Mazmur 10:4

10:4 The wicked man is so arrogant he always thinks,

“God won’t hold me accountable; he doesn’t care.” ¹ 

Mazmur 18:16

18:16 He reached down ²  from above and took hold of me;

he pulled me from the surging water. ³ 

Mazmur 36:11

36:11 Do not let arrogant men overtake me,

or let evil men make me homeless! ⁴ 

Mazmur 37:35

37:35 I have seen ruthless evil men ⁵ 

growing in influence, like a green tree grows in its native soil. ⁶ 

Mazmur 40:4

40:4 How blessed ⁷  is the one ⁸  who trusts in the Lord ⁹ 

and does not seek help from ¹⁰  the proud or from liars! ¹¹ 

Mazmur 46:11

46:11 The Lord who commands armies is on our side! ¹² 

The God of Jacob ¹³  is our protector! ¹⁴  (Selah)

Mazmur 49:1

Psalm 49 ¹⁵ 

For the music director, a psalm by the Korahites.

49:1 Listen to this, all you nations!

Pay attention, all you inhabitants of the world! ¹⁶ 

Mazmur 57:10

57:10 For your loyal love extends beyond the sky, ¹⁷ 

and your faithfulness reaches the clouds.

Mazmur 59:17

59:17 You are my source of strength! I will sing praises to you! ¹⁸ 

For God is my refuge, ¹⁹  the God who loves me. ²⁰ 

Mazmur 62:2

62:2 He alone is my protector ²¹  and deliverer.

He is my refuge; ²²  I will not be upended. ²³ 

Mazmur 62:6

62:6 He alone is my protector ²⁴  and deliverer.

He is my refuge; ²⁵  I will not be upended. ²⁶ 

Mazmur 68:17

68:17 God has countless chariots;

they number in the thousands. ²⁷ 

The Lord comes from Sinai in holy splendor. ²⁸ 

Mazmur 68:22

68:22 The Lord says,

“I will retrieve them ²⁹  from Bashan,

I will bring them back from the depths of the sea,

Mazmur 69:29

69:29 I am oppressed and suffering!

O God, deliver and protect me! ³⁰ 

Mazmur 74:18

74:18 Remember how ³¹  the enemy hurls insults, O Lord, ³² 

and how a foolish nation blasphemes your name!

Mazmur 75:4

75:4 ³³ I say to the proud, “Do not be proud,”

and to the wicked, “Do not be so confident of victory! ³⁴ 

Mazmur 76:12

76:12 He humbles princes; ³⁵ 

the kings of the earth regard him as awesome. ³⁶ 

Mazmur 89:27

89:27 I will appoint him to be my firstborn son, ³⁷ 

the most exalted of the earth’s kings.

Mazmur 91:14

91:14 The Lord says, ³⁸ 

“Because he is devoted to me, I will deliver him;

I will protect him ³⁹  because he is loyal to me. ⁴⁰ 

Mazmur 92:12

92:12 The godly ⁴¹  grow like a palm tree;

they grow high like a cedar in Lebanon. ⁴² 

Mazmur 107:40

107:40 He would pour ⁴³  contempt upon princes,

and he made them wander in a wasteland with no road.

Mazmur 108:5

108:5 Rise up ⁴⁴  above the sky, O God!

May your splendor cover the whole earth! ⁴⁵ 

Mazmur 140:6

140:6 I say to the Lord, “You are my God.”

O Lord, pay attention to my plea for mercy!

Mazmur 144:7

144:7 Reach down ⁴⁶  from above!

Grab me and rescue me from the surging water, ⁴⁷ 

from the power of foreigners, ⁴⁸ 

[10:4]  ¹ tn Heb “the wicked [one], according to the height of his nose, he does not seek, there is no God, all his thoughts.” The phrase “height of his nose” probably refers to an arrogant or snooty attitude; it likely pictures one with his nose turned upward toward the sky in pride. One could take the “wicked” as the subject of the negated verb “seek,” in which case the point is that the wicked do not “seek” God. The translation assumes that this statement, along with “there is no God,” is what the wicked man thinks to himself. In this case God is the subject of the verb “seek,” and the point is that God will not hold the wicked man accountable for his actions. Verse 13 strongly favors this interpretation. The statement “there is no God” is not a philosophical assertion that God does not exist, but rather a confident affirmation that he is unconcerned about how men live morally and ethically (see v. 11).

