Mazmur 15:5

15:5 He does not charge interest when he lends his money. ¹ 

He does not take bribes to testify against the innocent. ² 

The one who lives like this ³  will never be upended.

Mazmur 42:8

42:8 By day the Lord decrees his loyal love, ⁴ 

and by night he gives me a song, ⁵ 

a prayer ⁶  to the living God.

Mazmur 61:2

61:2 From the most remote place on earth ⁷ 

I call out to you in my despair. ⁸ 

Lead me ⁹  up to an inaccessible rocky summit! ¹⁰ 

Mazmur 92:7

92:7 When the wicked sprout up like grass,

and all the evildoers glisten, ¹¹ 

it is so that they may be annihilated. ¹² 

Mazmur 138:7

138:7 Even when I must walk in the midst of danger, ¹³  you revive me.

You oppose my angry enemies, ¹⁴ 

and your right hand delivers me.

[15:5]  ¹ sn He does not charge interest. Such an individual is truly generous, and not simply concerned with making a profit.

[15:5]  ² tn Heb “a bribe against the innocent he does not take.” For other texts condemning the practice of a judge or witness taking a bribe, see Exod 23:8; Deut 16:19; 27:25; 1 Sam 8:3; Ezek 22:12; Prov 17:23.

[15:5]  ³ tn Heb “does these things.”

[42:8]  ⁴ sn The psalmist believes that the Lord has not abandoned him, but continues to extend his loyal love. To this point in the psalm, the author has used the name “God,” but now, as he mentions the divine characteristic of loyal love, he switches to the more personal divine name Yahweh (rendered in the translation as “the Lord”).

[42:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “his song [is] with me.”

[42:8]  ⁶ tc A few medieval Hebrew mss read תְּהִלָּה (tÿhillah, “praise”) instead of תְּפִלָּה (tÿfillah, “prayer”).

[61:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “from the end of the earth.” This may indicate (1) the psalmist is exiled in a distant land, or (2) it may be hyperbolic (the psalmist feels alienated from God’s presence, as if he were in a distant land).

[61:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “while my heart faints.”

[61:2]  ⁹ tn The imperfect verbal form here expresses the psalmist’s wish or prayer.

[61:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “on to a rocky summit [that] is higher than I.”

[92:7]  ¹¹ tn Or “flourish.”

[92:7]  ¹² tn Heb “in order that they might be destroyed permanently.”

[92:7]  sn God allows the wicked to prosper temporarily so that he might reveal his justice. When the wicked are annihilated, God demonstrates that wickedness does not pay off.

[138:7]  ¹³ tn Or “distress.”

[138:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “against the anger of my enemies you extend your hand.”