Psalms 41:1

Psalm 41 ¹ 

For the music director; a psalm of David.

41:1 How blessed ²  is the one who treats the poor properly! ³ 

When trouble comes, ⁴  the Lord delivers him. ⁵ 

Psalms 46:1

Psalm 46 ⁶ 

For the music director; by the Korahites; according to the alamoth style; ⁷  a song.

46:1 God is our strong refuge; ⁸ 

he is truly our helper in times of trouble. ⁹ 

Psalms 50:5

50:5 He says: ¹⁰ 

“Assemble my covenant people before me, ¹¹ 

those who ratified a covenant with me by sacrifice!” ¹² 

Psalms 60:11

60:11 Give us help against the enemy,

for any help men might offer is futile. ¹³ 

Psalms 91:15

91:15 When he calls out to me, I will answer him.

I will be with him when he is in trouble;

I will rescue him and bring him honor.

Psalms 138:7

138:7 Even when I must walk in the midst of danger, ¹⁴  you revive me.

You oppose my angry enemies, ¹⁵ 

and your right hand delivers me.

Jeremiah 30:7

30:7 Alas, what a terrible time of trouble it is! ¹⁶ 

There has never been any like it.

It is a time of trouble for the descendants of Jacob,

but some of them will be rescued out of it. ¹⁷ 

Matthew 26:38-39

26:38 Then he said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, even to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake with me.” 26:39 Going a little farther, he threw himself down with his face to the ground and prayed, ¹⁸  “My Father, if possible, ¹⁹  let this cup ²⁰  pass from me! Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

Hebrews 5:7

5:7 During his earthly life ²¹  Christ ²²  offered ²³  both requests and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death and he was heard because of his devotion.

[41:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 41. The psalmist is confident (vv. 11-12) that the Lord has heard his request to be healed (vv. 4-10), and he anticipates the joy he will experience when the Lord intervenes (vv. 1-3). One must assume that the psalmist is responding to a divine oracle of assurance (see P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 319-20). The final verse is a fitting conclusion to this psalm, but it is also serves as a fitting conclusion to the first “book” (or major editorial division) of the Psalter. Similar statements appear at or near the end of each of the second, third, and fourth “books” of the Psalter (see Pss 72:19, 89:52, and 106:48 respectively).

[41:1]  ² tn The Hebrew noun is an abstract plural. The word often refers metonymically to the happiness that God-given security and prosperity produce (see Pss 1:1, 3; 2:12; 34:9; 65:4; 84:12; 89:15; 106:3; 112:1; 127:5; 128:1; 144:15).

[41:1]  ³ sn One who treats the poor properly. The psalmist is characterizing himself as such an individual and supplying a reason why God has responded favorably to his prayer. The Lord’s attitude toward the merciful mirrors their treatment of the poor.

[41:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “in the day of trouble” (see Ps 27:5).

[41:1]  ⁵ tn That is, the one who has been kind to the poor. The prefixed verbal form could be taken as jussive of prayer (“may the Lord deliver,” see v. 2), but the preceding parallel line is a declaration of fact, not a prayer per se. The imperfect can be taken here as future (“will deliver,” cf. NEB, NASB) or as generalizing (“delivers,” cf. NIV, NRSV). The parallel line, which has a generalizing tone, favors the latter. At the same time, though the psalmist uses a generalizing style here, he clearly has himself primarily in view.

[46:1]  ⁶ sn Psalm 46. In this so-called “Song Of Zion” God’s people confidently affirm that they are secure because the great warrior-king dwells within Jerusalem and protects it from the nations that cause such chaos in the earth. A refrain (vv. 7, 11) concludes the song’s two major sections.

[46:1]  ⁷ sn The meaning of the Hebrew term עֲלָמוֹת (alamoth, which means “young women”) is uncertain; perhaps it refers to a particular style of music. Cf. 1 Chr 15:20.

[46:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “our refuge and strength,” which is probably a hendiadys meaning “our strong refuge” (see Ps 71:7). Another option is to translate, “our refuge and source of strength.”

[46:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “a helper in times of trouble he is found [to be] greatly.” The perfect verbal form has a generalizing function here. The adverb מְאֹד (mÿ’od, “greatly”) has an emphasizing function.

[50:5]  ¹⁰ tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. God’s summons to the defendant follows.

[50:5]  ¹¹ tn Or “Gather to me my covenant people.” The Hebrew term חָסִיד (khasid, “covenant people”) elsewhere in the psalms is used in a positive sense of God’s loyal followers (see the note at Ps 4:3), but here, as the following line makes clear, the term has a neutral sense and simply refers to those who have outwardly sworn allegiance to God, not necessarily to those whose loyalty is genuine.

[50:5]  ¹² tn Heb “the cutters of my covenant according to sacrifice.” A sacrifice accompanied the covenant-making ceremony and formally ratified the agreement (see Exod 24:3-8).

[60:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “and futile [is] the deliverance of man.”

[138:7]  ¹⁴ tn Or “distress.”

[138:7]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “against the anger of my enemies you extend your hand.”

[30:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Alas [or Woe] for that day will be great.” For the use of the particle “Alas” to signal a time of terrible trouble, even to sound the death knell for someone, see the translator’s note on 22:13.

[30:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “It is a time of trouble for Jacob but he will be saved out of it.”

[26:39]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “ground, praying and saying.” Here the participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[26:39]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “if it is possible.”

[26:39]  ²⁰ sn This cup alludes to the wrath of God that Jesus would experience (in the form of suffering and death) for us. See Ps 11:6; 75:8-9; Isa 51:17, 19, 22 for this figure.

[5:7]  ²¹ tn Grk “in the days of his flesh.”

[5:7]  ²² tn Grk “he”; the referent (Christ) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:7]  ²³ tn Grk “who…having offered,” continuing the description of Christ from Heb 5:5-6.