3:4 To the Lord I cried out, 1
and he answered me from his holy hill. 2 (Selah)
10:17 Lord, you have heard 3 the request 4 of the oppressed;
you make them feel secure because you listen to their prayer. 5
40:17 I am oppressed and needy! 6
May the Lord pay attention to me! 7
You are my helper and my deliverer!
O my God, do not delay!
66:16 Come! Listen, all you who are loyal to God! 8
I will declare what he has done for me.
66:17 I cried out to him for help 9
and praised him with my tongue. 10
66:18 If I had harbored sin in my heart, 11
the Lord would not have listened.
66:19 However, God heard;
he listened to my prayer.
66:20 God deserves praise, 12
for 13 he did not reject my prayer
or abandon his love for me! 14
1 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.
2 sn His holy hill. That is, Zion (see Pss 2:6; 48:1-2). The psalmist recognizes that the
3 sn You have heard. The psalmist is confident that God has responded positively to his earlier petitions for divine intervention. The psalmist apparently prayed the words of vv. 16-18 after the reception of an oracle of deliverance (given in response to the confident petition of vv. 12-15) or after the Lord actually delivered him from his enemies.
4 tn Heb “desire.”
5 tn Heb “you make firm their heart, you cause your ear to listen.”
5 sn See Pss 35:10; 37:14.
6 tn The prefixed verbal form may be taken as a jussive of prayer (as in the present translation; cf. NIV) or as an imperfect, “The
7 tn Heb “all of the fearers of God.”
9 tn Heb “to him [with] my mouth I called.”
10 tn Heb “and he was extolled under my tongue.” The form רוֹמַם (romam) appears to be a polal (passive) participle from רוּם (rum, “be exalted”), but many prefer to read רוֹמָם, “high praise [was under my tongue]” (cf. NEB). See BDB 928 s.v. רוֹמָם.
11 tn Heb “sin if I had seen in my heart.”
13 tn Heb “blessed [be] God.”
14 tn Or “who.” In a blessing formula after בָּרוּךְ (barukh, “blessed be”) the form אֲשֶׁר (’asher), whether taken as a relative pronoun or causal particle, introduces the basis for the blessing/praise.
15 tn Heb “did not turn aside my prayer and his loyal love with me.”