Psalms 51:1

Psalm 51 ¹ 

For the music director; a psalm of David, written when Nathan the prophet confronted him after David’s affair with Bathsheba. ² 

51:1 Have mercy on me, O God, because of ³  your loyal love!

Because of ⁴  your great compassion, wipe away my rebellious acts! ⁵ 

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 59:16

59:16 As for me, I will sing about your strength;

I will praise your loyal love in the morning.

For you are my refuge ¹¹ 

and my place of shelter when I face trouble. ¹² 

Psalms 69:13

69:13 O Lord, may you hear my prayer and be favorably disposed to me! ¹³ 

O God, because of your great loyal love,

answer me with your faithful deliverance! ¹⁴ 

Psalms 123:2

123:2 Look, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master,

as the eyes of a female servant look to the hand of her mistress, ¹⁵ 

so my eyes will look to the Lord, our God, until he shows us favor.

Psalms 143:8

143:8 May I hear about your loyal love in the morning, ¹⁶ 

for I trust in you.

Show me the way I should go, ¹⁷ 

because I long for you. ¹⁸ 

[51:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 51. The psalmist confesses his sinfulness to God and begs for forgiveness and a transformation of his inner character. According to the psalm superscription, David offered this prayer when Nathan confronted him with his sin following the king’s affair with Bathsheba (see 2 Sam 11-12). However, the final two verses of the psalm hardly fit this situation, for they assume the walls of Jerusalem have been destroyed and that the sacrificial system has been temporarily suspended. These verses are probably an addition to the psalm made during the period of exile following the fall of Jerusalem in 586 b.c. The exiles could relate to David’s experience, for they, like him, and had been forced to confront their sin. They appropriated David’s ancient prayer and applied it to their own circumstances.

[51:1]  ² tn Heb “a psalm by David, when Nathan the prophet came to him when he had gone to Bathsheba.”

[51:1]  ³ tn Or “according to.”

[51:1]  ⁴ tn Or “according to.”

[51:1]  ⁵ tn Traditionally “blot out my transgressions.” Because of the reference to washing and cleansing in the following verse, it is likely that the psalmist is comparing forgiveness to wiping an object clean (note the use of the verb מָחָה (makhah) in the sense of “wipe clean; dry” in 2 Kgs 21:13; Prov 30:20; Isa 25:8). Another option is that the psalmist is comparing forgiveness to erasing or blotting out names from a register (see Exod 32:32-33). In this case one might translate, “erase all record of my rebellious acts.”

[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.

[59:16]  ¹¹ tn Or “my elevated place” (see Ps 18:2).

[59:16]  ¹² tn Heb “and my shelter in the day of my distress.”

[69:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “as for me, [may] my prayer be to you, O Lord, [in] a time of favor.”

[69:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “O God, in the abundance of your loyal love, answer me in the faithfulness of your deliverance.”

[123:2]  ²¹ sn Servants look to their master for food, shelter, and other basic needs.

[143:8]  ²⁶ 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]  ²⁷ sn The way probably refers here to God’s moral and ethical standards and requirements (see v. 10).

[143:8]  ²⁸ 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).