Mazmur 2:7

2:7 The king says, ¹  “I will announce the Lord’s decree. He said to me: ² 

‘You are my son! ³  This very day I have become your father!

Mazmur 5:7

5:7 But as for me, ⁴  because of your great faithfulness I will enter your house; ⁵ 

I will bow down toward your holy temple as I worship you. ⁶ 

Mazmur 7:9

7:9 May the evil deeds of the wicked ⁷  come to an end! ⁸ 

But make the innocent ⁹  secure, ¹⁰ 

O righteous God,

you who examine ¹¹  inner thoughts and motives! ¹² 

Mazmur 17:7

17:7 Accomplish awesome, faithful deeds, ¹³ 

you who powerfully deliver those who look to you for protection from their enemies. ¹⁴ 

Mazmur 17:15

17:15 As for me, because I am innocent I will see your face; ¹⁵ 

when I awake you will reveal yourself to me. ¹⁶ 

Mazmur 20:5

20:5 Then we will shout for joy over your ¹⁷  victory;

we will rejoice ¹⁸  in the name of our God!

May the Lord grant all your requests!

Mazmur 27:9

27:9 Do not reject me! ¹⁹ 

Do not push your servant away in anger!

You are my deliverer! ²⁰ 

Do not forsake or abandon me,

O God who vindicates me!

Mazmur 28:1

Psalm 28 ²¹ 

By David.

28:1 To you, O Lord, I cry out!

My protector, ²²  do not ignore me! ²³ 

If you do not respond to me, ²⁴ 

I will join ²⁵  those who are descending into the grave. ²⁶ 

Mazmur 28:5

28:5 For they do not understand the Lord’s actions,

or the way he carries out justice. ²⁷ 

The Lord ²⁸  will permanently demolish them. ²⁹ 

Mazmur 31:11

31:11 Because of all my enemies, people disdain me; ³⁰ 

my neighbors are appalled by my suffering ³¹  –

those who know me are horrified by my condition; ³² 

those who see me in the street run away from me.

Mazmur 35:26

35:26 May those who want to harm me be totally embarrassed and ashamed! ³³ 

May those who arrogantly taunt me be covered with shame and humiliation! ³⁴ 

Mazmur 39:11

39:11 You severely discipline people for their sins; ³⁵ 

like a moth you slowly devour their strength. ³⁶ 

Surely all people are a mere vapor. (Selah)

Mazmur 45:4

45:4 Appear in your majesty and be victorious! ³⁷ 

Ride forth for the sake of what is right, ³⁸ 

on behalf of justice! ³⁹ 

Then your right hand will accomplish mighty acts! ⁴⁰ 

Mazmur 61:2

61:2 From the most remote place on earth ⁴¹ 

I call out to you in my despair. ⁴² 

Lead me ⁴³  up to an inaccessible rocky summit! ⁴⁴ 

Mazmur 62:8

62:8 Trust in him at all times, you people!

Pour out your hearts before him! ⁴⁵ 

God is our shelter! (Selah)

Mazmur 65:8

65:8 Even those living in the most remote areas are awestruck by your acts; ⁴⁶ 

you cause those living in the east and west to praise you. ⁴⁷ 

Mazmur 66:15

66:15 I will offer up to you fattened animals as burnt sacrifices,

along with the smell of sacrificial rams.

I will offer cattle and goats. (Selah)

Mazmur 68:16

68:16 Why do you look with envy, ⁴⁸  O mountains ⁴⁹  with many peaks,

at the mountain where God has decided to live? ⁵⁰ 

Indeed ⁵¹  the Lord will live there ⁵²  permanently!

Mazmur 84:10

84:10 Certainly ⁵³  spending just one day in your temple courts is better

than spending a thousand elsewhere. ⁵⁴ 

I would rather stand at the entrance ⁵⁵  to the temple of my God

than live ⁵⁶  in the tents of the wicked.

Mazmur 86:17

86:17 Show me evidence of your favor! ⁵⁷ 

Then those who hate me will see it and be ashamed, ⁵⁸ 

for you, O Lord, will help me and comfort me. ⁵⁹ 

Mazmur 88:5

88:5 adrift ⁶⁰  among the dead,

like corpses lying in the grave,

whom you remember no more,

and who are cut off from your power. ⁶¹ 

Mazmur 88:9

88:9 My eyes grow weak because of oppression.

