From the most remote place on earth 1
I call out to you in my despair. 2
Lead me 3 up to an inaccessible rocky summit! 4
61:3 Indeed, 5 you are 6 my shelter,
a strong tower that protects me from the enemy. 7
61:4 I will be a permanent guest in your home; 8
I will find shelter in the protection of your wings. 9 (Selah)
1 tn Heb “from the end of the earth.” This may indicate (1) the psalmist is exiled in a distant land, or (2) it may be hyperbolic (the psalmist feels alienated from God’s presence, as if he were in a distant land).
2 tn Heb “while my heart faints.”
3 tn The imperfect verbal form here expresses the psalmist’s wish or prayer.
4 tn Heb “on to a rocky summit [that] is higher than I.”
5 tn Or “for.”
6 tn Or “have been.”
7 tn Heb “a strong tower from the face of an enemy.”
8 tn Heb “I will live as a resident alien in your tent permanently.” The cohortative is understood here as indicating resolve. Another option is to take it as expressing a request, “please let me live” (cf. NASB, NRSV).
9 sn I will find shelter in the protection of your wings. The metaphor compares God to a protective mother bird.