Mazmur 67:1

Psalm 67 ¹ 

For the music director; to be accompanied by stringed instruments; a psalm, a song.

67:1 May God show us his favor ²  and bless us! ³ 

May he smile on us! ⁴  (Selah)

Mazmur 88:1

Psalm 88 ⁵ 

A song, a psalm written by the Korahites; for the music director; according to the machalath-leannoth style; ⁶  a well-written song ⁷  by Heman the Ezrachite.

88:1 O Lord God who delivers me! ⁸ 

By day I cry out

and at night I pray before you. ⁹ 

Mazmur 37:36

37:36 But then one passes by, and suddenly they have disappeared! ¹⁰ 

I looked for them, but they could not be found.

[67:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 67. The psalmist prays for God’s blessing upon his people and urges the nations to praise him for he is the just ruler of the world.

[67:1]  ² tn Or “have mercy on us.”

[67:1]  ³ tn The prefixed verbal forms are understood as jussives expressing the psalmist’s prayer. Note the jussive form יָאֵר (ya’er) in the next line.

[67:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “may he cause his face to shine with us.”

[88:1]  ⁵ sn Psalm 88. The psalmist cries out in pain to the Lord, begging him for relief from his intense and constant suffering. The psalmist regards God as the ultimate cause of his distress, but nevertheless clings to God in hope.

[88:1]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew phrase מָחֲלַת לְעַנּוֹת (makhalat lÿ’annot) may mean “illness to afflict.” Perhaps it refers to a particular style of music, a tune title, or a musical instrument. The term מָחֲלַת also appears in the superscription of Ps 53.

[88:1]  ⁷ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. The word is derived from a verb meaning “to be prudent; to be wise.” Various options are: “a contemplative song,” “a song imparting moral wisdom,” or “a skillful [i.e., well-written] song.” The term occurs in the superscriptions of Pss 32, 42, 44, 45, 52-55, 74, 78, 88, 89, and 142, as well as in Ps 47:7.

[88:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “O Lord God of my deliverance.” In light of the content of the psalm, this reference to God as the one who delivers seems overly positive. For this reason some emend the text to אַלֹהַי שִׁוַּעְתִּי (’alohay shivva’tiy, “[O Lord] my God, I cry out”). See v. 13.

[88:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “[by] day I cry out, in the night before you.”

[37:36]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and he passes by and, look, he is not [there].” The subject of the verb “passes by” is probably indefinite, referring to any passerby. Some prefer to change the form to first person, “and I passed by” (cf. NEB; note the first person verbal forms in preceding verse and in the following line).