Psalms 4:1

Psalm 4 ¹ 

For the music director, to be accompanied by stringed instruments; a psalm of David.

4:1 When I call out, answer me,

O God who vindicates me! ² 

Though I am hemmed in, you will lead me into a wide, open place. ³ 

Have mercy on me ⁴  and respond to ⁵  my prayer!

Psalms 18:6

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

I cried out to my God. ⁶ 

From his heavenly temple ⁷  he heard my voice;

he listened to my cry for help. ⁸ 

Psalms 22:24

22:24 For he did not despise or detest the suffering ⁹  of the oppressed; ¹⁰ 

he did not ignore him; ¹¹ 

when he cried out to him, he responded. ¹² 

Psalms 31:13

31:13 For I hear what so many are saying, ¹³ 

the terrifying news that comes from every direction. ¹⁴ 

When they plot together against me,

they figure out how they can take my life.

Psalms 31:22

31:22 I jumped to conclusions and said, ¹⁵ 

“I am cut off from your presence!” ¹⁶ 

But you heard my plea for mercy when I cried out to you for help.

Psalms 39:12

39:12 Hear my prayer, O Lord!

Listen to my cry for help!

Do not ignore my sobbing! ¹⁷ 

For I am dependent on you, like one residing outside his native land;

I am at your mercy, just as all my ancestors were. ¹⁸ 

Psalms 44:1

Psalm 44 ¹⁹ 

For the music director; by the Korahites, a well-written song. ²⁰ 

44:1 O God, we have clearly heard; ²¹ 

our ancestors ²²  have told us

what you did ²³  in their days,

in ancient times. ²⁴ 

Psalms 48:8

48:8 We heard about God’s mighty deeds, now we have seen them, ²⁵ 

in the city of the Lord, the invincible Warrior, ²⁶ 

in the city of our God.

God makes it permanently secure. ²⁷  (Selah)

Psalms 55:19

55:19 God, the one who has reigned as king from long ago,

will hear and humiliate them. ²⁸  (Selah)

They refuse to change,

and do not fear God. ²⁹ 

Psalms 85:8

85:8 I will listen to what God the Lord says. ³⁰ 

For he will make ³¹  peace with his people, his faithful followers. ³² 

Yet they must not ³³  return to their foolish ways.

Psalms 102:1

Psalm 102 ³⁴ 

The prayer of an oppressed man, as he grows faint and pours out his lament before the Lord.

102:1 O Lord, hear my prayer!

Pay attention to my cry for help! ³⁵ 

Psalms 143:8

143:8 May I hear about your loyal love in the morning, ³⁶ 

for I trust in you.

Show me the way I should go, ³⁷ 

because I long for you. ³⁸ 

[4:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 4. The psalmist asks God to hear his prayer, expresses his confidence that the Lord will intervene, and urges his enemies to change their ways and place their trust in God. He concludes with another prayer for divine intervention and again affirms his absolute confidence in God’s protection.

[4:1]  ² tn Heb “God of my righteousness.”

[4:1]  ³ tn Heb “in distress (or “a narrow place”) you make (a place) large for me.” The function of the Hebrew perfect verbal form here is uncertain. The translation above assumes that the psalmist is expressing his certitude and confidence that God will intervene. The psalmist is so confident of God’s positive response to his prayer, he can describe God’s deliverance as if it had already happened. Such confidence is consistent with the mood of the psalm (vv. 3, 8). Another option is to take the perfects as precative, expressing a wish or request (“lead me”). See IBHS 494-95 §30.5.4c, d. However, not all grammarians are convinced that the perfect is used as a precative in biblical Hebrew.

[4:1]  ⁴ tn Or “show me favor.”

[4:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “hear.”

[18:6]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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.

[22:24]  ¹¹ tn Or “affliction”; or “need.”

[22:24]  ¹² sn In this verse the psalmist refers to himself in the third person and characterizes himself as oppressed.

[22:24]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “heard.”

