In YHWH's Hand

Introduction

Overview

The purpose was the psalmist's probable intent or reason for writing this psalm. The Content is a concise summary of the whole psalm's content. The Message is the main idea the psalmist probably wanted the audience to remember upon or after hearing the psalm.

Purpose: To encourage others to trust YHWH despite dire circumstances.

Content: YHWH, I am in a shameful state, but I trust you to rescue me. Though my enemies try to surround me, I know you protect those who take refuge in you.

Message: Trust YHWH! His people aren't forgotten, but sheltered in him!

Background Ideas

Cultural, historical, and contextual information that is important to know to understand this psalm

After Saul became angry with him (1 Sam 20:30-34), Saul decided to kill David. When David fled from Saul, he lied to Ahimelech to secure food and weapons (1 Sam 21:1-9). Next David was forced to act like a madman to prevent Achish of Gath from killing him. So, Achish ridiculed him (1 Sam 21:10-15). After David saved the city of Keilah, Saul tried to capture him there by putting the city under siege (1 Sam 23:7-8). David heard the rumor that Saul was trying to surround him (1 Sam 23:9). As a result, David asked God whether the people of Keilah would surrender him into Saul's hand (1 Sam 23:12). God tells David that the people will betray him (1 Sam 23:12). David and his men escape into the countryside and hide in the strongholds (1 Sam 23:14). Even though Saul continued to pursue him, YHWH did not allow him to capture David (1 Sam 23:14).
Putting trust in one deity instead of many is a risky proposition, because it will lead to shame if that deity does not protect you (TDOT 1977, 2:52-53). Ancient Israel was a monotheistic society. Other cultures appealed to numerous gods in the hope that one of them would respond positively. If YHWH did not respond positively to him, David would look foolish for ignoring other deities who may have been willing to help.
YHWH's ability to provide protection may be compared to rock-like features and human-made fortresses (cf. Deut 32:37; 2 Sam 22:3; Ps. 18:3; 144:2; cf. Zion Isa 14:32). A rock is a fixed structure that provides shade and, depending on the size can provide physical safety. A fortress is a man-made structure designed to protect someone from an enemy. YHWH, by his very nature, is able to provide protection from enemies.
A person that is physically deformed is a social outcast (1 Sam 11:2; cf., Jezebel's corpse 2 Kgs 9:37).

Background Situation

A brief explanation of the "story behind" the psalm--what was going on in the psalmist's life, and/or Israel's history, that prompted the psalmist to pen this psalm? The colors in the boxes correspond to the participants in the psalm (see Participant Analysis).

Sections

These sections divide the content of the psalm into digestible pieces , and are determined based on information from many of our layers, including Semantics, Poetics, and Discourse. The columns, left to right, contain: the verse numbers; the main title of the section; a brief summary of the content of that section (quote marks indicate the text is taken directly from the English text of the psalm (as per our Close-but-Clear translation)); and an icon to visually represent and remember the content.

Videos

The Overview video is a brief, concise explanation of the psalm, pulling all the most important information specific to this psalm from each of our analytical layers. The video begins with a high-level, birds-eye view of the content of the psalm, then explores and explains the psalm verse by verse. Relevant contextual information is also included. No Hebrew knowledge required--this video serves as an entry point for all users to all our other information about the psalm.

Translation Aids

Recommended steps for translating the psalms

To translate poetry accurately and beautifully, a knowledge of both the source language's poetry and the target language's poetry is needed. So, here are the steps we recommend to follow when setting out to translate the psalms:

GAIN AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE TARGET LANGUAGE'S POETRY/ARTS. Research and analyze many examples from numerous genres of poetry, storytelling, and music in the target language and culture, and document findings. See our for help.
GAIN AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE SOURCE LANGUAGE'S (HEBREW) MEANING AND POETRY. The aim of all our materials is to provide exactly this for the translator, poet/musician/artist, and consultant: an understanding of what the psalm means, as well as its poetics.
TRANSLATE THE PSALM IN THE APPROPRIATE LOCAL ART/POETRY GENRE.

Translation and Performance Notes

TPNs are an at-a-glance reference for anyone involved with translating or checking a translation of the psalm. Specific words, phrases, and images that could be difficult to understand or to translate are highlighted, and then briefly discussed. Each note is intended to help the reader understand the meaning of the Hebrew word or phrase in its context, as well as provide a few translation options or suggestions, often pulling from existing translations. Where pertinent, our preferred translation option is given. NOTE: These notes are intended to supplement a robust internalization of the psalm, not replace it. Translation Challenges for Psalm 31 not available yet.

Close-but-Clear Translation

The Close-but-clear translation (CBC) exists to provide a window into the Hebrew text according to how we understand its syntax and word-to-phrase-level semantics. It is not intended to be used as a stand-alone translation or base text, but as a supplement to Layer-by-Layer materials to help users make full use of these resources.

1. For the director. A psalm by David.

2. I have taken shelter in you, YHWH. Do not let my shame continue forever!

Rescue me in your righteousness!

3. Listen to me!

Rescue me quickly!

Be a rock of refuge for me,

and a fortress to deliver me!

4. because you are my rock and my stronghold.

And for the sake of your name, you must carefully guide me.

