27:7 Hear me, 1 O Lord, when I cry out!
Have mercy on me and answer me!
For the music director, to be accompanied by stringed instruments; a well-written song 3 by David.
55:1 Listen, O God, to my prayer!
Do not ignore 4 my appeal for mercy!
55:2 Pay attention to me and answer me!
I am so upset 5 and distressed, 6 I am beside myself, 7
A song of ascents. 9
130:1 From the deep water 10 I cry out to you, O Lord.
130:2 O Lord, listen to me! 11
Pay attention to 12 my plea for mercy!
A psalm of David.
141:1 O Lord, I cry out to you. Come quickly to me!
Pay attention to me when I cry out to you!
A psalm of David.
143:1 O Lord, hear my prayer!
Pay attention to my plea for help!
Because of your faithfulness and justice, answer me!
143:2 Do not sit in judgment on 15 your servant,
for no one alive is innocent before you. 16
143:3 Certainly 17 my enemies 18 chase me.
They smash me into the ground. 19
They force me to live 20 in dark regions, 21
like those who have been dead for ages.
ק (Qof)
3:55 I have called on your name, O Lord,
from the deepest pit. 22
3:56 You heard 23 my plea: 24
“Do not close your ears to my cry for relief!” 25
1 tn Heb “my voice.”
2 sn Psalm 55. The suffering and oppressed author laments that one of his friends has betrayed him, but he is confident that God will vindicate him by punishing his deceitful enemies.
3 tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. See the note on the phrase “well-written song” in the superscription of Ps 52.
4 tn Heb “hide yourself from.”
5 tn Or “restless” (see Gen 27:40). The Hiphil is intransitive-exhibitive, indicating the outward display of an inner attitude.
6 tn Heb “in my complaint.”
7 tn The verb is a Hiphil cohortative from הוּם (hum), which means “to confuse someone” in the Qal and “to go wild” in the Niphal. An Arabic cognate means “to be out of one’s senses, to wander about.” With the vav (ו) conjunctive prefixed to it, the cohortative probably indicates the result or effect of the preceding main verb. Some prefer to emend the form to וְאֵהוֹמָה (vÿ’ehomah), a Niphal of הוּם (hum), or to וְאֶהַמֶה (vÿ’ehameh), a Qal imperfect from הָמָה (hamah, “to moan”). Many also prefer to take this verb with what follows (see v. 3).
8 sn Psalm 130. The psalmist, confident of the Lord’s forgiveness, cries out to the Lord for help in the midst of his suffering and urges Israel to do the same.
9 sn The precise significance of this title, which appears in Pss 120-134, is unclear. Perhaps worshipers recited these psalms when they ascended the road to Jerusalem to celebrate annual religious festivals. For a discussion of their background see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 219-21.
10 tn Heb “depths,” that is, deep waters (see Ps 69:2, 14; Isa 51:10), a metaphor for the life-threatening danger faced by the psalmist.
11 tn Heb “my voice.”
12 tn Heb “may your ears be attentive to the voice of.”
13 sn Psalm 141. The psalmist asks God to protect him from sin and from sinful men.
14 sn Psalm 143. As in the previous psalm, the psalmist laments his persecuted state and asks the Lord to deliver him from his enemies.
15 tn Heb “do not enter into judgment with.”
16 tn Heb “for no one living is innocent before you.”
17 tn Or “for.”
18 tn Heb “an enemy.” The singular is used in a representative sense to describe a typical member of the larger group of enemies (note the plural “enemies” in vv. 9, 12).
19 tn Heb “he crushes on the ground my life.”
20 tn Or “sit.”
21 sn Dark regions refers to Sheol, which the psalmist views as a dark place located deep in the ground (see Ps 88:6).
22 tn Heb “from a pit of lowest places.”
23 tn The verb could be understood as a precative, “hear my plea,” parallel to the following volitive verb, “do not close.”
24 tn Heb “my voice.”
25 tn The preposition ל (lamed) continues syntactically from “my plea” in the previous line (e.g. Ex 5:2; Josh 22:2; 1 Sam 8:7; 12:1; Jer 43:4).