Psalm 35:01-16 "Fight For Me"

Translation & Sermon By Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 18 Mar 2018

INTRO:

Recount the story of Paul and Silas in Philippi, in Acts 16. Delivered a demon-possessed girl, unjustly accused of putting the city into an uproar and of teaching illegal practices, stripped, beaten, thrown into jail, put in stocks. But they spent the night singing hymns and witnessing to the other prisoners. God sent an earthquake, brought the jailer to ask how to be saved, and, in the end, had the city officials falling all over themselves to apologize, and the church in Philippi is the one that was one of Paul’s biggest supporters for the rest of his life!
Have you ever been unjustly accused? It is a pretty universal human experience in this fallen world. How do you deal with it? Natural responses include:

getting so angry or frustrated that I can’t communicate any more, or else I start communicating rashly, making accusations back which I regret later when I’m thinking more soberly
another natural response is to lose hope that there ever will be truth and justice and just get cynical or bitter.
and it is also natural to stop being happy because we root our happiness in being right and getting our way.

In Psalm 35, David deals with a case of injustice when he was attacked for no good reason, but his response teaches us that distorted communication, hopeless cynicism, and unhappiness are the opposite of what we are called to do as God’s people. We are called to pray God’s words, we are called to hope in God’s justice, and we are called to rejoice in God. In other words, rather than fighting for ourselves, we can call in God to fight for us and trust that He will save us!

Vs. 1 By David. Yahweh, contend against those who are contending against me; fight those who are fighting me!

· The psalm starts on a martial note with two commands addressed to the Lord to contend and fight against those who are contending and fighting against David.

It echoes the words David said to King Saul when Saul was chasing David through the wilderness trying to kill him: “Therefore let the LORD be judge, and judge between you and me, and see and plead my case, and deliver me out of your hand." (1 Sam. 24:15, NKJV)
The Hebrew verb riyv is used both of fist-fights as well as lawsuits in court.
David also used this phrase regarding Nabal’s dishonorable treatment of him in 1 Samuel 25:39 …when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, "Blessed be the LORD, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept His servant from evil! For the LORD has returned the wickedness of Nabal on his own head." (NKJV)
Note that this is a one-sided fight in Psalm 35, where someone stronger than David is fighting against him, but he is not fighting back. This also fits with David’s situation when he was outside of Saul’s favor. Have you ever been in a situation where someone was being mean to you, even though you had not picked a fight with them? You can follow David’s example and call God in to fight back instead of fighting back yourself.
In Isaiah 49:25-26, the LORD promised, “…the captives of the mighty will be taken and the prey of the ruthless one will be rescued, and I myself will fight against those who fight against you, and I myself will cause to save your children… and all flesh will know that I am Jehovah who causes you to be saved...” (NAW)
There is a promise you can really pray off of. In fact, I’ve been doing a fair amount of praying this for my newest grandchild who was threatened with being miscarried last week. I prayed for God to fight for his life and deliver him safe!

vs. 2 Get a firm grip on a small shield and a large shield, and get up with my help!

The magēn was a small shield that you could buckle onto one arm so you could swing a sword with the other arm, and the tsinnah was a big shield that you could stand behind whenever arrows or spears were being launched at you. David is asking God to bring both kinds of shields to help him. He’s calling for the full range of defensive technology of his day – complete protection from long-range as well as short-range weapons.
Augustine’s homily on this psalm reminds us that God has given us a shield in the New Testament called “faith.” This faith in God’s gracious salvation and perfect justice is a powerful protection against hopelessness, bitterness, and cynicism which Satan tries to throw like darts into your heart! “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12, NKJV)

vs. 3 Unsheathe[1] a spear and confine in order to confront those who are hunting me down. Say to my soul, “I am your salvation!”

· The chanit-spear appears to have been Saul’s weapon of choice. During his reign, his spear is frequently mentioned as being beside him or in his hands. Inside his own castle, Saul tried to kill David a couple of times with a spear, but David escaped into the wilderness, so Saul led army campaigns into the Negev to hunt David down with his spear. And it was that spear which David swiped when he came upon Saul and his soldiers sleeping one night.[2]

· That raises the intriguing possibility that the prayer in this Psalm was on the occasion when David drew out/brandished/uncovered Saul’s sword the next morning and parleyed with his persecutor. Knowing David’s relationship with God, I have no doubt that David was firing off a prayer like this to God as he confronted Saul that morning and raised Saul’s spear over his head to show that he could have killed Saul in the night but spared his life and therefore he was not Saul’s enemy. In response, Saul could have said, “Get him, boys!” to his army. David must have been praying like mad for God to protect him and for God to turn Saul’s heart from its murderous intent, how David must have been begging God to prove to be his help and his salvation at that moment!

