Mazmur 10:11

10:11 He says to himself, ¹ 

“God overlooks it;

he does not pay attention;

he never notices.” ² 

Mazmur 10:17

10:17 Lord, you have heard ³  the request ⁴  of the oppressed;

you make them feel secure because you listen to their prayer. ⁵ 

Mazmur 17:15

17:15 As for me, because I am innocent I will see your face; ⁶ 

when I awake you will reveal yourself to me. ⁷ 

Mazmur 18:16

18:16 He reached down ⁸  from above and took hold of me;

he pulled me from the surging water. ⁹ 

[10:11]  ¹ tn Heb “he says in his heart.” See v. 6.

[10:11]  ² tn Heb “God forgets, he hides his face, he never sees.”

[10:17]  ³ sn You have heard. The psalmist is confident that God has responded positively to his earlier petitions for divine intervention. The psalmist apparently prayed the words of vv. 16-18 after the reception of an oracle of deliverance (given in response to the confident petition of vv. 12-15) or after the Lord actually delivered him from his enemies.

[10:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “desire.”

[10:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “you make firm their heart, you cause your ear to listen.”

[17:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “I, in innocence, I will see your face.” To “see” God’s “face” means to have access to his presence and to experience his favor (see Ps 11:7; see also Job 33:26 [where רָאָה (ra’ah), not חָזַה (khazah), is used]). Here, however, the psalmist may be anticipating a mystical experience. See the following note on the word “me.”

[17:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “I will be satisfied, when I awake, [with] your form.” The noun תְּמוּנָה (tÿmunah) normally carries the nuance “likeness” or “form.” In Job 4:16 it refers to a ghostlike spiritual entity (see v. 15) that revealed itself to Eliphaz during the night. The psalmist may anticipate a mystical encounter with God in which he expects to see a manifestation of God’s presence (i.e., a theophany), perhaps in conjunction with an oracle of deliverance. During the quiet darkness of the night, God examines the psalmist’s inner motives and finds them to be pure (see v. 3). The psalmist is confident that when he awakens, perhaps sometime during the night or in the morning, he will be visited by God and assured of vindication.

[17:15]  sn When I awake you will reveal yourself to me. Some see in this verse an allusion to resurrection. According to this view, when the psalmist awakens from the sleep of death, he will see God. It is unlikely that the psalmist had such a highly developed personal eschatology. As noted above, it is more likely that he is anticipating a divine visitation and mystical encounter as a prelude to his deliverance from his enemies.

[18:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “stretched.” Perhaps “his hand” should be supplied by ellipsis (see Ps 144:7). In this poetic narrative context the three prefixed verbal forms in this verse are best understood as preterites indicating past tense, not imperfects.

[18:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “mighty waters.” The waters of the sea symbolize the psalmist’s powerful enemies, as well as the realm of death they represent (see v. 4 and Ps 144:7).