Mazmur 68:4-5

68:4 Sing to God! Sing praises to his name!

Exalt the one who rides on the clouds! ¹ 

For the Lord is his name! ² 

Rejoice before him!

68:5 He is a father to the fatherless

and an advocate for widows. ³ 

God rules from his holy palace. ⁴ 

Mazmur 113:4-6

113:4 The Lord is exalted over all the nations;

his splendor reaches beyond the sky. ⁵ 

113:5 Who can compare to the Lord our God,

who sits on a high throne? ⁶ 

113:6 He bends down to look ⁷ 

at the sky and the earth.

Mazmur 115:3

115:3 Our God is in heaven!

He does whatever he pleases! ⁸ 

Mazmur 123:1

Psalm 123 ⁹ 

A song of ascents. ¹⁰ 

123:1 I look up ¹¹  toward you,

the one enthroned ¹²  in heaven.

[68:4]  ¹ tn Traditionally the Hebrew term עֲרָבוֹת (’aravot) is taken as “steppe-lands” (often rendered “deserts”), but here the form is probably a homonym meaning “clouds.” Verse 33, which depicts God as the one who “rides on the sky” strongly favors this (see as well Deut 33:26), as does the reference in v. 9 to God as the source of rain. The term עֲרָבָה (’aravah, “cloud”) is cognate with Akkadian urpatu/erpetu and with Ugaritic ’rpt. The phrase rkb ’rpt (“one who rides on the clouds”) appears in Ugaritic mythological texts as an epithet of the storm god Baal. The nonphonemic interchange of the bilabial consonants b and p is attested elsewhere in roots common to Hebrew and Ugaritic, though the phenomenon is relatively rare.

[68:4]  ² tc Heb “in the Lord his name.” If the MT is retained, the preposition -בְ (bet) is introducing the predicate (the so-called bet of identity), “the Lord is his name.” However, some prefer to emend the text to כִּי יָהּ שְׁמוֹ (ki yah shÿmo, “for Yah is his name”). This emendation, reflected in the present translation, assumes a confusion of bet (ב) and kaf (כ) and haplography of yod (י).

[68:5]  ³ sn God is depicted here as a just ruler. In the ancient Near Eastern world a king was responsible for promoting justice, including caring for the weak and vulnerable, epitomized by the fatherless and widows.

[68:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “God [is] in his holy dwelling place.” He occupies his throne and carries out his royal responsibilities.

[113:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “above the sky [is] his splendor.”

[113:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “the one who makes high to sit.”

[113:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “the one who makes low to see.”

[115:3]  ⁸ sn He does whatever he pleases. Such sovereignty is characteristic of kings (see Eccl 8:3).

[123:1]  ⁹ sn Psalm 123. The psalmist, speaking for God’s people, acknowledges his dependence on God in the midst of a crisis.

[123:1]  ¹⁰ sn The precise significance of this title, which appears in Pss 120-134, is unclear. Perhaps worshipers recited these psalms when they ascended the road to Jerusalem to celebrate annual religious festivals. For a discussion of their background see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 219-21.

[123:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I lift my eyes.”

[123:1]  ¹² tn Heb “sitting.” The Hebrew verb יָשַׁב (yashav) is here used metonymically of “sitting enthroned” (see Pss 9:7; 29:10; 55:19; 102:12).