HELP, LORD^{^}, for the godly man ceases to be,¹ For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.

Interestingly, David does not respond by doing the same thing but calls out to God.

1 b^eleb waleb - lit. ‘with heart and heart’ is a Hebrew idiom for hypocrisy; Prov.26:24-26 the same idiom is translated ‘deceit’ by NIV; Ja.3:10-12

May the LORD cut off all flattering lips, The tongue that speaks great things;¹

1 g^edolot – a tongue speaking boastfully

Who have said, With our tongue we will prevail; Our lips are our own; who is lord over us?

They 'prefer autonomy & anarchy.' 'Their aim is power and that end justifies any means (v.4; cf. 10:2-11).^[5] 

Absalom is a good example of this kind of person (2Sam.15:1-12).

Because of the devastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy, Now I will arise, says the LORD; I will set him in the safety for which he longs.¹

1yapi^ah lo – lit. ‘he will blow at him’ (NIV I will protect them from those who malign them); Ugaritic texts suggest to some y p h rather than p u h (‘witness’), thus meaning, ‘witness for him’…’I will place in safety the witness on his behalf’

The words of the LORD are pure words; As silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times.¹

1 A simile intended to show the flawlessness of God’s truth.

You, O LORD, will keep them; You will preserve him from this generation forever.

Assurance of deliverance

The wicked strut about on every side When vileness¹ is exalted among the sons of men.

1 OR worthlessness, profligacy

AS the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul¹ pants for You, O God.²

1 nepes - soul; not the spiritual aspect exclusively…it means the whole self.
² Elohim

My soul thirsts for God,¹ for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?²

2 probably a reference to the Temple from which he is restrained (i.e. notice he remembers how he used to lead the way in v. 4); the Masoretes changed every text that implied man could see God and so the Niphal form of the verb 'see', could be either w^e era'eh - 'and I shall be seen,' or w^e'er'eh - 'I shall see'; Several MSS (Syriac & the Targum) support the latter translation.

My tears have been my food¹ day and night, While they say to me all day long, Where is your God?

1 hyperbole and imagery

These things I remember and I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God, With the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.¹

• Passover - Deliverance from God's judgment
• Firstfruits - God's provision
• Tabernacles - At the autumnal harvest, a commemoration of the wilderness wandering…God's provision in the midst of judgment.

Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me?¹ Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him For the help of His presence.²

2 See Martin Lloyd Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its causes and cure, for a practical exposition of this verse. See also, Os Guinness, Doubt for the issue of being in two minds (Ch.2).

O my God, my soul is in despair within me; Therefore I remember You from the land of the Jordan And the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.¹

1unknown peak

Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls;¹ All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me.²

2 imagery of fear and despair if one is in them

The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime; And His song will be with me in the night, A prayer to the God of my life.

I will say to God my rock, Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

Where are you God of strength and security?

As a shattering of my bones,¹ my adversaries revile me, While they say to me all day long, Where is your God?

1 A simile - lit. ‘in murder in my bones’; several MSS read, "like rot in my bones"; others read, "like breaking in my bones." Regardless, the point is how severe the author’s suffering has become.

Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.

Why am I so troubled? God will rescue me.

VINDICATE me, O God,¹ and plead my case against an ungodly nation; deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man!

1 Elohim

For You are the God of my strength; why have You rejected me?¹ Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

Rescue me or show me why you’ve rejected me.

O send out Your light and Your truth, let them lead me; Let them bring me to Your holy hill And to Your dwelling places.

Then I will go to the altar of God, To God my exceeding joy; And upon the lyre I shall praise You, O God, my God.

Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.

Why am I so troubled? God will rescue me.

1

Be gracious¹ to me, O God,² according to Your loving kindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.

1 honneni – the same root, h - n - n is used in Nu.6:25 as part of the priestly blessing; it is used frequently in laments (4:1, 6:2, 31:9, 41:4, etc.); he has no right to ask for forgiveness on any basis other than the one God offers – his mercy anchored in his love (Exodus 34:6-7; Ps.25:6; Isa.63:7; Lam.3:32; Lk.18:13; 1Pet.1:3).
² Elohim

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me.

Against You, You only, I have sinned¹ And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge.

1Some theologians, after studying the use of the word and concept of sin, argue that we may hurt others but we sin against God alone.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.

Behold,¹ You desire truth in the innermost being,² And in the hidden part³You will make me know wisdom.

1 OR ‘since’
² battuhot – the inner parts
³ satum – the inmost place (this has partial assonance with battuhot)

Purify me with hyssop,¹ and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

1 ezob - used to apply the Passover blood (Ex.12:22), in purification rituals to sprinkle water (lepers, Lev.14; Nu.19) or blood for sin sacrifices (Lev.14:4-8; Nu.19:6-8, 17-21; Heb.9:19).

Make me to hear joy and gladness,¹ Let the bones which You have broken rejoice.

1 Joy follows from God’s restoration (Isa.65:17-18); independent of all circumstances except for one – having a settled state of radical trust in the goodness and provision of God

Hide Your face from my sins And blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Restoration to a spiritual man is a gift from God (Deut.30:6; Isa.59:21; Jer.31:33-34; Ez.36:26-27 {see also Jer.24:7,31; 32:39; Ez.11:19; 18:31; 2Cor.5:17; Gal.6:15; Eph.2:10; 4:24})

Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.

At the rebuke of Nathan he must have thought back to Saul who was cast aside for rejecting the will of God (1Sam.13:14; 15:10,22-23; 16:14-23). Now, David had ‘despised the word of the Lord’ (2Sam.12:9,10,14). What would God do?

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit.

Interestingly, it is God’s salvation that produces joy.

Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,¹ And sinners will be converted to You.

1 Many MSS have this in the singular, ‘your way’

Deliver me from blood-guiltiness,¹ O God, the God of my salvation; Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness.

1 could mean the death penalty (Ez.18:12-13) for adultery or for murder in the case of Uriah (2Sam.12:5,13)

O Lord, open my lips, That my mouth may declare Your praise.

For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God¹ are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

1 zibhe from the MT could be zibhi - ‘my sacrifice, O God’

By Your favor do good to Zion; Build the walls of Jerusalem.

Some suggest that these two verses are post-exilic additions to the Psalm. This is conceivable and would not do great harm to the text but it doesn’t have to suggest some breach in the walls of Jerusalem...the walls represent protection that David jeopardized with his sin (2Sam.24).

Then You will delight in righteous sacrifices, In burnt offering and whole burnt offering; Then young bulls will be offered on Your altar.

Sacrifices were appropriate in the context of a right heart for they symbolized substitutionary atonement and demonstrated submission to God.

By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat¹ down and wept,² When we remembered Zion.

1 yasabnu – sat or dwelt
² bakinu - wept

Upon the willows in the midst of it We hung our harps.

We sang no more...

For there our captors¹ demanded of us songs, And our tormentors² mirth, saying, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion."

1 sobenu – our captors
² tolalenu – our tormentors, rhymes with sobenu but also forms a word play with talinu (we hung) in the previous verse.

How can we sing the LORD'S song In a foreign land?

One translator puts this, "how can we who are unclean sing Yahweh’s praises to an unclean people in an unclean land?"

If I forget you, O Jerusalem, May my right hand forget her skill

May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth If I do not remember you, If I do not exalt Jerusalem Above my chief joy.¹

Remember,¹ O LORD, against the sons of Edom The day of Jerusalem, Who said, "Raze it, raze it To its very foundation."

O daughter of Babylon, you devastated one, How blessed will be the one who repays you With the recompense with which you have repaid us.

How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones Against the rock.