Psalms 22:24-31

Context

22:24 For he did not despise or detest the suffering¹ of the oppressed;²

he did not ignore him;³

when he cried out to him, he responded.⁴

22:25 You are the reason I offer praise⁵ in the great assembly;

I will fulfill my promises before the Lord’s loyal followers.⁶

22:26 Let the oppressed eat and be filled!⁷

Let those who seek his help praise the Lord!

May you⁸ live forever!

22:27 Let all the people of the earth acknowledge the Lord and turn to him!⁹

Let all the nations¹⁰ worship you!¹¹

22:28 For the Lord is king¹²

and rules over the nations.

22:29 All of the thriving people¹³ of the earth will join the celebration and worship;¹⁴

all those who are descending into the grave¹⁵ will bow before him,

including those who cannot preserve their lives.¹⁶

22:30 A whole generation¹⁷ will serve him;

they will tell the next generation about the sovereign Lord.¹⁸

22:31 They will come and tell about his saving deeds;¹⁹

they will tell a future generation what he has accomplished.²⁰

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

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

[22:24] ³tn 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] ⁴tn Heb “heard.”

[22:25] ⁵tn Heb “from with you [is] my praise.”

[22:25] ⁶tn Heb “my vows I will fulfill before those who fear him.” When asking the Lord for help, the psalmists would typically promise to praise the Lord publicly if he intervened and delivered them.

[22:26] ⁷sn Eat and be filled. In addition to praising the Lord, the psalmist also offers a thank offering to the Lord and invites others to share in a communal meal.

[22:26] ⁸tn Heb “may your heart[s].”

[22:27] ⁹tn Heb “may all the ends of the earth remember and turn to the Lord.” The prefixed verbal forms in v. 27 are understood as jussives (cf. NEB). Another option (cf. NIV, NRSV) is to take the forms as imperfects and translate, “all the people of the earth will acknowledge and turn…and worship.” See vv. 29-32.

[22:27] ¹⁰tn Heb “families of the nations.”

[22:27] ¹¹tn Heb “before you.”

[22:28] ¹²tn Heb “for to the Lord [is] dominion.”

[22:29] ¹³tn Heb “fat [ones].” This apparently refers to those who are healthy and robust, i.e., thriving. In light of the parallelism, some prefer to emend the form to יְשֵׁנֵי (yÿsheney, “those who sleep [in the earth]”; cf. NAB, NRSV), but דִּשְׁנֵי (dishney, “fat [ones]”) seems to form a merism with “all who descend into the grave” in the following line. The psalmist envisions all people, whether healthy or dying, joining in worship of the Lord.

[22:29] ¹⁴tn Heb “eat and worship.” The verb forms (a perfect followed by a prefixed form with vav [ו] consecutive) are normally used in narrative to relate completed actions. Here the psalmist uses the forms rhetorically as he envisions a time when the Lord will receive universal worship. The mood is one of wishful thinking and anticipation; this is not prophecy in the strict sense.

[22:29] ¹⁵tn Heb “all of the ones going down [into] the dust.” This group stands in contrast to those mentioned in the previous line. Together the two form a merism encompassing all human beings – the healthy, the dying, and everyone in between.

[22:29] ¹⁶tn Heb “and his life he does not revive.”

[22:30] ¹⁷tn Heb “offspring.”

[22:30] ¹⁸tn Heb “it will be told concerning the Lord to the generation.” The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[22:31] ¹⁹tn Heb “his righteousness.” Here the noun צִדָקָה (tsidaqah) refers to the Lord’s saving deeds whereby he vindicates the oppressed.

[22:31] ²⁰tn Heb “to a people [to be] born that he has acted.” The words “they will tell” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.