💾 Archived View for scholasticdiversity.us.to › scriptures › jewish › t › Steinsaltz%20on%20Psalms%2… captured on 2024-05-10 at 13:04:23. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
31 [1] **For the chief musician, a psalm by David. **
[2] **In You, Lord, I place my trust, **and therefore I pray: **May I never be put to shame; rescue me in Your righteousness. **
[3] **Incline Your ear to me, **to hear my prayer;** make haste to save me **from imminent danger.** Be my rock of refuge, a stronghold to deliver me. **
[4] **For You are my rock and my fortress, and for the sake of Your name, You guide me and lead me. **
[5] **Draw me out of the net they laid for me, for You are my stronghold. **
[6] **Into Your hand I commit my spirit. **I entrust my life to You, depending on You to guard it. And indeed, **You have redeemed me, Lord, Almighty God of truth. **
[7] **I hate those who rely on the vanities of falsehood, **namely, false gods.** As for me, I trust **only **in the Lord. **
[8] **I rejoice and am happy in Your kindness, for You have seen my affliction. You have known my soul’s distress, **
[9] **and** because of this,* ***You did not deliver me into the hand of the enemy; You planted my feet in open space,** whereas I had previously been in a situation of confinement, as it were, unable to escape my desperate situation.
[10] **Be gracious to me, Lord, for I am in distress; my eyes are weakened from vexation,**** **as are** my soul and my belly. **It seems as if all the parts of my body are unable to function properly because of my distress.
[11] **For my life has withered away in anguish and my years in sighing. In my iniquity, my strength has failed; my bones have decayed. **
[12] **For all my foes I have become a disgrace, **an object of scorn, **and greatly so for my acquaintances. **I am scorned greatly by my acquaintances as well.** I am an object of dread to my well-wishers, **who fear for my well-being when they witness my deteriorating state.** Those who see me in the street flee from me. **My acquaintances see things in me that cause them to keep their distance. They avoid coming in contact with me because of my ill and miserable appearance.
[13] **I am forgotten from men’s hearts** **as a dead man, **whose memory fades away with time. **I am **forgotten **like a discarded tool. **
[14] **For I have heard the slander of many. There is **nothing but **terror all around **me;* ***they have gathered together, scheming to take my life. **
[15] **But as for me, I trust **only **in You, Lord. I say: You are my God. **
[16] **My fate is in Your hand. ***Itotai*, literally “my times,” denotes my life or my fate.** Save me from my enemies and from those who pursue me. **
[17] **Shine Your countenance upon Your servant; deliver me in Your kindness. **
[18] **Lord, let me not be shamed, for I have called upon You. Let **it be **the wicked **who will **be shamed; let them go silent to the grave. **
[19] **Mute the lying lips that speak falsehood against the righteous with arrogance and contempt. **
[20] The psalmist now turns from decrying the wicked to extolling the righteous and the salvation destined for them: **How great is the goodness You have in store for those who fear You. **They** **will be the beneficiaries of Your hidden gifts, which have not yet been bestowed upon man and** which You have created for those taking refuge in You, to be bestowed openly. **
[21] **Conceal them in the secret place of Your presence;** **shelter them from man’s intrigues in Your pavilion, away from the strife of **the slanderous **tongues **that are aimed against them.
[22] **Blessed is the Lord, for He showed me wondrous kindness in a besieged city, **referring to either a literal or figurative siege.
[23] **I had said in my anxious haste **while I was in distress:** I am cut off from Your view, **and You are no longer concerned about me. **But, **in fact, **You heard the voice of my pleas when I cried out to You. **
[24] **Love the Lord, all His devoted ones, **for** the Lord is faithful **to reward those who trust in Him,** and He requites the arrogant with the bowstring, **punishing them with His arrows, as it were.
[25] In conclusion, the psalmist proclaims:* ***Be strong and let your hearts take courage, all of you who put your hope in the Lord. **This verse can be seen not only as sound advice, but as a summation of the psalm. Evoking his own life experience as evidence, the psalmist concludes that God comes to the aid of those who rely on Him.
Version: The Steinsaltz Tanakh - English
Source: https://korenpub.com/collections/the-steinsaltz-tanakh/products/steinsaltz-tanakh
License: Copyright: Steinsaltz Center