Psalms 22:1

Psalm 22 ¹ 

For the music director; according to the tune “Morning Doe;” ²  a psalm of David.

22:1 My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? ³ 

I groan in prayer, but help seems far away. ⁴ 

Psalms 22:11

22:11 Do not remain far away from me,

for trouble is near and I have no one to help me. ⁵ 

Psalms 22:19

22:19 But you, O Lord, do not remain far away!

You are my source of strength! ⁶  Hurry and help me! ⁷ 

Psalms 22:24

22:24 For he did not despise or detest the suffering ⁸  of the oppressed; ⁹ 

he did not ignore him; ¹⁰ 

when he cried out to him, he responded. ¹¹ 

Psalms 35:21-22

35:21 They are ready to devour me; ¹² 

they say, “Aha! Aha! We’ve got you!” ¹³ 

35:22 But you take notice, ¹⁴  Lord!

O Lord, do not remain far away from me!

[22:1]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Heb “according to the doe of the dawn.” Apparently this refers to a particular musical tune or style.

[22:1]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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.

[22:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “and there is no helper.”

[22:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “O my strength.”

[22:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “hurry to my help.”

[22:24]  ⁸ tn Or “affliction”; or “need.”

[22:24]  ⁹ sn In this verse the psalmist refers to himself in the third person and characterizes himself as oppressed.

[22:24]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he did not hide his face from him.” For other uses of the idiom “hide the face” meaning “ignore,” see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9. Sometimes the idiom carries the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 27:9; 88:14).

[22:24]  ¹¹ tn Heb “heard.”

[35:21]  ¹² tn Heb “and they cause their mouth to be wide against me.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive here carries on the generalizing mood of the previous verse. For other examples of this use of the prefixed verbal form with vav consecutive, see GKC 329 §111.t.

[35:21]  ¹³ tn Heb “our eye sees.” Apparently this is an idiom meaning to “look in triumph” or “gloat over” (see Ps 54:7).

[35:22]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “you see, O Lord.” There is a deliberate play on words. In v. 21 the enemies say, “our eye sees,” but the psalmist is confident that the Lord “sees” as well, so he appeals to him for help (see also v. 17).