1 Waiting, I waited for Jehovah, And He bent to me and heard my [loud] cry. 2 And lifted me from the pit of destruction, From the mire of the bog, And set my feet on a rock-- Established my steps, 3 And put in my mouth a new song, Praise unto our God. Many shall see and fear, And trust in Jehovah.
4 Blessed is the man who has made Jehovah his trust, And has not turned [away] to the proud and deserters to a lie. 5 In multitudes hast Thou wrought, Jehovah, my God; Thy wonders and Thy purposes towards us-- There is none to be set beside Thee-- Should I declare them and speak them, They surpass numbering.
6 Sacrifice and meal-offering Thou didst not delight in-- Ears hast Thou pierced for me-- Burnt-offering and sin-offering Thou didst not demand. 7 Then I said, Behold, I am come-- In the roll of the book it is prescribed to me-- 8 To do Thy pleasure, my God, I delight, And Thy law is within my inmost parts.
9 I proclaimed glad tidings of Thy righteousness in the great congregation; Behold, my lips I did not restrain, Jehovah, Thou knowest. 10 Thy righteousness did I not hide within my heart; Thy faithfulness and Thy salvation did I speak; I concealed not Thy loving-kindness and Thy truth from the great congregation. 11 Thou, Jehovah, wilt not restrain Thy compassions from me; Thy loving-kindness and Thy troth will continually preserve me.
12 For evils beyond numbering have compassed me; My iniquities have overtaken me, and I am not able to see: They surpass the hairs of my head, And my heart has forsaken me. 13 Be pleased, Jehovah, to deliver me; Jehovah, hasten to my help. 14 Shamed and put to the blush together be the seekers after my soul to carry it away! Turned back and dishonoured be they who delight in my calamity! 15 Paralysed by reason of their shame Be they who say to me, Oho! Oho! 16 Joyful and glad in Thee be all who seek Thee! Jehovah be magnified, may they ever say who love Thy salvation! 17 But as for me, I am afflicted and needy; The Lord purposes [good] for me: My Help and my Deliverer art Thou; My God, delay not.
The closing verses of this psalm reappear with slight changes as an independent whole in Psalm lxx. The question arises whether that is a fragment or this a conglomerate. Modern opinion inclines to the latter alternative, and points in support to the obvious change of tone in the second part. But that change does not coincide with the supposed line of junction, since Psalm lxx. begins with our ver. 13, and the change begins with ver. 12. Cheyne and others are therefore obliged to suppose that ver. 12 is the work of a third poet or compiler, who effected a junction thereby. The cumbrousness of the hypothesis of fusion is plain, and its necessity is not apparent, for it is resorted to in order to explain how a psalm which keeps so lofty a level of confidence at first should drop to such keen consciousness of innumerable evils and such faint-heartedness. But surely such resurrection of apparently dead fears is not uncommon in devout, sensitive souls. They live beneath April skies, not unbroken blue. However many the wonderful works which God has done and however full of thankfulness the singer's heart, his deliverance is not complete. The contrast in the two parts of the psalm is true to facts and to the varying aspects of feeling and of faith. Though the latter half gives greater prominence to encompassing evils, they appear but for a moment; and the prayer for deliverance which they force from the psalmist is as triumphant in faith as were the thanksgivings of the former part. In both the ground tone is that of victorious grasp of God's help, which in the one is regarded in its mighty past acts, and in the other is implored and trusted in for present and future needs. The change of tone is not such as to demand the hypothesis of fusion. The unity is further supported by verbal links between the parts: _e.g._, the innumerable evils of ver. 12 pathetically correspond to the innumerable mercies of ver. 5, and the same word for "surpass" occurs in both verses; "be pleased" in ver. 13 echoes "Thy pleasure" (will, A.V.) in ver. 8; "cares" or _thinks_ (A.V.) in ver. 17 is the verb from which the noun rendered _purposes_ (thoughts, A.V.) in ver. 5 is derived.