Psalms 57:3

57:3 May he send help from heaven and deliver me ¹ 

from my enemies who hurl insults! ²  (Selah)

May God send his loyal love and faithfulness!

Psalms 144:7

144:7 Reach down ³  from above!

Grab me and rescue me from the surging water, ⁴ 

from the power of foreigners, ⁵ 

[57:3]  ¹ tn Heb “may he send from heaven and deliver me.” The prefixed verbal forms are understood as jussives expressing the psalmist’s prayer. The second verb, which has a vav (ו) conjunctive prefixed to it, probably indicates purpose. Another option is to take the forms as imperfects expressing confidence, “he will send from heaven and deliver me” (cf. NRSV).

[57:3]  ² tn Heb “he hurls insults, one who crushes me.” The translation assumes that this line identifies those from whom the psalmist seeks deliverance. (The singular is representative; the psalmist is surrounded by enemies, see v. 4.) Another option is to understand God as the subject of the verb חָרַף (kharaf), which could then be taken as a homonym of the more common root חָרַף (“insult”) meaning “confuse.” In this case “one who crushes me” is the object of the verb. One might translate, “he [God] confuses my enemies.”

[144:7]  ³ tn Heb “stretch out your hands.”

[144:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “mighty waters.” The waters of the sea symbolize the psalmist’s powerful foreign enemies, as well as the realm of death they represent (see the next line and Ps 18:16-17).

[144:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “from the hand of the sons of foreignness.”