Mazmur 16:3

16:3 As for God’s chosen people who are in the land,

and the leading officials I admired so much ¹  –

Mazmur 66:16

66:16 Come! Listen, all you who are loyal to God! ² 

I will declare what he has done for me.

Mazmur 73:15-17

73:15 If I had publicized these thoughts, ³ 

I would have betrayed your loyal followers. ⁴ 

73:16 When I tried to make sense of this,

it was troubling to me. ⁵ 

73:17 Then I entered the precincts of God’s temple, ⁶ 

and understood the destiny of the wicked. ⁷ 

Mazmur 119:63

119:63 I am a friend to all your loyal followers, ⁸ 

and to those who keep your precepts.

[16:3]  ¹ tn Heb “regarding the holy ones who [are] in the land, they; and the mighty [ones] in [whom is/was] all my desire.” The difficult syntax makes the meaning of the verse uncertain. The phrase “holy ones” sometimes refers to God’s angelic assembly (see Ps 89:5, 7), but the qualifying clause “who are in the land” suggests that here it refers to God’s people (Ps 34:9) or to their priestly leaders (2 Chr 35:3).

[66:16]  ² tn Heb “all of the fearers of God.”

[73:15]  ³ tn Heb “If I had said, ‘I will speak out like this.’”

[73:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “look, the generation of your sons I would have betrayed.” The phrase “generation of your [i.e., God’s] sons” occurs only here in the OT. Some equate the phrase with “generation of the godly” (Ps 14:5), “generation of the ones seeking him” (Ps 24:6), and “generation of the upright” (Ps 112:2). In Deut 14:1 the Israelites are referred to as God’s “sons.” Perhaps the psalmist refers here to those who are “Israelites” in the true sense because of their loyalty to God (note the juxtaposition of “Israel” with “the pure in heart” in v. 1).

[73:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “and [when] I pondered to understand this, troubling it [was] in my eyes.”

[73:17]  ⁶ tn The plural of the term מִקְדָּשׁ (miqdash) probably refers to the temple precincts (see Ps 68:35; Jer 51:51).

[73:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “I discerned their end.” At the temple the psalmist perhaps received an oracle of deliverance announcing his vindication and the demise of the wicked (see Ps 12) or heard songs of confidence (for example, Ps 11), wisdom psalms (for example, Pss 1, 37), and hymns (for example, Ps 112) that describe the eventual downfall of the proud and wealthy.

[119:63]  ⁸ tn Heb “to all who fear you.”