Discovery BoxPsalms 51:11-14
ContextDo not take your Holy Spirit 2 away from me! 3
51:12 Let me again experience the joy of your deliverance!
Sustain me by giving me the desire to obey! 4
51:13 Then I will teach 5 rebels your merciful ways, 6
and sinners will turn 7 to you.
51:14 Rescue me from the guilt of murder, 8 O God, the God who delivers me!
Then my tongue will shout for joy because of your deliverance. 9
[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).
[51:12] 4 tn Heb “and [with] a willing spirit sustain me.” The psalmist asks that God make him the kind of person who willingly obeys the divine commandments. The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.
[51:13] 5 tn The cohortative expresses the psalmist’s resolve. This may be a vow or promise. If forgiven, the psalmist will “repay” the Lord by declaring God’s mercy and motivating other sinners to repent.
[51:13] 6 tn Heb “your ways.” The word “merciful” is added for clarification. God’s “ways” are sometimes his commands, but in this context, where the teaching of God’s ways motivates repentance (see the next line), it is more likely that God’s merciful and compassionate way of dealing with sinners is in view. Thanksgiving songs praising God for his deliverance typically focus on these divine attributes (see Pss 34, 41, 116, 138).
[51:13] 7 tn Or “return,” i.e., in repentance.
[51:14] 8 tn Heb “from bloodshed.” “Bloodshed” here stands by metonymy for the guilt which it produces.
[51:14] 9 tn Heb “my tongue will shout for joy your deliverance.” Another option is to take the prefixed verbal form as a jussive, “may my tongue shout for joy.” However, the pattern in vv. 12-15 appears to be prayer/request (see vv. 12, 14a, 15a) followed by promise/vow (see vv. 13, 14b, 15b).