I call out to you, O Lord, all day long;

I spread out my hands in prayer to you. ⁶² 

Mazmur 97:10

97:10 You who love the Lord, hate evil!

He protects ⁶³  the lives of his faithful followers;

he delivers them from the power ⁶⁴  of the wicked.

Mazmur 119:75

119:75 I know, Lord, that your regulations ⁶⁵  are just.

You disciplined me because of your faithful devotion to me. ⁶⁶ 

Mazmur 127:2

127:2 It is vain for you to rise early, come home late,

and work so hard for your food. ⁶⁷ 

Yes, ⁶⁸  he can provide for those whom he loves even when they sleep. ⁶⁹ 

Mazmur 141:5

141:5 May the godly strike me in love and correct me!

May my head not refuse ⁷⁰  choice oil! ⁷¹ 

Indeed, my prayer is a witness against their evil deeds. ⁷² 

Mazmur 142:7

142:7 Free me ⁷³  from prison,

that I may give thanks to your name.

Because of me the godly will assemble, ⁷⁴ 

for you will vindicate me. ⁷⁵ 

[2:7]  ¹ tn The words “the king says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The speaker is the Lord’s chosen king.

[2:7]  ² tn Or “I will relate the decree. The Lord said to me” (in accordance with the Masoretic accentuation).

[2:7]  ³ sn ‘You are my son!’ The Davidic king was viewed as God’s “son” (see 2 Sam 7:14; Ps 89:26-27). The idiom reflects ancient Near Eastern adoption language associated with covenants of grant, by which a lord would reward a faithful subject by elevating him to special status, referred to as “sonship.” Like a son, the faithful subject received an “inheritance,” viewed as an unconditional, eternal gift. Such gifts usually took the form of land and/or an enduring dynasty. See M. Weinfeld, “The Covenant of Grant in the Old Testament and in the Ancient Near East,” JAOS 90 (1970): 184-203, for general discussion and some striking extra-biblical parallels.

[5:7]  ⁴ sn But as for me. By placing the first person pronoun at the beginning of the verse, the psalmist highlights the contrast between the evildoers’ actions and destiny, outlined in the preceding verses, with his own.

[5:7]  ⁵ sn I will enter your house. The psalmist is confident that God will accept him into his presence, in contrast to the evildoers (see v. 5).

[5:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “in fear [of] you.” The Hebrew noun יִרְאָה (yir’ah, “fear”), when used of fearing God, is sometimes used metonymically for what it ideally produces: “worship, reverence, piety.”

[7:9]  ⁷ tn In the psalms the Hebrew term רְשָׁעִים (rÿsha’im, “wicked”) describes people who are proud, practical atheists (Ps 10:2, 4, 11) who hate God’s commands, commit sinful deeds, speak lies and slander (Ps 50:16-20), and cheat others (Ps 37:21). They oppose God and his people.

[7:9]  ⁸ tn The prefixed verbal form is a jussive, expressing an imprecation here.

[7:9]  ⁹ tn Or “the godly” (see Ps 5:12). The singular form is collective (see the plural “upright in heart” in v. 10), though it may reflect the personal focus of the psalmist in this context.

[7:9]  ¹⁰ tn The prefixed verbal form expresses the psalmist’s prayer or wish.

[7:9]  ¹¹ tn For other uses of the verb in this sense, see Job 7:18; Pss 11:4; 26:2; 139:23.

[7:9]  ¹² tn Heb “and [the one who] tests hearts and kidneys, just God.” The translation inverts the word order to improve the English style. The heart and kidneys were viewed as the seat of one’s volition, conscience, and moral character.

[17:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “Set apart faithful acts.”

[17:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “[O] one who delivers those who seek shelter from the ones raising themselves up, by your right hand.” The Lord’s “right hand” here symbolizes his power to protect and deliver.

[17:7]  sn Those who look to you for protection from their enemies. “Seeking shelter” in the Lord is an idiom for seeking his protection. Seeking his protection presupposes and even demonstrates the subject’s loyalty to the Lord. In the psalms those who “take shelter” in the Lord are contrasted with the wicked and equated with those who love, fear and serve the Lord (Pss 5:11-12; 31:17-20; 34:21-22).

