Psalm 28/Notes/Lexical.v. 9.391524
From Psalms: Layer by Layer
- Save! (הֹושִׁיעָה). Having experienced God's salvation for himself, the psalmist now prays that God would save his people. The psalmist's "request is for the Lord to deliver the nation from all its enemies and troubles, as he did him."[1]
- Possession (נַחֲלָה) = "a nation or people that is in a covenantal relationship with YHWH and therefore regarded as YHWH's possession -- heritage; one's own people" (SDBH).[2] The people of Israel were God's inalienable inheritance, and whom he protected.[3] "One’s 'inheritance' (naḥalah) is that property acquired during a lifetime that cannot be taken away but remains to be passed on to one’s descendants. Israel is God’s 'inheritance' in the sense that they are his possession, and no one else can lay any claim on her."[4] In addition to "inheritance,"[5] modern translations have translated נַחֲלָה (in Ps 28:9) as "special possession,"[6] "heritage,"[7] and "nation that belongs to you [YHWH]."[8]
- To shepherd (רעה): "causative action by which humans lead domestic animals to places where they can feed on grass and other edible materials in the field, ≈ often extended to denote the way a king cares for his subjects or the way God cares for his people -- to pasture; to feed; to shepherd."[9] A shepherd's professional duties include leading, feeding, sheltering, and protecting the sheep.[10] Hence, the psalmist asks YHWH to shepherd his (YHWH) people.
- In this verse, the root נשׂא means to carry "= action by which humans provide help and support to other humans -- to care for; to assist; to help; to support."[11] The root נשא occurs in vv. 2b and 9c. In the beginning of the psalm David "lifts up" (נשא) his hands in prayer, and in the end he asks YHWH to "carry" (נשא) his people, meaning "to lift up" the people out of their afflictions and "carry" them to safety forever! In sum, the psalmist asks YHWH to carry (נשׂא) Israel, that is, to care for Israel forever. GNT's translation reflects this meaning, "Be their shepherd, and take care of them forever."[12]
- Indefinite duration >> forever (עַד־הָעֹולָם): The term עֹולָם refers to an indefinite duration of time.[13] In the context of Ps 28, it means "forever" as the psalmist prays that God's care for his people would be never-ending.[14]
- ↑ Ross 2011, 648.
- ↑ BDB presents the following glosses for נַחֲלָה: "possession, property, inheritance."
- ↑ Deut 4:20, 9: 26, 29; Exod 34:9; cf. Barnes 1869, 246.
- ↑ Wilson 2002, 498. Moreover, Ps 33:12 reads, "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance" (NIV). As mentioned in TWOT, "This blessed position (Ps 33:12) was the basis for special petitions (Deut 9:26, 29; Ps 28:9) and confidence (Mic 7:14, 18; Ps 94:14; cf. Ps 37:18)" (TWOT).
- ↑ NIV.
- ↑ NLT.
- ↑ ESV, NRSV.
- ↑ NET.
- ↑ SDBH.
- ↑ Cf. Hossfeld and Zenger 2005, 313.
- ↑ SDBH. The imagery in this verse resembles that of Psalm 23; however, YHWH's people is pictured as his "sheep, not to be led as in Psalm 23, but carried as in Isa 40:11" (Grogan 2008, 81). Bullock explained, "The shepherd carried (ns') his lambs on his shoulders or against his chest (Isa. 40:11) to protect them . . . It is also used to describe a man carrying his child. In fact, it may reflect the statement of Deuteronomy 1:31, where Moses says the Lord has carried Israel through the wilderness like a man carries his son" (Bullock 2015, 207; so Delitzsch 1883, 445). Another image applied to YHWH's care for his people through the wilderness is found in Deut 32:11, "God carries the people as an eagle bears them aloft on its pinions" (Waltner 2006, 153). Moreover, in Isa 63:9, the piel of נשׂא "is used of carrying the weak, whom one lifts up, and so removes from helplessness and danger" (Delitzsch 1883, 445).
- ↑ GNT.
- ↑ As Bate noted, עֹולָם refers to "time indefinitely . . . whose beginning or ending is not set . . . it is neither finite nor infinite, but indefinite" (Bate 1767, 427).
- ↑ Cf. Ross 2011, 649.