Psalms 22:2-5

22:2 My God, I cry out during the day,

but you do not answer,

and during the night my prayers do not let up. ¹ 

22:3 You are holy;

you sit as king receiving the praises of Israel. ² 

22:4 In you our ancestors ³  trusted;

they trusted in you ⁴  and you rescued them.

22:5 To you they cried out, and they were saved;

in you they trusted and they were not disappointed. ⁵ 

Psalms 34:6

34:6 This oppressed man cried out and the Lord heard;

he saved him ⁶  from all his troubles.

Psalms 50:15

50:15 Pray to me when you are in trouble! ⁷ 

I will deliver you, and you will honor me!” ⁸ 

Psalms 66:17-19

66:17 I cried out to him for help ⁹ 

and praised him with my tongue. ¹⁰ 

66:18 If I had harbored sin in my heart, ¹¹ 

the Lord would not have listened.

66:19 However, God heard;

he listened to my prayer.

Psalms 86:3-4

86:3 Have mercy on me, ¹²  O Lord,

for I cry out to you all day long!

86:4 Make your servant ¹³  glad,

for to you, O Lord, I pray! ¹⁴ 

Psalms 91:15

91:15 When he calls out to me, I will answer him.

I will be with him when he is in trouble;

I will rescue him and bring him honor.

Psalms 116:1-4

Psalm 116 ¹⁵ 

116:1 I love the Lord

because he heard my plea for mercy, ¹⁶ 

116:2 and listened to me. ¹⁷ 

As long as I live, I will call to him when I need help. ¹⁸ 

116:3 The ropes of death tightened around me, ¹⁹ 

the snares ²⁰  of Sheol confronted me.

I was confronted ²¹  with trouble and sorrow.

116:4 I called on the name of the Lord,

“Please Lord, rescue my life!”

Psalms 130:1-2

Psalm 130 ²² 

A song of ascents. ²³ 

130:1 From the deep water ²⁴  I cry out to you, O Lord.

130:2 O Lord, listen to me! ²⁵ 

Pay attention to ²⁶  my plea for mercy!

Psalms 138:3

138:3 When ²⁷  I cried out for help, you answered me.

You made me bold and energized me. ²⁸ 

Psalms 142:1-3

Psalm 142 ²⁹ 

A well-written song ³⁰  by David, when he was in the cave; ³¹  a prayer.

142:1 To the Lord I cry out; ³² 

to the Lord I plead for mercy. ³³ 

142:2 I pour out my lament before him;

I tell him about ³⁴  my troubles.

142:3 Even when my strength leaves me, ³⁵ 

you watch my footsteps. ³⁶ 

In the path where I walk

they have hidden a trap for me.

Isaiah 65:24

65:24 Before they even call out, ³⁷  I will respond;

while they are still speaking, I will hear.

Jeremiah 29:12-13

29:12 When you call out to me and come to me in prayer, ³⁸  I will hear your prayers. ³⁹  29:13 When you seek me in prayer and worship, you will find me available to you. If you seek me with all your heart and soul, ⁴⁰ 

Matthew 7:7

Ask, Seek, Knock

7:7 “Ask ⁴¹  and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door ⁴²  will be opened for you.

James 5:13

Prayer for the Sick

5:13 Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone in good spirits? He should sing praises.

[22:2]  ¹ tn Heb “there is no silence to me.”

[22:3]  ² tn Heb “[O] one who sits [on] the praises of Israel.” The verb “receiving” is supplied in the translation for clarity. The metaphorical language pictures the Lord as sitting enthroned as king in his temple, receiving the praises that his people Israel offer up to him.

[22:4]  ³ tn Heb “fathers.”

[22:4]  ⁴ tn The words “in you” are supplied in the translation. They are understood by ellipsis (see the preceding line).

[22:5]  ⁵ tn Or “were not ashamed.”

[34:6]  ⁶ tn The pronoun refers back to “this oppressed man,” namely, the psalmist.

[50:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “call [to] me in a day of trouble.”

[50:15]  ⁸ sn In vv. 7-15 the Lord makes it clear that he was not rebuking Israel because they had failed to offer sacrifices (v. 8a). On the contrary, they had been faithful in doing so (v. 8b). However, their understanding of the essence of their relationship with God was confused. Apparently they believed that he needed/desired such sacrifices and that offering them would ensure their prosperity. But the Lord owns all the animals of the world and did not need Israel’s meager sacrifices (vv. 9-13). Other aspects of the relationship were more important to the Lord. He desired Israel to be thankful for his blessings (v. 14a), to demonstrate gratitude for his intervention by repaying the vows they made to him (v. 14b), and to acknowledge their absolute dependence on him (v. 15a). Rather than viewing their sacrifices as somehow essential to God’s well-being, they needed to understand their dependence on him.

[66:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “to him [with] my mouth I called.”

