Psalms 18:3

18:3 I called ¹  to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, ² 

and I was delivered from my enemies.

Psalms 18:41

18:41 They cry out, but there is no one to help them; ³ 

they cry out to the Lord, ⁴  but he does not answer them.

Psalms 34:6

34:6 This oppressed man cried out and the Lord heard;

he saved him ⁵  from all his troubles.

Psalms 79:6

79:6 Pour out your anger on the nations that do not acknowledge you, ⁶ 

on the kingdoms that do not pray to you! ⁷ 

Psalms 83:18

83:18 Then they will know ⁸  that you alone are the Lord, ⁹ 

the sovereign king ¹⁰  over all the earth.

Psalms 96:4

96:4 For the Lord is great and certainly worthy of praise;

he is more awesome than all gods. ¹¹ 

Psalms 109:7

109:7 When he is judged, he will be found ¹²  guilty! ¹³ 

Then his prayer will be regarded as sinful.

¹ tn In this song of thanksgiving, where the psalmist recalls how the Lord delivered him, the prefixed verbal form is best understood as a preterite indicating past tense, not an imperfect.

² tn Heb “worthy of praise, I cried out [to] the Lord.” Some take מְהֻלָּל (mÿhullal, “worthy of praise”) with what precedes and translate, “the praiseworthy one,” or “praiseworthy.” However, the various epithets in vv. 1-2 have the first person pronominal suffix, unlike מְהֻלָּל. If one follows the traditional verse division and takes מְהֻלָּל with what follows, it is best understood as substantival and as appositional to יְהוָה (yÿhvah): “[to the] praiseworthy one I cried out, [to the] Lord.”

³ tn Heb “but there is no deliverer.”

⁴ tn Heb “to the Lord.” The words “they cry out” are supplied in the translation because they are understood by ellipsis (see the preceding line).

⁵ tn The pronoun refers back to “this oppressed man,” namely, the psalmist.

⁷ tn Heb “which do not know you.” Here the Hebrew term “know” means “acknowledge the authority of.”

⁸ sn The kingdoms that do not pray to you. The people of these kingdoms pray to other gods, not the Lord, because they do not recognize his authority over them.

⁹ tn After the preceding jussives (v. 17), the prefixed verbal form with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose (“so that they may know”) or result.

¹⁰ tn Heb “that you, your name [is] the Lord, you alone.”

¹¹ tn Traditionally “the Most High.”

¹¹ tn Or perhaps “and feared by all gods.” See Ps 89:7.

¹³ tn The prefixed verbal form could be taken as a jussive, but the use of the imperfect form in the following line suggests that v. 7 anticipates the outcome of the accusation envisioned in v. 6.

¹⁴ tn Heb “he will go out [as] a criminal” (that is, guilty).