Psalms 116:1-2

Psalm 116 1 

116:1 I love the Lord

because he heard my plea for mercy, 2 

116:2 and listened to me. 3 

As long as I live, I will call to him when I need help. 4 

Psalms 116:2

116:2 and listened to me. 5 

As long as I live, I will call to him when I need help. 6 

Colossians 1:10-11

1:10 so that you may live 7  worthily of the Lord and please him in all respects 8  – bearing fruit in every good deed, growing in the knowledge of God, 1:11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for the display of 9  all patience and steadfastness, joyfully

1 sn Psalm 116. The psalmist thanks the Lord for delivering him from a life threatening crisis and promises to tell the entire covenant community what God has done for him.

2 tn Heb “I love because the Lord heard my voice, my pleas.” It is possible that “the Lord” originally appeared directly after “I love” and was later accidentally misplaced. The translation assumes the prefixed verbal form is a preterite. The psalmist recalls that God heard his cry for help (note the perfect in v. 2a and the narrative in vv. 3-4).

3 tn Heb “because he turned his ear to me.”

4 tn Heb “and in my days I will cry out.”

5 tn Heb “because he turned his ear to me.”

6 tn Heb “and in my days I will cry out.”

7 tn The infinitive περιπατῆσαι (peripathsai, “to walk, to live, to live one’s life”) is best taken as an infinitive of purpose related to “praying” (προσευχόμενοι, proseucomenoi) and “asking” (αἰτούμενοι, aitoumenoi) in v. 9 and is thus translated as “that you may live.”

8 tn BDAG 129 s.v. ἀρεσκεία states that ἀρεσκείαν (areskeian) refers to a “desire to please εἰς πᾶσαν ἀ. to please (the Lord) in all respects Col 1:10.”

9 tn The expression “for the display of” is an attempt to convey in English the force of the Greek preposition εἰς (eis) in this context.