Mazmur 22:2

22:2 My God, I cry out during the day,

but you do not answer,

and during the night my prayers do not let up. ¹ 

Mazmur 39:2

39:2 I was stone silent; ² 

I held back the urge to speak. ³ 

My frustration grew; ⁴ 

Mazmur 62:1

Psalm 62 ⁵ 

For the music director, Jeduthun; a psalm of David.

62:1 For God alone I patiently wait; ⁶ 

he is the one who delivers me. ⁷ 

[22:2]  ¹ tn Heb “there is no silence to me.”

[39:2]  ² tn Heb “I was mute [with] silence.”

[39:2]  ³ tn Heb “I was quiet from good.” He kept quiet, resisting the urge to find emotional release and satisfaction by voicing his lament.

[39:2]  sn I held back the urge to speak. For a helpful discussion of the relationship (and tension) between silence and complaint in ancient Israelite lamentation, see E. S. Gerstenberger, Psalms, Part I (FOTL), 166-67.

[39:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “and my pain was stirred up.” Emotional pain is in view here.

[62:1]  ⁵ sn Psalm 62. The psalmist expresses his unwavering confidence in God’s justice and in his ability to protect his people.

[62:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “only for God [is] there silence [to] my soul.”

[62:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “from him [is] my deliverance.”