Discovery BoxPsalms 17:1
ContextA prayer of David.
17:1 Lord, consider my just cause! 2
Pay attention to my cry for help!
Listen to the prayer
I sincerely offer! 3
Psalms 42:8
Context42:8 By day the Lord decrees his loyal love, 4
and by night he gives me a song, 5
a prayer 6 to the living God.
Psalms 86:1
ContextA prayer of David.
86:1 Listen 8 O Lord! Answer me!
For I am oppressed and needy.
Psalms 90:1
ContextBook 4
(Psalms 90-106)
A prayer of Moses, the man of God.
90:1 O Lord, you have been our protector 10 through all generations!
[17:1] 1 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.
[17:1] 2 tn Heb “hear,
[17:1] 3 tn Heb “Listen to my prayer, [made] without lips of deceit.”
[42:8] 4 sn The psalmist believes that the Lord has not abandoned him, but continues to extend his loyal love. To this point in the psalm, the author has used the name “God,” but now, as he mentions the divine characteristic of loyal love, he switches to the more personal divine name Yahweh (rendered in the translation as “the
[42:8] 5 tn Heb “his song [is] with me.”
[42:8] 6 tc A few medieval Hebrew
[86:1] 7 sn Psalm 86. The psalmist appeals to God’s mercy as he asks for deliverance from his enemies.
[86:1] 8 tn Heb “turn your ear.”
[90:1] 10 sn Psalm 90. In this communal lament the worship leader affirms that the eternal God and creator of the world has always been Israel’s protector. But God also causes men, who are as transient as grass, to die, and in his fierce anger he decimates his covenant community, whose brief lives are filled with suffering and end in weakness. The community asks for wisdom, the restoration of God’s favor, a fresh revelation of his power, and his blessing upon their labors.
