Mazmur 4:3

4:3 Realize that ¹  the Lord shows the godly special favor; ² 

the Lord responds ³  when I cry out to him.

Mazmur 18:30

18:30 The one true God acts in a faithful manner; ⁴ 

the Lord’s promise ⁵  is reliable; ⁶ 

he is a shield to all who take shelter ⁷  in him.

Mazmur 18:43

18:43 You rescue me from a hostile army; ⁸ 

you make me ⁹  a leader of nations;

people over whom I had no authority are now my subjects. ¹⁰ 

Mazmur 22:27

22:27 Let all the people of the earth acknowledge the Lord and turn to him! ¹¹ 

Let all the nations ¹²  worship you! ¹³ 

Mazmur 28:7

28:7 The Lord strengthens and protects me; ¹⁴ 

I trust in him with all my heart. ¹⁵ 

I am rescued ¹⁶  and my heart is full of joy; ¹⁷ 

I will sing to him in gratitude. ¹⁸ 

Mazmur 31:19

31:19 How great is your favor, ¹⁹ 

which you store up for your loyal followers! ²⁰ 

In plain sight of everyone you bestow it on those who take shelter ²¹  in you. ²² 

Mazmur 34:1

Psalm 34 ²³ 

Written by David, when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, causing the king to send him away. ²⁴ 

34:1 I will praise ²⁵  the Lord at all times;

my mouth will continually praise him. ²⁶ 

Mazmur 59:13

59:13 Angrily wipe them out! Wipe them out so they vanish!

Let them know that God rules

in Jacob and to the ends of the earth! (Selah)

Mazmur 61:5

61:5 For you, O God, hear my vows;

you grant me the reward that belongs to your loyal followers. ²⁷ 

Mazmur 63:11

63:11 But the king ²⁸  will rejoice in God;

everyone who takes oaths in his name ²⁹  will boast,

for the mouths of those who speak lies will be shut up. ³⁰ 

Mazmur 65:8

65:8 Even those living in the most remote areas are awestruck by your acts; ³¹ 

you cause those living in the east and west to praise you. ³² 

Mazmur 67:4

67:4 Let foreigners ³³  rejoice and celebrate!

For you execute justice among the nations,

and govern the people living on earth. ³⁴  (Selah)

Mazmur 76:11

76:11 Make vows to the Lord your God and repay them!

Let all those who surround him ³⁵  bring tribute to the awesome one!

Mazmur 78:55

78:55 He drove the nations out from before them;

he assigned them their tribal allotments ³⁶ 

and allowed the tribes of Israel to settle down. ³⁷ 

Mazmur 143:8

143:8 May I hear about your loyal love in the morning, ³⁸ 

for I trust in you.

Show me the way I should go, ³⁹ 

because I long for you. ⁴⁰ 

[4:3]  ¹ tn Heb “and know that.”

[4:3]  ² tn Heb “that the Lord sets apart a faithful one for himself.” The psalmist states a general principle, though the singular form and the parallel line indicate he has himself in mind as the representative godly person. A חָסִיד (khasid; here translated as “the godly”) is one who does what is right in God’s eyes and remains faithful to God (see Pss 12:1; 18:25; 31:23; 37:28; 86:2; 97:10).

[4:3]  ³ tn Heb “hears.”

[18:30]  ⁴ tn Heb “[As for] the God, his way is blameless.” The term הָאֵל (ha’el, “the God”) stands as a nominative (or genitive) absolute in apposition to the resumptive pronominal suffix on “way.” The prefixed article emphasizes his distinctiveness as the one true God (cf. Deut 33:26). God’s “way” in this context refers to his protective and salvific acts in fulfillment of his promise (see also Deut 32:4; Pss 67:2; 77:13 [note vv. 11-12, 14]; 103:7; 138:5; 145:17).

[18:30]  ⁵ sn The Lord’s promise. In the ancient Near East kings would typically seek and receive oracles from their god(s) prior to battle. For examples, see R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 241-42.

[18:30]  ⁶ tn Heb “the word of the Lord is purified.” The Lord’s “word” probably refers here to his oracle(s) of victory delivered to the psalmist before the battle(s) described in the following context. See also Pss 12:5-7 and 138:2-3. David frequently received such oracles before going into battle (see 1 Sam 23:2, 4-5, 10-12; 30:8; 2 Sam 5:19). The Lord’s word of promise is absolutely reliable; it is compared to metal that has been refined in fire and cleansed of impurities. See Ps 12:6.

[18:30]  ⁷ sn Take shelter. See the note on the word “shelter” in v. 2.

[18:43]  ⁸ tn Heb “from the strivings of a people.” In this context the Hebrew term רִיב (riv, “striving”) probably has a militaristic sense (as in Judg 12:2; Isa 41:11), and עָם (’am, “people”) probably refers more specifically to an army (for other examples, see the verses listed in BDB 766 s.v. I עַם, עָם 2.d). Some understand the phrase as referring to attacks by the psalmist’s own countrymen, the “nation” being Israel. However, foreign enemies appear to be in view; note the reference to “nations” in the following line.

[18:43]  ⁹ tn 2 Sam 22:44 reads, “you keep me.”

