40:27 Why do you say, Jacob,
Why do you say, Israel,
“The Lord is not aware of what is happening to me, 1
My God is not concerned with my vindication”? 2
For the music director; according to the tune “Morning Doe;” 4 a psalm of David.
22:1 My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? 5
I groan in prayer, but help seems far away. 6
31:22 I jumped to conclusions and said, 7
“I am cut off from your presence!” 8
But you heard my plea for mercy when I cried out to you for help.
77:6 I said, “During the night I will remember the song I once sang;
I will think very carefully.”
I tried to make sense of what was happening. 9
77:7 I asked, 10 “Will the Lord reject me forever?
Will he never again show me his favor?
77:8 Has his loyal love disappeared forever?
Has his promise 11 failed forever?
77:9 Has God forgotten to be merciful?
Has his anger stifled his compassion?”
89:38 But you have spurned 12 and rejected him;
you are angry with your chosen king. 13
89:39 You have repudiated 14 your covenant with your servant; 15
you have thrown his crown to the ground. 16
89:40 You have broken down all his 17 walls;
you have made his strongholds a heap of ruins.
89:41 All who pass by 18 have robbed him;
he has become an object of disdain to his neighbors.
89:42 You have allowed his adversaries to be victorious, 19
and all his enemies to rejoice.
89:43 You turn back 20 his sword from the adversary, 21
and have not sustained him in battle. 22
89:44 You have brought to an end his splendor, 23
and have knocked 24 his throne to the ground.
89:45 You have cut short his youth, 25
and have covered him with shame. (Selah)
89:46 How long, O Lord, will this last?
Will you remain hidden forever? 26
Will your anger continue to burn like fire?
11:1 So I ask, God has not rejected his people, has he? Absolutely not! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. 11:2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew! Do you not know what the scripture says about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? 11:3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone am left and they are seeking my life!” 27 11:4 But what was the divine response 28 to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand people 29 who have not bent the knee to Baal.” 30
11:5 So in the same way at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.
1 tn Heb “my way is hidden from the Lord” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
2 tn Heb “and from my God my justice passes away”; NRSV “my right is disregarded by my God.”
3 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.
4 tn Heb “according to the doe of the dawn.” Apparently this refers to a particular musical tune or style.
5 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).
6 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.
7 tn Heb “and I, I said in my haste.”
8 tn Heb “from before your eyes.”
9 tn Heb “I will remember my song in the night, with my heart I will reflect. And my spirit searched.” As in v. 4, the words of v. 6a are understood as what the psalmist said earlier. Consequently the words “I said” are supplied in the translation for clarification (see v. 10). The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive at the beginning of the final line is taken as sequential to the perfect “I thought” in v. 6.
10 tn As in vv. 4 and 6a, the words of vv. 7-9 are understood as a quotation of what the psalmist said earlier. Therefore the words “I asked” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
11 tn Heb “word,” which may refer here to God’s word of promise (note the reference to “loyal love” in the preceding line).
12 tn The Hebrew construction (conjunction + pronoun, followed by the verb) draws attention to the contrast between what follows and what precedes.
13 tn Heb “your anointed one.” The Hebrew phrase מְשִׁיחֶךָ (mÿshikhekha, “your anointed one”) refers here to the Davidic king (see Pss 2:2; 18:50; 20:6; 28:8; 84:9; 132:10, 17).
14 tn The Hebrew verb appears only here and in Lam 2:7.
15 tn Heb “the covenant of your servant.”
16 tn Heb “you dishonor [or “desecrate”] on the ground his crown.”
17 tn The king here represents the land and cities over which he rules.
18 tn Heb “all the passersby on the road.”
19 tn Heb “you have lifted up the right hand of his adversaries.” The idiom “the right hand is lifted up” refers to victorious military deeds (see Pss 89:13; 118:16).
20 tn The perfect verbal form predominates in vv. 38-45. The use of the imperfect in this one instance may be for rhetorical effect. The psalmist briefly lapses into dramatic mode, describing the king’s military defeat as if it were happening before his very eyes.
21 tc Heb “you turn back, rocky summit, his sword.” The Hebrew term צוּר (tsur, “rocky summit”) makes no sense here, unless it is a divine title understood as vocative, “you turn back, O Rocky Summit, his sword.” Some emend the form to צֹר (tsor, “flint”) on the basis of Josh 5:2, which uses the phrase חַרְבוֹת צֻרִים (kharvot tsurim, “flint knives”). The noun צֹר (tsor, “flint”) can then be taken as “flint-like edge,” indicating the sharpness of the sword. Others emend the form to אָחוֹר (’akhor, “backward”) or to מִצַּר (mitsar, “from the adversary”). The present translation reflects the latter, assuming an original reading תָּשִׁיב מִצָּר חַרְבּוֹ (tashiv mitsar kharbo), which was corrupted to תָּשִׁיב צָר חַרְבּוֹ (tashiv tsar kharbo) by virtual haplography (confusion of bet/mem is well-attested) with צָר (tsar, “adversary”) then being misinterpreted as צוּר in the later tradition.
22 tn Heb “and you have not caused him to stand in the battle.”
23 tc The Hebrew text appears to read, “you have brought to an end from his splendor,” but the form מִטְּהָרוֹ (mittÿharo) should be slightly emended (the daghesh should be removed from the tet [ת]) and read simply “his splendor” (the initial mem [מ] is not the preposition, but a nominal prefix).
24 tn The Hebrew verb מָגַר (magar) occurs only here and perhaps in Ezek 21:17.
25 tn Heb “the days of his youth” (see as well Job 33:25).
26 tn Heb “How long, O
27 sn A quotation from 1 Kgs 19:10, 14.
28 tn Grk “the revelation,” “the oracle.”
29 tn The Greek term here is ἀνήρ (anhr), which only exceptionally is used in a generic sense of both males and females. In this context, it appears to be a generic usage (“people”) since when Paul speaks of a remnant of faithful Israelites (“the elect,” v. 7), he is not referring to males only. It can also be argued, however, that it refers only to adult males here (“men”), perhaps as representative of all the faithful left in Israel.
30 sn A quotation from 1 Kgs 19:18.