35:23 Rouse yourself, wake up 1 and vindicate me! 2
My God and Lord, defend my just cause! 3
73:20 They are like a dream after one wakes up. 4
O Lord, when you awake 5 you will despise them. 6
139:18 If I tried to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
Even if I finished counting them,
I would still have to contend with you. 7
3:5 I rested and slept;
I awoke, 8 for the Lord protects 9 me.
17:15 As for me, because I am innocent I will see your face; 10
when I awake you will reveal yourself to me. 11
44:23 Rouse yourself! Why do you sleep, O Lord?
Wake up! 12 Do not reject us forever!
59:5 You, O Lord God, the invincible warrior, 13 the God of Israel,
rouse yourself and punish 14 all the nations!
Have no mercy on any treacherous evildoers! (Selah)
1 sn Though he is confident that the Lord is aware of his situation (see v. 22a), the psalmist compares the Lord’s inactivity to sleep and urges him to wake up.
2 tn Heb “for my justice.”
3 tn Heb “for my cause.”
4 tn Heb “like a dream from awakening.” They lack any real substance; their prosperity will last for only a brief time.
5 sn When you awake. The psalmist compares God’s inactivity to sleep and the time of God’s judgment to his awakening from sleep.
6 tn Heb “you will despise their form.” The Hebrew term צֶלֶם (tselem, “form; image”) also suggests their short-lived nature. Rather than having real substance, they are like the mere images that populate one’s dreams. Note the similar use of the term in Ps 39:6.
7 tc Heb “I awake and I [am] still with you.” A reference to the psalmist awaking from sleep makes little, if any, sense contextually. For this reason some propose an emendation to הֲקִצּוֹתִי (haqitsoti), a Hiphil perfect form from an otherwise unattested verb קָצַץ (qatsats) understood as a denominative of קֵץ (qets, “end”). See L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 252-53.
10 tn The three verbal forms that appear in succession here (perfect + vav [ו] consecutive with preterite + perfect) are most naturally taken as narrational. When the psalmist received an assuring word from the
11 tn Or “supports”; “sustains.” In this explanatory causal clause the imperfect verbal form probably has a habitual or present progressive nuance, for the psalmist is confident of God’s continual protection (see v. 3). Another option is to take the verb as a preterite, “for the
13 tn Heb “I, in innocence, I will see your face.” To “see” God’s “face” means to have access to his presence and to experience his favor (see Ps 11:7; see also Job 33:26 [where רָאָה (ra’ah), not חָזַה (khazah), is used]). Here, however, the psalmist may be anticipating a mystical experience. See the following note on the word “me.”
14 tn Heb “I will be satisfied, when I awake, [with] your form.” The noun תְּמוּנָה (tÿmunah) normally carries the nuance “likeness” or “form.” In Job 4:16 it refers to a ghostlike spiritual entity (see v. 15) that revealed itself to Eliphaz during the night. The psalmist may anticipate a mystical encounter with God in which he expects to see a manifestation of God’s presence (i.e., a theophany), perhaps in conjunction with an oracle of deliverance. During the quiet darkness of the night, God examines the psalmist’s inner motives and finds them to be pure (see v. 3). The psalmist is confident that when he awakens, perhaps sometime during the night or in the morning, he will be visited by God and assured of vindication.
16 sn Wake up! See Ps 35:23.
19 tn Heb “
20 tn Heb “wake up to punish” (see Pss 35:23; 44:23).