Mazmur 6:9

6:9 The Lord has heard my appeal for mercy;

the Lord has accepted ¹  my prayer.

Mazmur 22:18

22:18 They are dividing up my clothes among themselves;

they are rolling dice ²  for my garments.

Mazmur 22:28

22:28 For the Lord is king ³ 

and rules over the nations.

Mazmur 34:20

34:20 He protects ⁴  all his bones; ⁵ 

not one of them is broken. ⁶ 

Mazmur 38:7

38:7 For I am overcome with shame ⁷ 

and my whole body is sick. ⁸ 

Mazmur 45:3

45:3 Strap your sword to your thigh, O warrior! ⁹ 

Appear in your majestic splendor! ¹⁰ 

Mazmur 48:4

48:4 For ¹¹  look, the kings assemble; ¹² 

they advance together.

Mazmur 48:7

48:7 With an east wind

you shatter ¹³  the large ships. ¹⁴ 

Mazmur 48:12

48:12 Walk around ¹⁵  Zion! Encircle it!

Count its towers!

Mazmur 51:9

51:9 Hide your face ¹⁶  from my sins!

Wipe away ¹⁷  all my guilt!

Mazmur 54:2

54:2 O God, listen to my prayer!

Pay attention to what I say! ¹⁸ 

Mazmur 65:7

65:7 You calm the raging seas ¹⁹ 

and their roaring waves,

as well as the commotion made by the nations. ²⁰ 

Mazmur 69:25

69:25 May their camp become desolate,

their tents uninhabited! ²¹ 

Mazmur 89:40

89:40 You have broken down all his ²²  walls;

you have made his strongholds a heap of ruins.

[6:9]  ¹ tn The prefixed verbal form is probably a preterite here; it is parallel to a perfect and refers to the fact that the Lord has responded favorably to the psalmist’s request.

[22:18]  ² tn Heb “casting lots.” The precise way in which this would have been done is not certain.

[22:28]  ³ tn Heb “for to the Lord [is] dominion.”

[34:20]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew participial form suggests such protection is characteristic.

[34:20]  ⁵ tn That is, he protects the godly from physical harm.

[34:20]  ⁶ sn Not one of them is broken. The author of the Gospel of John saw a fulfillment of these words in Jesus’ experience on the cross (see John 19:31-37), for the Roman soldiers, when they saw that Jesus was already dead, did not break his legs as was customarily done to speed the death of crucified individuals. John’s use of the psalm seems strange, for the statement in its original context suggests that the Lord protects the godly from physical harm. Jesus’ legs may have remained unbroken, but he was brutally and unjustly executed by his enemies. John seems to give the statement a literal sense that is foreign to its original literary context by applying a promise of divine protection to a man who was seemingly not saved by God. However, John saw in this incident a foreshadowing of Jesus’ ultimate deliverance and vindication. His unbroken bones were a reminder of God’s commitment to the godly and a sign of things to come. Jesus’ death on the cross was not the end of the story; God vindicated him, as John goes on to explain in the following context (John 19:38-20:18).

[38:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “for my loins are filled with shame.” The “loins” are viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s emotions. The present translation assumes that נִקְלֶה (niqleh) is derived from קָלָה (qalah, “be dishonored”). Some derive it instead from a homonymic root קָלָה (qalah), meaning “to roast.” In this case one might translate “fever” (cf. NEB “my loins burn with fever”).

[38:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “there is no soundness in my flesh” (see v. 3).

[45:3]  ⁹ tn Or “mighty one.”

[45:3]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew text has simply, “your majesty and your splendor,” which probably refers to the king’s majestic splendor when he appears in full royal battle regalia.

[48:4]  ¹¹ tn The logical connection between vv. 3-4 seems to be this: God is the protector of Zion and reveals himself as the city’s defender – this is necessary because hostile armies threaten the city.

[48:4]  ¹² tn The perfect verbal forms in vv. 4-6 are understood as descriptive. In dramatic style (note הִנֵּה, hinneh, “look”) the psalm describes an enemy attack against the city as if it were occurring at this very moment. Another option is to take the perfects as narrational (“the kings assembled, they advanced”), referring to a particular historical event, such as Sennacherib’s siege of the city in 701 b.c. (cf. NIV, NRSV). Even if one translates the verses in a dramatic-descriptive manner (as the present translation does), the Lord’s victory over the Assyrians was probably what served as the inspiration of the description (see v. 8).

[48:7]  ¹³ tn The switch to the imperfect, as well as the introduction of the ship metaphor, perhaps signals a change to a generalizing tone; the Lord typically shatters these large ships, symbolic of the human strength of hostile armies (see the following note on “large ships”). The verb שָׁבַר (shavar, “break”) appears in the Piel here (see Pss 29:5; 46:9). In the OT it occurs thirty-six times in the Piel, always with multiple objects (the object is either a collective singular or grammatically plural or dual form). The Piel may highlight the repetition of the pluralative action, or it may suggest an intensification of action, indicating repeated action comprising a whole, perhaps with the nuance “break again and again, break in pieces.” Another option is to understand the form as resultative: “make broken” (see IBHS 404-7 §24.3).

[48:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the ships of Tarshish.” This probably refers to large ships either made in or capable of traveling to and from the distant western port of Tarshish. These ships, which were the best of their class, here symbolize the mere human strength of hostile armies, which are incapable of withstanding the Lord’s divine power (see Isa 2:16).

[48:12]  ¹⁵ tn The verb forms in vv. 12-13 are plural; the entire Judahite community is addressed.

[51:9]  ¹⁶ sn In this context Hide your face from my sins means “Do not hold me accountable for my sins.”

[51:9]  ¹⁷ tn See the note on the similar expression “wipe away my rebellious acts” in v. 1.

[54:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “to the words of my mouth.”

[65:7]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the roar of the seas.”

[65:7]  ²⁰ sn The raging seas…the commotion made by the nations. The raging seas symbolize the turbulent nations of the earth (see Ps 46:2-3, 6; Isa 17:12).

[69:25]  ²¹ tn Heb “in their tents may there not be one who dwells.”

[69:25]  sn In Acts 1:20 Peter applies the language of this verse to Judas’ experience. By changing the pronouns from plural to singular, he is able to apply the ancient curse, pronounced against the psalmist’s enemies, to Judas in particular.

[89:40]  ²² tn The king here represents the land and cities over which he rules.