Mazmur 17:7

17:7 Accomplish awesome, faithful deeds, ¹ 

you who powerfully deliver those who look to you for protection from their enemies. ² 

Mazmur 17:14

17:14 Lord, use your power to deliver me from these murderers, ³ 

from the murderers of this world! ⁴ 

They enjoy prosperity; ⁵ 

you overwhelm them with the riches they desire. ⁶ 

They have many children,

and leave their wealth to their offspring. ⁷ 

Mazmur 18:43

18:43 You rescue me from a hostile army; ⁸ 

you make me ⁹  a leader of nations;

people over whom I had no authority are now my subjects. ¹⁰ 

Mazmur 18:50

18:50 He ¹¹  gives his chosen king magnificent victories; ¹² 

he is faithful ¹³  to his chosen ruler, ¹⁴ 

to David and his descendants ¹⁵  forever.” ¹⁶ 

Mazmur 31:1

Psalm 31 ¹⁷ 

For the music director; a psalm of David.

31:1 In you, O Lord, I have taken shelter!

Never let me be humiliated!

Vindicate me by rescuing me! ¹⁸ 

Mazmur 34:1

Psalm 34 ¹⁹ 

Written by David, when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, causing the king to send him away. ²⁰ 

34:1 I will praise ²¹  the Lord at all times;

my mouth will continually praise him. ²² 

Mazmur 57:3

57:3 May he send help from heaven and deliver me ²³ 

from my enemies who hurl insults! ²⁴  (Selah)

May God send his loyal love and faithfulness!

Mazmur 69:1

Psalm 69 ²⁵ 

For the music director; according to the tune of “Lilies;” ²⁶  by David.

69:1 Deliver me, O God,

for the water has reached my neck. ²⁷ 

Mazmur 71:3

71:3 Be my protector and refuge, ²⁸ 

a stronghold where I can be safe! ²⁹ 

For you are my high ridge ³⁰  and my stronghold.

Mazmur 106:47

106:47 Deliver us, O Lord, our God!

Gather us from among the nations!

Then we will give thanks ³¹  to your holy name,

and boast about your praiseworthy deeds. ³² 

Mazmur 140:4

140:4 O Lord, shelter me from the power ³³  of the wicked!

Protect me from violent men,

who plan to knock me over. ³⁴ 

Mazmur 142:7

142:7 Free me ³⁵  from prison,

that I may give thanks to your name.

Because of me the godly will assemble, ³⁶ 

for you will vindicate me. ³⁷ 

[17:7]  ¹ tn Heb “Set apart faithful acts.”

[17:7]  ² tn Heb “[O] one who delivers those who seek shelter from the ones raising themselves up, by your right hand.” The Lord’s “right hand” here symbolizes his power to protect and deliver.

[17:7]  sn Those who look to you for protection from their enemies. “Seeking shelter” in the Lord is an idiom for seeking his protection. Seeking his protection presupposes and even demonstrates the subject’s loyalty to the Lord. In the psalms those who “take shelter” in the Lord are contrasted with the wicked and equated with those who love, fear and serve the Lord (Pss 5:11-12; 31:17-20; 34:21-22).

[17:14]  ³ tc Heb “from men [by] your hand, Lord.” The translation assumes an emendation (both here and in the following line) of מִמְתִים (mimtim, “from men”) to מִמְמִתִים (mimmitim, “from those who kill”). For other uses of the plural form of the Hiphil participle of מוּת (mut, “die”), see 2 Kgs 17:26 (used with lions as subject), Job 33:22 (apparently referring to the agents of death), and Jer 26:15 (used of those seeking Jeremiah’s life).

[17:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “from men, from [the] world.” On the emendation of “men” to “murderers,” see the preceding note on the word “murderers.”

[17:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “their portion, in life.”

[17:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “and [with] your treasures you fill their belly.”

[17:14]  sn You overwhelm them with the riches they desire. The psalmist is not accusing God of being unjust; he is simply observing that the wicked often prosper and that God is the ultimate source of all blessings that human beings enjoy (see Matt 5:45). When the wicked are ungrateful for God’s blessings, they become even more culpable and deserving of judgment. So this description of the wicked actually supports the psalmist’s appeal for deliverance. God should rescue him because he is innocent (see vv. 3-5) and because the wicked, though blessed abundantly by God, still have the audacity to attack God’s people.

[17:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “they are satisfied [with] sons and leave their abundance to their children.”

[18:43]  ⁸ tn Heb “from the strivings of a people.” In this context the Hebrew term רִיב (riv, “striving”) probably has a militaristic sense (as in Judg 12:2; Isa 41:11), and עָם (’am, “people”) probably refers more specifically to an army (for other examples, see the verses listed in BDB 766 s.v. I עַם, עָם 2.d). Some understand the phrase as referring to attacks by the psalmist’s own countrymen, the “nation” being Israel. However, foreign enemies appear to be in view; note the reference to “nations” in the following line.

[18:43]  ⁹ tn 2 Sam 22:44 reads, “you keep me.”

