Psalms 73:24
Context73:24 You guide 1 me by your wise advice,
and then you will lead me to a position of honor. 2
Psalms 139:10
Context139:10 even there your hand would guide me,
your right hand would grab hold of me.
Psalms 31:3
Context31:3 For you are my high ridge 3 and my stronghold;
for the sake of your own reputation 4 you lead me and guide me. 5
Psalms 61:2
Context61:2 From the most remote place on earth 6
I call out to you in my despair. 7
Lead me 8 up to an inaccessible rocky summit! 9
Psalms 143:10
Context143:10 Teach me to do what pleases you, 10
for you are my God.
May your kind presence 11


[73:24] 1 tn The imperfect verbal form here suggests this is the psalmist’s ongoing experience.
[73:24] 2 tn Heb “and afterward [to] glory you will take me.” Some interpreters view this as the psalmist’s confidence in an afterlife in God’s presence and understand כָּבוֹד (cavod) as a metonymic reference to God’s presence in heaven. But this seems unlikely in the present context. The psalmist anticipates a time of vindication, when the wicked are destroyed and he is honored by God for his godly life style. The verb לָקַח (laqakh, “take”) here carries the nuance “lead, guide, conduct,” as in Num 23:14, 27-28; Josh 24:3 and Prov 24:11.
[31:3] 3 sn The metaphor of the high ridge pictures God as a rocky, relatively inaccessible summit, where one would be able to find protection from enemies. See 1 Sam 23:25, 28.
[31:3] 4 tn Heb “name.” The Hebrew term שֵׁם (shem, “name”) refers here to the
[31:3] 5 tn The present translation assumes that the imperfect verbal forms are generalizing, “you lead me and guide me.” Other options are to take them as an expression of confidence about the future, “you will lead me and guide me” (cf. NASB), or as expressing a prayer, “lead me and guide me” (cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV).
[61:2] 5 tn Heb “from the end of the earth.” This may indicate (1) the psalmist is exiled in a distant land, or (2) it may be hyperbolic (the psalmist feels alienated from God’s presence, as if he were in a distant land).
[61:2] 6 tn Heb “while my heart faints.”
[61:2] 7 tn The imperfect verbal form here expresses the psalmist’s wish or prayer.
[61:2] 8 tn Heb “on to a rocky summit [that] is higher than I.”
[143:10] 7 tn Or “your will.” See Ps 40:8.
[143:10] 8 tn Heb “your good spirit.” God’s “spirit” may refer here to his presence (see the note on the word “presence” in Ps 139:7) or to his personal Spirit (see Ps 51:10).
[143:10] 9 tn The prefixed verbal form is taken as a jussive. Taking the statement as a prayer fits well with the petitionary tone of vv. 7-10a.
[143:10] 10 sn A level land (where one can walk free of obstacles) here symbolizes divine blessing and protection. See Pss 26:12 and 27:11 for similar imagery.