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 52:1

Psalm 52 ⁶ 

For the music director; a well-written song ⁷  by David. It was written when Doeg the Edomite went and informed Saul: “David has arrived at the home of Ahimelech.” ⁸ 

52:1 Why do you boast about your evil plans, ⁹  O powerful man?

God’s loyal love protects me all day long! ¹⁰ 

Psalms 65:9

65:9 You visit the earth and give it rain; ¹¹ 

you make it rich and fertile ¹² 

with overflowing streams full of water. ¹³ 

You provide grain for them, ¹⁴ 

for you prepare the earth to yield its crops. ¹⁵ 

Psalms 90:10

90:10 The days of our lives add up to seventy years, ¹⁶ 

or eighty, if one is especially strong. ¹⁷ 

But even one’s best years are marred by trouble and oppression. ¹⁸ 

Yes, ¹⁹  they pass quickly ²⁰  and we fly away. ²¹ 

[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.”

[52:1]  ⁶ sn Psalm 52. The psalmist confidently confronts his enemy and affirms that God will destroy evildoers and vindicate the godly.

[52:1]  ⁷ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. The word is derived from a verb meaning “to be prudent; to be wise.” Various options are: “a contemplative song,” “a song imparting moral wisdom,” or “a skillful [i.e., well-written] song.” The term occurs in the superscriptions of Pss 32, 42, 44, 45, 52-55, 74, 78, 88, 89, and 142, as well as in Ps 47:7.

[52:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul and said to him, ‘David has come to the house of Ahimelech.’”

[52:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “Why do you boast in evil?”

[52:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the loyal love of God [is] all the day.” In this context, where the psalmist is threatened by his enemy, the point seems to be that the psalmist is protected by God’s loyal love at all times.

[65:9]  ¹¹ tn The verb form is a Polel from שׁוּק (shuq, “be abundant”), a verb which appears only here and in Joel 2:24 and 3:13, where it is used in the Hiphil stem and means “overflow.”

[65:9]  ¹² tn Heb “you greatly enrich it.”

[65:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “[with] a channel of God full of water.” The divine name is probably used here in a superlative sense to depict a very deep stream (“a stream fit for God,” as it were).

[65:9]  ¹⁴ tn The pronoun apparently refers to the people of the earth, mentioned in v. 8.

[65:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “for thus [referring to the provision of rain described in the first half of the verse] you prepare it.” The third feminine singular pronominal suffix attached to the verb “prepare” refers back to the “earth,” which is a feminine noun with regard to grammatical form.

[90:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the days of our years, in them [are] seventy years.”

[90:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “or if [there is] strength, eighty years.”

[90:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and their pride [is] destruction and wickedness.” The Hebrew noun רֹהַב (rohav) occurs only here. BDB 923 s.v. assigns the meaning “pride,” deriving the noun from the verbal root רהב (“to act stormily [boisterously, arrogantly]”). Here the “pride” of one’s days (see v. 9) probably refers to one’s most productive years in the prime of life. The words translated “destruction and wickedness” are also paired in Ps 10:7. They also appear in proximity in Pss 7:14 and 55:10. The oppressive and abusive actions of evil men are probably in view (see Job 4:8; 5:6; 15:35; Isa 10:1; 59:4).

[90:10]  ¹⁹ tn or “for.”

[90:10]  ²⁰ tn Heb “it passes quickly.” The subject of the verb is probably “their pride” (see the preceding line). The verb גּוּז (guz) means “to pass” here; it occurs only here and in Num 11:31.

[90:10]  ²¹ sn We fly away. The psalmist compares life to a bird that quickly flies off (see Job 20:8).