[17:15]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “I, in innocence, I will see your face.” To “see” God’s “face” means to have access to his presence and to experience his favor (see Ps 11:7; see also Job 33:26 [where רָאָה (ra’ah), not חָזַה (khazah), is used]). Here, however, the psalmist may be anticipating a mystical experience. See the following note on the word “me.”

[17:15]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “I will be satisfied, when I awake, [with] your form.” The noun תְּמוּנָה (tÿmunah) normally carries the nuance “likeness” or “form.” In Job 4:16 it refers to a ghostlike spiritual entity (see v. 15) that revealed itself to Eliphaz during the night. The psalmist may anticipate a mystical encounter with God in which he expects to see a manifestation of God’s presence (i.e., a theophany), perhaps in conjunction with an oracle of deliverance. During the quiet darkness of the night, God examines the psalmist’s inner motives and finds them to be pure (see v. 3). The psalmist is confident that when he awakens, perhaps sometime during the night or in the morning, he will be visited by God and assured of vindication.

[17:15]  sn When I awake you will reveal yourself to me. Some see in this verse an allusion to resurrection. According to this view, when the psalmist awakens from the sleep of death, he will see God. It is unlikely that the psalmist had such a highly developed personal eschatology. As noted above, it is more likely that he is anticipating a divine visitation and mystical encounter as a prelude to his deliverance from his enemies.

[20:5]  ¹⁷ sn Your victory. Here the king is addressed (see v. 1).

[20:5]  ¹⁸ tc The Hebrew verb דָּגַל (dagal) occurs only here in the Qal. If accepted as original, it may carry the nuance “raise a banner,” but it is preferable to emend the form to נגיל (“we will rejoice”) which provides better parallelism with “shout for joy” and fits well with the prepositional phrase “in the name of our God” (see Ps 89:16).

[27:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “do not hide your face from me.” The idiom “hide the face” can mean “ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or carry the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 30:7; 88:14).

[27:9]  ²⁰ tn Or “[source of] help.”

[28:1]  ²¹ sn Psalm 28. The author looks to the Lord for vindication, asks that the wicked be repaid in full for their evil deeds, and affirms his confidence that the Lord will protect his own.

[28:1]  ²² tn Heb “my rocky summit.” The Lord is compared to a rocky summit where one can find protection from enemies. See Ps 18:2.

[28:1]  ²³ tn Heb “do not be deaf from me.”

[28:1]  ²⁴ tn Heb “lest [if] you are silent from me.”

[28:1]  ²⁵ tn Heb “I will be equal with.”

[28:1]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the pit.” The noun בּוֹר (bor, “pit, cistern”) is sometimes used of the grave and/or the realm of the dead.

[28:5]  ²⁷ tn Heb “or the work of his hands.” In this context “the Lord’s actions” and “the work of his hands” probably refer to the way he carries out justice by vindicating the godly and punishing the wicked. (Note the final line of the verse, which refers to divine judgment. See also Ps 92:4-7.) Evil men do not “understand” God’s just ways; they fail to realize he will protect the innocent. Consequently they seek to harm the godly, as if they believe they will never be held accountable for their actions.

[28:5]  ²⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord, who is referred to in the two immediately preceding lines) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[28:5]  ²⁹ tn Heb “will tear them down and not rebuild them.” The ungodly are compared to a structure that is permanently demolished.

[31:11]  ³⁰ tn Heb “because of all my enemies I am a reproach.”

[31:11]  ³¹ tc Heb “and to my neighbors, exceedingly.” If the MT is retained, then these words probably go with what precedes. However the syntactical awkwardness of the text suggests it is textually corrupt. P. C. Craigie (Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 258) suggests that the initial mem (מ) on מְאֹד (me’od, “exceedingly”) be understood as an enclitic mem (ם) which was originally suffixed to the preceding form and then later misinterpreted. The resulting form אֵד (’ed) can then be taken as a defectively written form of אֵיד (’ed, “calamity”). If one follows this emendation, then the text reads literally, “and to my neighbors [I am one who experiences] calamity.” The noun פַחַד (fakhad, “[object of] horror”) occurs in the next line; אֵיד and פַחַד appear in parallelism elsewhere (see Prov 1:26-27).

[31:11]  ³² tn Heb “and [an object of ] horror to those known by me.”