· The Hebrew word segor, is translated as a verb “to stop up” or “imprison” by the old translations (LXX, Vulgate, KJV, Plumer, and also by medieval Jewish commentators Rashi & Ibn Ezra) but as another weapon - a battle-axe or spear – by the newer versions (and by Kimchi). But this is the only place in the Bible that the newer versions translate it as a weapon; everywhere else the word occurs, they translate it in its verbal sense of being shut up, so I am going to go with the traditional verbal meaning. Besides, as Delitsch noted in his commentary, “the battle-axe was not a Hebrew weapon.”

· Here is yet another word that connects with David’s encounter with Saul in the wilderness, because it is the word that Saul used to speak of David being “held captive” by allies in Keilah until he could execute David while he was on his way to hunt David down, and then of his own vulnerable position, “held captive,” as it were, in the chains of sleep while David had stood over him with a spear that night.[3]

· “We may well leave foes in God's hand. He will arrest their mad career, stopping their way. He can do this in a thousand ways. Even Saul of Tarsus was arrested, when he least thought of it.” ~William Plumer

· The word for “salvation” in Hebrew is yeshu’a, which is the Hebrew name for Jesus. The angel said that should be His name because he would “save” his people from their sins (Matt. 1:21). In Luke 2:30, old Simeon used the same title when he looked at the baby Jesus and said to the LORD, “My eyes have seen your salvation.”

· Don’t let yourself forget those “wonderful words of life.” That was the whole problem with Syria according Isaiah 17, “you have forgotten the God of your salvation (ישׁעך) and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge”

· Oh may the LORD remind us of who He is. “Sing them over again to me” “I am your salvation.”

· “If God, by his Spirit, witness to our spirits that he is our salvation, we have enough, we need desire no more to make us happy; and this is a powerful support when men persecute us. If God be our friend, no matter who is our enemy.” ~Matthew Henry

vs. 4 Those who seek [to end] my life will experience shame and will be embarrassed; those who think up evil [for] me will be turned back and they will blush.

· The reputation-words in this verse are profound. David uses just about every synonym there is in Hebrew to describe negative social capital:

o יֵבֹשׁוּ be confounded/shamed/disgraced – the Hebrew word carries the picture of a person having an “oh no!” moment and all the color draining from their face because they thought they were ok, but then they realize they are in deep trouble.

o The next Hebrew word וְיִכָּלְמוּ is specifically about shame/dishonor/embarrassment again because what they were trusting in turned out to be wimpy compared to the power they came up against.

o Then comes the Hebrew phrase יִסֹּגוּ אָחוֹר “turned back.” It pictures someone who blazed forward thinking they were going to do something and unexpectedly ran up against opposition that they couldn’t handle, so they had to turn around and go back and admit that they were beat. As a phrase it only occurs 9 times in the Bible[4] but Psalm 129:4-6 is a notably picturesque parallel which says, “The LORD is righteous; He has cut in pieces the cords of the wicked. Let all those who hate Zion Be put to shame and turned back. Let them be as the grass on the housetops, Which withers before it grows up.” (NKJV)

o וְיַחְפְּרוּ is the last Hebrew word in v.4 for negative social capital; it depicts the blood rushing to the face in the wake of catecholamine hormones that come from realizing you’ve just done something really stupid and you’re going to either have to fight or hide real quick! The KJV translates it “confusion” here, the NASB “humiliated,” the NIV “dismay,” the ESV “disappointed” (which is a little understated), and my translation is “they will blush[5].”