[31:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the report of many.”

[31:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the terror from all around.”

[31:22]  ²¹ tn Heb “and I, I said in my haste.”

[31:22]  ²² tn Heb “from before your eyes.”

[39:12]  ²⁶ tn Heb “do not be deaf to my tears.”

[39:12]  ²⁷ tn Heb “For a resident alien [am] I with you, a sojourner like all my fathers.”

[44:1]  ³¹ sn Psalm 44. The speakers in this psalm (the worshiping community within the nation Israel) were disappointed with God. The psalm begins on a positive note, praising God for leading Israel to past military victories. Verses 1-8 appear to be a song of confidence and petition which the people recited prior to battle. But suddenly the mood changes as the nation laments a recent defeat. The stark contrast between the present and the past only heightens the nation’s confusion. Israel trusted in God for victory, but the Lord rejected them and allowed them to be humiliated in battle. If Israel had been unfaithful to God, their defeat would make sense, but the nation was loyal to the Lord. Comparing the Lord to a careless shepherd, the nation urges God to wake up and to extend his compassion to his suffering people.

[44:1]  ³² tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. See the note on the phrase “well-written song” in the superscription of Ps 42.

[44:1]  ³³ tn Heb “with our ears we have heard.”

[44:1]  ³⁴ tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 2; the same Hebrew word may be translated either “fathers” or “ancestors” depending on the context.

[44:1]  ³⁵ tn Heb “the work you worked.”

[44:1]  ³⁶ tn Heb “in the days of old.” This refers specifically to the days of Joshua, during Israel’s conquest of the land, as vv. 2-3 indicate.

[48:8]  ³⁶ tn Heb “As we have heard, so we have seen.” The community had heard about God’s mighty deeds in the nation’s history. Having personally witnessed his saving power with their own eyes, they could now affirm that the tradition was not exaggerated or inaccurate.

[48:8]  ³⁷ tn Heb “the Lord of hosts.” The title “Lord of hosts” here pictures the Lord as a mighty warrior-king who leads armies into battle (see Pss 24:10; 46:7, 11).

[48:8]  ³⁸ tn Or “God makes it secure forever.” The imperfect highlights the characteristic nature of the generalizing statement.

[55:19]  ⁴¹ tc Heb “God will hear and answer them, even [the] one who sits [from] ancient times.” The prefixed verbal from with vav (ו) consecutive carries on the anticipatory force of the preceding imperfect. The verb appears to be a Qal form from עָנָה (’anah, “to answer”). If this reading is retained, the point would be that God “answered” them in judgment. The translation assumes an emendation to the Piel וַיְעַנֵּם (vay’annem; see 2 Kgs 17:20) and understands the root as עָנָה (’anah, “to afflict”; see also 1 Kgs 8:35).

[55:19]  ⁴² tn Heb “[the ones] for whom there are no changes, and they do not fear God.”

[85:8]  ⁴⁶ sn I will listen. Having asked for the Lord’s favor, the psalmist (who here represents the nation) anticipates a divine word of assurance.

[85:8]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “speak.” The idiom “speak peace” refers to establishing or maintaining peaceful relations with someone (see Gen 37:4; Zech 9:10; cf. Ps 122:8).

[85:8]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “to his people and to his faithful followers.” The translation assumes that “his people” and “his faithful followers” are viewed as identical here.

[85:8]  ⁴⁹ tn Or “yet let them not.” After the negative particle אֵל (’el), the prefixed verbal form is jussive, indicating the speaker’s desire or wish.

[102:1]  ⁵¹ sn Psalm 102. The psalmist laments his oppressed state, but longs for a day when the Lord will restore Jerusalem and vindicate his suffering people.

[102:1]  ⁵² tn Heb “and may my cry for help come to you.”

[143:8]  ⁵⁶ 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]  ⁵⁷ sn The way probably refers here to God’s moral and ethical standards and requirements (see v. 10).

[143:8]  ⁵⁸ 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).