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 27:6

27:6 Now I will triumph

over my enemies who surround me! ⁹ 

I will offer sacrifices in his dwelling place and shout for joy! ¹⁰ 

I will sing praises to the Lord!

Psalms 55:12

55:12 Indeed, ¹¹  it is not an enemy who insults me,

or else I could bear it;

it is not one who hates me who arrogantly taunts me, ¹² 

or else I could hide from him.

Psalms 68:18

68:18 You ascend on high, ¹³ 

you have taken many captives. ¹⁴ 

You receive tribute ¹⁵  from ¹⁶  men,

including even sinful rebels.

Indeed the Lord God lives there! ¹⁷ 

Psalms 72:16

72:16 May there be ¹⁸  an abundance ¹⁹  of grain in the earth;

on the tops ²⁰  of the mountains may it ²¹  sway! ²² 

May its ²³  fruit trees ²⁴  flourish ²⁵  like the forests of Lebanon! ²⁶ 

May its crops ²⁷  be as abundant ²⁸  as the grass of the earth! ²⁹ 

[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.

[27:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and now my head will be lifted up over my enemies all around me.”

[27:6]  ¹² tn Heb “I will sacrifice in his tent sacrifices of a shout for joy” (that is, “sacrifices accompanied by a joyful shout”).

[55:12]  ¹⁶ tn Or “for.”

[55:12]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “[who] magnifies against me.” See Pss 35:26; 38:16.

[68:18]  ²¹ tn Heb “to the elevated place”; or “on high.” This probably refers to the Lord’s throne on Mount Zion.

[68:18]  ²² tn Heb “you have taken captives captive.”

[68:18]  ²³ tn Or “gifts.”

[68:18]  ²⁴ tn Or “among.”

[68:18]  ²⁵ tn Heb “so that the Lord God might live [there].” Many take the infinitive construct with -לְ (lamed) as indicating purpose here, but it is unclear how the offering of tribute enables the Lord to live in Zion. This may be an occurrence of the relatively rare emphatic lamed (see HALOT 510-11 s.v. II לְ, though this text is not listed as an example there). If so, the statement corresponds nicely to the final line of v. 16, which also affirms emphatically that the Lord lives in Zion.

[72:16]  ²⁶ tn The prefixed verbal form is jussive, not imperfect. The translation assumes the subject is impersonal (rather than the king).

[72:16]  ²⁷ tn The Hebrew noun פִסַּה (pissah; which appears here in the construct form) occurs only here in the OT. Perhaps the noun is related to the verbal root פָּשָׂה (pasah, “to spread,” see BDB 832 s.v.; the root appears as פָּסָה [pasah] in postbiblical Hebrew), which is used in postbiblical Hebrew of the rising sun’s rays spreading over the horizon and a tree’s branches spreading out (see Jastrow 1194 s.v. פסי, פָּסָה, פָּשָׂה). In Ps 72:16 a “spreading of grain” would refer to grain fields extending out over the land. C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs (Psalms [ICC], 2:139) emend the form to סְפִיחַ (sÿfiakh, “second growth”).

[72:16]  ²⁸ tn Heb “top” (singular).

[72:16]  ²⁹ tn That is, the grain.

[72:16]  ³⁰ tn According to the traditional accentuation of the MT, this verb belongs with what follows. See the translator’s note at the end of the verse for a discussion of the poetic parallelism and interpretation of the verse.

[72:16]  ³¹ tn The antecedent of the third masculine singular pronominal suffix is unclear. It is unlikely that the antecedent is אֶרֶץ (’erets, “earth”) because this noun is normally grammatically feminine. Perhaps רֹאשׁ (ro’sh, “top [of the mountains]”) is the antecedent. Another option is to understand the pronoun as referring to the king, who would then be viewed as an instrument of divine agricultural blessing (see v. 6).

[72:16]  ³² tn Heb “fruit.”

[72:16]  ³³ tc According to the traditional accentuation of the MT, this verb belongs with what follows. See the note on the word “earth” at the end of the verse for a discussion of the poetic parallelism and interpretation of the verse. The present translation takes it with the preceding words, “like Lebanon its fruit” and emends the verb form from וְיָצִיצוּ (vÿyatsitsu; Qal imperfect third masculine plural with prefixed vav, [ו]) to יָצִיץ (yatsits; Qal imperfect third masculine singular). The initial vav is eliminated as dittographic (note the vav on the ending of the preceding form פִּרְיוֹ, piryo, “its/his fruit”) and the vav at the end of the form is placed on the following emended form (see the note on the word “crops”), yielding וַעֲמִיר (va’amir, “and [its] crops”).

[72:16]  ³⁴ tn Heb “like Lebanon.”

[72:16]  ³⁵ tc The MT has “from the city.” The translation assumes an emendation to עֲמִיר (’amir, “crops”).

[72:16]  ³⁶ tn The translation assumes that the verb צוץ (“flourish”) goes with the preceding line. The words “be as abundant” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[72:16]  ³⁷ tc The traditional accentuation and vocalization of the MT differ from the text assumed by the present translation. The MT reads as follows: “May there be an abundance of grain in the earth, / and on the tops of the mountains! / May its [or “his”?] fruit [trees?] rustle like [the trees of] Lebanon! / May they flourish from the city, like the grass of the earth!” If one follows the MT, then it would appear that the “fruit” of the third line is a metaphorical reference to the king’s people, who flow out from the cities to populate the land (see line 4). Elsewhere in the OT people are sometimes compared to grass that sprouts up from the land (see v. 7, as well as Isa 27:6; Pss 92:7; 103:15). The translation understands a different poetic structural arrangement and, assuming the emendations mentioned in earlier notes, interprets each line of the verse to be a prayer for agricultural abundance.