· These four verbs are all spelled in the Hebrew imperfect tense, which can be interpreted either as English future tense “they will be put to shame” or as jussives “let them be put to shame.”

o I must admit that it’s hard for me to know when to interpret Imperfect tense verbs as jussives (for instance, why do most of the English versions – except Matthew Henry’s - consider verses 4-6 to be jussives and verses 9-10 to be futures when there is no difference between the Hebrew verb forms in the two sections?),

o but whatever the case, in a prayer to God like this, the two ways of interpretation are related, for we can’t ask God to do something that we know is not in accordance with His revealed will. If God never promised to put the wicked to shame, David wouldn’t have grounds to ask God to put them to shame. It is only because David is sure that eventually all evildoers will be put to shame on judgment day for distrusting God that David could pray with integrity for God to put them to shame.

o Therein lies a lesson for us that can shape our own prayer lives: It is not wrong to ask God to bring evil people to justice, but be careful that your own frustrations with evil people don’t lead you to ask God to do things He’s never done before in the past and never promised to do in the future. Let what you know of God’s character from what you’ve read in the Bible shape the things that you ask of Him!

Remember the converse from the previous psalm (34:4-5) The LORD delivers those who “seek” the LORD (instead of “seeking” to take the life of the righteous – same Hebrew verb), and those who keep their eyes on the LORD, “their faces will not blush (חפר – a synonym),” whereas those whose eyes are upon “devising evil/hurt/ruin” are the ones who will experience shame (יֵבֹשׁוּ).

vs. 5 They will be like chaff before the wind while the angel of Yahweh shoves [them] down.
6 Their way will be dark and slippery while the angel of Yahweh hunts them down.

· Have you ever tried stepping on stones to cross a stream and discovered only too late that one of them was slick with moss and you lost your footing and fell into the water?

· Alternately, have you ever dropped a piece of paper outside on a windy day and had to go running to chase it down as the wind carried it off?

· These verses picture the life of the wicked as running pell-mell through the dark trying to escape from a powerful spirit who is chasing them and running them into the ground.

· A couple of words I found interesting in these verses:

o Dokheh – driving/chasing/afflicting/shoving – in all the other uses of this verb, it is a downward motion, driving, shoving, tripping people down to the ground.

o Chalaqlaqot – “slippery” – literally “a plurality of smooth surfaces.”

o Both words are rare in Hebrew[6], but Jeremiah 23:12 contains both of them: “…both prophet and priest are profane; Yes, in My house I have found their wickedness, says the LORD. Therefore their way shall be to them Like slippery ways; In the darkness they shall be driven on And fall in them; For I will bring disaster on them, The year of their punishment, says the LORD.” (NKJV)

o God did something like that in Exodus 14, when he messed with the chariot wheels of the Egyptian army so that they could not drive back out of the sea bed before the water came crashing back in to drown them.

· Remember that this same Angel of the Lord posts guard all around the righteous to fight for our safety, according to the previous Psalm.

o The same Angel of the Lord who comforted Hagar and Manoah and Elijah

o is the same angel of the Lord who, who just about chopped Baalam’s head off and struck 70,000 Israelites dead of the plague after David’s census, and slaughtered 185,000 Assyrians that tried to lay siege to Jerusalem under Hezekiah.

o This is our God, both tender in mercy and ruthless in judgment.

· The very first Psalm opened with the same two works of God, “blessing” the righteous who “delight in God’s law” and denying blessing to the “wicked who are like the chaff which the wind drives away… for Yahweh knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked will perish.”

· We who trust God to save us and yet are experiencing the hatred of the world against us, take comfort in the fact that Jesus promises to bring justice against murders, persecutors, evildoers, and all who hate His people.

· V.7 describes a little more of the evil scheme mentioned in v.4 that had been devised by David’s enemy:

vs. 7 for gratuitously they hid their pit-net for me; gratuitously they scoured it out to [take] my life!

· Capture-nets can be “hidden” by burying them in a pathway[7] under just enough earth so that someone walking down the path couldn’t see that they were stepping onto a net that could be subsequently raised into the air to trap the hapless victim.

· Alternately, a pit could be dug out with a net spread out over it covered with leaves so the victim would step on what looked like solid ground, but it would give out under him and he would be trapped in the pit. One or the other of these mechanisms seems to be what David is describing here.

