An alphabetical psalm with a hole in it. After the superscription, each verse opens with the next letter of the alphabet, alef through tav, except that no verse begins with vav: the he verse is followed directly by the zayin verse. Then, after the tav verse has closed the sequence, one more verse is added, and it begins with pe, a letter already used earlier. The same two features appear in Psalm 25. The content is a testimony that turns into a lesson: the first half reports a rescue, the second half teaches a class of children how to live. Verse 4 is sung when the Torah scroll is lifted and carried, verse 11 is among the verses appended to the grace after meals, and in many rites the whole psalm is read in the morning service on Shabbat.
1
לְדָוִד
בְּשַׁנּוֹתוֹ אֶת טַעְמוֹ לִפְנֵי אֲבִימֶלֶךְ
וַיְגָרְשֵׁהוּ וַיֵּלַךְ
בְּשַׁנּוֹתוֹ
be-sha-no-TO
when he changed
טַעְמוֹ
ta-MO
his good sense
אֲבִימֶלֶךְ
a-vi-me-LECH
Abimelech
When he changed his behaviour in front of Abimelech,
וַיְגָרְשֵׁהוּ
vai-gar-she-HU
and he drove him out
וַיֵּלַךְ
va-ye-LACH
and he went
who drove him out, and he left.
The heading places the psalm at the lowest point of David's flight, when he saved himself by acting like a madman. The rescue the psalm celebrates was not a battle won.
2
אֲבָרְכָה אֶת יְהֹוָה בְּכׇל עֵת
תָּמִיד תְּהִלָּתוֹ בְּפִי
אֲבָרְכָה
a-var-CHA
let me bless
I will bless the LORD at every moment;
תְּהִלָּתוֹ
te-hi-la-TO
His praise
His praise is always in my mouth.
The alef verse, and the first of the acrostic proper. The claim is about frequency, not intensity: at every time, continually, which is the promise the rest of the psalm has to make good on.
3
בַּיהֹוָה תִּתְהַלֵּל נַפְשִׁי
יִשְׁמְעוּ עֲנָוִים וְיִשְׂמָחוּ
בַּיהֹוָה
bai-ho-VA
in the LORD
תִּתְהַלֵּל
tit-ha-LEL
boasts
My soul boasts in the LORD;
יִשְׁמְעוּ
yish-me-U
they will hear
עֲנָוִים
a-na-VIM
humble ones
וְיִשְׂמָחוּ
ve-yis-ma-CHU
and they will rejoice
the lowly hear it and are glad.
Boasting is normally the opposite of humility, so the second line answers the objection before it is raised: this boast is the one that the humble are pleased to overhear.
4
גַּדְּלוּ לַיהֹוָה אִתִּי
וּנְרוֹמְמָה שְׁמוֹ יַחְדָּו
לַיהֹוָה
lai-ho-VA
to the LORD
Make the LORD great with me,
וּנְרוֹמְמָה
un-rom-MA
and let us exalt
and let us lift His name high together.
Two plural verbs, an imperative and a cohortative, turn a private testimony into a congregation. This is the verse the leader calls out when the scroll is carried to the reading desk.
5
דָּרַשְׁתִּי אֶת יְהֹוָה וְעָנָנִי
וּמִכׇּל מְגוּרוֹתַי הִצִּילָנִי
דָּרַשְׁתִּי
da-rash-TI
I sought
וְעָנָנִי
ve-a-na-NI
and He answered me
I sought out the LORD and He answered me,
וּמִכׇּל
u-mi-KOL
and from all
מְגוּרוֹתַי
me-gu-ro-TAI
my terrors
הִצִּילָנִי
hi-tzi-la-NI
He delivered me
and He pulled me clear of everything I dreaded.
The first report in the past tense, and the pattern the psalm will repeat twice more: someone calls, He hears, He extracts. The noun is fears, not enemies, so what is removed is the dread rather than the danger.
6
הִבִּיטוּ אֵלָיו וְנָהָרוּ
וּפְנֵיהֶם אַל יֶחְפָּרוּ
הִבִּיטוּ
hi-bi-TU
they looked
וְנָהָרוּ
ve-na-ha-RU
and they were radiant
They looked to Him and were lit up,
וּפְנֵיהֶם
uf-NEI-hem
and their faces
יֶחְפָּרוּ
yech-pa-RU
be ashamed
and their faces will never be shamed.
