Psa 40:17 | NETfull | STEP | I am oppressed and needy! May the Lord pay attention to me! You are my helper and my deliverer! O my God, do not delay! For the music director; a psalm of David.

Psalms 40:17

I am oppressed and needy! ^{▼▼ See Pss 35:10; 37:14.}
May the Lord pay attention to me! ^{▼▼ The prefixed verbal form may be taken as a jussive of prayer (as in the present translation; cf. NIV) or as an imperfect, “The Lord will pay attention to me” (cf. NRSV). The parallel in Ps 70:5 has, “O God, hurry to me!” For this reason some prefer to emend יַחֲשָׁב (yakhashav, “may he pay attention”) to חוּשָׁה (khushah, “hurry!”). The syntax of the Hebrew text is awkward; elsewhere when the Qal of חָשַׁב (khashav, “reckon; consider”) is collocated with the preposition -ל (lamed) and a pronominal suffix there is an accompanying direct object or additional prepositional phrase/adverbial accusative (see Gen 15:6; 2 Sam 19:19; Job 13:24; 19:11; 33:10; Pss 32:2; 41:7; Amos 6:5).}
You are my helper and my deliverer!
O my God, do not delay!

Psalm 41

^{▼▼ Psalm 41. The psalmist is confident (vv. 11–12) that the Lord has heard his request to be healed (vv. 4–10), and he anticipates the joy he will experience when the Lord intervenes (vv. 1–3). One must assume that the psalmist is responding to a divine oracle of assurance (see P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1–50 [WBC], 319-20). The final verse is a fitting conclusion to this psalm, but it is also serves as a fitting conclusion to the first “book” (or major editorial division) of the Psalter. Similar statements appear at or near the end of each of the second, third, and fourth “books” of the Psalter (see Pss 72:19, 89:52, and 106:48 respectively).}