· The Hebrew word khinnam “without cause/gratuitously” provides yet another link between this psalm and King Saul’s persecution of David, since this word also occurs in 1 Samuel 19:4-5, Thus Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father, and said to him, "Let not the king sin against his servant, against David, because he has not sinned against you, and because his works have been very good toward you... Why then will you sin against innocent blood, to kill David without a cause?" (NKJV)

But even capture nets and pits are no problem for God to deliver from:

Psalm 31:4 “You will get me out of the net which they hid to [capture] me because You are my strength.” (NAW)

o Psalm 16:10 “…you will not abandon my soul to Sheol; you will not destine Your godly man to the Pit. You will cause me to know the path of life…” (NAW)

o Psalm 103:2-4 “Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits; Who pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases; Who redeems your life from the pit, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion…” (NASB)

· And the LORD will not only deliver His people, He will also bring justice against the wicked:

vs. 8 Ruin will come to him without him knowing, and his net which he hid will capture him; he will fall into ruin with it.

The NIV follows the ancient Septuagint translation which makes the pronouns plural, but in Hebrew, the pronouns are singular, suggesting the singular subject was King Saul (Kimchi, Henry, etc.).
This is very much like what we saw in some of the early psalms:

Psalm 7:14-16 “Look, he [who] is in labor with iniquity… he conceived trouble. He dug out a hole and scoured it, but he fell into a pit he worked on. His trouble will return in his head, and his violence will come down upon his noggin.” (NAW)
Psalm 9:15-16 “…they have sunk into a pit they made; their foot has been caught in a net which they hid! Yahweh is known; He did justice, snaring a wicked man by work of his hands.” (NAW)

God is often very poetic in His justice, causing evil people to be ruined by the very things they set up to ruin other people.

I’m reminded of the way that the satraps laid a legal trap for Daniel that landed him in a lion cage. They had planned for Daniel to be supper for the lions, but their scheme backfired when God protected Daniel from the lions and the emperor got mad at the satraps and fed them to the lions instead.
Then there was the time that Haman, the prime minister of the empire of Persia built a gallows on which to hang faithful Mordecai. Those plans backfired when the emperor caught wind of Haman’s genocidal abuse of power, promoted Mordecai to the position of prime minister instead of Haman, and had Haman hanged on the very gallows he had built for Mordecai.
In the case of King Saul. The very spear which he had attempted to kill David with became the object of his own demise when he committed suicide with it in his dismay over the battle he lost against the Philistines.
"It not unfrequently happens, that when a man is preparing sorrows for his fellow creatures, he is only, in reality, framing a weapon for his own chastisement…" ~Morison, quoted by Plumer

Not only should this inform our prayers and comfort us in the midst of confusing circumstances. This should also lead us to praise God for both His unerring justice and His merciful salvation!

vs. 9 So my soul will rejoice in Yahweh; it will revel in His salvation.

· Salvation is supposed to lead right into rejoicing in the Lord! This is a recurring theme, particularly in the first book of the Psalms, where 9 out of the first 41 psalms mention rejoicing as part of worshipping God for His salvation. (Compare that to only 8 references to “rejoicing” in the remaining 109 psalms.[8])

o Another example from the first book of the psalms is Psalm 9:13-14, which makes explicit the link between salvation and rejoicing: “Yahweh... Be gracious to me by raising me up away from the gates of death, in order that I may recount all Your praises within the gates of the daughter of Zion, [and] rejoice in Your salvation.” God’s grace is given in order that you will praise and rejoice in it!

o In Isaiah 65, God says the same thing: “For, look at me, creating new heavens and the new earth… be glad and rejoice until forever in that which I am creating, for look at me creating Jerusalem to be a joy and her people a gladness! So I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people…” (Isa. 65:17-19, NAW)

o Jesus said the same thing in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:21-23, “enter into the joy of your master.” Joy is the character of God, and it is for joy that you are saved!

· Concerning this, 19^th century commentator Robert Plumer wrote, “when deliverance shall come, it will not be wasted on an ingrate.. David knew nothing of the baseness of ascribing to fortune, to his own wit, or to any creature the safety secured to him by God… David's rejoicing was hearty. It engaged the affections of his soul… We are joyful in the Lord not only when we are pleased with his whole character, but also with his relations to us.”

· Psalm 40:16 “Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; Let such as love Your salvation say continually, "The LORD be magnified!" (NKJV)

· Mt. 5:11-12 “Y’all are being blessed whenever liars reproach you and hunt [you] down and speak every evil against you for my sake. Keep rejoicing and leaping for joy, because your reward is bountiful in heaven, for they hunted down the prophets before you in the same way.” (NAW)

· We’ll close this section of Psalm 35 with an example of how to rejoice/delight/exult/revel in His salvation:

vs. 10 All my bones will say, “Yahweh, who is like you, delivering the lowly one from the one who is stronger than him, even the lowly and needy one from the one who robbed him?!”

