Psalms 143:4

143:4 My strength leaves me; ¹ 

I am absolutely shocked. ² 

Psalms 77:3

77:3 I said, “I will remember God while I groan;

I will think about him while my strength leaves me.” ³  (Selah)

Psalms 31:5

31:5 Into your hand I entrust my life; ⁴ 

you will rescue ⁵  me, O Lord, the faithful God.

Psalms 77:6

77:6 I said, “During the night I will remember the song I once sang;

I will think very carefully.”

I tried to make sense of what was happening. ⁶ 

Psalms 142:3

142:3 Even when my strength leaves me, ⁷ 

you watch my footsteps. ⁸ 

In the path where I walk

they have hidden a trap for me.

Psalms 143:7

143:7 Answer me quickly, Lord!

My strength is fading. ⁹ 

Do not reject me, ¹⁰ 

or I will join ¹¹  those descending into the grave. ¹² 

[143:4]  ¹ tn Heb “my spirit grows faint.”

[143:4]  ² tn Heb “in my midst my heart is shocked.” For a similar use of the Hitpolel of שָׁמֵם (shamem), see Isa 59:16; 63:5.

[77:3]  ³ tn Heb “I will remember God and I will groan, I will reflect and my spirit will grow faint.” The first three verbs are cohortatives, the last a perfect with vav (ו) consecutive. The psalmist’s statement in v. 4 could be understood as concurrent with v. 1, or, more likely, as a quotation of what he had said earlier as he prayed to God (see v. 2). The words “I said” are supplied in the translation at the beginning of the verse to reflect this interpretation (see v. 10).

[31:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “my spirit.” The noun רוּחַ (ruakh, “spirit”) here refers to the animating spirit that gives the psalmist life.

[31:5]  ⁶ tn Or “redeem.” The perfect verbal form is understood here as anticipatory, indicating rhetorically the psalmist’s certitude and confidence that God will intervene. The psalmist is so confident of God’s positive response to his prayer that he can describe his deliverance as if it had already happened. Another option is to take the perfect as precative, expressing a wish or request (“rescue me”; cf. NIV). 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.

[77:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “I will remember my song in the night, with my heart I will reflect. And my spirit searched.” As in v. 4, the words of v. 6a are understood as what the psalmist said earlier. Consequently the words “I said” are supplied in the translation for clarification (see v. 10). The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive at the beginning of the final line is taken as sequential to the perfect “I thought” in v. 6.

[142:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “my spirit grows faint.”

[142:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “you know my path.”

[143:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “my spirit is failing.”

[143:7]  ¹² tn Heb “do not hide your face from me.” The idiom “hide the face” (1) can mean “ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or (2) can carry the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 30:7; 88:14).

[143:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “I will be equal with.”

[143:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the pit.” The Hebrew noun בּוֹר (bor, “pit; cistern”) is sometimes used of the grave and/or the realm of the dead. See Ps 28:1.