Psalms 22:1-2

Psalm 22 ¹ 

For the music director; according to the tune “Morning Doe;” ²  a psalm of David.

22:1 My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? ³ 

I groan in prayer, but help seems far away. ⁴ 

22:2 My God, I cry out during the day,

but you do not answer,

and during the night my prayers do not let up. ⁵ 

Deuteronomy 31:17

31:17 At that time ⁶  my anger will erupt against them ⁷  and I will abandon them and hide my face from them until they are devoured. Many disasters and distresses will overcome ⁸  them ⁹  so that they ¹⁰  will say at that time, ‘Have not these disasters ¹¹  overcome us ¹²  because our ¹³  God is not among us ¹⁴ ?’

Job 13:24

13:24 Why do you hide your face ¹⁵ 

and regard me as your enemy?

Isaiah 59:2

59:2 But your sinful acts have alienated you from your God;

your sins have caused him to reject you and not listen to your prayers. ¹⁶ 

¹ 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.

² tn Heb “according to the doe of the dawn.” Apparently this refers to a particular musical tune or style.

³ 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).

⁴ 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.

⁵ tn Heb “there is no silence to me.”

⁶ tn Heb “on that day.” This same expression also appears later in the verse and in v. 18.

⁷ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

⁸ tn Heb “find,” “encounter.”

⁹ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

¹⁰ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

¹¹ tn Heb “evils.”

¹² tn Heb “me.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “us,” which is necessary in any case in the translation because of contemporary English style.

¹³ tn Heb “my.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “me.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “us,” which is necessary in any case in the translation because of contemporary English style.

¹⁵ sn The anthropomorphism of “hide the face” indicates a withdrawal of favor and an outpouring of wrath (see Ps 30:7 [8]; Isa 54:8; Ps 27:9). Sometimes God “hides his face” to make himself invisible or aloof (see 34:29). In either case, if God covers his face it is because he considers Job an enemy – at least this is what Job thinks.

¹⁶ tn Heb “and your sins have caused [his] face to be hidden from you so as not to hear.”