Can anything or anyone be compared to the LORD? Can dumb idols? Created rocks or trees? The Sun which God made to rule the day? How about men… or angels? None are greater, none can love more, and none can save like our God!
When you praise God, how much of you gets into it? Could you say with David that even your “bones” get into it – or that not one of your bones remained unemployed in praise to God, but you praised Him (as the NIV paraphrases it) with your “whole being”? Let the praises of God employ not just your soul but your whole body too!
In 1702, Benjamin Schmolock was ordained as a deacon of a Lutheran church located in a Roman Catholic province of Germany. According to the treaty of Westphalia 50 years before, since this protestant church was in a Catholic province, the protestants were required to get permission from the Roman Catholics for everything they did as a church – they even had to get permission from the Catholic priest every time they wanted to visit their own protestant church members at their homes! In addition, the Catholics said they could only have one protestant church for the entire province (which had 36 towns in it), and it could not have a steeple or church bells, and they could only build with clay and wood; they couldn’t use more permanent building material like stone. These were the challenging conditions under which Benjamin served the flock of God as deacon and later as pastor for 35 years before he died at age 65 of a heart attack – which some believe was due to the stressful conditions under which he ministered. Nevertheless, during his life Benjamin wrote over 900 hymns of praise to God!

· Consider the words of one of the hymns that Schmolok composed: “Men in their friendship often fall, But Jesus like a rock doth stand; Though storms of woe my heart shall rend, He holds me firmly by the hand; He is my stay ‘till life shall end: My Jesus is my truest Friend. For me He suffered on the cross, For me He shed His precious blood; He comforts me in my distress, His counsels all are wise and good; Upon His word I may depend: He is indeed my truest Friend”

· These are the words of a man who, like David, experienced injustice and hardship, but who did not become closed or cynical or unhappy, instead he was communicating God’s words, expressing hope in God’s justice and salvation, and praising God for being a true friend. May God do a similar work in your heart and mine to give us His words, His hope, and His joy no matter what!

Psalm 35:1-16[A]

