Mazmur 51:1

Psalm 51 ¹ 

For the music director; a psalm of David, written when Nathan the prophet confronted him after David’s affair with Bathsheba. ² 

51:1 Have mercy on me, O God, because of ³  your loyal love!

Because of ⁴  your great compassion, wipe away my rebellious acts! ⁵ 

Mazmur 86:5

86:5 Certainly ⁶  O Lord, you are kind ⁷  and forgiving,

and show great faithfulness to all who cry out to you.

Mazmur 86:15

86:15 But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and merciful God.

You are patient ⁸  and demonstrate great loyal love and faithfulness. ⁹ 

Mazmur 103:8-14

103:8 The Lord is compassionate and merciful;

he is patient ¹⁰  and demonstrates great loyal love. ¹¹ 

103:9 He does not always accuse,

and does not stay angry. ¹² 

103:10 He does not deal with us as our sins deserve; ¹³ 

he does not repay us as our misdeeds deserve. ¹⁴ 

103:11 For as the skies are high above the earth,

so his loyal love towers ¹⁵  over his faithful followers. ¹⁶ 

103:12 As far as the eastern horizon ¹⁷  is from the west, ¹⁸ 

so he removes the guilt of our rebellious actions ¹⁹  from us.

103:13 As a father has compassion on his children, ²⁰ 

so the Lord has compassion on his faithful followers. ²¹ 

103:14 For he knows what we are made of; ²² 

he realizes ²³  we are made of clay. ²⁴ 

Mazmur 119:156

119:156 Your compassion is great, O Lord.

Revive me, as you typically do! ²⁵ 

Mazmur 145:9

145:9 The Lord is good to all,

and has compassion on all he has made. ²⁶ 

[51:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 51. The psalmist confesses his sinfulness to God and begs for forgiveness and a transformation of his inner character. According to the psalm superscription, David offered this prayer when Nathan confronted him with his sin following the king’s affair with Bathsheba (see 2 Sam 11-12). However, the final two verses of the psalm hardly fit this situation, for they assume the walls of Jerusalem have been destroyed and that the sacrificial system has been temporarily suspended. These verses are probably an addition to the psalm made during the period of exile following the fall of Jerusalem in 586 b.c. The exiles could relate to David’s experience, for they, like him, and had been forced to confront their sin. They appropriated David’s ancient prayer and applied it to their own circumstances.

[51:1]  ² tn Heb “a psalm by David, when Nathan the prophet came to him when he had gone to Bathsheba.”

[51:1]  ³ tn Or “according to.”

[51:1]  ⁴ tn Or “according to.”

[51:1]  ⁵ tn Traditionally “blot out my transgressions.” Because of the reference to washing and cleansing in the following verse, it is likely that the psalmist is comparing forgiveness to wiping an object clean (note the use of the verb מָחָה (makhah) in the sense of “wipe clean; dry” in 2 Kgs 21:13; Prov 30:20; Isa 25:8). Another option is that the psalmist is comparing forgiveness to erasing or blotting out names from a register (see Exod 32:32-33). In this case one might translate, “erase all record of my rebellious acts.”

[86:5]  ⁶ tn Or “for.”

[86:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “good.”

[86:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “slow to anger.”

[86:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “and great of loyal love and faithfulness.”

[86:15]  sn The psalmist’s confession of faith in this verse echoes Exod 34:6.

[103:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “slow to anger” (see Ps 86:15).

[103:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and great of loyal love” (see Ps 86:15).

[103:9]  ¹² tn The Hebrew verb נָטַר (natar) is usually taken to mean “to keep; to guard,” with “anger” being understood by ellipsis. The idiom “to guard anger” is then understood to mean “to remain angry” (see Lev 19:18; Jer 3:5, 12; Nah 1:2). However, it is possible that this is a homonymic root meaning “to be angry” (see HALOT 695 s.v. נטר).

[103:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “not according to our sins does he do to us.”

[103:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and not according to our misdeeds does he repay us.”

[103:11]  ¹⁵ tn For this sense of the verb גָבַר (gavar), see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 17, 19.

[103:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “those who fear him.”

[103:12]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “sunrise.”

[103:12]  ¹⁸ tn Or “sunset.”

[103:12]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew term פֶּשַׁע (pesha’, rebellious act”) is here used metonymically for the guilt such actions produce.

[103:13]  ²⁰ tn Or “sons,” but the Hebrew term sometimes refers to children in general.

[103:13]  ²¹ tn Heb “those who fear him.”

[103:14]  ²² tn Heb “our form.”

[103:14]  ²³ tn Heb “remembers.”

[103:14]  ²⁴ tn Heb “we [are] clay.”

[119:156]  ²⁵ tn Heb “according to your customs.”

[145:9]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and his compassion is over all his works.”