Text -- Psalms 25:12-22 (NET)

25:12 The Lord shows his faithful followers the way they should live. 25:13 They experience his favor; their descendants inherit the land. 25:14 The Lord’s loyal followers receive his guidance, and he reveals his covenantal demands to them. 25:15 I continually look to the Lord for help, for he will free my feet from the enemy’s net. 25:16 Turn toward me and have mercy on me, for I am alone and oppressed! 25:17 Deliver me from my distress; rescue me from my suffering! 25:18 See my pain and suffering! Forgive all my sins! 25:19 Watch my enemies, for they outnumber me; they hate me and want to harm me. 25:20 Protect me and deliver me! Please do not let me be humiliated, for I have taken shelter in you! 25:21 May integrity and godliness protect me, for I rely on you! 25:22 O God, rescue Israel from all their distress!

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Psa 25:12

¹ tn Heb “Who is this man, the one who fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way he should choose.” The singular (note “man”) is representative here (see v. 14, where the plural is used), and has thus been translated as a plural (“followers…they”).

NET Notes: Psa 25:13

¹ tn Heb “his life in goodness dwells.” The singular is representative (see v. 14).

² tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”

³ tn Or “earth.”

NET Notes: Psa 25:14

¹ tn Heb “the advice of the Lord belongs to those who fear him.”

² tn Heb “and his covenant, to make them know.”

NET Notes: Psa 25:15

¹ tn Heb “my eyes continually [are] toward the Lord.”

² tn Heb “for he will bring out from a net my feet.” The hostility of the psalmist’s enemies is probably in view (see v. 19).

NET Notes: Psa 25:16

¹ tn That is, helpless and vulnerable.

NET Notes: Psa 25:17

¹ tc Heb “the distresses of my heart, they make wide.” The text makes little if any sense as it stands, unless this is an otherwise unattested intransitive use of the Hiphil of רָחַב (rakhav, “be wide”). It is preferable to emend the form הִרְחִיבוּ (hirkhivu; Hiphil perfect third plural “they make wide”) to הַרְחֵיב (harkhev; Hiphil imperative masculine singular “make wide”). (The final vav [ו] can be joined to the following word and taken as a conjunction.) In this case one can translate, “[in/from] the distresses of my heart, make wide [a place for me],” that is, “deliver me from the distress I am experiencing.” For the expression “make wide [a place for me],” see Ps 4:1.

² tn Heb “from my distresses lead me out.”

NET Notes: Psa 25:18

¹ tn Heb “lift up all my sins.”

NET Notes: Psa 25:19

¹ tn Heb “see my enemies for they are numerous, and [with] violent hatred they hate me.”

NET Notes: Psa 25:20

¹ tn Or “my life.”

NET Notes: Psa 25:22

¹ tn Or “redeem.”

² tn Heb “his distresses.”

sn O God, rescue Israel from all their distress. It is possible that the psalmist speaks on behalf of the nation throughout this entire psalm. Another option is that v. 22 is a later addition to the psalm which applies an original individual lament to the covenant community. If so, it may reflect an exilic setting.