[18:16]  ² tn Heb “stretched.” Perhaps “his hand” should be supplied by ellipsis (see Ps 144:7). In this poetic narrative context the three prefixed verbal forms in this verse are best understood as preterites indicating past tense, not imperfects.

[18:16]  ³ tn Heb “mighty waters.” The waters of the sea symbolize the psalmist’s powerful enemies, as well as the realm of death they represent (see v. 4 and Ps 144:7).

[36:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “let not a foot of pride come to me, and let not the hand of the evil ones cause me to wander as a fugitive.”

[37:35]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew uses the representative singular again here.

[37:35]  ⁶ tn Heb “being exposed [?] like a native, luxuriant.” The Hebrew form מִתְעָרֶה (mit’areh) appears to be a Hitpael participle from עָרָה (’arah, “be exposed”), but this makes no sense in this context. Perhaps the form is a dialectal variant of מִתְעָלָה (“giving oneself an air of importance”; see Jer 51:3), from עָלָה (’alah, “go up”; see P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 296). The noun אֶזְרָח (’ezrakh, “native, full citizen”) refers elsewhere to people, but here, where it is collocated with “luxuriant, green,” it probably refers to a tree growing in native soil.

[40:4]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew noun is an abstract plural. The word often refers metonymically to the happiness that God-given security and prosperity produce (see Pss 1:1, 3; 2:12; 34:9; 41:1; 65:4; 84:12; 89:15; 106:3; 112:1; 127:5; 128:1; 144:15).

[40:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “man.” See the note on the word “one” in Ps 1:1.

[40:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “who has made the Lord his [object of] trust.”

[40:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and does not turn toward.”

[40:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “those falling away toward a lie.”

[46:11]  ¹² tn Heb “the Lord of hosts is with us.” The title “Lord of hosts” here pictures the Lord as a mighty warrior-king who leads armies into battle (see Ps 24:10). The military imagery is further developed in vv. 8-9.

[46:11]  ¹³ tn That is, Israel, or Judah (see Ps 20:1).

[46:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “our elevated place” (see Pss 9:9; 18:2).

[49:1]  ¹⁵ sn Psalm 49. In this so-called wisdom psalm (see v. 3) the psalmist states that he will not fear the rich enemies who threaten him, for despite their wealth, they are mere men who will die like everyone else. The psalmist is confident the Lord will vindicate the godly and protect them from the attacks of their oppressors.

[49:1]  ¹⁶ tn The rare noun חָלֶד (kheled, “world”) occurs in Ps 17:14 and perhaps also in Isa 38:11 (see the note on “world” there).

[57:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “for great upon the sky [or “heavens”] [is] your loyal love.”

[59:17]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “my strength, to you I will sing praises.”

[59:17]  ¹⁹ tn Or “my elevated place” (see Ps 18:2).

[59:17]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the God of my loyal love.”

[62:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “my high rocky summit.”

[62:2]  ²² tn Or “my elevated place” (see Ps 18:2).

[62:2]  ²³ tn The Hebrew text adds רַבָּה (rabbah, “greatly”) at the end of the line. It is unusual for this adverb to follow a negated verb. Some see this as qualifying the assertion to some degree, but this would water down the affirmation too much (see v. 6b, where the adverb is omitted). If the adverb has a qualifying function, it would suggest that the psalmist might be upended, though not severely. This is inconsistent with the confident mood of the psalm. The adverb probably has an emphatic force here, “I will not be greatly upended” meaning “I will not be annihilated.”

[62:6]  ²⁴ tn Heb “my high rocky summit.”

[62:6]  ²⁵ tn Or “my elevated place” (see Ps 18:2).

