34:13 Then make sure you don’t speak evil words 1
or use deceptive speech! 2
49:4 I will learn a song that imparts wisdom;
I will then sing my insightful song to the accompaniment of a harp. 3
67:6 The earth yields its crops.
May God, our God, bless us!
78:16 He caused streams to flow from the rock,
and made the water flow like rivers.
85:12 Yes, the Lord will bestow his good blessings, 4
and our land will yield 5 its crops.
148:5 Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for he gave the command and they came into existence.
1 tn Heb “guard your tongue from evil.”
2 tn Heb “and your lips from speaking deception.”
3 tn Heb “I will turn my ear to a wise saying, I will open [i.e., “reveal; explain”] my insightful saying with a harp.” In the first line the psalmist speaks as a pupil who learns a song of wisdom from a sage. This suggests that the resulting insightful song derives from another source, perhaps God himself. Elsewhere the Hebrew word pair חִידָה/מָשָׁל (mashal/khidah) refers to a taunt song (Hab 2:6), a parable (Ezek 17:2), lessons from history (Ps 78:2), and proverbial sayings (Prov 1:6). Here it appears to refer to the insightful song that follows, which reflects on the mortality of humankind and the ultimate inability of riches to prevent the inevitable – death. Another option is that the word pair refers more specifically to the closely related proverbial sayings of vv. 12, 20 (note the use of the verb מָשָׁל, mashal, “to be like” in both verses). In this case the psalmist first hears the sayings and then explains (Heb “opens”) their significance (see vv. 5-11, 13-19).
4 tn Heb “what is good.”
5 tn Both “bestow” and “yield” translate the same Hebrew verb (נָתַן, natan). The repetition of the word emphasizes that agricultural prosperity is the direct result of divine blessing.