For the music director, to be accompanied by stringed instruments; a psalm of David.
4:1 When I call out, answer me,
O God who vindicates me! 2
Though I am hemmed in, you will lead me into a wide, open place. 3
Have mercy on me 4 and respond to 5 my prayer!
61:2 From the most remote place on earth 6
I call out to you in my despair. 7
Lead me 8 up to an inaccessible rocky summit! 9
61:3 Indeed, 10 you are 11 my shelter,
a strong tower that protects me from the enemy. 12
For the music director; to be played on a stringed instrument; written by David.
61:1 O God, hear my cry for help!
Pay attention to my prayer!
A prayer of David.
17:1 Lord, consider my just cause! 15
Pay attention to my cry for help!
Listen to the prayer
I sincerely offer! 16
17:2 Make a just decision on my behalf! 17
Decide what is right! 18
3:20 Now to him who by the power that is working within us 21 is able to do far beyond 22 all that we ask or think,
1 sn Psalm 4. The psalmist asks God to hear his prayer, expresses his confidence that the Lord will intervene, and urges his enemies to change their ways and place their trust in God. He concludes with another prayer for divine intervention and again affirms his absolute confidence in God’s protection.
2 tn Heb “God of my righteousness.”
3 tn Heb “in distress (or “a narrow place”) you make (a place) large for me.” The function of the Hebrew perfect verbal form here is uncertain. The translation above assumes that the psalmist is expressing his certitude and confidence that God will intervene. The psalmist is so confident of God’s positive response to his prayer, he can describe God’s deliverance as if it had already happened. Such confidence is consistent with the mood of the psalm (vv. 3, 8). Another option is to take the perfects as precative, expressing a wish or request (“lead me”). See IBHS 494-95 §30.5.4c, d. However, not all grammarians are convinced that the perfect is used as a precative in biblical Hebrew.
4 tn Or “show me favor.”
5 tn Heb “hear.”
6 tn Heb “from the end of the earth.” This may indicate (1) the psalmist is exiled in a distant land, or (2) it may be hyperbolic (the psalmist feels alienated from God’s presence, as if he were in a distant land).
7 tn Heb “while my heart faints.”
8 tn The imperfect verbal form here expresses the psalmist’s wish or prayer.
9 tn Heb “on to a rocky summit [that] is higher than I.”
10 tn Or “for.”
11 tn Or “have been.”
12 tn Heb “a strong tower from the face of an enemy.”
13 sn Psalm 61. The psalmist cries out for help and expresses his confidence that God will protect him.
14 sn Psalm 17. The psalmist asks God to intervene on his behalf because his life is threatened by dangerous enemies. He appeals to divine justice, for he is certain of his own innocence. Because he is innocent, he expects to encounter God and receive an assuring word.
15 tn Heb “hear,
16 tn Heb “Listen to my prayer, [made] without lips of deceit.”
17 tn Heb “From before you may my justice come out.” The prefixed verbal form יָצָא (yatsa’) could be taken as an imperfect, but following the imperatives in v. 1, it is better understood as a jussive of prayer.
18 tn Heb “May your eyes look at what is right.” The prefixed verbal form is understood as jussive. (See also the preceding note on the word “behalf.”)
19 tn The infinitive περιπατῆσαι (peripathsai, “to walk, to live, to live one’s life”) is best taken as an infinitive of purpose related to “praying” (προσευχόμενοι, proseucomenoi) and “asking” (αἰτούμενοι, aitoumenoi) in v. 9 and is thus translated as “that you may live.”
20 tn BDAG 129 s.v. ἀρεσκεία states that ἀρεσκείαν (areskeian) refers to a “desire to please εἰς πᾶσαν ἀ. to please (the Lord) in all respects Col 1:10.”
21 sn On the power that is working within us see 1:19-20.
22 tn Or “infinitely beyond,” “far more abundantly than.”