Psalms 42:8

42:8 By day the Lord decrees his loyal love,

and by night he gives me a song,

a prayer to the living God.

Psalms 62:8

62:8 Trust in him at all times, you people!

Pour out your hearts before him!

God is our shelter! (Selah)

Psalms 119:55

119:55 I remember your name during the night, O Lord,

and I will keep your law.

Psalms 119:147-148

119:147 I am up before dawn crying for help.

I find hope in your word.

119:148 My eyes anticipate the nighttime hours,

so that I can meditate on your word.

Isaiah 26:9

26:9 I look for you during the night,

my spirit within me seeks you at dawn,

for when your judgments come upon the earth,

those who live in the world learn about justice.

Mark 1:35

Praying and Preaching

1:35 Then Jesus 10  got up early in the morning when it was still very dark, departed, and went out to a deserted place, and there he spent time in prayer. 11 

Luke 6:12

Choosing the Twelve Apostles

6:12 Now 12  it was during this time that Jesus 13  went out to the mountain 14  to pray, and he spent all night 15  in prayer to God. 16 


sn The psalmist believes that the Lord has not abandoned him, but continues to extend his loyal love. To this point in the psalm, the author has used the name “God,” but now, as he mentions the divine characteristic of loyal love, he switches to the more personal divine name Yahweh (rendered in the translation as “the Lord”).

tn Heb “his song [is] with me.”

tc A few medieval Hebrew mss read תְּהִלָּה (tÿhillah, “praise”) instead of תְּפִלָּה (tÿfillah, “prayer”).

tn To “pour out one’s heart” means to offer up to God intense, emotional lamentation and petitionary prayers (see Lam 2:19).

tn The cohortative verbal form expresses the psalmist’s resolve to obey the law.

tn Heb “with my soul I.” This is a figure for the speaker himself (“I”).

tn Or “long for, desire.” The speaker acknowledges that he is eager to see God come in judgment (see vv. 8, 9b).

tn The translation understands צֶדֶק (tsedeq) in the sense of “justice,” but it is possible that it carries the nuance “righteousness,” in which case one might translate, “those who live in the world learn to live in a righteous manner” (cf. NCV).

tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

10 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

11 tn The imperfect προσηύχετο (proshuceto) implies some duration to the prayer.

12 tn Grk “Now it happened that in.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

13 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

14 tn Or “to a mountain” (εἰς τὸ ὅρος, eis to Joro").

15 sn This is the only time all night prayer is mentioned in the NT.

16 tn This is an objective genitive, so prayer “to God.”