3:2 Many say about me,
“God will not deliver him.” 1 (Selah) 2
3:4 To the Lord I cried out, 3
and he answered me from his holy hill. 4 (Selah)
1 tn Heb “there is no deliverance for him in God.”
2 sn The function of the Hebrew term סֶלָה (selah), transliterated here “Selah,” is uncertain. It may be a musical direction of some kind.
3 tn The prefixed verbal form could be an imperfect, yielding the translation “I cry out,” but the verb form in the next line (a vav [ו] consecutive with the preterite) suggests this is a brief narrative of what has already happened. Consequently the verb form in v. 4a is better understood as a preterite, “I cried out.” (For another example of the preterite of this same verb form, see Ps 30:8.) Sometime after the crisis arose, the psalmist prayed to the Lord and received an assuring answer. Now he confidently awaits the fulfillment of the divine promise.
4 sn His holy hill. That is, Zion (see Pss 2:6; 48:1-2). The psalmist recognizes that the