Psalms 27:7

27:7 Hear me, ¹  O Lord, when I cry out!

Have mercy on me and answer me!

Psalms 116:2

116:2 and listened to me. ² 

As long as I live, I will call to him when I need help. ³ 

Psalms 116:13

116:13 I will celebrate my deliverance, ⁴ 

and call on the name of the Lord.

Psalms 18:3

18:3 I called ⁵  to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, ⁶ 

and I was delivered from my enemies.

Psalms 30:8

30:8 To you, O Lord, I cried out;

I begged the Lord for mercy: ⁷ 

Psalms 55:16

55:16 As for me, I will call out to God,

and the Lord will deliver me.

Psalms 57:2

57:2 I cry out for help to the sovereign God, ⁸ 

to the God who vindicates ⁹  me.

Psalms 86:3

86:3 Have mercy on me, ¹⁰  O Lord,

for I cry out to you all day long!

Psalms 116:4

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

“Please Lord, rescue my life!”

Psalms 116:17

116:17 I will present a thank offering to you,

and call on the name of the Lord.

Psalms 3:4

3:4 To the Lord I cried out, ¹¹ 

and he answered me from his holy hill. ¹²  (Selah)

Psalms 22:2

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. ¹³ 

Psalms 56:9

56:9 My enemies will turn back when I cry out to you for help; ¹⁴ 

I know that God is on my side. ¹⁵ 

Psalms 61:2

61:2 From the most remote place on earth ¹⁶ 

I call out to you in my despair. ¹⁷ 

Lead me ¹⁸  up to an inaccessible rocky summit! ¹⁹ 

Psalms 18:6

18:6 In my distress I called to the Lord;

I cried out to my God. ²⁰ 

From his heavenly temple ²¹  he heard my voice;

he listened to my cry for help. ²² 

Psalms 28:1

Psalm 28 ²³ 

By David.

28:1 To you, O Lord, I cry out!

My protector, ²⁴  do not ignore me! ²⁵ 

If you do not respond to me, ²⁶ 

I will join ²⁷  those who are descending into the grave. ²⁸ 

Psalms 102:2

102:2 Do not ignore me in my time of trouble! ²⁹ 

Listen to me! ³⁰ 

When I call out to you, quickly answer me!

[27:7]  ¹ tn Heb “my voice.”

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

[116:2]  ³ tn Heb “and in my days I will cry out.”

[116:13]  ³ tn Heb “a cup of deliverance I will lift up.” Perhaps this alludes to a drink offering the psalmist will present as he thanks the Lord for his deliverance. See v. 17.

[18:3]  ⁴ tn In this song of thanksgiving, where the psalmist recalls how the Lord delivered him, the prefixed verbal form is best understood as a preterite indicating past tense, not an imperfect.

[18:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “worthy of praise, I cried out [to] the Lord.” Some take מְהֻלָּל (mÿhullal, “worthy of praise”) with what precedes and translate, “the praiseworthy one,” or “praiseworthy.” However, the various epithets in vv. 1-2 have the first person pronominal suffix, unlike מְהֻלָּל. If one follows the traditional verse division and takes מְהֻלָּל with what follows, it is best understood as substantival and as appositional to יְהוָה (yÿhvah): “[to the] praiseworthy one I cried out, [to the] Lord.”

[30:8]  ⁵ tn The prefixed verbal forms in v. 8 are probably preterites; the psalmist recalls that he prayed in his time of crisis.

[57:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “to God Most High.” The divine title “Most High” (עֶלְיוֹן, ’elyon) pictures God as the exalted ruler of the universe who vindicates the innocent and judges the wicked. See especially Ps 47:2.

[57:2]  ⁷ tn Or “avenges in favor of.”

[86:3]  ⁷ tn Or “show me favor.”

[3:4]  ⁸ tn The prefixed verbal form could be an imperfect, yielding the translation “I cry out,” but the verb form in the next line (a vav [ו] consecutive with the preterite) suggests this is a brief narrative of what has already happened. Consequently the verb form in v. 4a is better understood as a preterite, “I cried out.” (For another example of the preterite of this same verb form, see Ps 30:8.) Sometime after the crisis arose, the psalmist prayed to the Lord and received an assuring answer. Now he confidently awaits the fulfillment of the divine promise.

[3:4]  ⁹ sn His holy hill. That is, Zion (see Pss 2:6; 48:1-2). The psalmist recognizes that the Lord dwells in his sanctuary on Mount Zion.

[22:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “there is no silence to me.”

[56:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “then my enemies will turn back in the day I cry out.” The Hebrew particle אָז (’az, “then”) is probably used here to draw attention to the following statement.

[56:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “this I know, that God is for me.”

[61:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “from the end of the earth.” This may indicate (1) the psalmist is exiled in a distant land, or (2) it may be hyperbolic (the psalmist feels alienated from God’s presence, as if he were in a distant land).

[61:2]  ¹² tn Heb “while my heart faints.”

[61:2]  ¹³ tn The imperfect verbal form here expresses the psalmist’s wish or prayer.

[61:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “on to a rocky summit [that] is higher than I.”

[18:6]  ¹² tn In this poetic narrative context the four prefixed verbal forms in v. 6 are best understood as preterites indicating past tense, not imperfects.

[18:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “from his temple.” Verse 10, which pictures God descending from the sky, indicates that the heavenly temple is in view, not the earthly one.

[18:6]  ¹⁴ tc Heb “and my cry for help before him came into his ears.” 2 Sam 22:7 has a shorter reading, “my cry for help, in his ears.” It is likely that Ps 18:6 MT as it now stands represents a conflation of two readings: (1) “my cry for help came before him,” (2) “my cry for help came into his ears.” See F. M. Cross and D. N. Freedman, Studies in Ancient Yahwistic Poetry (SBLDS), 144, n. 13.

[28:1]  ¹³ sn Psalm 28. The author looks to the Lord for vindication, asks that the wicked be repaid in full for their evil deeds, and affirms his confidence that the Lord will protect his own.

[28:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “my rocky summit.” The Lord is compared to a rocky summit where one can find protection from enemies. See Ps 18:2.

[28:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “do not be deaf from me.”

[28:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “lest [if] you are silent from me.”

[28:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “I will be equal with.”

[28:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the pit.” The noun בּוֹר (bor, “pit, cistern”) is sometimes used of the grave and/or the realm of the dead.

[102:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “do not hide your face from me in the day of my trouble.” The idiom “to hide the face” can mean “to ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or carry the stronger idea of “to reject” (see Pss 29:7; 30:7; 88:14).

[102:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “turn toward me your ear.”