The he verse, and the last before the gap in the alphabet. Note the change of mood inside it: the first half reports what happened, the second half is a wish, marked by the negative particle that goes with a jussive.
7
זֶה עָנִי קָרָא וַיהֹוָה שָׁמֵעַ
וּמִכׇּל צָרוֹתָיו הוֹשִׁיעוֹ
וַיהֹוָה
vai-ho-VA
and the LORD
This poor man called and the LORD heard,
וּמִכׇּל
u-mi-KOL
and from all
צָרוֹתָיו
tza-ro-TAV
his troubles
הוֹשִׁיעוֹ
ho-shi-O
He saved him
and saved him out of all his troubles.
The zayin verse, arriving where a vav verse would be expected. The demonstrative points at someone: either the speaker calling himself poor, or a case held up in front of the listeners.
8
חֹנֶה מַלְאַךְ יְהֹוָה סָבִיב לִירֵאָיו
וַיְחַלְּצֵם
מַלְאַךְ
mal-ACH
the messenger of
לִירֵאָיו
li-re-AV
for those who fear Him
The messenger of the LORD camps around those who fear Him,
וַיְחַלְּצֵם
vai-chal-TZEM
and He rescues them
and He pulls them free.
One participle and one finite verb: a camp that stays put and a rescue that happens. The military image is defensive, a ring of guard around the people who are afraid.
9
טַעֲמוּ וּרְאוּ כִּי טוֹב יְהֹוָה
אַשְׁרֵי הַגֶּבֶר יֶחֱסֶה בּוֹ
Taste and see that the LORD is good;
יֶחֱסֶה
ye-che-SE
who takes refuge
happy is the man who shelters in Him.
The argument stops being reported and becomes an invitation. Tasting comes before seeing, which is the wrong order for a proof and the right one for an experience.
10
יְראוּ אֶת יְהֹוָה קְדֹשָׁיו
כִּי אֵין מַחְסוֹר לִירֵאָיו
קְדֹשָׁיו
ke-do-SHAV
His holy ones
Fear the LORD, you His holy ones,
לִירֵאָיו
li-re-AV
for those who fear Him
for those who fear Him lack nothing.
Fear here is not the opposite of the radiance in verse 6; the same participle for those who fear Him appears in verse 8 as the ones the camp protects. What it buys is stated flatly: no shortage.
11
כְּפִירִים רָשׁוּ וְרָעֵבוּ
וְדֹרְשֵׁי יְהֹוָה לֹא יַחְסְרוּ כׇל טוֹב
כְּפִירִים
kfi-RIM
young lions
וְרָעֵבוּ
ve-ra-e-VU
and go hungry
Young lions go poor and go hungry,
וְדֹרְשֵׁי
ve-dor-SHEI
but those who seek
יַחְסְרוּ
yach-SRU
shall lack
but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.
The strongest hunter in the field is set against the one who has nothing but a search. The verb for lacking is the same root as the noun in verse 10. This verse is said at the end of the grace after meals.
12
לְכוּ בָנִים שִׁמְעוּ לִי
יִרְאַת יְהֹוָה אֲלַמֶּדְכֶם
Come, sons, listen to me;
אֲלַמֶּדְכֶם
a-la-MED-chem
I will teach you
the fear of the LORD I will teach you.
The hinge of the psalm. Testimony becomes instruction, and the vocabulary switches to the wisdom-book register of a teacher addressing students as sons.
13
מִי הָאִישׁ הֶחָפֵץ חַיִּים
אֹהֵב יָמִים לִרְאוֹת טוֹב
הֶחָפֵץ
he-cha-FETZ
who delights in
Who is the man who wants life,
who loves days enough to see good in them?
A question addressed to the market rather than the study house, phrased the way a seller would phrase it. The answer given next has nothing to do with health or wealth.
14
נְצֹר לְשׁוֹנְךָ מֵרָע
וּשְׂפָתֶיךָ מִדַּבֵּר מִרְמָה
לְשׁוֹנְךָ
le-shon-CHA
your tongue
Guard your tongue from evil,
וּשְׂפָתֶיךָ
us-fa-tei-CHA
and your lips
מִדַּבֵּר
mi-da-BER
from speaking
and your lips from speaking deceit.
