Mazmur 71:21

71:21 Raise me to a position of great honor! ¹ 

Turn and comfort me! ² 

Mazmur 128:1-4

Psalm 128 ³ 

A song of ascents. ⁴ 

128:1 How blessed is every one of the Lord’s loyal followers, ⁵ 

each one who keeps his commands! ⁶ 

128:2 You ⁷  will eat what you worked so hard to grow. ⁸ 

You will be blessed and secure. ⁹ 

128:3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine ¹⁰ 

in the inner rooms of your house;

your children ¹¹  will be like olive branches,

as they sit all around your table.

128:4 Yes indeed, the man who fears the Lord

will be blessed in this way. ¹² 

[71:21]  ¹ tn Heb “increase my greatness.” The prefixed verbal form is distinctly jussive, indicating this is a prayer or wish. The psalmist’s request for “greatness” (or “honor”) is not a boastful, self-serving prayer for prominence, but, rather, a request that God would vindicate by elevating him over those who are trying to humiliate him.

[71:21]  ² tn The imperfects are understood here as expressing the psalmist’s prayer or wish. (Note the use of a distinctly jussive form at the beginning of v. 21.)

[128:1]  ³ sn Psalm 128. The psalmist observes that the godly individual has genuine happiness because the Lord rewards such a person with prosperity and numerous children.

[128:1]  ⁴ 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.

[128:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “every fearer of the Lord.”

[128:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “the one who walks in his ways.”

[128:2]  ⁷ tn The psalmist addresses the representative God-fearing man, as indicated by the references to “your wife” (v. 3) and “the man” (v. 4), as well as the second masculine singular pronominal and verbal forms in vv. 2-6.

[128:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “the work of your hands, indeed you will eat.”

[128:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “how blessed you [will be] and it will be good for you.”

[128:3]  ¹⁰ sn The metaphor of the fruitful vine pictures the wife as fertile; she will give her husband numerous children (see the next line).

[128:3]  ¹¹ tn One could translate “sons” (see Ps 127:3 and the note on the word “sons” there), but here the term seems to refer more generally to children of both genders.

[128:4]  ¹² tn Heb “look, indeed thus will the man, the fearer of the Lord, be blessed.”