Discovery BoxPsalms 38:1 
ContextA psalm of David, written to get God’s attention. 2
38:1 O Lord, do not continue to rebuke me in your anger!
Do not continue to punish me in your raging fury! 3
Psalms 48:8
Context48:8 We heard about God’s mighty deeds, now we have seen them, 4
in the city of the Lord, the invincible Warrior, 5
in the city of our God.
God makes it permanently secure. 6 (Selah)
Psalms 73:28
Context73:28 But as for me, God’s presence is all I need. 7
I have made the sovereign Lord my shelter,
as 8 I declare all the things you have done.
Psalms 74:9
Context74:9 We do not see any signs of God’s presence; 9
there are no longer any prophets 10
and we have no one to tell us how long this will last. 11
1 sn Psalm 38. The author asks the Lord to deliver him from his enemies. He confesses his sin and recognizes that the crisis he faces is the result of divine discipline. Yet he begs the Lord not to reject him.
2 tn The Hebrew text reads simply, “to cause to remember.” The same form, the Hiphil infinitive of זָכַר (zakhar, “remember”), also appears in the heading of Ps 70. Some understand this in the sense of “for the memorial offering,” but it may carry the idea of bringing one’s plight to God’s attention (see P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 303).
3 tn The words “continue to” are supplied in the translation of both lines. The following verses make it clear that the psalmist is already experiencing divine rebuke/punishment. He asks that it might cease.
sn Compare Ps 38:1 with Ps 6:1, which has similar wording.
4 tn Heb “As we have heard, so we have seen.” The community had heard about God’s mighty deeds in the nation’s history. Having personally witnessed his saving power with their own eyes, they could now affirm that the tradition was not exaggerated or inaccurate.
5 tn Heb “the
6 tn Or “God makes it secure forever.” The imperfect highlights the characteristic nature of the generalizing statement.
7 tn Heb “but as for me, the nearness of God for me [is] good.”
8 tn The infinitive construct with -לְ (lÿ) is understood here as indicating an attendant circumstance. Another option is to take it as indicating purpose (“so that I might declare”) or result (“with the result that I declare”).
9 tn Heb “our signs we do not see.” Because of the reference to a prophet in the next line, it is likely that the “signs” in view here include the evidence of God’s presence as typically revealed through the prophets. These could include miraculous acts performed by the prophets (see, for example, Isa 38:7-8) or object lessons which they acted out (see, for example, Isa 20:3).
10 tn Heb “there is not still a prophet.”
11 tn Heb “and [there is] not with us one who knows how long.”
