Psalms 22:23-24

22:23 You loyal followers of the Lord, ¹  praise him!

All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!

All you descendants of Israel, stand in awe of him! ² 

22:24 For he did not despise or detest the suffering ³  of the oppressed; ⁴ 

he did not ignore him; ⁵ 

when he cried out to him, he responded. ⁶ 

Psalms 69:33-34

69:33 For the Lord listens to the needy;

he does not despise his captive people. ⁷ 

69:34 Let the heavens and the earth praise him,

along with the seas and everything that swims in them!

Psalms 116:1

Psalm 116 ⁸ 

116:1 I love the Lord

because he heard my plea for mercy, ⁹ 

[22:23]  ¹ tn Heb “[you] fearers of the Lord.” See Ps 15:4.

[22:23]  ² tn Heb “fear him.”

[22:24]  ³ tn Or “affliction”; or “need.”

[22:24]  ⁴ sn In this verse the psalmist refers to himself in the third person and characterizes himself as oppressed.

[22:24]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “heard.”

[69:33]  ⁷ tn Heb “his prisoners he does not despise.”

[116:1]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ 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).