Psalms 109:26

109:26 Help me, O Lord my God!

Because you are faithful to me, deliver me! ¹ 

Psalms 119:94

119:94 I belong to you. Deliver me!

For I seek your precepts.

Psalms 119:146

119:146 I cried out to you, “Deliver me,

so that I can keep ²  your rules.”

Psalms 6:4

6:4 Relent, Lord, rescue me! ³ 

Deliver me because of your faithfulness! ⁴ 

Psalms 22:21

22:21 Rescue me from the mouth of the lion, ⁵ 

and from the horns of the wild oxen! ⁶ 

You have answered me! ⁷ 

Psalms 31:16

31:16 Smile ⁸  on your servant!

Deliver me because of your faithfulness!

Psalms 59:2

59:2 Deliver me from evildoers! ⁹ 

Rescue me from violent men! ¹⁰ 

[109:26]  ¹ tn Heb “deliver me according to your faithfulness.”

[119:146]  ² tn The cohortative verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the preceding imperative.

[6:4]  ³ tn Heb “my being,” or “my life.” The suffixed form of נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “being”) is often equivalent to a pronoun in poetic texts.

[6:4]  ⁴ sn Deliver me because of your faithfulness. Though the psalmist is experiencing divine discipline, he realizes that God has made a commitment to him in the past, so he appeals to God’s faithfulness in his request for help.

[22:21]  ⁴ sn The psalmist again compares his enemies to vicious dogs and ferocious lions (see vv. 13, 16).

[22:21]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew term רֵמִים (remim) appears to be an alternate spelling of רְאֵמִים (rÿ’emim, “wild oxen”; see BDB 910 s.v. רְאֵם).

[22:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “and from the horns of the wild oxen you answer me.” Most take the final verb with the preceding prepositional phrase. Some understand the verb form as a relatively rare precative perfect, expressing a wish or request (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. (See the discussion at Ps 3:7.) Others prefer to take the perfect in its usual indicative sense. The psalmist, perhaps in response to an oracle of salvation, affirms confidently that God has answered him, assuring him that deliverance is on the way. The present translation takes the prepositional phrase as parallel to the preceding “from the mouth of the lion” and as collocated with the verb “rescue” at the beginning of the verse. “You have answered me” is understood as a triumphant shout which marks a sudden shift in tone and introduces the next major section of the psalm. By isolating the statement syntactically, the psalmist highlights the declaration.

[31:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “cause your face to shine.”

[59:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “from the workers of wickedness.”

[59:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “from men of bloodshed.”