Psalms 35

Psalms 35:1

An EasyEnglish Translation with Notes (about 1200 word vocabulary) on Psalms 1 to 41

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God Help Me Psalms 35 Gordon Churchyard  

Jesus said, Which one of you can prove that I have sinned? (John 8: 46) “Prove” means “show it is true”. The answer is in the Letter to the Hebrews: He did not sin, Hebrews 4: 15) Psalms 35          (This is) for David.

v1      *Lord, argue with those people that are arguing with me.      Fight against those people that are fighting against me.

v2      Pick up a small shield and a big one.      Get up and give me help.

v3      Pull out a small spear and a long one.      (Use them) against the people that are running after me.      Say to me. “I will make you safe”.

v4      Some people want to kill me.      I hope that they will become ashamed.      I hope that everyone else will think that they are very bad.      Some people are planning to destroy me.      Turn them back and confuse them.

v5      Make them become like chaff in the wind.      Let the angel of the *LORD send them away.

v6      Make their way dark and dangerous.      Let the angel of the *LORD be unkind to them.

v7      (Do this) because they hid a trap for me.      There was no reason for it.      For no reason they dug a pit for me.

v8      Surprise him and destroy him!      Catch him in the trap that he hid! Let him die in his own pit!

v9      Then I will be pleased because of what the *LORD has done.      I will be happy when the *LORD has made me safe.

v10    All my bones will shout, “*LORD, who is like you?      You take the poor man away from the man that is too strong for him.      You take the people that need help away from those that hurt them”.

v11    People say that they saw me do bad things.      They asked me about it, but I knew nothing.

v12    They paid me evil for the good things that I did.      I felt as if (my children) had died.

v13    When they were ill I wore clothes made from *sacks.      I hurt myself by not eating food.      My prayer came back to my own *breast.

v14    I cried when I walked about. I became bent because I was so sad.      I lived as though my friend or my brother or (even) my mother (was ill).

v15    But when I fell down they laughed.      They all met together. They came together against me.      I did not know the people that were attacking me.      They would not stop hurting me.

v16    They were like godless people and they mocked me more and more.      They showed their teeth (like a wild animal).

v17    *LORD, how long will you watch (this)?      Take me away from the people that are destroying me.      Save the thing that I love most from the lions.

v18    I will thank you in the great meeting.      I will praise you when all the people are together.

v19    Do not let my enemies laugh at me.      They hate me, but have no reason for it.      Do not let them *wink at me with their eye.

v20    They do not talk about peace.      They say false things to the people in the land that do not want trouble.

v21    They open wide their mouth against me.      They say, “*Aha! Aha! Our eyes saw it!”

v22    *LORD, you saw it (also).      Lord, do not remain *silent. Do not stay far from me.

v23    Wake up! Get up and give me justice!      Argue (for me against them), my Lord and my God.

v24    *LORD, you are righteous.      Give me justice, my God. Do not let them laugh at me.

v25    Do not let them think in their heart, “*Aha! (this is) what we wanted”.      Do not let them say, “We have eaten him up!”

v26    (Do this) to them that laughed at me when I became hurt:           make them ashamed and confused at the same time           make them sorry that they said that they were greater than me           make them feel that they are wearing *disgrace like clothes

v27    (Other) people will be very happy (when you say) that I am righteous.      They will shout out in their pleasure.      They will always say, “The *LORD is great!      He loves it when his servant has peace!”

v28    My mouth will say that you are righteous.      I will praise you all day long. The Story of Psalm 35 David may have written this:

      either when Saul was trying to catch him

      or when David’s son Absalom was fighting him

Saul was king of Israel before David. Absalom was David’s son, who wanted to be king in David’s place. In the psalm, David asks God to fight for him. He asks God to take Saul (or Absalom) away from the earth. To us the language is not very nice, but they would not think this 3 000 years ago. It is the language of war.

War is when countries fight each other. David sees God as a soldier, fighting for him with shields and spears. This is what we call a “human picture” of God. We believe that God sends people or angels to do his work for him. In the psalm the angel is probably one that the Jews called Michael.

The important thing to learn from this psalm is this: David does not try to kill his enemies himself. He wants God to do it in God’s way. When we have enemies, we must ask God to do something. We must not try to hurt them ourselves. Look at Psalms 5. What Psalms 35 means

 

Parts    of the psalm

   What David did wrong  

 What    David’s enemies did

 What    David will do when God sends help

1:    verses 1 - 10

   nothing, verse 7

 

they    wanted to kill him, verse 4

 be    very happy, verses 9 – 10

2:    verses 11 - 18

nothing,    verses 12 – 14

they    mocked him, and did evil things to him, verses12, 15-16

thank    and praise God, verse 18

3:    verses 19 - 28

Nothing,    verse 19

they    say lies, verses 20 –21

 praise    God all day, verse 28

 

Some of the ideas are a bit strange to us, but they are how the Jews thought.

Verse 10: “all my bones” means “all of me”.

Verse 13: we are not sure what “my prayer comes back” means; there are 2 ways to explain it: either God did, or did not, answer David.

Verse 17: “the thing that I love most” is probably “my life”. Something to do Find the important words in Psalms 35, and put a mark on them in some way The words are in the table below.

 

Words

Number    of times in Psalms 35

Argue

3

run    after

2

angel    of the LORD

no    reason

Trap

Pit

Laugh

4

Aha!

Saw

Justice

Count argue / arguing, run / running, laugh / laughing as the same words

© 2001-2002, Wycliffe Associates (UK)

This publication is written in EasyEnglish Level A (1200 words).

January 2002

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var w1 = new Array;w1[0]=’<b%3ELORD</b%3E ~ a special word for God; only his people use it