Mazmur 51:11

51:11 Do not reject me! ¹ 

Do not take your Holy Spirit ²  away from me! ³ 

Mazmur 86:12-13

86:12 O Lord, my God, I will give you thanks with my whole heart!

I will honor your name continually! ⁴ 

86:13 For you will extend your great loyal love to me, ⁵ 

and will deliver my life ⁶  from the depths of Sheol. ⁷ 

[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).

[86:12]  ⁴ tn Or “forever.”

[86:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “for your loyal love [is] great over me.”

[86:13]  ⁶ tn Or “for he will have delivered my life.” The verb form indicates a future perfect here.

[86:13]  ⁷ tn Or “lower Sheol.”