Mazmur 38:1

Psalm 38 ¹ 

A psalm of David, written to get God’s attention. ² 

38:1 O Lord, do not continue to rebuke me in your anger!

Do not continue to punish me in your raging fury! ³ 

Mazmur 43:4

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

to the God who gives me ecstatic joy, ⁵ 

so that I express my thanks to you, ⁶  O God, my God, with a harp.

[38:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 38. The author asks the Lord to deliver him from his enemies. He confesses his sin and recognizes that the crisis he faces is the result of divine discipline. Yet he begs the Lord not to reject him.

[38:1]  ² tn The Hebrew text reads simply, “to cause to remember.” The same form, the Hiphil infinitive of זָכַר (zakhar, “remember”), also appears in the heading of Ps 70. Some understand this in the sense of “for the memorial offering,” but it may carry the idea of bringing one’s plight to God’s attention (see P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 303).

[38:1]  ³ tn The words “continue to” are supplied in the translation of both lines. The following verses make it clear that the psalmist is already experiencing divine rebuke/punishment. He asks that it might cease.

[38:1]  sn Compare Ps 38:1 with Ps 6:1, which has similar wording.

[43:4]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn The cohortative with vav (ו) conjunctive probably indicates purpose (“so that”) or intention.