Discovery BoxPsalms 27:9 
ContextDo not push your servant away in anger!
You are my deliverer! 2
Do not forsake or abandon me,
O God who vindicates me!
Psalms 74:1
ContextA well-written song 4 by Asaph.
74:1 Why, O God, have you permanently rejected us? 5
Why does your anger burn 6 against the sheep of your pasture?
Psalms 78:21
Context78:21 When 7 the Lord heard this, he was furious.
A fire broke out against Jacob,
and his anger flared up 8 against Israel,
Psalms 78:31
Context78:31 when the anger of God flared up against them.
He killed some of the strongest of them;
he brought the young men of Israel to their knees.
Psalms 78:38
Context78:38 Yet he is compassionate.
He forgives sin and does not destroy.
He often holds back his anger,
and does not stir up his fury. 9
Psalms 78:50
Context78:50 He sent his anger in full force; 10
he did not spare them from death;
he handed their lives over to destruction. 11
Psalms 79:6
Context79:6 Pour out your anger on the nations that do not acknowledge you, 12
on the kingdoms that do not pray to you! 13
Psalms 95:11
Context95:11 So I made a vow in my anger,
‘They will never enter into the resting place I had set aside for them.’” 14
1 tn Heb “do not hide your face from me.” The idiom “hide the face” can mean “ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or carry the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 30:7; 88:14).
2 tn Or “[source of] help.”
3 sn Psalm 74. The psalmist, who has just experienced the devastation of the Babylonian invasion of Jerusalem in 586
4 tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. The word is derived from a verb meaning “to be prudent; to be wise.” Various options are: “a contemplative song,” “a song imparting moral wisdom,” or “a skillful [i.e., well-written] song.” The term occurs in the superscriptions of Pss 32, 42, 44, 45, 52-55, 74, 78, 88, 89, and 142, as well as in Ps 47:7.
5 sn The psalmist does not really believe God has permanently rejected his people or he would not pray as he does in this psalm. But this initial question reflects his emotional response to what he sees and is overstated for the sake of emphasis. The severity of divine judgment gives the appearance that God has permanently abandoned his people.
6 tn Heb “smoke.” The picture is that of a fire that continues to smolder.
7 tn Heb “therefore.”
8 tn Heb “and also anger went up.”
9 tn One could translate v. 38 in the past tense (“he was compassionate…forgave sin and did not destroy…held back his anger, and did not stir up his fury”), but the imperfect verbal forms are probably best understood as generalizing. Verse 38 steps back briefly from the narrational summary of Israel’s history and lays the theological basis for v. 39, which focuses on God’s mercy toward sinful Israel.
10 tn Heb “he leveled a path for his anger.” There were no obstacles to impede its progress; it moved swiftly and destructively.
11 tn Or perhaps “[the] plague.”
12 tn Heb “which do not know you.” Here the Hebrew term “know” means “acknowledge the authority of.”
13 sn The kingdoms that do not pray to you. The people of these kingdoms pray to other gods, not the Lord, because they do not recognize his authority over them.
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).
