Psalms 57:5-11

57:5 Rise up ¹  above the sky, O God!

May your splendor cover the whole earth! ² 

57:6 They have prepared a net to trap me; ³ 

I am discouraged. ⁴ 

They have dug a pit for me. ⁵ 

They will fall ⁶  into it! (Selah)

57:7 I am determined, ⁷  O God! I am determined!

I will sing and praise you!

57:8 Awake, my soul! ⁸ 

Awake, O stringed instrument and harp!

I will wake up at dawn! ⁹ 

57:9 I will give you thanks before the nations, O Master!

I will sing praises to you before foreigners! ¹⁰ 

57:10 For your loyal love extends beyond the sky, ¹¹ 

and your faithfulness reaches the clouds.

57:11 Rise up ¹²  above the sky, O God!

May your splendor cover the whole earth! ¹³ 

[57:5]  ¹ tn Or “be exalted.”

[57:5]  ² tn Heb “over all the earth [be] your splendor.” Though no verb appears, the tone of the statement is a prayer or wish. (Note the imperative form in the preceding line.)

[57:6]  ³ tn Heb “for my feet.”

[57:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “my life bends low.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) with a pronominal suffix is often equivalent to a pronoun, especially in poetry (see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 4.a).

[57:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “before me.”

[57:6]  ⁶ tn The perfect form is used rhetorically here to express the psalmist’s certitude. The demise of the enemies is so certain that he can speak of it as already accomplished.

[57:7]  ⁷ tn Or perhaps “confident”; Heb “my heart is steadfast.” The “heart” is viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s volition and/or emotions.

[57:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “glory,” but that makes little sense in the context. Some view כָּבוֹד (kavod, “glory”) here as a metonymy for man’s inner being (see BDB 459 s.v. II כָּבוֹד 5), but it is preferable to emend the form to כְּבֵדִי (kÿvediy, “my liver”). Like the heart, the liver is viewed as the seat of one’s emotions. See also Pss 16:9; 30:12; 108:1, as well as H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 64, and M. Dahood, Psalms (AB), 1:90. For an Ugaritic example of the heart/liver as the source of joy, see G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 47-48: “her [Anat’s] liver swelled with laughter, her heart was filled with joy, the liver of Anat with triumph.”

[57:8]  ⁹ tn BDB 1007 s.v. שַׁחַר takes “dawn” as an adverbial accusative, though others understand it as a personified direct object. “Dawn” is used metaphorically for the time of deliverance and vindication the psalmist anticipates. When salvation “dawns,” the psalmist will “wake up” in praise.

[57:9]  ¹⁰ tn Or “the peoples.”

[57:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “for great upon the sky [or “heavens”] [is] your loyal love.”

[57:11]  ¹² tn Or “be exalted.”

[57:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “over all the earth [be] your splendor.” Though no verb appears, the tone of the statement is a prayer or wish. (Note the imperative form in the preceding line.)