Mazmur 34:15-17

34:15 The Lord pays attention to the godly

and hears their cry for help. ¹ 

34:16 But the Lord opposes evildoers

and wipes out all memory of them from the earth. ² 

34:17 The godly ³  cry out and the Lord hears;

he saves them from all their troubles. ⁴ 

Mazmur 37:4

37:4 Then you will take delight in the Lord, ⁵ 

and he will answer your prayers. ⁶ 

Mazmur 50:15

50:15 Pray to me when you are in trouble! ⁷ 

I will deliver you, and you will honor me!” ⁸ 

Mazmur 66:18-19

66:18 If I had harbored sin in my heart, ⁹ 

the Lord would not have listened.

66:19 However, God heard;

he listened to my prayer.

Mazmur 91:15

91:15 When he calls out to me, I will answer him.

I will be with him when he is in trouble;

I will rescue him and bring him honor.

Mazmur 118:5

118:5 In my distress ¹⁰  I cried out to the Lord.

The Lord answered me and put me in a wide open place. ¹¹ 

[34:15]  ¹ tn Heb “the eyes of the Lord [are] toward the godly, and his ears [are] toward their cry for help.”

[34:16]  ² tn Heb “the face of the Lord [is] against the doers of evil to cut off from the earth memory of them.”

[34:17]  ³ tn Heb “they” (i.e., the godly mentioned in v. 15).

[34:17]  ⁴ tn The three perfect verbal forms are taken in a generalizing sense in v. 17 and translated with the present tense (note the generalizing mood of vv. 18-22).

[37:4]  ⁵ tn Following the imperatives of v. 3 the prefixed verbal forms with vav (ו) in v. 4 indicate result. Faith and obedience (v. 3) will bring divine blessing (v. 4).

[37:4]  ⁶ tn Or “and he will give you what you desire most.” Heb “and he will grant to you the requests of your heart.”

[50:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “call [to] me in a day of trouble.”

[50:15]  ⁸ sn In vv. 7-15 the Lord makes it clear that he was not rebuking Israel because they had failed to offer sacrifices (v. 8a). On the contrary, they had been faithful in doing so (v. 8b). However, their understanding of the essence of their relationship with God was confused. Apparently they believed that he needed/desired such sacrifices and that offering them would ensure their prosperity. But the Lord owns all the animals of the world and did not need Israel’s meager sacrifices (vv. 9-13). Other aspects of the relationship were more important to the Lord. He desired Israel to be thankful for his blessings (v. 14a), to demonstrate gratitude for his intervention by repaying the vows they made to him (v. 14b), and to acknowledge their absolute dependence on him (v. 15a). Rather than viewing their sacrifices as somehow essential to God’s well-being, they needed to understand their dependence on him.

[66:18]  ⁹ tn Heb “sin if I had seen in my heart.”

[118:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “from the distress.” The noun מֵצַר (metsar, “straits; distress”) occurs only here and in Lam 1:3. In Ps 116:3 מצר should probably be emended to מְצָדֵי (mÿtsadey, “snares of”).

[118:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the Lord answered me in a wide open place.”