TheBibleNet: Psalm 61

Psalms:

Bk 1: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41

Bk 2: 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72

Bk 3: 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89

Bk 4: 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106

Bk 5: 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119a 119b 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132
133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150

Additional Psalms: 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 Samuel Chronicles

Essays: Intro - Music - Form & Language

61:1 LA MENATSE'ACH AL NEGINAT LE DAVID

לַמְנַצֵּחַ עַל נְגִינַת לְדָוִד

KJ (King James translation): (To the chief Musician upon Neginah, A Psalm of David.) Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer.

BN (BibleNet translation): For the Artistic Director. With music for strings. To David.

KJ has again merged verse 2 into verse 1 (or really verse 1 into the title), adjusting the numbers that follow to accommodate this.

LA MENATSE'ACH: For who was the MENATSE'ACH, see my note at Psalm 51:1. And if we are translating LA MENATSE'ACH as "to" or "for", why are we translating LE DAVID as "of" or "by"? I have, I know, asked this question several times already; but it needs to be restated every time, because it transforms entirely our understanding of these Psalms.

AL NEGINAT LE DAVID: Where is this punctuated? All 4 words as a single statement? First, middle two, then last, as I have rendered it? Or first word, then 3? Each one changes the meaning entirely. And previously (Psalm 4, 6, 54, 55...) it was rendered as NEGINOT, which is slightly different again. NEGINAT would generally be regarded as an ellision of NEGINAH HA... the dots being there because the phrase now requires a completing noun: "the melody of..." If the KJ is correct, it should be IM NEGINAH or IM NEGINOT, but not AL; and KJ seems to know this, by rendering NEGINAT as though it were NEGINAH.

It also impacts yet again on our understanding of AL - see any number of previous Psalms; if this is correct as "with music for strings", we now have three very different uses of the word AL, and all of them as the semiotic in the title of a Psalm.

61:2 SHIM'AH ELOHIM RINATI HAKSHIVAH TEPHILATI

שִׁמְעָה אֱלֹהִים רִנָּתִי הַקְשִׁיבָה תְּפִלָּתִי

KJ: as above

BN: Hear my cry, Elohim. Listen to my prayer.

SHIM'AH: Why is there a feminine ending, on this and on HAKSHIVAH? Think SHEM'A (Deuteronomy 6:4)- there's no final Hey there. This can only be because - dare I say this and risk excommunication?! - this can only be because the Psalmist is addressing a female deity. (And, of course, it may just be a scribal error; after all, the feminine is not continued in the following verses).

HAKSHIVAH: This important distinction between "listening" and "hearing" has been made before, but memory tells me it involved HA'AZIYNAH rather than SHIM'AH. In order of significance, HA'AZIYNAH simply "lends an ear", which is half-listening; HAKSHIVAH pays rather more attention, so that it becomes foreground words with meanings rather than background noise; but only with SHIM'AH is proper focus being given, from which the MASKIL of several Psalms, and the divine response petitioned here, become viable: full understanding. The central credo of Judaism is the SHEM'A.

61:3 MI KETS'E HA ARETS ELEYCHA EKRA BA ATOPH LIBI BE TSUR YARUM MIMENI CHANCHENI

מִקְצֵה הָאָרֶץ אֵלֶיךָ אֶקְרָא בַּעֲטֹף לִבִּי בְּצוּר יָרוּם מִמֶּנִּי תַנְחֵנִי

KJ (61:2): From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

BN: From the ends of the Earth I will call to you when my heart is faint; {N} lead me to a rock that is too high for me.

MI KETSEH: Grammar tells me that this should really be transliterated, and pronounced, as MIKTSEH, but the iambic rhythm of the verse (the last two words are trochees, and the other triplet likewise goes short-iamb, using the HA and the BA as the parallel for the MI) wants the short opening syllable, and the emphasis that results strengthens the meaning.

CHANCHENI: Oh but I love this line! I will have to check that it really does mean what it says, but if yes...and yes, it does, it really does! "Raise the bar" you gods, make me aspire higher, and then raise it again. The Immaculate Failure, confirmed by the Psalms!

61:4 KI HAYIYTA MACHSEH LI MIGDAL OZ MIPNEY OYEV

כִּי הָיִיתָ מַחְסֶה לִי מִגְדַּל עֹז מִפְּנֵי אוֹיֵב

KJ (61:3) For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.

BN: For you have been a refuge for me, a tower of strength in the face of the enemy.

61:5 AGURAH VE AHALCHA OLAMIM ECHESEH BE SETER KENAPHEYCHA (SELAH )

אָגוּרָה בְאָהָלְךָ עוֹלָמִים אֶחֱסֶה בְסֵתֶר כְּנָפֶיךָ סֶּלָה

KJ (61:4): I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah.

