Psalms 22:24

22:24 For he did not despise or detest the suffering ¹  of the oppressed; ² 

he did not ignore him; ³ 

when he cried out to him, he responded. ⁴ 

Psalms 42:5

42:5 Why are you depressed, ⁵  O my soul? ⁶ 

Why are you upset? ⁷ 

Wait for God!

For I will again give thanks

to my God for his saving intervention. ⁸ 

[22:24]  ¹ tn Or “affliction”; or “need.”

[22:24]  ² sn In this verse the psalmist refers to himself in the third person and characterizes himself as oppressed.

[22:24]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “heard.”

[42:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “Why do you bow down?”

[42:5]  ⁶ sn For poetic effect the psalmist addresses his soul, or inner self.

[42:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “and [why] are you in turmoil upon me?” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive here carries on the descriptive present nuance of the preceding imperfect. See GKC 329 §111.t.

[42:5]  ⁸ tc Heb “for again I will give him thanks, the saving acts of his face.” The verse division in the Hebrew text is incorrect. אֱלֹהַי (’elohay, “my God”) at the beginning of v. 7 belongs with the end of v. 6 (see the corresponding refrains in 42:11 and 43:5, both of which end with “my God” after “saving acts of my face”). The Hebrew term פָּנָיו (panayv, “his face”) should be emended to פְּנֵי (pÿney, “face of”). The emended text reads, “[for] the saving acts of the face of my God,” that is, the saving acts associated with God’s presence/intervention.