# General Information:

This psalm is a prayer for help. Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/jit/writing-poetry]] and [[rc://en/ta/man/jit/figs-parallelism]])

# For the chief musician; set to Shoshannim. A psalm of David

This is a superscription that tells about the psalm. Some scholars say that this is part of the scripture and some say that it is not. (See "What are Superscriptions in Psalms" in [Introduction to Psalms](../front/intro.md).)

# For the chief musician

"This is for the director of music to use in worship"

# set to Shoshannim

This may refer to a style of music. See how you translated this in [Psalms 45:1](../045/001.md).

# for the waters have put my life in danger

The writer describes the troubles in his life as if he were drowning in a flood of water. Alternate translation: "for it feels like I am drowning in the waters" (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/jit/figs-metaphor]])