Psalm - 40:13



13 Be pleased, Yahweh, to deliver me. Hurry to help me, Yahweh.

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Psalm 40:13.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me: O LORD, make haste to help me.
Be pleased, O Jehovah, to deliver me: Make haste to help me, O Jehovah.
Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me, look down, O Lord, to help me.
Be pleased, O Jehovah, to deliver me; Jehovah, make haste to my help.
Be pleased, O Jehovah, to deliver me, O Jehovah, for my help make haste.
Be pleased, O Lord, to take me out of danger; O Lord, come quickly and give me help.
For innumerable evils have compassed me about, mine iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart hath failed me.
Be pleased, LORD, to deliver me. Hurry to help me, LORD.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

Be thou pleased, O Jehovah! to deliver me. The verb which David here makes use of, signifies to desire a thing from pure kindness and good-will. [1] He desires, therefore, to be delivered by the free mercy of God. As to his desire, that God would make haste, we have elsewhere spoken of it. Even when God delays to help us, it is our duty to contend against a feeling of weariness; but such is his goodness, that he permits us to use this form of prayer, That he would make haste according to our desires. Then, according to his usual practice, citing his enemies to the judgment-seat of God, he feels confident, that, on account of their cruelty, and unjust and wicked hatred, he shall obtain what he asks. We must maintain it as a fixed principle, that the more unjustly our enemies afflict us, and the more cruelly they wrong us, God is so much the more disposed to give us help. And it is no slight consolation that the mercy of God strives against their wickedness, so that the more fiercely our enemies pursue us to effect our hurt, the more ready is he to bring us help. We have already frequently spoken of the feelings with which David uttered these imprecations, and it is necessary here again to refresh our memories on the subject, lest any man, when giving loose reins to his passions, should allege the example of David in palliation or excuse. This wicked and counterfeit imitation on the part of those who follow the powerful impulse of the flesh, instead of being guided by the zeal of the Spirit, is always to be held up to condemnation. When the Psalmist prays (verse 15) that his enemies may be destroyed for a reward of their shame, the meaning is this: As their sole desire has been to overwhelm me with shame, in order that, while thus dismayed and confounded, they might make me the object of their derision; so let a similar confusion fall upon their own heads. In the second clause of the verse he describes the nature of this confusion by relating the terms of their wicked triumphing, by which they poured contempt upon him while he was so oppressed with misery and affliction. We are here taught that, when our enemies shall have persecuted us to the uttermost, a recompense is also prepared for them; and that God will turn back, and cause to fall upon their own heads, all the evil which they had devised against us; and this doctrine ought to act as a restraint upon us, that we may behave ourselves compassionately and kindly towards our neighbors.

Footnotes

1 - "rtsh, retse, be pleased From rtsh, ratsah, he wished well, was pleased, accepted, excluding any merit as a ground for that acceptance." -- Bythner's Lyra

Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me - That is, in these troubles and sorrows. See Matthew 26:39. The prayer is that, if possible, the cup of sorrow might be taken away.
O Lord, make haste to help me - This is the same form of prayer, and referring, I suppose, to the same occasion as that which occurs in Psalm 22:19. See the notes at that verse.

Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me,.... From the innumerable evils which compassed him about; from sinful men, and from devils, signified by the sword, dog, and lion, Psalm 22:20; and from the power and dominion of death and the grave; all which was done when he was raised from the dead, and as the fruit and effect of God's well pleasedness in him, and with what he did and suffered; see Psalm 22:8;
O Lord, make haste to help me; See Gill on Psalm 22:19.

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