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Psalm 5

Psalm 5^[a]

Morning Prayer for Divine Help

¹For the director.^[b] With flutes. A psalm of David.

²Listen to my words, O Lord;
    pay heed to my sighs.
³Hear my cry for help,
    my King and my God;
    for to you I pray.
⁴O Lord, at daybreak^[c] you hear my voice;
    at daybreak I bring my petition before you
    and await your reply.
⁵For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;
    evil cannot remain in your presence.
⁶The arrogant shrink before your gaze;
    you hate all who do evil.
⁷You destroy all who tell lies;
    the Lord detests the violent and the deceitful.
⁸But I will enter your house
    because of your great kindness,^[d]
and I will bow down in your holy temple,
    filled with awe of you.
⁹Lead me in your ways of righteousness, O Lord,
    for I am surrounded by enemies;
    make your path straight before me.^[e]
¹⁰For there is nothing trustworthy in their mouth;^[f]
    their heart devises treacherous schemes.
Their throat is a wide open grave;
    with their tongue they utter flattery.
¹¹Punish them, O God;
    may their intrigues result in their downfall.
Cast them out because of their many transgressions,
    for they have rebelled against you.^[g]
¹²But may all who take refuge in you rejoice;
    may they shout for joy forever.
Grant them your protection
    so that those who love your name^[h] may rejoice in you.
¹³Truly, you bless the righteous, O Lord;
    you surround them with your goodwill as with a shield.

Footnotes

Psalm 5:1 This is a morning prayer (see v. 4) in which the psalmist prays for the Lord to hear his prayer and grant a sense of God’s goodness and justice, bestow guidance, punish enemies, and bless the righteous. Broken by tribulation, the persecuted man appeals for the justice of God against his own enemies. Christians must spiritualize the call for vengeance, hating evil rather than those who do evil. To love God is to choose the cause of justice and bear the witness of a purified joy.
Psalm 5:1 For the director: these words are thought to be a musical or liturgical notation.
Psalm 5:4 At daybreak: the morning is the privileged moment for divine favors (see Pss 17:14f; 30:6; 46:6; 59:17). I bring my petition: other possible translations are: “I offer my vows” and “I prepare my offering.”
Psalm 5:8 Kindness: Hebrew, hesed; this word denotes the sentiments that flow from a natural community, family, clan, or society (benevolence, favor). It is also the love of the covenant between the Lord and the community of Israel, regarded as his spouse and child. Finally, it includes the sentiments that are found in each of its members (grace and love on the part of the Lord, and piety on the part of the faithful). See also note on Ps 6:5.
Psalm 5:9 Make your path straight before me: the Greek reads: “Make straight my way before you.”
Psalm 5:10 With mouth, heart, throat, and tongue they spread harm around. Their throat is a wide open grave: their words bring death to their hearers (see Jer 5:16)—a theme cited in Rom 3:13. Heart: see note on Ps 4:8.
Psalm 5:11 This verse reminds us that the so-called imprecatory (or cursing) psalms (see note on Ps 35) have been a problem for Christians from the beginning of the use of the Psalter. Christ instructed Christians to pray for enemies (see Mt 5:44) and gave an example of this on the cross (see Lk 23:34). Yet the psalmists at times call for punishment (even of the most drastic kind) on enemies. Christians may look upon these statements as appeals for strict redress of evil in accord with the divine justice or direct them toward the enemies of their souls, the devil and his minions who are implacable foes of God.
Psalm 5:12 Your name: a name usually designates the person, hence the Lord himself. See also note on Ps 8:2, 10.

Psalm 38

Psalm 38^[a]

Prayer of a Sinner in Great Peril

¹A psalm of David. For remembrance.^[b]