[62:6]  ²⁶ sn The wording is identical to that of v. 2, except that רַבָּה (rabbah, “greatly”) does not appear in v. 6.

[68:17]  ²⁷ tn Heb “thousands of [?].” The meaning of the word שִׁנְאָן (shin’an), which occurs only here in the OT, is uncertain. Perhaps the form should be emended to שַׁאֲנָן (sha’anan, “at ease”) and be translated here “held in reserve.”

[68:17]  ²⁸ tc The MT reads, “the Lord [is] among them, Sinai, in holiness,” which is syntactically difficult. The present translation assumes an emendation to אֲדֹנָי בָּא מִסִּינַי (’adonay ba’ missinay; see BHS note b-b and Deut 33:2).

[68:22]  ²⁹ tn That is, the enemies mentioned in v. 21. Even if they retreat to distant regions, God will retrieve them and make them taste his judgment.

[69:29]  ³⁰ tn Heb “your deliverance, O God, may it protect me.”

[74:18]  ³¹ tn Heb “remember this.”

[74:18]  ³² tn Or “[how] the enemy insults the Lord.”

[75:4]  ³³ tn The identity of the speaker in vv. 4-6 is unclear. The present translation assumes that the psalmist, who also speaks in vv. 7-9 (where God/the Lord is spoken of in the third person) here addresses the proud and warns them of God’s judgment. The presence of כִּי (ki, “for”) at the beginning of both vv. 6-7 seems to indicate that vv. 4-9 are a unit. However, there is no formal indication of a new speaker in v. 4 (or in v. 10, where God appears to speak). Another option is to see God speaking in vv. 2-6 and v. 10 and to take only vv. 7-9 as the words of the psalmist. In this case one must interpret כִּי at the beginning of v. 7 in an asseverative or emphatic sense (“surely; indeed”).

[75:4]  ³⁴ tn Heb “do not lift up a horn.” The horn of an ox underlies the metaphor (see Deut 33:17; 1 Kgs 22:11; Ps 92:10). The horn of the wild ox is frequently a metaphor for military strength; the idiom “exalt/lift up the horn” signifies military victory (see 1 Sam 2:10; Pss 89:17, 24; 92:10; Lam 2:17). Here the idiom seems to refer to an arrogant attitude that assumes victory has been achieved.

[76:12]  ³⁵ tn Heb “he reduces the spirit of princes.” According to HALOT 148 s.v. II בצר, the Hebrew verb בָּצַר (batsar) is here a hapax legomenon meaning “reduce, humble.” The statement is generalizing, with the imperfect tense highlighting God’s typical behavior.

[76:12]  ³⁶ tn Heb “[he is] awesome to the kings of the earth.”

[89:27]  ³⁷ sn The firstborn son typically had special status and received special privileges.

[91:14]  ³⁸ tn The words “the Lord says” are supplied in the translation to clarify that the words which follow are the Lord’s oracle of assurance.

[91:14]  ³⁹ tn Or “make him secure” (Heb “set him on high”).

[91:14]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “because he knows my name” (see Ps 9:10).

[92:12]  ⁴¹ tn The singular is used in a representative sense, with the typical godly person being in view.

[92:12]  ⁴² sn The cedars of the Lebanon forest were well-known in ancient Israel for their immense size.

[107:40]  ⁴³ tn The active participle is understood as past durative here, drawing attention to typical action in a past time frame. However, it could be taken as generalizing (in which case one should translate using the English present tense), in which case the psalmist moves from narrative to present reality. Perhaps the participial form appears because the statement is lifted from Job 12:21.

[108:5]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “be exalted.”

[108:5]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “over all the earth [be] your splendor.” Though no verb appears, the tone of the statement is a prayer or wish. (Note the imperative form in the preceding line.)

[144:7]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “stretch out your hands.”

[144:7]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “mighty waters.” The waters of the sea symbolize the psalmist’s powerful foreign enemies, as well as the realm of death they represent (see the next line and Ps 18:16-17).

[144:7]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “from the hand of the sons of foreignness.”