17:8 Protect me as you would protect the pupil of your eye! 1
Hide me in the shadow of your wings! 2
61:4 I will be a permanent guest in your home; 3
I will find shelter in the protection of your wings. 4 (Selah)
63:7 For you are my deliverer; 5
under your wings 6 I rejoice.
36:7 How precious 7 is your loyal love, O God!
The human race finds shelter under your wings. 8
For the music director; according to the al-tashcheth style; 10 a prayer 11 of David, written when he fled from Saul into the cave. 12
57:1 Have mercy on me, O God! Have mercy on me!
For in you I have taken shelter. 13
In the shadow of your wings 14 I take shelter
until trouble passes.
1 tc Heb “Protect me like the pupil, a daughter of an eye.” The noun בַּת (bat, “daughter”) should probably be emended to בָּבַת (bavat, “pupil”). See Zech 2:12 HT (2:8 ET) and HALOT 107 s.v. *בָּבָה.
2 sn Your wings. The metaphor compares God to a protective mother bird.
3 tn Heb “I will live as a resident alien in your tent permanently.” The cohortative is understood here as indicating resolve. Another option is to take it as expressing a request, “please let me live” (cf. NASB, NRSV).
4 sn I will find shelter in the protection of your wings. The metaphor compares God to a protective mother bird.
5 tn Or “[source of] help.”
6 tn Heb “in the shadow of your wings.”
7 tn Or “valuable.”
8 tn Heb “and the sons of man in the shadow of your wings find shelter.” The preservation of physical life is in view, as the next verse makes clear.
9 sn Psalm 57. The psalmist asks for God’s protection and expresses his confidence that his ferocious enemies will be destroyed by their own schemes.
10 tn Heb “do not destroy.” Perhaps this refers to a particular style of music, a tune title, or a musical instrument. These words also appear in the heading to Pss 58-59, 75.
11 tn The precise meaning of the Hebrew word מִכְתָּם (miktam), which also appears in the heading to Pss 16, 56, 58-60 is uncertain. HALOT 582-83 s.v. defines it as “inscription.”
12 sn According to the superscription, David wrote this psalm on the occasion when he fled from Saul and hid in “the cave.” This probably refers to either the incident recorded in 1 Sam 22:1 or to the one recorded in 1 Sam 24:3.
13 tn Heb “my life has taken shelter.” The Hebrew perfect verbal form probably refers here to a completed action with continuing results.
14 sn In the shadow of your wings. The metaphor likens God to a protective mother bird (see also Pss 17:8; 36:7).