Psalms 51:11

51:11 Do not reject me! ¹ 

Do not take your Holy Spirit ²  away from me! ³ 

Psalms 55:22

55:22 Throw your burden ⁴  upon the Lord,

and he will sustain you. ⁵ 

He will never allow the godly to be upended. ⁶ 

Psalms 60:8

60:8 Moab is my washbasin. ⁷ 

I will make Edom serve me. ⁸ 

I will shout in triumph over Philistia.” ⁹ 

Psalms 108:9

108:9 Moab is my wash basin. ¹⁰ 

I will make Edom serve me. ¹¹ 

I will shout in triumph over Philistia.”

[51:11]  ¹ tn Heb “do not cast me away from before you.”

[51:11]  ² sn Your Holy Spirit. The personal Spirit of God is mentioned frequently in the OT, but only here and in Isa 63:10-11 is he called “your/his Holy Spirit.”

[51:11]  ³ sn Do not take…away. The psalmist expresses his fear that, due to his sin, God will take away the Holy Spirit from him. NT believers enjoy the permanent gift of the Holy Spirit and need not make such a request nor fear such a consequence. However, in the OT God’s Spirit empowered certain individuals for special tasks and only temporarily resided in them. For example, when God rejected Saul as king and chose David to replace him, the divine Spirit left Saul and came upon David (1 Sam 16:13-14).

[55:22]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew noun occurs only here.

[55:22]  ⁵ tn The pronoun is singular; the psalmist addresses each member of his audience individually.

[55:22]  ⁶ tn Heb “he will never allow swaying for the righteous.”

[60:8]  ⁷ sn The metaphor of the washbasin, used to rinse one’s hands and feet, suggests that Moab, in contrast to Israel’s elevated position (vv. 6-7), would be reduced to the status of a servant.

[60:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “over Edom I will throw my sandal.” The point of the metaphor is not entirely clear. Some interpret this as idiomatic for “taking possession of,” i.e., “I will take possession of Edom.” Others translate עַל (’al) as “to” and understand this as referring to a master throwing his dirty sandal to a servant so that the latter might dust it off.

[60:8]  ⁹ tc Heb “over me, O Philistia, shout in triumph.” The translation follows the text of Ps 108:9. When the initial עֲלֵיוֹ (’aleyo, “over”) was misread as עָלַי (’alay, “over me”), the first person verb form was probably altered to an imperative to provide better sense to the line.

[108:9]  ¹⁰ sn The metaphor of the wash basin, used to rinse one’s hands and feet, suggests that Moab, in contrast to Israel’s elevated position (vv. 7-8), would be reduced to the status of a servant.

[108:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “over Edom I will throw my sandal.” The point of the metaphor is not entirely clear. Some interpret this as idiomatic for “taking possession of.” Others translate עַל (’al) as “to” and understand this as referring to a master throwing his dirty sandal to a servant so that the latter might dust it off.