Mazmur 13:3

13:3 Look at me! ¹  Answer me, O Lord my God!

Revive me, ²  or else I will die! ³ 

Mazmur 13:5

13:5 But I ⁴  trust in your faithfulness.

May I rejoice because of your deliverance! ⁵ 

Mazmur 18:28

18:28 Indeed, ⁶  you are my lamp, Lord. ⁷ 

My God ⁸  illuminates the darkness around me. ⁹ 

Mazmur 30:2

30:2 O Lord my God,

I cried out to you and you healed me. ¹⁰ 

Mazmur 30:12

30:12 So now ¹¹  my heart ¹²  will sing to you and not be silent;

O Lord my God, I will always ¹³  give thanks to you.

Mazmur 43:4

43:4 Then I will go ¹⁴  to the altar of God,

to the God who gives me ecstatic joy, ¹⁵ 

so that I express my thanks to you, ¹⁶  O God, my God, with a harp.

Mazmur 89:26

89:26 He will call out to me,

‘You are my father, ¹⁷  my God, and the protector who delivers me.’ ¹⁸ 

[13:3]  ¹ tn Heb “see.”

[13:3]  ² tn Heb “Give light [to] my eyes.” The Hiphil of אוּר (’ur), when used elsewhere with “eyes” as object, refers to the law of God giving moral enlightenment (Ps 19:8), to God the creator giving literal eyesight to all people (Prov 29:13), and to God giving encouragement to his people (Ezra 9:8). Here the psalmist pictures himself as being on the verge of death. His eyes are falling shut and, if God does not intervene soon, he will “fall asleep” for good.

[13:3]  ³ tn Heb “or else I will sleep [in?] the death.” Perhaps the statement is elliptical, “I will sleep [the sleep] of death,” or “I will sleep [with the sleepers in] death.”

[13:5]  ⁴ tn The grammatical construction used here (conjunction with independent pronoun) highlights the contrast between the psalmist’s defeated condition envisioned in v. 4 and confident attitude he displays in v. 5.

[13:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “may my heart rejoice in your deliverance.” The verb form is jussive. Having expressed his trust in God’s faithful character and promises, the psalmist prays that his confidence will prove to be well-placed. “Heart” is used here of the seat of the emotions.

[18:28]  ⁶ tn Or “for.” The translation assumes that כִּי (ki)is asseverative here.

[18:28]  ⁷ tn Ps 18:28 reads literally, “you light my lamp, Lord.” 2 Sam 22:29 has, “you are my lamp, Lord.” The Ps 18 reading may preserve two variants, נֵרִי (neriy, “my lamp”) and אוֹרִי (’oriy, “my light”), cf. Ps 27:1. The verb תָּאִיר (ta’ir, “you light”) in Ps 18:28 would, in this case, be a corruption of the latter. See F. M. Cross and D. N. Freedman, Studies in Ancient Yahwistic Poetry (SBLDS), 150, n. 64. The metaphor, which likens the Lord to a lamp or light, pictures him as the psalmist’s source of life. For other examples of “lamp” used in this way, see Job 18:6; 21:17; Prov 13:9; 20:20; 24:20. For other examples of “light” as a symbol for life, see Job 3:20; 33:30; Ps 56:13.

[18:28]  ⁸ tn 2 Sam 22:29 repeats the name “Lord.”

[18:28]  ⁹ tn Heb “my darkness.”

[30:2]  ¹⁰ sn You healed me. Apparently the psalmist was plagued by a serious illness that threatened his life. See Ps 41.

[30:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “so that”; or “in order that.”

[30:12]  ¹² tn Heb “glory.” Some view כָבוֹד (khavod, “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; 57:9; 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.” “Heart” is used in the translation above for the sake of English idiom; the expression “my liver sings” would seem odd indeed to the modern reader.

[30:12]  ¹³ tn Or “forever.”

[43:4]  ¹⁴ tn The cohortative expresses the psalmist’s resolve. Prefixed with the vav (ו) conjunctive it also expresses the result or outcome of the preceding verbs “lead” and “escort.”

[43:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “to God, the joy of my happiness.” The phrase “joy of my happiness” employs an appositional genitive. Synonyms are joined in a construct relationship to emphasize the degree of the psalmist’s joy. For a detailed discussion of the grammatical point with numerous examples, see Y. Avishur, “Pairs of Synonymous Words in the Construct State (and in Appositional Hendiadys) in Biblical Hebrew,” Semitics 2 (1971): 17-81.

[43:4]  ¹⁶ tn The cohortative with vav (ו) conjunctive probably indicates purpose (“so that”) or intention.

[89:26]  ¹⁷ sn You are my father. The Davidic king was viewed as God’s “son” (see 2 Sam 7:14; Ps 2:7). The idiom reflects ancient Near Eastern adoption language associated with covenants of grant, by which a lord would reward a faithful subject by elevating him to special status, referred to as “sonship.” Like a son, the faithful subject received an “inheritance,” viewed as an unconditional, eternal gift. Such gifts usually took the form of land and/or an enduring dynasty. See M. Weinfeld, “The Covenant of Grant in the Old Testament and in the Ancient Near East,” JAOS 90 (1970): 184-203, for general discussion and some striking extra-biblical parallels.

[89:26]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the rocky summit of my deliverance.”