Psalms 9:12

9:12 For the one who takes revenge against murderers took notice of the oppressed; ¹ 

he did not overlook ²  their cry for help ³ 

Psalms 9:18

9:18 for the needy are not permanently ignored, ⁴ 

the hopes of the oppressed are not forever dashed. ⁵ 

Psalms 10:11

10:11 He says to himself, ⁶ 

“God overlooks it;

he does not pay attention;

he never notices.” ⁷ 

Psalms 42:9

42:9 I will pray ⁸  to God, my high ridge: ⁹ 

“Why do you ignore ¹⁰  me?

Why must I walk around mourning ¹¹ 

because my enemies oppress me?”

Psalms 44:17

44:17 All this has happened to us, even though we have not rejected you ¹² 

or violated your covenant with us. ¹³ 

Psalms 44:20

44:20 If we had rejected our God, ¹⁴ 

and spread out our hands in prayer to another god, ¹⁵ 

Psalms 45:10

45:10 Listen, O princess! ¹⁶ 

Observe and pay attention! ¹⁷ 

Forget your homeland ¹⁸  and your family! ¹⁹ 

Psalms 50:22

50:22 Carefully consider this, you who reject God! ²⁰ 

Otherwise I will rip you to shreds ²¹ 

and no one will be able to rescue you.

Psalms 59:11

59:11 Do not strike them dead suddenly,

because then my people might forget the lesson. ²² 

Use your power to make them homeless vagabonds and then bring them down,

O Lord who shields us! ²³ 

Psalms 74:19

74:19 Do not hand the life of your dove ²⁴  over to a wild animal!

Do not continue to disregard ²⁵  the lives of your oppressed people!

Psalms 77:9

77:9 Has God forgotten to be merciful?

Has his anger stifled his compassion?”

Psalms 78:7

78:7 Then they will place their confidence in God.

They will not forget the works of God,

and they will obey ²⁶  his commands.

Psalms 102:4

102:4 My heart is parched ²⁷  and withered like grass,

for I am unable ²⁸  to eat food. ²⁹ 

Psalms 119:176

119:176 I have wandered off like a lost sheep. ³⁰ 

Come looking for your servant,

for I do not forget your commands.

[9:12]  ¹ tn Heb “for the one who seeks shed blood remembered them.” The idiomatic expression “to seek shed blood” seems to carry the idea “to seek payment/restitution for one’s shed blood.” The plural form דָּמִים (damim, “shed blood”) occurs only here as the object of דָּרַשׁ (darash); the singular form דָּם (dam, “blood”) appears with the verb in Gen 9:5; 42:22; Ezek 33:6. “Them,” the pronominal object of the verb “remembered,” refers to the oppressed, mentioned specifically in the next line, so the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:12]  ² tn Heb “did not forget.”

[9:12]  ³ tn Heb “the cry for help of the oppressed.” In this context the “oppressed” are the psalmist and those he represents, whom the hostile nations have threatened.

[9:18]  ⁴ tn Or “forgotten.”

[9:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “the hope of the afflicted does [not] perish forever.” The negative particle is understood by ellipsis; note the preceding line. The imperfect verbal forms express what typically happens.

[10:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “he says in his heart.” See v. 6.

[10:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “God forgets, he hides his face, he never sees.”

[42:9]  ¹⁰ tn The cohortative form indicates the psalmist’s resolve.

[42:9]  ¹¹ tn This metaphor pictures God as a rocky, relatively inaccessible summit, where one would be able to find protection from enemies. See 1 Sam 23:25, 28; Pss 18:2; 31:3.

[42:9]  ¹² tn Or “forget.”

[42:9]  ¹³ sn Walk around mourning. See Ps 38:6 for a similar idea.

[44:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “we have not forgotten you.” To “forget” God refers here to worshiping false gods and thereby refusing to recognize his sovereignty (see v. 20, as well as Deut 8:19; Judg 3:7; 1 Sam 12:9; Isa 17:10; Jer 3:21; Ps 9:17).Thus the translation “we have not rejected you” has been used.

[44:17]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and we did not deal falsely with your covenant.”

[44:20]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “If we had forgotten the name of our God.” To “forget the name” here refers to rejecting the Lord’s authority (see Jer 23:27) and abandoning him as an object of prayer and worship (see the next line).

[44:20]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and spread out your hands to another god.” Spreading out the hands was a prayer gesture (see Exod 9:29, 33; 1 Kgs 8:22, 38; 2 Chr 6:12-13, 29; Ezra 9:15; Job 11:13; Isa 1:15). In its most fundamental sense זר (“another; foreign; strange”) refers to something that is outside one’s circle, often making association with it inappropriate. A “strange” god is an alien deity, an “outside god” (see L. A. Snijders, TDOT 4:54-55).

[45:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “daughter.” The Hebrew noun בת (“daughter”) can sometimes refer to a young woman in a general sense (see H. Haag, TDOT 2:334).

[45:10]  ²⁰ tn Heb “see and turn your ear.” The verb רָאָה (ra’ah, “see”) is used here of mental observation.

[45:10]  ²¹ tn Heb “your people.” This reference to the “people” of the princess suggests she was a foreigner. Perhaps the marriage was arranged as part of a political alliance between Israel (or Judah) and a neighboring state. The translation “your homeland” reflects such a situation.

[45:10]  ²² tn Heb “and the house of your father.”

[50:22]  ²² tn Heb “[you who] forget God.” “Forgetting God” here means forgetting about his commandments and not respecting his moral authority.

[50:22]  ²³ sn Elsewhere in the psalms this verb is used (within a metaphorical framework) of a lion tearing its prey (see Pss 7:2; 17:12; 22:13).

[59:11]  ²⁵ tn Heb “do not kill them, lest my people forget.”

[59:11]  ²⁶ tn Heb “make them roam around by your strength and bring them down, O our shield, the Lord.”

[74:19]  ²⁸ sn Your dove. The psalmist compares weak and vulnerable Israel to a helpless dove.

[74:19]  ²⁹ tn Heb “do not forget forever.”

[78:7]  ³¹ tn Heb “keep.”

[102:4]  ³⁴ tn Heb “struck, attacked.”

[102:4]  ³⁵ tn Heb “I forget.”

[102:4]  ³⁶ sn I am unable to eat food. During his time of mourning, the psalmist refrained from eating. In the following verse he describes metaphorically the physical effects of fasting.

[119:176]  ³⁷ tn Heb “I stray like a lost sheep.” It is possible that the point of the metaphor is vulnerability: The psalmist, who is threatened by his enemies, feels as vulnerable as a straying, lost sheep. This would not suggest, however, that he has wandered from God’s path (see the second half of the verse, as well as v. 110).