Mazmur 31:3

31:3 For you are my high ridge ¹  and my stronghold;

for the sake of your own reputation ²  you lead me and guide me. ³ 

Mazmur 31:5

31:5 Into your hand I entrust my life; ⁴ 

you will rescue ⁵  me, O Lord, the faithful God.

Mazmur 54:5

54:5 May those who wait to ambush me ⁶  be repaid for their evil! ⁷ 

As a demonstration of your faithfulness, ⁸  destroy them!

Mazmur 56:4

56:4 In God – I boast in his promise ⁹  –

in God I trust, I am not afraid.

What can mere men ¹⁰  do to me? ¹¹ 

Mazmur 78:57

78:57 They were unfaithful ¹²  and acted as treacherously as ¹³  their ancestors;

they were as unreliable as a malfunctioning bow. ¹⁴ 

Mazmur 89:33

89:33 But I will not remove ¹⁵  my loyal love from him,

nor be unfaithful to my promise. ¹⁶ 

Mazmur 95:11

95:11 So I made a vow in my anger,

‘They will never enter into the resting place I had set aside for them.’” ¹⁷ 

Mazmur 102:13

102:13 You will rise up and have compassion on Zion. ¹⁸ 

For it is time to have mercy on her,

for the appointed time has come.

Mazmur 105:43

105:43 When he led his people out, they rejoiced;

his chosen ones shouted with joy. ¹⁹ 

Mazmur 109:21

109:21 O sovereign Lord,

intervene on my behalf for the sake of your reputation! ²⁰ 

Because your loyal love is good, deliver me!

Mazmur 110:4

110:4 The Lord makes this promise on oath ²¹  and will not revoke it: ²² 

“You are an eternal priest ²³  after the pattern of ²⁴  Melchizedek.” ²⁵ 

Mazmur 119:40

119:40 Look, I long for your precepts.

Revive me with your deliverance! ²⁶ 

Mazmur 119:73

י (Yod)

119:73 Your hands made me and formed me. ²⁷ 

Give me understanding so that I might learn ²⁸  your commands.

Mazmur 132:8

132:8 Ascend, O Lord, to your resting place,

you and the ark of your strength!

Mazmur 138:8

138:8 The Lord avenges me. ²⁹ 

O Lord, your loyal love endures.

Do not abandon those whom you have made! ³⁰ 

Mazmur 145:13

145:13 Your kingdom is an eternal kingdom, ³¹ 

and your dominion endures through all generations.

[31:3]  ¹ sn The metaphor of the high ridge pictures God as a rocky, relatively inaccessible summit, where one would be able to find protection from enemies. See 1 Sam 23:25, 28.

[31:3]  ² tn Heb “name.” The Hebrew term שֵׁם (shem, “name”) refers here to the Lord’s reputation. (The English term “name” is often used the same way.)

[31:3]  ³ tn The present translation assumes that the imperfect verbal forms are generalizing, “you lead me and guide me.” Other options are to take them as an expression of confidence about the future, “you will lead me and guide me” (cf. NASB), or as expressing a prayer, “lead me and guide me” (cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV).

[31:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “my spirit.” The noun רוּחַ (ruakh, “spirit”) here refers to the animating spirit that gives the psalmist life.

[31:5]  ⁵ tn Or “redeem.” The perfect verbal form is understood here as anticipatory, indicating rhetorically the psalmist’s certitude and confidence that God will intervene. The psalmist is so confident of God’s positive response to his prayer that he can describe his deliverance as if it had already happened. Another option is to take the perfect as precative, expressing a wish or request (“rescue me”; cf. NIV). See IBHS 494-95 §30.5.4c, d. However, not all grammarians are convinced that the perfect is used as a precative in biblical Hebrew.

[54:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “to those who watch me [with evil intent].” See also Pss 5:8; 27:11; 56:2.

[54:5]  ⁷ tn The Kethib (consonantal text) reads a Qal imperfect, “the evil will return,” while the Qere (marginal reading) has a Hiphil imperfect, “he will repay.” The parallel line has an imperative (indicating a prayer/request), so it is best to read a jussive form יָשֹׁב (yashov, “let it [the evil] return”) here.

[54:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “in [or “by”] your faithfulness.”