The whole answer to the question is a rule about speech. These words open the silent meditation that closes every standing prayer, which is why most learners meet this verse before they meet the psalm.
15
סוּר מֵרָע וַעֲשֵׂה טוֹב
בַּקֵּשׁ שָׁלוֹם וְרׇדְפֵהוּ
Turn from evil and do good;
וְרׇדְפֵהוּ
ve-rod-fe-HU
and pursue it
seek peace and chase it down.
Four imperatives, two negative and two positive. The last one raises the temperature: peace is not waited for but pursued, with the verb used for hunting a fugitive.
16
עֵינֵי יְהֹוָה אֶל צַדִּיקִים
וְאׇזְנָיו אֶל שַׁוְעָתָם
צַדִּיקִים
tza-di-KIM
the righteous
The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous,
וְאׇזְנָיו
ve-oz-NAV
and His ears
שַׁוְעָתָם
shav-a-TAM
their cry
and His ears toward their cry for help.
The ayin verse, and the start of a run of three that describe God by body parts: eyes, ears, then face. Attention is the reward, stated before any rescue is mentioned.
17
פְּנֵי יְהֹוָה בְּעֹשֵׂי רָע
לְהַכְרִית מֵאֶרֶץ זִכְרָם
בְּעֹשֵׂי
be-o-SEI
against those who do
The face of the LORD is set against those who do evil,
לְהַכְרִית
le-hach-RIT
to cut off
מֵאֶרֶץ
me-E-retz
their memory
זִכְרָם
zich-RAM
from the earth
to cut their memory off from the earth.
The pe verse, in its regular alphabetical place. The same face that shines in verse 6 is turned the other way here, and the punishment named is erasure from memory rather than death.
18
צָעֲקוּ וַיהֹוָה שָׁמֵעַ
וּמִכׇּל צָרוֹתָם הִצִּילָם
צָעֲקוּ
tza-a-KU
they cried out
וַיהֹוָה
vai-ho-VA
and the LORD
They cried out and the LORD heard,
וּמִכׇּל
u-mi-KOL
and from all
צָרוֹתָם
tza-ro-TAM
their troubles
הִצִּילָם
hi-tzi-LAM
He delivered them
and rescued them from all their troubles.
Verse 7 repeated in the plural: the one poor man has become a group, and the singular suffixes on troubles and saved him turn into plural ones.
19
קָרוֹב יְהֹוָה לְנִשְׁבְּרֵי לֵב
וְאֶת דַּכְּאֵי רוּחַ יוֹשִׁיעַ
לְנִשְׁבְּרֵי
le-nish-BREI
to the broken of
The LORD is close to the broken of heart,
וְאֶת
VE-et
and (object marker)
דַּכְּאֵי
dak-EI
the crushed of
יוֹשִׁיעַ
yo-SHI-a
He saves
and He saves those crushed in spirit.
Two construct chains describing damaged people, and a single adjective, near, doing the work. Nothing is said about repairing them first.
20
רַבּוֹת רָעוֹת צַדִּיק
וּמִכֻּלָּם יַצִּילֶנּוּ יְהֹוָה
רָעוֹת
ra-OT
the troubles of
צַדִּיק
tza-DIK
a righteous man
Many are the troubles of a righteous man,
וּמִכֻּלָּם
u-mi-ku-LAM
and from all of them
יַצִּילֶנּוּ
ya-tzi-le-NU
He will deliver him
and out of them all the LORD delivers him.
The concession the psalm has been circling: being righteous does not reduce the number of troubles. It changes only what happens at the end of each one.
21
שֹׁמֵר כׇּל עַצְמוֹתָיו
אַחַת מֵהֵנָּה לֹא נִשְׁבָּרָה
עַצְמוֹתָיו
atz-mo-TAV
his bones
He guards every one of his bones;
נִשְׁבָּרָה
nish-ba-RA
is broken
not one of them has been broken.
The claim narrows from troubles to bones, the hardest and most countable part of a body. The verb for breaking is the same root as the broken heart of verse 19, used there of what God draws near to and here of what He prevents.