²O Lord, do not punish me in your anger
    or chastise me in your wrath.
³For your arrows^[c] have pierced me deeply,
    and your hand has come down upon me.
⁴No portion of my body^[d] has been unscathed
    as a result of your anger;
my bones have become weak
    as a result of my sins.
⁵My iniquities tower far above my head;^[e]
    they are a burden too heavy to bear.
⁶My wounds are fetid and fester
    because of my folly.
⁷I am bowed down and bent over,
    as I spend each day in sorrow.
⁸My loins are filled with searing pain;
    no part of my body^[f] is unafflicted.
⁹I am numb and completely crushed,
    and I groan in anguish of heart.^[g]
¹⁰O Lord, all my longing is known to you,
    and my sighs are not hidden from you.
¹¹My heart throbs, and my strength is spent;
    even the light has faded from my eyes.
¹²My friends and companions stay away from my affliction,
    and my neighbors keep their distance.
¹³Those who seek my life set traps;
    those who wish me harm threaten violence
    and plot treachery all day long.^[h]
¹⁴^[i]But I am like a man who cannot hear,
    like one who cannot open his mouth.
¹⁵I am like one who hears nothing
    and has no answer to offer.
¹⁶I place my hope in you, O Lord;
    you, O Lord, my God, will answer for me.
¹⁷For I prayed, “Never let them gloat over me
    or exult should my foot slip.”
¹⁸I am at the point of exhaustion,
    and my grief is with me constantly.
¹⁹I acknowledge my iniquity,
    and I sincerely grieve for my sin.
²⁰^[j]Numerous and strong are my enemies without cause;
    many are those who hate me without good reason.^[k]
²¹Those who repay my good deeds with evil
    oppose me because I follow a path of righteousness.
²²Do not abandon me, O Lord;
    my God, do not remain far from me.
²³Come quickly to my aid,
    O Lord, my Savior.

Footnotes

Psalm 38:1 The psalmist of this third Penitential Psalm (seven in all: Pss 6; 32; 38; 51; 102; 130; 143) is a man prostrated beneath the weight of his sickness and the vilification heaped on him by others, a man marked by the chastisement of God. He utters a suppliant and monotone plaint that seems as interminable as his suffering. Before God, he is pitiable, abandoned, and betrayed. This new Job (Job 6:4; 19:13-21) does not rebel. He thinks of himself as a sinner who deserves his lot and he suffers in silence, leveling neither recriminations nor imprecations against his adversaries. Indeed, hope stirs secretly in him.
The complete abandonment to God that is expressed here is also found in the third Lamentation (Lam 3:26-29) and in the Songs of the Servant of the Lord (see Isa 53:7). The Christian Liturgy sees in this man of sorrows an image of the Christ who was silent during his Passion.
In praying this psalm, we should look to ourselves, scrutinizing our lives and our consciences with a penetrating and impartial honesty, the better to discern the place of sin therein and the better to realize that we are and remain sinners (see Rom 7:14-20; 1 Jn 1:8f). This will in no way prevent us from begging God not to chastise us in his wrath but to save us as soon as possible from our afflictions and our foes.
Psalm 38:1 For remembrance: the meaning is “For the memorial sacrifice” or “portion” (see Lev 2:2, 9, 16; 5:12; Isa 66:3); it occurs elsewhere only in Ps 70; an alternative translation is: “A petition.”
Psalm 38:3 Arrows: i.e., the trials God has sent him (see Deut 32:23; Job 6:4; 34:6; Lam 3:12; Ezek 5:16).
Psalm 38:4 Body: literally, “flesh.” Bones: see note on Ps 34:20-21.
Psalm 38:5 My iniquities tower far above my head: his guilt has resulted in both physical and psychological suffering.
Psalm 38:8 Body: literally, “flesh.”
Psalm 38:9 Heart: see note on Ps 4:8.
Psalm 38:13 This passage recalls the fourth Song of the Servant (Isa 53:4, 7; see also Pss 31:11; 35:20; 37:32; 88:9; Job 12:4f; 19:13f).
Psalm 38:14 Like a man deaf and dumb, the psalmist does not reply to those who slander him; he waits for the Lord to vindicate his cause.
Psalm 38:20 Passage close to Pss 35:11; 109:3-5. Some Greek manuscripts and many versions add: “They have rejected me, the loved one, like some hideous corpse” (see Isa 14:19 Greek). This allusion to the crucified Christ is made even more explicit in the Coptic version by the words: “They have nailed my flesh.”
Psalm 38:20 Hate me without good reason: although the psalmist acknowledges that he sinned against the Lord, he protests his innocence of wrongdoing against his enemies (see note on Ps 35:19).

Psalm 41-42

Psalm 41^[a]

Trust in God in Sickness and Misfortune

¹For the director.^[b] A psalm of David.