[18:43]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “a people whom I did not know serve me.” In this context “know” (יָדַע, yada’) probably refers to formal recognition by treaty. People who were once not under the psalmist’s authority now willingly submit to his rulership to avoid being conquered militarily (see vv. 44-45). The language may recall the events recorded in 2 Sam 8:9-10 and 10:19.

[22:27]  ¹¹ tn Heb “may all the ends of the earth remember and turn to the Lord.” The prefixed verbal forms in v. 27 are understood as jussives (cf. NEB). Another option (cf. NIV, NRSV) is to take the forms as imperfects and translate, “all the people of the earth will acknowledge and turn…and worship.” See vv. 29-32.

[22:27]  ¹² tn Heb “families of the nations.”

[22:27]  ¹³ tn Heb “before you.”

[28:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “The Lord [is] my strength and my shield.”

[28:7]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “in him my heart trusts.”

[28:7]  ¹⁶ tn Or “I am helped.”

[28:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and my heart exults.”

[28:7]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and from my song I will thank him.” As pointed in the Hebrew text, מִשִּׁירִי (mishiri) appears to be “from my song,” but the preposition “from” never occurs elsewhere with the verb “to thank” (Hiphil of יָדָה, yadah). Perhaps משׁיר is a noun form meaning “song.” If so, it can be taken as an adverbial accusative, “and [with] my song I will thank him.” See P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (WBC), 236.

[31:19]  ¹⁹ tn Or “How abundant are your blessings!”

[31:19]  ²⁰ tn Heb “for those who fear you.”

[31:19]  ²¹ tn “Taking 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 2:12; 5:11-12; 34:21-22).

[31:19]  ²² tn Heb “you work [your favor] for the ones seeking shelter in you before the sons of men.”

[34:1]  ²³ sn Psalm 34. In this song of thanksgiving the psalmist praises God for delivering him from distress. He encourages others to be loyal to the Lord, tells them how to please God, and assures them that the Lord protects his servants. The psalm is an acrostic; vv. 1-21 begin with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. (Verse 6 begins with the letter he (ה) and v. 7 with the letter zayin (ז). The letter vav (ו), which comes between ה and ז, seems to be omitted, although it does appear at the beginning of v. 6b. The final verse of the psalm, which begins with the letter pe (פ), is outside the acrostic scheme.

[34:1]  ²⁴ tn Heb “By David, when he changed his sense before Abimelech and he drove him away and he went.”

[34:1]  sn Pretended to be insane. The psalm heading appears to refer to the account in 1 Sam 21:10-15 which tells how David, fearful that King Achish of Gath might kill him, pretended to be insane in hopes that the king would simply send him away. The psalm heading names the king Abimelech, not Achish, suggesting that the tradition is confused on this point. However, perhaps “Abimelech” was a royal title, rather than a proper name. See P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (WBC), 278.

[34:1]  ²⁵ tn Heb “bless.”

[34:1]  ²⁶ tn Heb “continually [will] his praise [be] in my mouth.”

[61:5]  ²⁷ tn Heb “you grant the inheritance of those who fear your name.” “Inheritance” is normally used of land which is granted as an inheritance; here it refers metaphorically to the blessings granted God’s loyal followers. To “fear” God’s name means to have a healthy respect for his revealed reputation which in turn motivates one to obey God’s commands (see Ps 86:11).

[63:11]  ²⁸ sn The psalmist probably refers to himself in the third person here.

[63:11]  ²⁹ tn Heb “who swears [an oath] by him.”

[63:11]  ³⁰ tn The Niphal of this verb occurs only here and in Gen 8:2, where it is used of God “stopping” or “damming up” the great deep as he brought the flood to an end.

[65:8]  ³¹ 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]  ³² 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.

[67:4]  ³³ tn Or “peoples.”

[67:4]  ³⁴ tn Heb “for you judge nations fairly, and [as for the] peoples in the earth, you lead them.” The imperfects are translated with the present tense because the statement is understood as a generalization about God’s providential control of the world. Another option is to understand the statement as anticipating God’s future rule (“for you will rule…and govern”).

[76:11]  ³⁵ tn The phrase “all those who surround him” may refer to the surrounding nations (v. 12 may favor this), but in Ps 89:7 the phrase refers to God’s heavenly assembly.

[78:55]  ³⁶ tn Heb “he caused to fall [to] them with a measuring line an inheritance.”

[78:55]  ³⁷ tn Heb “and caused the tribes of Israel to settle down in their tents.”

[143:8]  ³⁸ tn Heb “cause me to hear in the morning your loyal love.” Here “loyal love” probably stands metonymically for an oracle of assurance promising God’s intervention as an expression of his loyal love.

[143:8]  sn The morning is sometimes viewed as the time of divine intervention (see Pss 30:5; 59:16; 90:14).

[143:8]  ³⁹ sn The way probably refers here to God’s moral and ethical standards and requirements (see v. 10).

[143:8]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “for to you I lift up my life.” The Hebrew expression נָאָשׂ נֶפֶשׁ (na’as nefesh, “to lift up [one’s] life”) means “to desire; to long for” (see Deut 24:15; Prov 19:18; Jer 22:27; 44:14; Hos 4:8, as well as H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 16).