[56:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “in God I boast, his word.” The syntax in the Hebrew text is difficult. (1) The line could be translated, “in God I boast, [in] his word.” Such a translation assumes that the prepositional phrase “in God” goes with the following verb “I boast” (see Ps 44:8) and that “his word” is appositional to “in God” and more specifically identifies the basis for the psalmist’s confidence. God’s “word” is here understood as an assuring promise of protection. Another option (2) is to translate, “in God I will boast [with] a word.” In this case, the “word” is a song of praise. (In this view the pronominal suffix “his” must be omitted as in v. 10.) The present translation reflects yet another option (3): In this case “I praise his word” is a parenthetical statement, with “his word” being the object of the verb. The sentence begun with the prepositional phrase “in God” is then completed in the next line, with the prepositional phrase being repeated after the parenthesis.

[56:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “flesh,” which refers by metonymy to human beings (see v. 11, where “man” is used in this same question), envisioned here as mortal and powerless before God.

[56:4]  ¹¹ tn The rhetorical question assumes the answer, “Nothing!” The imperfect is used in a modal sense here, indicating capability or potential.

[78:57]  ¹² tn Heb “they turned back.”

[78:57]  ¹³ tn Or “acted treacherously like.”

[78:57]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “they turned aside like a deceitful bow.”

[89:33]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “break”; “make ineffectual.” Some prefer to emend אָפִיר (’afir; the Hiphil of פָּרַר, parar, “to break”) to אָסִיר (’asir; the Hiphil of סוּר, sur, “to turn aside”), a verb that appears in 2 Sam 7:15.

[89:33]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and I will not deal falsely with my faithfulness.”

[95:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “my resting place.” The promised land of Canaan is here viewed metaphorically as a place of rest for God’s people, who are compared to sheep (see v. 7).

[102:13]  ¹⁸ tn The imperfect verbal forms are understood as expressing the psalmist’s confidence in God’s intervention. Another option is to take them as expressing the psalmist’s request or wish, “You, rise up and have compassion!”

[105:43]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and he led his people out with joy, with a ringing cry, his chosen ones.”

[109:21]  ²⁰ tn Heb “but you, Lord, Master, do with me for the sake of your name.” Here “name” stands metonymically for God’s reputation.

[110:4]  ²¹ tn Or “swears, vows.”

[110:4]  ²² tn Or “will not change his mind.” The negated Niphal imperfect of נָחַם (nakham) is a way of marking an announcement as an irrevocable decree. See 1 Sam 15:29; Ezek 24:14, as well as R. B. Chisholm, “Does God ‘Change His Mind’?” BSac 152 (1995): 387-99.

[110:4]  ²³ sn You are an eternal priest. The Davidic king exercised a non-Levitical priestly role. The king superintended Judah’s cultic ritual, had authority over the Levites, and sometimes led in formal worship. David himself instructed the Levites to bring the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem (1 Chr 15:11-15), joined the procession, offered sacrifices, wore a priestly ephod, and blessed the people (2 Sam 6:12-19). At the dedication of the temple Solomon led the ceremony, offering sacrifices and praying on behalf of the people (1 Kgs 8).

[110:4]  ²⁴ tn The phrase עַל־דִּבְרָתִי (’al-divratiy) is a variant of עַל־דִּבְרָת (’al-divrat; the final yod [י] being an archaic genitival ending), which in turn is a variant of עַל דָּבַר (’al davar). Both phrases can mean “concerning” or “because of,” but neither of these nuances fits the use of עַל־דִּבְרָתִי in Ps 110:4. Here the phrase probably carries the sense “according to the manner of.” See L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 81.

[110:4]  ²⁵ sn The Davidic king’s priestly role is analogous to that of Melchizedek, who was both “king of Salem” (i.e., Jerusalem) and a “priest of God Most High” in the time of Abraham (Gen 14:18-20). Like Melchizedek, the Davidic king was a royal priest, distinct from the Aaronic line (see Heb 7). The analogy focuses on the king’s priestly role; the language need not imply that Melchizedek himself was “an eternal priest.”

[119:40]  ²⁶ tn Or “righteousness.”

[119:73]  ²⁷ tn Heb “made me and established me.” The two verbs also appear together in Deut 32:6, where God, compared to a father, is said to have “made and established” Israel.

[119:73]  ²⁸ tn The cohortative verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the preceding imperative.

[138:8]  ²⁹ tn Heb “avenges on my behalf.” For the meaning “to avenge” for the verb גָּמַר (gamar), see HALOT 197-98 s.v. גמר.

[138:8]  ³⁰ tn Heb “the works of your hands.” Many medieval Hebrew mss read the singular, “work of your hands.”

[145:13]  ³¹ tn Heb “a kingdom of all ages.”