²^[c]Blessed is he who has concern for the weak;
    in time of trouble the Lord will deliver him.
³The Lord will protect him and keep him alive;
    he will make him happy on earth
    and not abandon him to the will of his enemies.
⁴The Lord will sustain him on his sickbed
    and bring him back to health.
⁵Once I prayed, “O Lord, have mercy on me;
    heal me, for I have sinned^[d] against you.
⁶In their malice my enemies say of me,
    ‘When will he die and his name be forgotten?’
⁷When someone comes to visit me,
    he utters words without sincerity;
his heart^[e] harbors slander,
    and on departing he gives voice to it.
⁸“All my enemies whisper against me
    and conjure up the worst in my regard.
⁹‘He has a fatal disease,’ they say;
    ‘he will never rise up from his sickbed.’
¹⁰“Even my friend whom I trusted,
    the one who dined at my table,
    has risen up^[f] against me.
¹¹But you, O Lord, be merciful to me;
    make me well^[g] so that I may pay them back.”
¹²By this I know that you are pleased with me—
    that my enemy fails to triumph over me.
¹³Because of my innocence you uphold me
    and let me stand in your presence forever.
¹⁴Blessed^[h] be the Lord, the God of Israel,
    forever and forever.
    Amen and Amen.

Book II—Psalms 42–72^[i]

Psalm 42^[j]

Prayer of Longing for God

¹For the director.^[k] A maskil of the sons of Korah.

²As a deer longs for running streams,
    so my soul longs for you, O God.^[l]
³My soul^[m] thirsts for God, the living God.
    When shall I come to behold the face of God?
⁴My tears have become my food
    day and night,
while people taunt me all day long, saying,
    “Where is your God?”
⁵As I pour out my soul,
    I recall those times
when I journeyed with the multitude
    and led them in procession to the house of God,
amid loud cries of joy and thanksgiving
    on the part of the crowd keeping festival.
⁶Why are you so disheartened, O my soul?
    Why do you sigh within me?
Place your hope in God,
    for I will once again praise him,
    my Savior and my God.^[n]
⁷My soul is disheartened within me;
    therefore, I remember you
from the land of Jordan and Hermon,
    from Mount Mizar.^[o]
⁸The depths of the sea resound
    in the roar of your waterfalls;^[p]
all your waves and your breakers
    sweep over me.
⁹During the day the Lord grants his kindness,
    and at night his praise is with me,
    a prayer to the living God.^[q]
¹⁰I say to God, my Rock,^[r]
    “Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about in mourning
    while my enemy oppresses me?”
¹¹It crushes my bones
    when my foes taunt me,
jeering at me all day long,
    “Where is your God?”^[s]
¹²Why are you so disheartened, O my soul?
    Why do you sigh within me?
Place your hope in God;
    for I will once again praise him,
    my Savior and my God.^[t]