[35:26]  ³³ tn Heb “may they be embarrassed and ashamed together, the ones who rejoice over my harm.”

[35:26]  ³⁴ tn Heb “may they be clothed with shame and humiliation, the ones who magnify [themselves] against me.” The prefixed verbal forms in v. 26 are understood as jussives (see vv. 24b-25, where the negative particle אַל (’al) appears before the prefixed verbal forms, indicating they are jussives). The psalmist is calling down judgment on his enemies.

[39:11]  ³⁵ tn “with punishments on account of sin you discipline a man.”

[39:11]  ³⁶ tc Heb “you cause to dissolve, like a moth, his desired [thing].” The translation assumes an emendation of חֲמוּדוֹ (khamudo, “his desirable [thing]”) to חֶמְדוֹ (khemdo, “his loveliness” [or “beauty”]), a reading that is supported by a few medieval Hebrew mss.

[45:4]  ³⁷ tn Heb “and your majesty, be successful.” The syntax is awkward. The phrase “and your majesty” at the beginning of the verse may be accidentally repeated (dittography); it appears at the end of v. 3.

[45:4]  ³⁸ tn Or “for the sake of truth.”

[45:4]  ³⁹ tc The precise meaning of the MT is uncertain. The form עַנְוָה (’anvah) occurs only here. One could emend the text to עֲנָוָה וְצֶדֶק (’anavah vÿtsedeq, “[for the sake of truth], humility, and justice”). In this case “humility” would perhaps allude to the king’s responsibility to “serve” his people by promoting justice (cf. NIV “in behalf of truth, humility and righteousness”). The present translation assumes an emendation to יַעַן (ya’an, “because; on account of”) which would form a suitable parallel to עַל־דְּבַר (’al-dÿvar, “because; for the sake of”) in the preceding line.

[45:4]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “and your right hand will teach you mighty acts”; or “and may your right hand teach you mighty acts.” After the imperatives in the first half of the verse, the prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive likely indicates purpose (“so that your right hand might teach you mighty acts”) or result (see the present translation). The “right hand” here symbolizes the king’s military strength. His right hand will “teach” him mighty acts by performing them and thereby causing him to experience their magnificence.

[61:2]  ⁴¹ 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]  ⁴² tn Heb “while my heart faints.”

[61:2]  ⁴³ tn The imperfect verbal form here expresses the psalmist’s wish or prayer.

[61:2]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “on to a rocky summit [that] is higher than I.”

[62:8]  ⁴⁵ tn To “pour out one’s heart” means to offer up to God intense, emotional lamentation and petitionary prayers (see Lam 2:19).

[65:8]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “and the inhabitants of the ends fear because of your signs.” God’s “signs” are the “awesome acts” (see v. 5) he performs in the earth.

[65:8]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “the goings out of the morning and the evening you cause to shout for joy.” The phrase “goings out of the morning and evening” refers to the sunrise and sunset, that is, the east and the west.

[68:16]  ⁴⁸ tn The meaning of the Hebrew verb רָצַד (ratsad), translated here “look with envy,” is uncertain; it occurs only here in the OT. See BDB 952-53. A cognate verb occurs in later Aramaic with the meaning “to lie in wait; to watch” (Jastrow 1492 s.v. רְצַד).

[68:16]  ⁴⁹ tn Perhaps the apparent plural form should be read as a singular with enclitic mem (ם; later misinterpreted as a plural ending). The preceding verse has the singular form.

[68:16]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “[at] the mountain God desires for his dwelling place.” The reference is to Mount Zion/Jerusalem.

[68:16]  ⁵¹ tn The Hebrew particle אַף (’af) has an emphasizing function here.

[68:16]  ⁵² tn The word “there” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[84:10]  ⁵³ tn Or “for.”

[84:10]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “better is a day in your courts than a thousand [spent elsewhere].”

[84:10]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “I choose being at the entrance of the house of my God over living in the tents of the wicked.” The verb סָפַף (safaf) appears only here in the OT; it is derived from the noun סַף (saf, “threshold”). Traditionally some have interpreted this as a reference to being a doorkeeper at the temple, though some understand it to mean “lie as a beggar at the entrance to the temple” (see HALOT 765 s.v. ספף).

