Psalms 22:19

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

You are my source of strength! ¹  Hurry and help me! ² 

Psalms 35:22

35:22 But you take notice, ³  Lord!

O Lord, do not remain far away from me!

Psalms 38:21

38:21 Do not abandon me, O Lord!

My God, do not remain far away from me!

Psalms 55:7

55:7 Look, I will escape to a distant place;

I will stay in the wilderness. (Selah)

Psalms 71:12

71:12 O God, do not remain far away from me!

My God, hurry and help me! ⁴ 

Psalms 88:18

88:18 You cause my friends and neighbors to keep their distance; ⁵ 

those who know me leave me alone in the darkness. ⁶ 

Psalms 109:17

109:17 He loved to curse ⁷  others, so those curses have come upon him. ⁸ 

He had no desire to bless anyone, so he has experienced no blessings. ⁹ 

[22:19]  ¹ tn Heb “O my strength.”

[22:19]  ² tn Heb “hurry to my help.”

[35:22]  ³ 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).

[71:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “hurry to my help.”

[88:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “you cause to be far from me friend and neighbor.”

[88:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “those known by me, darkness.”

[109:17]  ⁹ sn A curse in OT times consists of a formal appeal to God to bring judgment down upon another. Curses were sometimes justified (such as the one spoken by the psalmist here in vv. 6-19), but when they were not, the one pronouncing the curse was in danger of bringing the anticipated judgment down upon himself.

[109:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and he loved a curse and it came [upon] him.” A reference to the evil man experiencing a curse seems premature here, for the psalmist is asking God to bring judgment on his enemies. For this reason some (cf. NIV, NRSV) prefer to repoint the vav (ו) on “it came” as conjunctive and translate the verb as a jussive of prayer (“may it come upon him!”). The prefixed form with vav consecutive in the next line is emended in the same way and translated, “may it be far from him.” However, the psalmist may be indicating that the evil man’s lifestyle has already begun to yield its destructive fruit.

[109:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and he did not delight in a blessing and it is far from him.”