[66:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and he was extolled under my tongue.” The form רוֹמַם (romam) appears to be a polal (passive) participle from רוּם (rum, “be exalted”), but many prefer to read רוֹמָם, “high praise [was under my tongue]” (cf. NEB). See BDB 928 s.v. רוֹמָם.

[66:18]  ¹¹ tn Heb “sin if I had seen in my heart.”

[86:3]  ¹² tn Or “show me favor.”

[86:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “the soul of your servant.”

[86:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “I lift up my soul.”

[116:1]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ 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).

[116:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “because he turned his ear to me.”

[116:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and in my days I will cry out.”

[116:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “surrounded me.”

[116:3]  ²⁰ tn The Hebrew noun מצר (“straits; distress”) occurs only here, Ps 118:5 and Lam 1:3. If retained, it refers to Sheol as a place where one is confined or severely restricted (cf. BDB 865 s.v. מֵצַר, “the straits of Sheol”; NIV “the anguish of the grave”; NRSV “the pangs of Sheol”). However, HALOT 624 s.v. מֵצַר suggests an emendation to מְצָדֵי (mÿtsadey, “snares of”), a rare noun attested in Job 19:6 and Eccl 7:26. This proposal, which is reflected in the translation, produces better parallelism with “ropes” in the preceding line.

[116:3]  ²¹ tn The translation assumes the prefixed verbal form is a preterite. The psalmist recalls the crisis from which the Lord delivered him.

[130:1]  ²² sn Psalm 130. The psalmist, confident of the Lord’s forgiveness, cries out to the Lord for help in the midst of his suffering and urges Israel to do the same.

[130:1]  ²³ sn The precise significance of this title, which appears in Pss 120-134, is unclear. Perhaps worshipers recited these psalms when they ascended the road to Jerusalem to celebrate annual religious festivals. For a discussion of their background see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 219-21.

[130:1]  ²⁴ tn Heb “depths,” that is, deep waters (see Ps 69:2, 14; Isa 51:10), a metaphor for the life-threatening danger faced by the psalmist.

[130:2]  ²⁵ tn Heb “my voice.”

[130:2]  ²⁶ tn Heb “may your ears be attentive to the voice of.”

[138:3]  ²⁷ tn Heb “in the day.”

[138:3]  ²⁸ tn Heb “you made me bold in my soul [with] strength.”

[142:1]  ²⁹ sn Psalm 142. The psalmist laments his persecuted state and asks the Lord to deliver him from his enemies.

[142:1]  ³⁰ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. The word is derived from a verb meaning “to be prudent; to be wise.” Various options are: “a contemplative song,” “a song imparting moral wisdom,” or “a skillful [i.e., well-written] song.” The term occurs in the superscriptions of Pss 32, 42, 44, 45, 52-55, 74, 78, 88, 89, and 142, as well as in Ps 47:7.

[142:1]  ³¹ sn According to the superscription, David wrote this psalm while in “the cave.” This probably refers to either the incident recorded in 1 Sam 22:1 or to the one recorded in 1 Sam 24:3. See the superscription of Ps 57.

[142:1]  ³² tn Heb “[with] my voice to the Lord I cry out.”

[142:1]  ³³ tn Heb “[with] my voice to the Lord I plead for mercy.”

[142:2]  ³⁴ tn Heb “my trouble before him I declare.”

[142:3]  ³⁵ tn Heb “my spirit grows faint.”

[142:3]  ³⁶ tn Heb “you know my path.”

[65:24]  ³⁷ tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[29:12]  ³⁸ tn Heb “come and pray to me.” This is an example of verbal hendiadys where two verb formally joined by “and” convey a main concept with the second verb functioning as an adverbial qualifier.

[29:12]  ³⁹ tn Or “You will call out to me and come to me in prayer and I will hear your prayers.” The verbs are vav consecutive perfects and can be taken either as unconditional futures or as contingent futures. See GKC 337 §112.kk and 494 §159.g and compare the usage in Gen 44:22 for the use of the vav consecutive perfects in contingent futures. The conditional clause in the middle of 29:13 and the deuteronomic theology reflected in both Deut 30:1-5 and 1 Kgs 8:46-48 suggest that the verbs are continent futures here. For the same demand for wholehearted seeking in these contexts which presuppose exile see especially Deut 30:2, 1 Kgs 8:48.

[29:13]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “If you wholeheartedly seek me”; Heb “You will seek me and find [me] because you will seek me with all your heart.” The translation attempts to reflect the theological nuances of “seeking” and “finding” and the psychological significance of “heart” which refers more to intellectual and volitional concerns in the OT than to emotional ones.

[7:7]  ⁴¹ sn The three present imperatives in this verse (Ask…seek…knock) are probably intended to call for a repeated or continual approach before God.

[7:7]  ⁴² tn Grk “it”; the referent (a door) is implied by the context and has been specified in the translation here and in v. 8 for clarity.