Psalms 36:1

Psalm 36 ¹ 

For the music director; written by the Lord’s servant, David; an oracle. ² 

36:1 An evil man is rebellious to the core. ³ 

He does not fear God, ⁴ 

Psalms 116:16

116:16 Yes, Lord! I am indeed your servant;

I am your lowest slave. ⁵ 

You saved me from death. ⁶ 

Psalms 116:2

116:2 and listened to me. ⁷ 

As long as I live, I will call to him when I need help. ⁸ 

Psalms 22:1

Psalm 22 ⁹ 

For the music director; according to the tune “Morning Doe;” ¹⁰  a psalm of David.

22:1 My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? ¹¹ 

I groan in prayer, but help seems far away. ¹² 

Acts 13:36

13:36 For David, after he had served ¹³  God’s purpose in his own generation, died, ¹⁴  was buried with his ancestors, ¹⁵  and experienced ¹⁶  decay,

Hebrews 3:5

3:5 Now Moses was faithful in all God’s ¹⁷  house ¹⁸  as a servant, to testify to the things that would be spoken.

[36:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 36. Though evil men plan to harm others, the psalmist is confident that the Lord is the just ruler of the earth who gives and sustains all life. He prays for divine blessing and protection and anticipates God’s judgment of the wicked.

[36:1]  ² tn In the Hebrew text the word נאם (“oracle”) appears at the beginning of the next verse (v. 2 in the Hebrew text because the superscription is considered v. 1). The resulting reading, “an oracle of rebellion for the wicked [is] in the midst of my heart” (cf. NIV) apparently means that the psalm, which foresees the downfall of the wicked, is a prophetic oracle about the rebellion of the wicked which emerges from the soul of the psalmist. One could translate, “Here is a poem written as I reflected on the rebellious character of evil men.” Another option, followed in the translation above, is to attach נאם (nÿ’um, “oracle”) with the superscription. For another example of a Davidic poem being labeled an “oracle,” see 2 Sam 23:1.

[36:1]  ³ tn Heb “[the] rebellion of an evil man [is] in the midst of my heart.” The translation assumes a reading “in the midst of his heart” (i.e., “to the core”) instead of “in the midst of my heart,” a change which finds support in a a few medieval Hebrew mss, the Hebrew text of Origen’s Hexapla, and the Syriac.

[36:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “there is no dread of God before his eyes.” The phrase “dread of God” refers here to a healthy respect for God which recognizes that he will punish evil behavior.

[116:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “I am your servant, the son of your female servant.” The phrase “son of a female servant” (see also Ps 86:16) is used of a son born to a secondary wife or concubine (Exod 23:12). In some cases the child’s father is the master of the house (see Gen 21:10, 13; Judg 9:18). The use of the expression here certainly does not imply that the Lord has such a secondary wife or concubine! It is used metaphorically and idiomatically to emphasize the psalmist’s humility before the Lord and his status as the Lord’s servant.

[116:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “you have loosed my bonds.” In this context the imagery refers to deliverance from death (see v. 3).

[116:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “because he turned his ear to me.”

[116:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “and in my days I will cry out.”

[22:1]  ⁹ sn Psalm 22. The psalmist cries out to the Lord for deliverance from his dangerous enemies, who have surrounded him and threaten his life. Confident that the Lord will intervene, he then vows to thank the Lord publicly for his help and anticipates a time when all people will recognize the Lord’s greatness and worship him.

[22:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “according to the doe of the dawn.” Apparently this refers to a particular musical tune or style.

[22:1]  ¹¹ sn From the psalmist’s perspective it seems that God has abandoned him, for he fails to answer his cry for help (vv. 1b-2).

[22:1]  ¹² tn Heb “far from my deliverance [are] the words of my groaning.” The Hebrew noun שְׁאָגָה (shÿ’agah) and its related verb שָׁאַג (sha’ag) are sometimes used of a lion’s roar, but they can also describe human groaning (see Job 3:24 and Pss 32:3 and 38:8.

[13:36]  ¹³ tn The participle ὑπηρετήσας (Juphrethsa") is taken temporally.

[13:36]  ¹⁴ tn The verb κοιμάω (koimaw) literally means “sleep,” but it is often used in the Bible as a euphemism for the death of a believer.

[13:36]  ¹⁵ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “was gathered to his fathers” (a Semitic idiom).

[13:36]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “saw,” but the literal translation of the phrase “saw decay” could be misunderstood to mean simply “looked at decay,” while here “saw decay” is really figurative for “experienced decay.” This remark explains why David cannot fulfill the promise.

[3:5]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “his”; in the translation the referent (God) has been specified for clarity.

[3:5]  ¹⁸ sn A quotation from Num 12:7.