Psalms 28:1

Psalm 28 ¹ 

By David.

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

My protector, ²  do not ignore me! ³ 

If you do not respond to me, ⁴ 

I will join ⁵  those who are descending into the grave. ⁶ 

Psalms 143:8

143:8 May I hear about your loyal love in the morning, ⁷ 

for I trust in you.

Show me the way I should go, ⁸ 

because I long for you. ⁹ 

[28:1]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “do not be deaf from me.”

[28:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “lest [if] you are silent from me.”

[28:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “I will be equal with.”

[28:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “the pit.” The noun בּוֹר (bor, “pit, cistern”) is sometimes used of the grave and/or the realm of the dead.

[143:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “cause me to hear in the morning your loyal love.” Here “loyal love” probably stands metonymically for an oracle of assurance promising God’s intervention as an expression of his loyal love.

[143:8]  ⁸ sn The way probably refers here to God’s moral and ethical standards and requirements (see v. 10).

[143:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “for to you I lift up my life.” The Hebrew expression נָאָשׂ נֶפֶשׁ (na’as nefesh, “to lift up [one’s] life”) means “to desire; to long for” (see Deut 24:15; Prov 19:18; Jer 22:27; 44:14; Hos 4:8, as well as H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 16).