[18:43]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “a people whom I did not know serve me.” In this context “know” (יָדַע, yada’) probably refers to formal recognition by treaty. People who were once not under the psalmist’s authority now willingly submit to his rulership to avoid being conquered militarily (see vv. 44-45). The language may recall the events recorded in 2 Sam 8:9-10 and 10:19.

[18:50]  ¹¹ tn Or “the one who.”

[18:50]  ¹² tn Heb “magnifies the victories of his king.” “His king” refers to the psalmist, the Davidic king whom God has chosen to rule Israel.

[18:50]  ¹³ tn Heb “[the one who] does loyalty.”

[18:50]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “his anointed [one],” i.e., the psalmist/Davidic king. See Ps 2:2.

[18:50]  ¹⁵ tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”

[18:50]  ¹⁶ sn If David is the author of the psalm (see the superscription), then he here anticipates that God will continue to demonstrate loyalty to his descendants who succeed him. If the author is a later Davidic king, then he views the divine favor he has experienced as the outworking of God’s faithful promises to David his ancestor.

[31:1]  ¹⁷ sn Psalm 31. The psalmist confidently asks the Lord to protect him. Enemies threaten him and even his friends have abandoned him, but he looks to the Lord for vindication. In vv. 19-24, which were apparently written after the Lord answered the prayer of vv. 1-18, the psalmist thanks the Lord for delivering him.

[31:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “in your vindication rescue me.”

[34:1]  ¹⁹ sn Psalm 34. In this song of thanksgiving the psalmist praises God for delivering him from distress. He encourages others to be loyal to the Lord, tells them how to please God, and assures them that the Lord protects his servants. The psalm is an acrostic; vv. 1-21 begin with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. (Verse 6 begins with the letter he (ה) and v. 7 with the letter zayin (ז). The letter vav (ו), which comes between ה and ז, seems to be omitted, although it does appear at the beginning of v. 6b. The final verse of the psalm, which begins with the letter pe (פ), is outside the acrostic scheme.

[34:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “By David, when he changed his sense before Abimelech and he drove him away and he went.”

[34:1]  sn Pretended to be insane. The psalm heading appears to refer to the account in 1 Sam 21:10-15 which tells how David, fearful that King Achish of Gath might kill him, pretended to be insane in hopes that the king would simply send him away. The psalm heading names the king Abimelech, not Achish, suggesting that the tradition is confused on this point. However, perhaps “Abimelech” was a royal title, rather than a proper name. See P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (WBC), 278.

[34:1]  ²¹ tn Heb “bless.”

[34:1]  ²² tn Heb “continually [will] his praise [be] in my mouth.”

[57:3]  ²³ tn Heb “may he send from heaven and deliver me.” The prefixed verbal forms are understood as jussives expressing the psalmist’s prayer. The second verb, which has a vav (ו) conjunctive prefixed to it, probably indicates purpose. Another option is to take the forms as imperfects expressing confidence, “he will send from heaven and deliver me” (cf. NRSV).

[57:3]  ²⁴ tn Heb “he hurls insults, one who crushes me.” The translation assumes that this line identifies those from whom the psalmist seeks deliverance. (The singular is representative; the psalmist is surrounded by enemies, see v. 4.) Another option is to understand God as the subject of the verb חָרַף (kharaf), which could then be taken as a homonym of the more common root חָרַף (“insult”) meaning “confuse.” In this case “one who crushes me” is the object of the verb. One might translate, “he [God] confuses my enemies.”

[69:1]  ²⁵ sn Psalm 69. The psalmist laments his oppressed condition and asks the Lord to deliver him by severely judging his enemies.

[69:1]  ²⁶ tn Heb “according to lilies.” See the superscription to Ps 45.

[69:1]  ²⁷ tn The Hebrew term נפשׁ (nefesh) here refers to the psalmist’s throat or neck. The psalmist compares himself to a helpless, drowning man.

[71:3]  ²⁸ tc Heb “become for me a rocky summit of a dwelling place.” The Hebrew term מָעוֹן (ma’on, “dwelling place”) should probably be emended to מָעוֹז (ma’oz, “refuge”; see Ps 31:2).

[71:3]  ²⁹ tc Heb “to enter continually, you commanded to deliver me.” The Hebrew phrase לָבוֹא תָּמִיד צִוִּיתָ (lavo’ tamid tsivvita, “to enter continually, you commanded”) should be emended to לְבֵית מְצוּדוֹת (lÿvet mÿtsudot, “a house of strongholds”; see Ps 31:2).

[71:3]  ³⁰ sn You are my high ridge. 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.

[106:47]  ³¹ tn Heb “to give thanks.” The infinitive construct indicates result after the imperative.

[106:47]  ³² tn Heb “to boast in your praise.”

[140:4]  ³³ tn Heb “hands.”

[140:4]  ³⁴ tn Heb “to push down my steps.”

[142:7]  ³⁵ tn Heb “bring out my life.”

[142:7]  ³⁶ tn Or “gather around.”

[142:7]  ³⁷ tn The Hebrew idiom גָּמַל עַל (gamal ’al) means “to repay,” here in a positive sense.