[84:10]  ⁵⁶ tn The verb דּוּר (dur, “to live”) occurs only here in the OT.

[86:17]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “Work with me a sign for good.” The expression “work a sign” also occurs in Judg 6:17.

[86:17]  ⁵⁸ tn After the imperative in the preceding line (“work”), the prefixed verb forms with prefixed vav (ו) conjunctive indicate purpose or result.

[86:17]  ⁵⁹ tn The perfect verbal forms are understood here as dramatic/rhetorical, expressing the psalmist’s certitude that such a sign from the Lord will be followed by his intervention. Another option is to understand the forms as future perfects (“for you, O Lord, will have helped me and comforted me”).

[88:5]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “set free.”

[88:5]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “from your hand.”

[88:9]  ⁶² tn Heb “I spread out my hands to you.” Spreading out the hands toward God was a prayer gesture (see Exod 9:29, 33; 1 Kgs 8:22, 38; 2 Chr 6:12-13, 29; Ezra 9:15; Job 11:13; Isa 1:15). The words “in prayer” have been supplied in the translation to clarify this.

[97:10]  ⁶³ tn The participle may be verbal, though it might also be understood as substantival and appositional to “the Lord.” In this case one could translate, “Hate evil, you who love the Lord, the one who protects the lives…and delivers them.”

[97:10]  ⁶⁴ tn Heb “hand.”

[119:75]  ⁶⁵ tn In this context (note the second line) the Hebrew term מִשְׁפָּטִים (mishpatim), which so often refers to the regulations of God’s law elsewhere in this psalm, may refer instead to his decisions or disciplinary judgment.

[119:75]  ⁶⁶ tn Heb “and [in] faithfulness you afflicted me.”

[127:2]  ⁶⁷ tn Heb “[it is] vain for you, you who are early to rise, who delay sitting, who eat the food of hard work.” The three substantival participles are parallel and stand in apposition to the pronominal suffix on the preposition. See לָכֶם (lakhem, “for you”).

[127:2]  ⁶⁸ tn Here the Hebrew particle כֵּן (ken) is used to stress the following affirmation (see Josh 2:4; Ps 63:2).

[127:2]  ⁶⁹ tn Heb “he gives to his beloved, sleep.” The translation assumes that the Hebrew term שֵׁנָא (shena’, “sleep,” an alternate form of שֵׁנָה, shenah) is an adverbial accusative. The point seems to be this: Hard work by itself is not what counts, but one’s relationship to God, for God is able to bless an individual even while he sleeps. (There may even be a subtle allusion to the miracle of conception following sexual intercourse; see the reference to the gift of sons in the following verse.) The statement is not advocating laziness, but utilizing hyperbole to give perspective and to remind the addressees that God must be one’s first priority. Another option is to take “sleep” as the direct object: “yes, he gives sleep to his beloved” (cf. NIV, NRSV). In this case the point is this: Hard work by itself is futile, for only God is able to bless one with sleep, which metonymically refers to having one’s needs met. He blesses on the basis of one’s relationship to him, not on the basis of physical energy expended.

[141:5]  ⁷⁰ tn The form יָנִי (yaniy) appears to be derived from the verbal root נוּא (nu’). Another option is to emend the form to יְנָא (yÿna’), a Piel from נָאָה (na’ah), and translate “may choice oil not adorn my head” (see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 271). In this case, choice oil, like delicacies in v. 4, symbolize the pleasures of sin.

[141:5]  ⁷¹ sn May my head not refuse choice oil. The psalmist compares the constructive criticism of the godly (see the previous line) to having refreshing olive oil poured over one’s head.

[141:5]  ⁷² tc Heb “for still, and my prayer [is] against their evil deeds.” The syntax of the Hebrew text is difficult; the sequence -כִּי־עוֹד וּ (kiy-’od u-, “for still and”) occurs only here. The translation assumes an emendation to כִּי עֵד תְפלָּתִי (“indeed a witness [is] my prayer”). The psalmist’s lament about the evil actions of sinful men (see v. 4) testifies against the wicked in the divine court.

[142:7]  ⁷³ tn Heb “bring out my life.”

[142:7]  ⁷⁴ tn Or “gather around.”

[142:7]  ⁷⁵ tn The Hebrew idiom גָּמַל עַל (gamal ’al) means “to repay,” here in a positive sense.