Vaticanus (Psalm 34)	Brenton (LXX)		Douay-Rheims (Vulgate)	KJV		NAW	MT
34:1 Τῷ Δαυιδ. Δίκασον, κύριε, τοὺς ἀδικοῦντάς με, πολέμησον τοὺς πολεμοῦντάς με.	1 A Psalm of David. Judge thou, O Lord, them that injure me, fight against them that fight against me.		1 For David himself. Judge thou, O Lord, them that wrong me: overthrow them that fight against me.	1 A Psalm of David. Plead my cause, O LORD, with them that strive with me: fight against them that fight against me.		1 By David. Yahweh, contend against those who are contending against me; fight those who are fighting me!	א לְדָוִד רִיבָה יְהוָה אֶת[B] יְרִיבַי לְחַם אֶת לֹחֲמָי.
34:2 ἐπιλαβοῦ ὅπλου καὶ θυρεοῦ καὶ ἀνάστηθι εἰς βοήθειάν μου,	2 Take hold of shield and buckler, and arise for my help.		2 Take hold of arms[C] and shield: and rise up to help me.	2 Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for mine help.		2 Get a firm grip on a small shield and a large shield, and get up with my help!	ב הַחֲזֵק מָגֵן וְצִנָּה וְקוּמָה בְּעֶזְרָתִי.
34:3 ἔκχεον ~~ῥομφαίαν~~[D] καὶ σύγκλεισον ἐξ ἐναντίας τῶν καταδιω κόντων με· εἰπὸν τῇ ψυχῇ μου Σωτηρία σου ἐγώ εἰμι.	3 Bring forth a ~~sword~~, and stop the way against X them that persecute me: say to my soul, I am thy salvation.		3 Bring out [the] ~~sword~~, and shut up the way against them that persecute me: say to my soul: I am thy salvation.	3 Draw out also the spear, and stop the way against X them that persecute me: say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.		3 Unsheathe a spear and confine in order to confront those who are hunting me down. Say to my soul, “I am your salvation!”	ג וְהָרֵק חֲנִית וּסְגֹר לִקְרַאת רֹדְפָי אֱמֹר לְנַפְשִׁי יְשֻׁעָתֵךְ אָנִי.
34:4 αἰσχυνθήτωσαν καὶ ἐντραπήτωσαν οἱ ζητοῦντες τὴν ψυχήν μου, ἀποστραφήτωσαν εἰς τὰ ὀπίσω καὶ καταισχυνθήτωσαν οἱ λογιζόμενοί μοι κακά.	4 Let them that seek my soul be ashamed and confounded: let them that devise evils against me be turned back and put to shame.		4 Let them be confounded and ashamed that seek after my soul. Let them be turned back and be confounded that devise evil against me.	4 Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul: let them be turned back and brought to confusion[E] that devise my hurt.		4 Those who seek [to end] my life will experience shame and will be embarrassed; those who think up evil [against] me will be turned back and they will blush.	ד יֵבֹשׁוּ וְיִכָּלְמוּ מְבַקְשֵׁי נַפְשִׁי יִסֹּגוּ אָחוֹר וְיַחְפְּרוּ חֹשְׁבֵי רָעָתִי[F].
34:5 γενηθήτωσαν ὡσεὶ χνοῦς κατὰ πρόσωπον ἀνέμου, καὶ ἄγγελος κυρίου ἐκθλίβων [αὐτούς]·	5 Let them be as dust before the wind, and an angel of the Lord afflicting [them].		5 Let them become as dust before the wind: and let the angel of the Lord straiten [them].	5 Let them be as chaff before the wind: and let the angel of the LORD chase them.		5 They will be like chaff before the wind while the angel of Yahweh shoves [them] down.	ה יִהְיוּ כְּמֹץ לִפְנֵי רוּחַ וּמַלְאַךְ יְהוָה דּוֹחֶה[G].
34:6 γενηθήτω ἡ ὁδὸς αὐτῶν σκότος καὶ ὀλίσθημα, καὶ ἄγγελος κυρίου καταδιώκων αὐτούς·	6 Let their way be dark and slippery, and an angel of the Lord persecuting them.	6 Let their way become dark and slippery; and let the angel of the Lord pursue them.	6 Let their way be dark and slippery: and let the angel of the LORD persecute them.	6 Let their way be dark and slippery, With the angel of the LORD pursuing them.	6 may their path be dark and slippery, with the angel of the LORD pursuing them.	6 Their way will be dark and slippery while the angel of Yahweh hunts them down,	ו יְהִי דַרְכָּם חֹשֶׁךְ וַחֲלַקְלַקּוֹת וּמַלְאַךְ יְהוָה רֹדְפָם.
34:7 ὅτι δωρεὰν ἔκρυψάν μοι διαφθορὰν παγίδος αὐτῶν, μάτην ὠνείδισαν τὴν ψυχήν μου.	7 For without cause they have hid for me their destructive snare: without a cause they have reproached my soul.	7 For without cause they have hidden their net for me unto destruction: without cause they have upbraided my soul.	7 For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, which without cause they have digged for my soul.	7 For without cause they hid X their net for me; Without cause they dug a pit for my soul.	7 Since they hid X their net for me without cause and without cause dug a pit for me X,	7 for gratuitously they hid their pit-net for me; gratuitously they scoured it out to [take] my life!	ז כִּי חִנָּם טָמְנוּ לִי שַׁחַת רִשְׁתָּם חִנָּם חָפְרוּ[H] לְנַפְשִׁי.
34:8 ἐλθέτω αὐτοῖς ~~παγίς~~, ἣν οὐ γινώσκ~~ουσιν~~, καὶ ἡ θήρα X, ἣν ἔκρυψαν, συλλαβέτω αὐτ~~ούς~~, [καὶ] ἐν τῇ παγίδι πεσ~~οῦνται~~ ἐν αὐτῇ.	8 Let a ~~snare~~ which they know not come upon them; and X the gin which they hid take ~~the~~m; [and] let them fall into the very same snare.	8 Let the ~~snare~~ which he knoweth not come upon him: and let X the net which he hath hidden catch him: and into that very snare let them fall.	8 Let destruction come upon him [at] X unawares[I]; and let his net that he hath hid catch[J] himself: into that very destruction[K] let him fall.	8 Let destruction come upon him X unawares, And let X the net which he hid catch himself; Into that very destruction let him fall.	8 may ruin overtake ~~the~~m [by] X X surprise-- may the net X X they hid entangle ~~the~~m, may they fall into [the pit], to [their] ruin.	8 Ruin will come to him without him knowing, and his net which he hid will capture him; he will fall into ruin with it.	ח תְּבוֹאֵהוּ שׁוֹאָה[L] לֹא יֵדָע וְרִשְׁתּוֹ אֲשֶׁר טָמַן תִּלְכְּדוֹ [M]בְּשׁוֹאָה יִפָּל בָּהּ.
34:9 ἡ δὲ ψυχή μου ἀγαλλιάσεται ἐπὶ τῷ κυρίῳ, τερφθήσεται ἐπὶ τῷ σωτηρίῳ αὐτοῦ·	9 But my soul shall exult in the Lord: it shall delight in his salvation.	9 But my soul shall rejoice in the Lord; and shall be delighted in his salvation.	9 And my soul shall be joyful in the LORD: it shall rejoice in his salvation.	9 And my soul shall rejoice in the LORD; It shall exult in His salvation.	9 Then my soul will rejoice in the LORD and delight in his salvation.	9 So my soul will rejoice in Yahweh; it will revel in His salvation.	ט וְנַפְשִׁי תָּגִיל בַּיהוָה תָּשִׂישׂ בִּישׁוּעָתוֹ.
34:10 πάντα τὰ ὀστᾶ μου ἐροῦσιν Κύριε, τίς ὅμοιός σοι; ῥυόμενος πτωχὸν ἐκ [χειρὸς] στερεωτέρων αὐτοῦ καὶ πτωχὸν καὶ πένητα ἀπὸ τῶν διαρπαζόντων αὐτόν.	10 All my bones shall say, O Lord, who is like to thee? delivering the poor out of [the hand of] them that are stronger than he, yea, the poor and needy one from them that spoil him.	10 All my bones shall say: Lord, who is like to thee? Who deliverest the poor from the hand of them that are stronger than he; the needy and the poor from them that strip him.	10 All my bones shall say, LORD, who is like unto thee, which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him?	10 All my bones will say, "LORD, who is like You, Who delivers the afflicted from him who is too strong for him, And the afflicted and the needy from him who robs him?"	10 My whole being will ~~exclaim~~, "Who is like you, O LORD? You rescue the poor from those too strong for them, the poor and needy from those who rob ~~the~~m."	10 All my bones will say, “Yahweh, who is like you, delivering the lowly one from the one who is stronger than him, even the lowly and needy one from the one who robbed him?!”	י כָּל עַצְמוֹתַי תֹּאמַרְנָה יְהוָה מִי[N] כָמוֹךָ מַצִּיל עָנִי מֵחָזָק מִמֶּנּוּ וְעָנִי וְאֶבְיוֹן מִגֹּזְלוֹ.

