Psalms 17

Listen to my just cause, LORD. Pay attention to my cry. Hear my prayer, because it does not come from lying lips.

1Hear the right, O LORD, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips.

NoteThe psalm is framed as a court case: a man under accusation asks God to hear the case and rule on it. "Lying lips" is the courtroom charge of false testimony: he is swearing that his own plea is not a false one.

2Let the verdict about me come from you. Let your eyes see what is right.

2Let my sentence come forth from thy presence; let thine eyes behold the things that are equal.

Note"The verdict about me" translates a legal word for the sentence a judge hands down. The picture is of a ruling issued and announced in the ruler's own presence, so that everyone hears the man declared in the right.

3You have tested my heart. You came and looked at me in the night. You examined me and will find nothing wrong. I have made up my mind that my mouth will not sin.

3Thou hast proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.

Note"Tested" and "examined" are the words used for assaying metal, heating it to see whether it is pure or has cheaper metal mixed in. Night was the usual time for such self-examination; the line can also be read as spending the night at God's sanctuary waiting for a ruling by morning.

4As for the things people do, I have used the words you spoke to keep myself away from the paths of the violent man who destroys.

4Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer.

Note"The words you spoke" means God's spoken instructions, the commands a person was expected to live by. "Paths" here means a settled way of life, not a road.

5Hold my steps steady on your paths, so my feet do not slip.

5Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.

6I have called on you, God, because you will answer me. Turn your ear toward me and hear what I say.

6I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me, O God: incline thine ear unto me, and hear my speech.

7Show your wonderful, faithful love. You are the one who saves, by your strong right hand, the people who trust you, rescuing them from those who rise up against them.

7Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them.

Note"Faithful love" translates a Hebrew word for loyalty owed inside a binding relationship, the steady commitment of one party who will not walk away. The "right hand" stands for strength: for most people the stronger hand, the one that holds a weapon, so saving "by your right hand" means saving by one's own power.

8Guard me the way you would guard the pupil of your eye. Hide me in the shadow of your wings,

8Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,

NoteThe Hebrew behind "apple of the eye" is literally "the little man of the eye", the tiny reflection of yourself you can see in another person's pupil. It was a proverbial name for the most delicate and most instinctively guarded thing a body has. "The shadow of your wings" is the image of a bird covering its young; the same picture also called to mind the outstretched wings of the carved figures over the ark in the sanctuary.

9away from the wicked people who crush me, from the enemies who want me dead and who close in around me.

9From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about.

10They are shut up inside their own fat. Their mouths speak with pride.

10They are inclosed in their own fat: with their mouth they speak proudly.

NoteFat here is not about body size. In Hebrew idiom, fat closing over the heart is a stock image for someone grown so comfortable and well-off that nothing reaches them any more, an unfeeling, shut-up mind.

11Now they have surrounded us wherever we step. Their eyes are fixed on throwing us down to the ground.

11They have now compassed us in our steps: they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth;

NoteThe Hebrew of this verse is damaged or garbled, and translators differ over who is surrounding whom and what the eyes are fixed on. Any rendering here involves guesswork.

12They are like a lion hungry for the animal it hunts, like a young lion crouching in a hiding place.

12Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.

13Get up, LORD. Confront him and stop him. Bring him down. Save my life from the wicked man, who is your sword.

13Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword:

NoteThe last phrase is genuinely ambiguous in Hebrew. It can mean "rescue me from the wicked man by means of your sword," or "rescue me from the wicked man, who is your sword": that is, an enemy God himself is using as a weapon. The grammar does not decide between them.

14Save me from these men, LORD, who are your hand, from men of this world, whose share is only in this life. You fill their stomachs with the treasure you have stored away. They have plenty of children, and they leave the rest of their goods to their little ones.

14From men which are thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes.

NoteThe same ambiguity continues: "men who are your hand" may mean men God is using as his instrument, or may mean "rescue me by your hand from these men." A "portion" is the share of land or property allotted to a person as their inheritance; men whose portion is in this life get everything they will ever get now. The rest of the verse is one of the most disputed sentences in the Psalms, the Hebrew can be read as a complaint that God fills such men with good things and many heirs, or as a prayer that God fill and satisfy his own people instead.

15As for me, I will see your face in righteousness. When I awake, seeing what you are like will satisfy me.

15As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.

NoteBeing allowed to "see the face" of a king meant being admitted to his presence and received with favor; to be shut out from his face meant rejection. "When I awake" is left open in Hebrew: it can mean waking in the morning after a night of waiting for God's answer, or a waking beyond death. The wording does not settle which.