Discovery BoxPsalms 4:1 
ContextFor the music director, to be accompanied by stringed instruments; a psalm of David.
4:1 When I call out, answer me,
O God who vindicates me! 2
Though I am hemmed in, you will lead me into a wide, open place. 3
Have mercy on me 4 and respond to 5 my prayer!
Psalms 5:11
Context5:11 But may all who take shelter 6 in you be happy! 7
May they continually 8 shout for joy! 9
Shelter them 10 so that those who are loyal to you 11 may rejoice! 12
1 sn Psalm 4. The psalmist asks God to hear his prayer, expresses his confidence that the Lord will intervene, and urges his enemies to change their ways and place their trust in God. He concludes with another prayer for divine intervention and again affirms his absolute confidence in God’s protection.
2 tn Heb “God of my righteousness.”
3 tn Heb “in distress (or “a narrow place”) you make (a place) large for me.” The function of the Hebrew perfect verbal form here is uncertain. The translation above assumes that the psalmist is expressing his certitude and confidence that God will intervene. The psalmist is so confident of God’s positive response to his prayer, he can describe God’s deliverance as if it had already happened. Such confidence is consistent with the mood of the psalm (vv. 3, 8). Another option is to take the perfects as precative, expressing a wish or request (“lead me”). See IBHS 494-95 §30.5.4c, d. However, not all grammarians are convinced that the perfect is used as a precative in biblical Hebrew.
4 tn Or “show me favor.”
5 tn Heb “hear.”
6 sn Take shelter. “Taking shelter” in the Lord is an idiom for seeking his protection. Seeking his protection presupposes and even demonstrates the subject’s loyalty to the Lord. In the psalms those who “take shelter” in the Lord are contrasted with the wicked and equated with those who love, fear and serve the Lord (Pss 5:11-12; 31:17-20; 34:21-22).
7 tn The prefixed verbal form is a jussive of wish or prayer. The psalmist calls on God to reward his faithful followers.
8 tn Or perhaps more hyperbolically, “forever.”
9 tn As in the preceding line, the prefixed verbal form is a jussive of wish or prayer.
10 tn Heb “put a cover over them.” The verb form is a Hiphil imperfect from סָכַךְ (sakhakh, “cover, shut off”). The imperfect expresses the psalmist’s wish or request.
11 tn Heb “the lovers of your name.” The phrase refers to those who are loyal to the Lord. See Pss 69:36; 119:132; Isa 56:6.
12 tn The vav (ו) with prefixed verbal form following the volitional “shelter them” indicates purpose or result (“so that those…may rejoice).