5. You must save me from the net which they hid for me,

because you are my refuge.

6. I entrust my spirit into your hand.

You have redeemed me, YHWH, God of faithfulness.

7. You hate those who worship worthless idols,

but I trust YHWH.

8. I will be glad and rejoice on account of your faithfulness,

that you saw my affliction.

You saved my life from distress.

9. And you did not let any enemy capture me.

You set my feet in a broad place.

10. Be gracious to me, YHWH, because I am in distress.

My eye, my throat, and my belly waste away because of anger.

11. because my life fades away with grief,

and my years [fade away] with groaning.

My strength has failed because of my iniquity,

and my bones waste away.

12. I have been scorned by all of my adversaries

and [I have] greatly [become an object of scorn] to my neighbors,

and [I have become] an object of fear to my friends.

Those who see me in the street have fled from me.

13. I have been forgotten like a dead person [is forgotten] from memory.

I have become like a broken vessel.

14. because I heard the slander of many people

–terror is on every side–

when they conspired together against me.

They plotted to take my life.

15. But I trust you, YHWH.

I say, “You are my God.”

16. My times are in your hand.

Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from my pursuers!

17. Shine your face upon your servant!

Save me by your faithfulness.

18. YHWH, do not let me be ashamed because I have called you!

May the evil ones be ashamed!

May they go silently to Sheol!

19. May lying lips be unable to speak

–those that speak insolence against the righteous, with arrogance and contempt.

20. How many are your good things

which you have stored up for those who fear you,

[and which] you have performed for those who take refuge in you

for all people to see!

21. You shelter them from people’s schemes in the cover of your presence;

You hide them in a shelter from contentious people.

22. Blessed is YHWH,

because he has wonderfully shown his faithfulness to me in a city under siege.

23. Even though I thought in my panic I had been cut off from your sight.

However, you heard the sound of my pleading when I cried out to you.

24. Love YHWH, all his loyal ones!

YHWH is watching over the faithful,

and he abundantly repays those who act pridefully.

25. Be strong so your hearts may take courage,

all who wait for YHWH.

Explore the Layers

Exegetical Issues

The Hebrew of the psalms can be difficult to understand at times. In this section, you can explore (in either video or text format) what we've deemed to be the three most important difficulties in the Hebrew, and follow our reasoning as we do a deep dive in scholarly work and explain our conclusions.

The Text of Psalm 31:7 (Draft)

The Text and Meaning of Ps 31:12 (Draft)

The Text and Meaning of Ps 31:22 (Draft)

Grammar

A full, detailed diagram showing the grammatical function of each word/morpheme in the Hebrew text, along with accompanying notes.

Explore the Grammar layer

Semantics

Lexical and Phrase-level Semantics

Lexical semantics is the study of word meanings. It examines semantic range (=possible meanings of a word), the relationship between words (e.g. synonymy, hyponymy), as well as the relationship between words and larger concepts (conceptual domains). One component of our approach involves not only the study of the Hebrew word meaning, but also of our own assumptions about word meaning in modern languages. Because the researcher necessarily starts with their own cultural assumptions (in our case, those of Western-trained scholars), this part of the analysis should ideally be done afresh for every culture. Phrase-level semantics analyses the meaning of syntactic units which are larger than the level of the word and smaller than the level of the clause. Specifically, this layer analyses the meaning of prepositional phrases , construct phrases (a special type of construction in Hebrew), phrases formed by a coordinating waw conjunction, and noun phrases which consist of a noun plus a determiner (such as "the") or a quantifier (such as "all").

Explore Lexical and Phrasal Semantics

Verbal Semantics

Verbal Semantics focuses on the relationship between verbs, time and modality, and gives details about each verb in the psalm. This is important for interpretation and translation, and how one analyses a verb can have a significant effect on how it is rendered.

Explore Verbal Semantics

Story Behind the Psalm (Unit-level Semantics)

The Story Behind triangle tells the "story" (reading from left to right, beginning at the bottom left corner) of what might have prompted the psalmist to write this psalm. The events and ideas on the triangle are taken from the Propositions and Assumptions table below. Propositional content is the part of the meaning of a clause or sentence that is constant, despite changes in such things as voice, illocutionary force, tense/aspect/mode, person/gender/number, etc. It refers to “the kind of situation or event described by the underlying proposition.” Once we have identified the propositional content, we ask, “what would the world have to be like for this [proposition] to be true?” That is, what does this proposition presuppose about the world? What does it entail? What might be implied? In what kind of situation does this make sense? In other words, what assumptions are bound up with this proposition? We distinguish three kinds of assumptions:

Common-ground assumptions
Local-ground assumptions
Playground assumptions

See the Legend accompanying the chart for more details on the types of assumptions.

Understanding the assumptions involved will help translators understand the implicit information present in the text, so that they can decide which of these to make explicit in the translation or biblical helps for their audience to understand the text's larger meaning.

Explore the Story Behind the Psalm

Discourse

Participant Analysis

This layer examines each participant in the psalm, whether they have speaking roles in the psalm, or are just referenced in the poem. Often, the relationships and interactions among participants sheds much light on the understanding and translation of a psalm. The summary visuals give a view of the participants in the psalm as a whole, while the tables list the participant information for each clause.