[1] Augustine applied the literal meaning of this verb “pour forth” in an interesting way: “By His own Power, most Holy,

most Magnificent, hath He bound the devil by ‘pouring forth the weapon to stop the way’ against him, that He may deliver the poor and needy, to whom there was no helper… He then… hath given His Blood to purchase them…”

[2] 1 Samuel 26:11 “The LORD forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the LORD's anointed. But please, take now the spear and the jug of water that are by his head, and let us go.” (NKJV )

[3] 1 Samuel 24:18 “And you have shown this day how you have dealt well with me; for when the LORD delivered (סגרני) me into your hand, you did not kill me.” (NKJV)

[4] Only occurring in Psalms 35:4; 40:15; 44:19; 70:3; and 129:5; Isaiah 42:17; and 50:5; and Jeremiah 38:22; and 46:5.

[5] Delitzsch argued, however, that bosh and chapher do not have any “connection” with turning “pale” or “blushing.”

[6] The former occurring only 6 other times^E, and the latter occurring in only two other passages (Dan. 11 and Jer. 23).

[7] Job 18:10 NKJV A noose is hidden for him on the ground, And a trap for him in the road.

[8] גּיל occurs in Psalms 2:11; 9:14; 13:4-5; 14:7; 16:9; 21:1; 31:7; 32:11; and 35:9; 48:11; 51:8; 53:6; 89:16; 96:11; 97:1,8; 118:24; 149:2.