Psalms 116:5-7

116:5 The Lord is merciful and fair;

our God is compassionate.

116:6 The Lord protects ¹  the untrained; ² 

I was in serious trouble ³  and he delivered me.

116:7 Rest once more, my soul, ⁴ 

for the Lord has vindicated you. ⁵ 

[116:6]  ¹ tn Heb “guards.” The active participle indicates this is a characteristic of the Lord.

[116:6]  ² tn Or “the [morally] naive,” that is, the one who is young and still in the process of learning right from wrong and distinguishing wisdom from folly. See Ps 19:7.

[116:6]  ³ tn Heb “I was low.”

[116:7]  ¹ tn Heb “return, my soul, to your place of rest.”

[116:7]  ² tn The Hebrew idiom גָּמַל עַל (gamal ’al) means “to repay,” here in a positive sense (cf. Ps 13:5).