Psalms 116:1

Psalm 116 ¹ 

116:1 I love the Lord

because he heard my plea for mercy, ² 

Psalms 130:2

130:2 O Lord, listen to me! ³ 

Pay attention to ⁴  my plea for mercy!

Psalms 28:2

28:2 Hear my plea for mercy when I cry out to you for help,

when I lift my hands ⁵  toward your holy temple! ⁶ 

Psalms 140:6

140:6 I say to the Lord, “You are my God.”

O Lord, pay attention to my plea for mercy!

Psalms 143:1

Psalm 143 ⁷ 

A psalm of David.

143:1 O Lord, hear my prayer!

Pay attention to my plea for help!

Because of your faithfulness and justice, answer me!

[116:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 116. The psalmist thanks the Lord for delivering him from a life threatening crisis and promises to tell the entire covenant community what God has done for him.

[116:1]  ² tn Heb “I love because the Lord heard my voice, my pleas.” It is possible that “the Lord” originally appeared directly after “I love” and was later accidentally misplaced. The translation assumes the prefixed verbal form is a preterite. The psalmist recalls that God heard his cry for help (note the perfect in v. 2a and the narrative in vv. 3-4).

[130:2]  ³ tn Heb “my voice.”

[130:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “may your ears be attentive to the voice of.”

[28:2]  ⁵ sn I lift my hands. Lifting one’s hands toward God was a gesture of prayer.

[28:2]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew term דְּבִיר (dÿvir, “temple”) actually refers to the most holy place within the sanctuary.

[143:1]  ⁷ sn Psalm 143. As in the previous psalm, the psalmist laments his persecuted state and asks the Lord to deliver him from his enemies.