Footnotes

Psalm 41:1 The psalmist is well aware that mercy is rarely given by human beings. In his illness, he received no mercy from others; instead his enemies gleefully engaged in malicious gossip about him and his coming death and even his friend betrayed him. However, the psalmist does not retaliate in kind; he turns to God for mercy, asking for a rich life with all his powers restored so that he can stand once again in the presence of the Lord.
In praying this psalm, we can recall that the entire psalm is applicable to Christ personally, with the exception of verse 5, which he can assume only in place of and in the role of his sinful members. Since Christ assures us of God’s complete solicitude, we can recite this supplication on our account amid our earthly trials.
Psalm 41:1 For the director: these words are thought to be a musical or liturgical notation.
Psalm 41:2 The psalmist voices his confidence that the Lord will restore him to fullness of health and life because of the psalmist’s regard for the weak. Blessed . . . weak: other psalms use the same designation (“Blessed”) for those whom God favors (see Pss 32:1f; 34:9; 40:5; 65:5; see also note on Ps 1:1).
Psalm 41:5 Sinned: the psalmist acknowledges his sin and asks for forgiveness and healing—in keeping with the idea that sickness was a divine punishment for sin (see Ps 107:17; Job 32:3). In the cure of the man born blind, Jesus was to indicate that such was not the case (see Jn 9:2f).
Psalm 41:7 Heart: see note on Ps 4:8.
Psalm 41:10 This passage repeats a theme frequently developed (see Pss 31:12; 38:12; 55:15f; 88:9; Job 19:13; Jer 20:10; 38:22). It is cited by Jesus with reference to Judas (Jn 13:18) according to the sense of the Septuagint. Risen up: literally, “raised his heel.”
Psalm 41:11 Make me well: the fact that God heals the psalmist is in itself a judgment in his favor and against his adversaries, but paying them back is not part of God’s judgment.
Psalm 41:14 This doxology is not part of the psalm; it concludes the first of the five Books of the Psalter (see Pss 72:18f; 89:53; 106:48; 150). Blessed: see note on Ps 18:47.
Psalm 42:1 The drama of the righteous confronted with the rise of evil terminated Book I of the Psalter. This conflict remains, but other themes come to the fore with greater insistence. Now the prayer often evinces a desire for God and to be far from human beings, oftentimes with a more mystical note added. At other times, crucial moments of history will appear to provoke alternatively both praise and supplication: the drama of the righteous remains—as that of the people. In short, in the psalms that follow, the collective aspect will be readily underlined.
Psalm 42:1 This psalm, which really forms one with the next psalm, has a fascinating literary beauty but also expresses feeling of a rare kind. It is the lament of the exiled Levite combining nostalgia, distress, and fervent desire. Living in a foreign land, far from the temple of Jerusalem, the sole place where it was believed one would encounter God, the sacred ministers feel the Exile more deeply; the sanctuary is the only place where they find their happiness. They are the first to suffer the mockings of the pagans, who do not recognize the God to whom they have dedicated their lives. Three times the lament is voiced, and three times the chant that gives hope is also uttered, as the psalm vibrantly expresses the fervor for the temple, where the people flocked to celebrate the love and presence of God.
At the heart of this fervor we glimpse the deepest human yearning: the desire for God. It is this that here on earth inspires the candidates who seek to enter the Church, the “house of God,” and we also place it on the lips of the dead who are waiting to be admitted into the new Jerusalem, the heavenly city of God. Consecrated men and women also recognize herein the movement of their souls. Is not this the sublime desire at the root of all human restlessness? Down the centuries Augustine has proclaimed: “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
Psalm 42:1 For the director: these words are thought to be a musical or liturgical notation. Maskil: see note on Ps 32:1a. Sons of Korah: Levites (see 1 Chr 26:19). In Book II, seven psalms bear this inscription (Pss 42; 44–49) and four in Book III (Pss 84–85; 87–88).
Psalm 42:2 God: from Pss 42 to 89, the ineffable tetragrammaton (“Yahweh”) is generally replaced by “God” (“Elohim”), marking this as the “Elohist Psalter.”
Psalm 42:3 Soul: see note on Ps 6:4. Living God: see Deut 5:26. Behold the face of God: here the phrase is taken to mean God’s personal presence (see Gen 33:10; Ex 10:28f). In other places the expression “see God” (or “see the face of God”) indicates the presence of God in the temple (see Pss 11:7; 17:15; 63:3; Ex 24:10; 33:7-11; Job 33:26).
Psalm 42:6 Why . . . my God: this refrain appears three times in this double psalm (vv. 6, 12; 43:5) and indicates that the two parts were originally one psalm (see note on v. 12).
Psalm 42:7 Mount Mizar: not identified. The translation from the land . . . supposes a Levite exiled to the springs of the Jordan, at the foot of Mount Hermon. If we think of him as exiled in Babylon, the translation would be: “I will remember you / more than the land of the Jordan and Hermon, / than the lowly mountain [Zion].”
Psalm 42:8 The depths of the sea resound . . . your waterfalls: the psalmist alludes to the “waterfalls” that carry God’s waters from the “depths” above to the “depths” below (see note on Ps 36:9), bringing God’s breakers sweeping over him (see Pss 69:2f; 88:8; Jon 2:3, 5). And God is involved in this danger of water toward the psalmist (see note on Ps 32:6)—he lets it happen.
Psalm 42:9 Nonetheless, the psalmist is confident of God’s kindness, and this sustains him (see note on Ps 6:5). The living God: some propose the translation: “the God of my life” and understand it as the “God who gives me life.”
Psalm 42:10 Rock: see note on Ps 18:3. Why . . . ? Why . . . ?: see note on Ps 6:4.
Psalm 42:11 The psalmist has been abandoned by God to his godless enemies, who taunt him with the words “Where is your God?” He resembles a dying man, and his whole being (bones; see note on Ps 34:20-21) is distressed by his foes and by God’s silence.
Psalm 42:12 The refrain is voiced for the second time in this double-psalm (see v. 6, above) and will be repeated once more in Ps 43:5. This threefold refrain reflects the attitude of many of God’s people during the Exile or any crisis situation. In such loneliness and alienation, faith is tried and leads to salvation. For hope is mindful of the Lord’s glorious works of salvation and victory recounted in the sacred writings. See Mt 26:38 for the application of these words to Christ’s agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.

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Chronological

Psalm 5[a]

Morning Prayer for Divine Help

Footnotes

Psalm 38[a]

Prayer of a Sinner in Great Peril

Footnotes

Psalm 41[a]

Trust in God in Sickness and Misfortune

Book II—Psalms 42–72[i]

Psalm 42[j]

Prayer of Longing for God

Footnotes

Psalm 5^[a]

Psalm 38^[a]

Psalm 41^[a]

Book II—Psalms 42–72^[i]

Psalm 42^[j]