BN: I will dwell in your Tent for ever; I will take refuge in the covert of your tent-flaps. Selah

AHALCHA: A metaphorical tent, meaning the Temple? But the Temple hasn't yet been built in David's time. In which case, if this is "by" David, the Tent of the Tabernacle, containing the Ark of the Covenant, which could be in any one of several places, depending on where in the Davidic chronology this is reckoned.

KENAPHEYCHA: What kind of wings are they? I ask because, just a few Psalms ago, the Psalmist cried out for the wings of a dove, and received them just a Psalm or two later. But the wings of the deity are usually eagle-wings.

And sadly (sadly because it is so much less poetic), these KANAPHIM are not wings at all, or not bird-wings anyway. Any kind of extremity. The edges of a cloak in 1 Samuel 24:5. A metaphorical bedspread even - Deuteronomy 23:1, Ruth 3:9. Or, here, simply the flaps of the tent.

But also, significantly to our tale: in the first book of Shemu-El (chapter 16 ff), the young David is recruited by the Prophet for the royal choir and orchestra, but he ends up as Sha'ul's personal armour-bearer (an excuse to get the pretty teenage boy into his tent and... you can read the rest of that tale for yourself), and it is in that capacity that he watches Gol-Yat come out day after day, and becomes unintentionally the hero of the day. So "refuge among the tent-flaps" may well be the symbolic Ark and the divine protection, but it is also...

61:6 KI ATAH ELOHIM SHAM'ATA LINDARAI NATATA YERUSHAT YIR'EY SHEMECHA

כִּי אַתָּה אֱלֹהִים שָׁמַעְתָּ לִנְדָרָי נָתַתָּ יְרֻשַּׁת יִרְאֵי שְׁמֶךָ

KJ (61:5): For thou, O God, hast heard my vows: thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name.

BN: For you, Elohim, have heard my vows; you have granted the heritage of those who fear your name.

ELOHIM: Note that, yet again, there is no mention of YHVH in this Psalm. It is dedicated to the Elohim, the plural deities, the polytheon.

YERUSHAT: We need to take this concept back to Yehoshu'a and the conquest and division of the land.

61:7 YAMIM AL YEMEY MELECH TOSIYPH SHENOTAV KEMO DOR VA DOR

יָמִים עַל יְמֵי מֶלֶךְ תּוֹסִיף שְׁנוֹתָיו כְּמוֹ דֹר וָדֹר

KJ (61:6): Thou wilt prolong the king's life: and his years as many generations.

BN: May you add days to the king's days! May his years be as many generations!

If David were the author, this would be a very odd way of phrasing it. If this is dedicated to him, even sung in his presence, it makes perfect sense.

61:8 YESHEV OLAM LIPHNEY ELOHIM CHESED VE EMET MAN YINTSERUHU

יֵשֵׁב עוֹלָם לִפְנֵי אֱלֹהִים חֶסֶד וֶאֱמֶת מַן יִנְצְרֻהוּ

KJ (61:7): He shall abide before God for ever: O prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him.

BN: May he be enthroned before the gods for ever! Appoint mercy and truth, that they may preserve him.

This verse and the last suggest that this may have been a "coronation" Psalm (I put the word in quotation marks because Yisra-Eli kings were anointed with oil, not crowned), or possibly a birthday Psalm. We do not actually know when - or even if - there was an official date on which Yisra-Eli "coronations" took place, though it was probably the Passover, which is the festival of the rebirth of the year at the start of the spring; on the other hand, the "official birthday" of King David is the second of the three Pilgrim Festivals, Shavu'ot, the 6th of Sivan.

And if, within our plotology, this is indeed the "coronation", is it the second kingship, at Chevron (the first, at Tsiklag, is unlikely to say the least), or one of the third to sixth (like Ya'akov in Padan Aram, he served four terms), in Yeru-Shala'im?

61:9 KEN AZAMRAH SHIMCHA LA AD LESHALMI NEDARAI YOM YOM

כֵּן אֲזַמְּרָה שִׁמְךָ לָעַד לְשַׁלְּמִי נְדָרַי יוֹם יוֹם

KJ (61:8): So will I sing praise unto thy name for ever, that I may daily perform my vows.

BN: So I will sing praise to your name for ever, that I may daily perform my vows. {P}

NEDARAI (also used above): the same word that gives Kol Nidre of Yom Kippur.

AZAMRAH: And if this were a "coronation" Psalm, it would have been a theatrically ceremonial occasion, so we can easily imagine the High Priest intoning the verses immediately previous, and then anointing the king, and the king, his head bowed for the libation, now raises it, and intones this vow. I think I shall re-write this entire Psalm as a script: the first 6 verses the king's as he climbs the ramp to the altar, presumably dressed in nothing but a linen ephod, a verse at each station of the journey. 7 and 8 the Kohen Gadol's. Verse 9 again the king's. At what point is the purple gown put on? After the anointing oil?

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Psalms:

Bk 1: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41