Psalms 7:3

7:3 O Lord my God, if I have done what they say, ¹ 

or am guilty of unjust actions, ² 

Psalms 13:3

13:3 Look at me! ³  Answer me, O Lord my God!

Revive me, ⁴  or else I will die! ⁵ 

Psalms 22:1-2

Psalm 22 ⁶ 

For the music director; according to the tune “Morning Doe;” ⁷  a psalm of David.

22:1 My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? ⁸ 

I groan in prayer, but help seems far away. ⁹ 

22:2 My God, I cry out during the day,

but you do not answer,

and during the night my prayers do not let up. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 88:1

Psalm 88 ¹¹ 

A song, a psalm written by the Korahites; for the music director; according to the machalath-leannoth style; ¹²  a well-written song ¹³  by Heman the Ezrachite.

88:1 O Lord God who delivers me! ¹⁴ 

By day I cry out

and at night I pray before you. ¹⁵ 

[7:3]  ¹ tn Heb “if I have done this.”

[7:3]  ² tn Heb “if there is injustice in my hands.” The “hands” figuratively suggest deeds or actions.

[13:3]  ³ tn Heb “see.”

[13:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “Give light [to] my eyes.” The Hiphil of אוּר (’ur), when used elsewhere with “eyes” as object, refers to the law of God giving moral enlightenment (Ps 19:8), to God the creator giving literal eyesight to all people (Prov 29:13), and to God giving encouragement to his people (Ezra 9:8). Here the psalmist pictures himself as being on the verge of death. His eyes are falling shut and, if God does not intervene soon, he will “fall asleep” for good.

[13:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “or else I will sleep [in?] the death.” Perhaps the statement is elliptical, “I will sleep [the sleep] of death,” or “I will sleep [with the sleepers in] death.”

[22:1]  ⁶ sn Psalm 22. The psalmist cries out to the Lord for deliverance from his dangerous enemies, who have surrounded him and threaten his life. Confident that the Lord will intervene, he then vows to thank the Lord publicly for his help and anticipates a time when all people will recognize the Lord’s greatness and worship him.

[22:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “according to the doe of the dawn.” Apparently this refers to a particular musical tune or style.

[22:1]  ⁸ sn From the psalmist’s perspective it seems that God has abandoned him, for he fails to answer his cry for help (vv. 1b-2).

[22:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “far from my deliverance [are] the words of my groaning.” The Hebrew noun שְׁאָגָה (shÿ’agah) and its related verb שָׁאַג (sha’ag) are sometimes used of a lion’s roar, but they can also describe human groaning (see Job 3:24 and Pss 32:3 and 38:8.

[22:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “there is no silence to me.”

[88:1]  ¹¹ sn Psalm 88. The psalmist cries out in pain to the Lord, begging him for relief from his intense and constant suffering. The psalmist regards God as the ultimate cause of his distress, but nevertheless clings to God in hope.

[88:1]  ¹² tn The Hebrew phrase מָחֲלַת לְעַנּוֹת (makhalat lÿ’annot) may mean “illness to afflict.” Perhaps it refers to a particular style of music, a tune title, or a musical instrument. The term מָחֲלַת also appears in the superscription of Ps 53.

[88:1]  ¹³ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. The word is derived from a verb meaning “to be prudent; to be wise.” Various options are: “a contemplative song,” “a song imparting moral wisdom,” or “a skillful [i.e., well-written] song.” The term occurs in the superscriptions of Pss 32, 42, 44, 45, 52-55, 74, 78, 88, 89, and 142, as well as in Ps 47:7.

[88:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “O Lord God of my deliverance.” In light of the content of the psalm, this reference to God as the one who delivers seems overly positive. For this reason some emend the text to אַלֹהַי שִׁוַּעְתִּי (’alohay shivva’tiy, “[O Lord] my God, I cry out”). See v. 13.

[88:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “[by] day I cry out, in the night before you.”