22
תְּמוֹתֵת רָשָׁע רָעָה
וְשֹׂנְאֵי צַדִּיק יֶאְשָׁמוּ
תְּמוֹתֵת
tmo-TET
shall put to death
Evil kills the wicked,
וְשֹׂנְאֵי
ve-son-EI
and those who hate
צַדִּיק
tza-DIK
the righteous
יֶאְשָׁמוּ
ye-sha-MU
will be found guilty
and those who hate the righteous will bear their guilt.
The tav verse, which should be the last one. Evil is the subject and the wicked the object, so the punishment is not sent from outside: it is the thing itself doing the killing.
23
פֹּדֶה יְהֹוָה נֶפֶשׁ עֲבָדָיו
וְלֹא יֶאְשְׁמוּ כׇּל הַחֹסִים בּוֹ
עֲבָדָיו
a-va-DAV
His servants
The LORD ransoms the life of His servants,
יֶאְשְׁמוּ
ye-SHMU
will bear guilt
הַחֹסִים
ha-cho-SIM
those who take refuge
and none who shelter in Him will bear guilt.
An extra verse after the alphabet has finished, opening with pe. It takes the verb that ended verse 22 and negates it, so the psalm closes on the acquittal of the other side rather than on the guilt of the wicked.
♦ PARDES analysis: פרדס
The four levels of Jewish reading of the sacred text: פשט Peshat (literal meaning), רמז Remez (symbolic allusion), דרש Drash (midrashic interpretation), סוד Sod (mystical meaning). The word פרדס means "orchard", each level is a fruit.
פשט · Peshat: literal meaning
Two halves joined at verse 12. Verses 2 to 11 are a report: I sought, He answered, this poor man called, He heard, so taste for yourselves. Verses 12 to 23 are a lesson: come and listen, here is what to do with your tongue, and here is what happens to the two kinds of people. The alphabet runs underneath both halves and does not quite hold. Twenty-two verses follow the superscription, but they carry only twenty-one letters, alef through tav with no vav verse, and then a twenty-second verse that starts again with pe. The one place a vav does stand at the head of a line is inside the he verse, at וּפְנֵיהֶם (uf-nei-hem, v.6), where the second half of the couplet begins with it. Whether that is why the letter has no verse of its own, the text does not say.
רמז · Remez: allusion
The superscription and the turn of the psalm share a root. In טַעְמוֹ (ta-mo, v.1) David changes his good sense, the noun for taste and judgement, in order to look insane in front of a foreign king; in טַעֲמוּ (ta-a-mu, v.9) the same root comes back as an imperative addressed to everyone, taste. The word that named a pretended madness names the recommended way to know that God is good. A second pairing closes the poem: the verb at יֶאְשָׁמוּ (ye-sha-mu, v.22), they will bear guilt, is the last word of the tav verse, and the added pe verse repeats it at יֶאְשְׁמוּ (ye-shmu, v.23) with a negative in front. Note also that the psalm has both an ayin verse at עֵינֵי (ei-nei, v.16) and a pe verse at פְּנֵי (pnei, v.17) in their normal order, so the extra pe at פֹּדֶה (po-de, v.23) is a genuine addition rather than a displaced letter.
דרש · Drash: midrashic reading
Verses 13 and 14 became the classic text on guarding speech. The Talmud tells of a peddler who went through the towns crying that he had the elixir of life for sale; when a crowd gathered he opened a book of Psalms and read out the question, who is the man who wants life, together with its answer, guard your tongue from evil. Those same words of עָנִי (a-ni, v.7) onward, the poor man who called and was heard, were read as the reason David could be quoted at all: the teacher of the second half is the rescued man of the first, and he is selling what he was given. The verse about bones at עַצְמוֹתָיו (atz-mo-tav, v.21), that not one is broken, was heard against the rule that no bone of the passover offering may be broken, so that the protected righteous stands where the offering stands.
סוד · Sod: mystical reading
The mystical readings work on the order of the two verbs in verse 9. Sight keeps its object at a distance and leaves the one seeing unchanged; taste takes the thing in and changes the one tasting, and it cannot be done on someone else's report. Putting taste first makes knowledge of God a matter of ingestion rather than observation, and the invitation is then unanswerable by argument. The missing letter is read in the same key. An alphabet is the full set of what can be said, and this one is short by a letter and long by a verse, so the psalm neither closes on completeness nor claims it: what falls outside the sequence is the verse that says nobody who shelters there is condemned.