The Jargon of Salvation

יהוה אלהא ישׁועתי
Psalm 88:2 BHS

Yhwh, my God who delivers
Psalm 88: 1 - John Goldengay (2007)

This Psalm has been called the lowest point of the Bible, a psalm devoid of hope.

True but for this first phrase.

Yhwh – the personal name for our God.
‛elohey – the common plural masculine name for God, you're probably more familiar with its relative "elohim".
yeshu‛ahti – it is from this noun that the name Jesus is drawn, Yeshu‛ah.

It’s the last word in this phrase that causes difficulty for translators.

In our first English version, John Wycliffe translated it as, “Lord God of myn helthe” (1395).

Many popular translations render the noun as “salvation” (NASB, NRSV, ESV, HCSB, NKJV, NLT and others).

O Lord, the God of my salvation

Robert Alter (The Book of Psalms, 2007) writes,

But the choice of this word goes back further than 1611.
The Bishop’s Bible of 1568 rendered it, “O God the Lorde of my saluation”.

The Septuagint translated the word as σωτηρίας (sōtērias) which has close connections to the word “salvation” (cf. 2 Corinthians 7:10) but has also been translated as “deliverance” (Acts 7:25).

A strong argument can be made that the word “salvation” is evangelical jargon or bibleeze and so it should be avoided.

In any case, a legitimate translation in English, of the Hebrew word, yeshu‛ahti in Psalm 88 can include save/salvation or deliver.

But from a Christological viewpoint, even the word “salvation” is insufficient in pointing out the close relationship this word has to the name of our Savor, Yeshu‛ah.

No, this Psalm isn't devoid of all hope.

Rob

 

The word "salvation" does carry a lot of theological baggage.
It sounds a bit stuffy to me.

Of the modern popular versions I like the NIV's translation the best here.

O LORD, the God who saves me,
Psalm 88:1 NIV

The word "saves" being close in lettering, sound and meaning to "Savior".

While not perfect, IMHO it carries a similar word-play association that early Jewish Christians might have seen.
***only a guess though***

Unfortunately the Targums (Aramaic) use a different word.

Rob