Mazmur 30:6

30:6 In my self-confidence I said,

“I will never be upended.” ¹ 

Mazmur 34:5

34:5 Those who look to him for help are happy;

their faces are not ashamed. ² 

Mazmur 38:3

38:3 My whole body is sick because of your judgment; ³ 

I am deprived of health because of my sin. ⁴ 

Mazmur 55:22

55:22 Throw your burden ⁵  upon the Lord,

and he will sustain you. ⁶ 

He will never allow the godly to be upended. ⁷ 

Mazmur 89:34

89:34 I will not break ⁸  my covenant

or go back on what I promised. ⁹ 

Mazmur 101:3

101:3 I will not even consider doing what is dishonest. ¹⁰ 

I hate doing evil; ¹¹ 

I will have no part of it. ¹² 

Mazmur 105:15

105:15 saying, ¹³  “Don’t touch my chosen ¹⁴  ones!

Don’t harm my prophets!”

[30:6]  ¹ sn In my self-confidence I said… Here the psalmist begins to fill in the background of the crisis referred to in the earlier verses. He had been arrogant and self-confident, so the Lord withdrew his protection and allowed trouble to invade his life (vv. 8-11).

[34:5]  ² tc Heb “they look to him and are radiant and their faces are not ashamed.” The third person plural subject (“they”) is unidentified; there is no antecedent in the Hebrew text. For this reason some prefer to take the perfect verbal forms in the first line as imperatives, “look to him and be radiant” (cf. NEB, NRSV). Some medieval Hebrew mss and other ancient witnesses (Aquila, the Syriac, and Jerome) support an imperatival reading for the first verb. In the second line some (with support from the LXX and Syriac) change “their faces” to “your faces,” which allows one to retain more easily the jussive force of the verb (suggested by the preceding אַל [’al]): “do not let your faces be ashamed.” It is probable that the verbal construction in the second line is rhetorical, expressing the conviction that the action in view cannot or should not happen. See GKC 322 §109.e.

[38:3]  ³ tn Heb “there is no soundness in my flesh from before your anger.” “Anger” here refers metonymically to divine judgment, which is the practical effect of God’s anger at the psalmist’s sin.

[38:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “there is no health in my bones from before my sin.”

[55:22]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew noun occurs only here.

[55:22]  ⁶ tn The pronoun is singular; the psalmist addresses each member of his audience individually.

[55:22]  ⁷ tn Heb “he will never allow swaying for the righteous.”

[89:34]  ⁸ tn Or “desecrate.”

[89:34]  ⁹ tn Heb “and what proceeds out of my lips I will not alter.”

[101:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “I will not set before my eyes a thing of worthlessness.”

[101:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the doing of swerving [deeds] I hate.” The Hebrew term סֵטִים (setim) is probably an alternate spelling of שֵׂטִים (setim), which appears in many medieval Hebrew mss. The form appears to be derived from a verbal root שׂוּט (sut, “to fall away; to swerve”; see Ps 40:4).

[101:3]  ¹² tn Heb “it [i.e., the doing of evil deeds] does not cling to me.”

[105:15]  ¹³ tn The word “saying” is supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.

[105:15]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “anointed.”