Mazmur 20:5-6

20:5 Then we will shout for joy over your ¹  victory;

we will rejoice ²  in the name of our God!

May the Lord grant all your requests!

20:6 Now I am sure ³  that the Lord will deliver ⁴  his chosen king; ⁵ 

he will intervene for him ⁶  from his holy heavenly temple, ⁷ 

and display his mighty ability to deliver. ⁸ 

Mazmur 22:1

Psalm 22 ⁹ 

For the music director; according to the tune “Morning Doe;” ¹⁰  a psalm of David.

22:1 My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? ¹¹ 

I groan in prayer, but help seems far away. ¹² 

Mazmur 40:3

40:3 He gave me reason to sing a new song, ¹³ 

praising our God. ¹⁴ 

May many see what God has done,

so that they might swear allegiance to him and trust in the Lord! ¹⁵ 

Mazmur 40:6

40:6 Receiving sacrifices and offerings are not your primary concern. ¹⁶ 

You make that quite clear to me! ¹⁷ 

You do not ask for burnt sacrifices and sin offerings.

Mazmur 48:8

48:8 We heard about God’s mighty deeds, now we have seen them, ¹⁸ 

in the city of the Lord, the invincible Warrior, ¹⁹ 

in the city of our God.

God makes it permanently secure. ²⁰  (Selah)

Mazmur 77:1

Psalm 77 ²¹ 

For the music director, Jeduthun; a psalm of Asaph.

77:1 I will cry out to God ²²  and call for help!

I will cry out to God and he will pay attention ²³  to me.

Mazmur 89:14

89:14 Equity and justice are the foundation of your throne. ²⁴ 

Loyal love and faithfulness characterize your rule. ²⁵ 

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

[20:5]  ² 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).

[20:6]  ³ tn Or “know.”

[20:6]  sn Now I am sure. The speaker is not identified. It is likely that the king, referring to himself in the third person (note “his chosen king”), responds to the people’s prayer. Perhaps his confidence is due to the reception of a divine oracle of salvation.

[20:6]  ⁴ tn The perfect verbal form is probably used rhetorically to state that the deliverance is as good as done. In this way the speaker emphasizes the certainty of the deliverance. Another option is to take the statement as generalizing; the psalmist affirms that the Lord typically delivers the king.

[20:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “his anointed one.” This title refers to the Davidic king. See Pss 2:2 and 18:50.

[20:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “he will answer him.”

[20:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “from his holy heavens.”

[20:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “with mighty acts of deliverance of his right hand.” The Lord’s “right hand” here symbolizes his power to protect and deliver (see Ps 17:7).

[22:1]  ⁹ sn Psalm 22. The psalmist cries out to the Lord for deliverance from his dangerous enemies, who have surrounded him and threaten his life. Confident that the Lord will intervene, he then vows to thank the Lord publicly for his help and anticipates a time when all people will recognize the Lord’s greatness and worship him.

[22:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “according to the doe of the dawn.” Apparently this refers to a particular musical tune or style.

[22:1]  ¹¹ sn From the psalmist’s perspective it seems that God has abandoned him, for he fails to answer his cry for help (vv. 1b-2).

[22:1]  ¹² tn Heb “far from my deliverance [are] the words of my groaning.” The Hebrew noun שְׁאָגָה (shÿ’agah) and its related verb שָׁאַג (sha’ag) are sometimes used of a lion’s roar, but they can also describe human groaning (see Job 3:24 and Pss 32:3 and 38:8.

[40:3]  ¹³ sn A new song was appropriate because the Lord had intervened in the psalmist’s experience in a fresh and exciting way.

[40:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and he placed in my mouth a new song, praise to our God.”

[40:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “may many see and fear and trust in the Lord.” The translation assumes that the initial prefixed verbal form is a jussive (“may many see”), rather than an imperfect (“many will see”). The following prefixed verbal forms with vav (ו) conjunctive are taken as indicating purpose or result (“so that they might swear allegiance…and trust”) after the introductory jussive.

[40:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “sacrifice and offering you do not desire.” The statement is exaggerated for the sake of emphasis (see Ps 51:16 as well). God is pleased with sacrifices, but his first priority is obedience and loyalty (see 1 Sam 15:22). Sacrifices and offerings apart from genuine allegiance are meaningless (see Isa 1:11-20).

[40:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “ears you hollowed out for me.” The meaning of this odd expression is debated (this is the only collocation of “hollowed out” and “ears” in the OT). It may have been an idiomatic expression referring to making a point clear to a listener. The LXX has “but a body you have prepared for me,” a reading which is followed in Heb 10:5.

[48:8]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “As we have heard, so we have seen.” The community had heard about God’s mighty deeds in the nation’s history. Having personally witnessed his saving power with their own eyes, they could now affirm that the tradition was not exaggerated or inaccurate.

[48:8]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the Lord of hosts.” The title “Lord of hosts” here pictures the Lord as a mighty warrior-king who leads armies into battle (see Pss 24:10; 46:7, 11).

[48:8]  ²⁰ tn Or “God makes it secure forever.” The imperfect highlights the characteristic nature of the generalizing statement.

[77:1]  ²¹ sn Psalm 77. The psalmist recalls how he suffered through a time of doubt, but tells how he found encouragement and hope as he recalled the way in which God delivered Israel at the Red Sea.

[77:1]  ²² tn Heb “my voice to God.” The Hebrew verb קָרָא (qara’, “to call out; to cry out”) should probably be understood by ellipsis (see Ps 3:4) both here and in the following (parallel) line.

[77:1]  ²³ tn The perfect with vav (ו) consecutive is best taken as future here (although some translations render this as a past tense; cf. NEB, NIV). The psalmist expresses his confidence that God will respond to his prayer. This mood of confidence seems premature (see vv. 3-4), but v. 1 probably reflects the psalmist’s attitude at the end of the prayer (see vv. 13-20). Having opened with an affirmation of confidence, he then retraces how he gained confidence during his trial (see vv. 2-12).

[89:14]  ²⁴ sn The Lord’s throne symbolizes his kingship.

[89:14]  ²⁵ tn Heb “are in front of your face.” The idiom can mean “confront” (Ps 17:13) or “meet, enter the presence of” (Ps 95:2).