Mazmur 3:1

Psalm 3 ¹ 

A psalm of David, written when he fled from his son Absalom. ² 

3:1 Lord, how ³  numerous are my enemies!

Many attack me. ⁴ 

Mazmur 8:1

Psalm 8 ⁵ 

For the music director, according to the gittith style; ⁶  a psalm of David.

8:1 O Lord, our Lord, ⁷ 

how magnificent ⁸  is your reputation ⁹  throughout the earth!

You reveal your majesty in the heavens above! ¹⁰ 

Mazmur 12:1

Psalm 12 ¹¹ 

For the music director; according to the sheminith style; ¹²  a psalm of David.

12:1 Deliver, Lord!

For the godly ¹³  have disappeared; ¹⁴ 

people of integrity ¹⁵  have vanished. ¹⁶ 

Mazmur 21:1

Psalm 21 ¹⁷ 

For the music director; a psalm of David.

21:1 O Lord, the king rejoices in the strength you give; ¹⁸ 

he takes great delight in the deliverance you provide. ¹⁹ 

Mazmur 22:1

Psalm 22 ²⁰ 

For the music director; according to the tune “Morning Doe;” ²¹  a psalm of David.

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

I groan in prayer, but help seems far away. ²³ 

Mazmur 31:1

Psalm 31 ²⁴ 

For the music director; a psalm of David.

31:1 In you, O Lord, I have taken shelter!

Never let me be humiliated!

Vindicate me by rescuing me! ²⁵ 

Mazmur 38:1

Psalm 38 ²⁶ 

A psalm of David, written to get God’s attention. ²⁷ 

38:1 O Lord, do not continue to rebuke me in your anger!

Do not continue to punish me in your raging fury! ²⁸ 

Mazmur 44:2

44:2 You, by your power, ²⁹  defeated nations and settled our fathers on their land; ³⁰ 

you crushed ³¹  the people living there ³²  and enabled our ancestors to occupy it. ³³ 

Mazmur 46:1

Psalm 46 ³⁴ 

For the music director; by the Korahites; according to the alamoth style; ³⁵  a song.

46:1 God is our strong refuge; ³⁶ 

he is truly our helper in times of trouble. ³⁷ 

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 68:16

68:16 Why do you look with envy, ³⁸  O mountains ³⁹  with many peaks,

at the mountain where God has decided to live? ⁴⁰ 

Indeed ⁴¹  the Lord will live there ⁴²  permanently!

[3:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 3. The psalmist acknowledges that he is confronted by many enemies (vv. 1-2). But, alluding to a divine oracle he has received (vv. 4-5), he affirms his confidence in God’s ability to protect him (vv. 3, 6) and requests that God make his promise a reality (vv. 7-8).

[3:1]  ² sn According to Jewish tradition, David offered this prayer when he was forced to flee from Jerusalem during his son Absalom’s attempted coup (see 2 Sam 15:13-17).

[3:1]  ³ tn The Hebrew term מָה (mah, “how”) is used here as an adverbial exclamation (see BDB 553 s.v.).

[3:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “many rise up against me.”

[8:1]  ⁵ sn Psalm 8. In this hymn to the sovereign creator, the psalmist praises God’s majesty and marvels that God has given mankind dominion over the created order.

[8:1]  ⁶ tn The precise meaning of the Hebrew term הגתית is uncertain; it probably refers to a musical style or type of instrument.

[8:1]  ⁷ tn The plural form of the title emphasizes the Lord’s absolute sovereignty.

[8:1]  ⁸ tn Or “awesome”; or “majestic.”

[8:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “name,” which here stands metonymically for God’s reputation.

[8:1]  ¹⁰ tc Heb “which, give, your majesty on the heavens.” The verb form תְּנָה (tÿnah; an imperative?) is corrupt. The form should be emended to a second masculine singular perfect (נָתַתָּה, natatah) or imperfect (תִתֵן, titen) form. The introductory אֲשֶׁר (’asher, “which”) can be taken as a relative pronoun (“you who”) or as a causal conjunction (“because”). One may literally translate, “you who [or “because you”] place your majesty upon the heavens.” For other uses of the phrase “place majesty upon” see Num 27:20 and 1 Chr 29:25.

[12:1]  ¹¹ sn Psalm 12. The psalmist asks the Lord to intervene, for society is overrun by deceitful, arrogant oppressors and godly individuals are a dying breed. When the Lord announces his intention to defend the oppressed, the psalmist affirms his confidence in the divine promise.

[12:1]  ¹² tn The meaning of the Hebrew term שְׁמִינִית (shÿminit) is uncertain; perhaps it refers to a particular style of music. See 1 Chr 15:21.

[12:1]  ¹³ tn The singular form is collective or representative. Note the plural form “faithful [ones]” in the following line. A “godly [one]” (חָסִיד, khasid) is one who does what is right in God’s eyes and remains faithful to God (see Pss 4:3; 18:25; 31:23; 37:28; 86:2; 97:10).

[12:1]  ¹⁴ tn Or “have come to an end.”

[12:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the faithful [ones] from the sons of man.”

[12:1]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew verb פָּסַס (pasas) occurs only here. An Akkadian cognate means “efface, blot out.”

[21:1]  ¹⁷ sn Psalm 21. The psalmist praises the Lord for the way he protects and blesses the Davidic king.

[21:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “in your strength.” The translation interprets the pronominal suffix as subjective, rather than merely descriptive (or attributive).

[21:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and in your deliverance, how greatly he rejoices.”

[22:1]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ tn Heb “according to the doe of the dawn.” Apparently this refers to a particular musical tune or style.

[22:1]  ²² 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]  ²³ 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.

[31:1]  ²⁴ sn Psalm 31. The psalmist confidently asks the Lord to protect him. Enemies threaten him and even his friends have abandoned him, but he looks to the Lord for vindication. In vv. 19-24, which were apparently written after the Lord answered the prayer of vv. 1-18, the psalmist thanks the Lord for delivering him.

[31:1]  ²⁵ tn Heb “in your vindication rescue me.”

[38:1]  ²⁶ sn Psalm 38. The author asks the Lord to deliver him from his enemies. He confesses his sin and recognizes that the crisis he faces is the result of divine discipline. Yet he begs the Lord not to reject him.

[38:1]  ²⁷ tn The Hebrew text reads simply, “to cause to remember.” The same form, the Hiphil infinitive of זָכַר (zakhar, “remember”), also appears in the heading of Ps 70. Some understand this in the sense of “for the memorial offering,” but it may carry the idea of bringing one’s plight to God’s attention (see P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 303).

[38:1]  ²⁸ tn The words “continue to” are supplied in the translation of both lines. The following verses make it clear that the psalmist is already experiencing divine rebuke/punishment. He asks that it might cease.

[38:1]  sn Compare Ps 38:1 with Ps 6:1, which has similar wording.

[44:2]  ²⁹ tn Heb “you, your hand.”

[44:2]  ³⁰ tn Heb “dispossessed nations and planted them.” The third masculine plural pronoun “them” refers to the fathers (v. 1). See Ps 80:8, 15.

[44:2]  ³¹ tn The verb form in the Hebrew text is a Hiphil preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive) from רָעַע (ra’a’, “be evil; be bad”). If retained it apparently means, “you injured; harmed.” Some prefer to derive the verb from רָעַע (“break”; cf. NEB “breaking up the peoples”), in which case the form must be revocalized as Qal (since this verb is unattested in the Hiphil).

[44:2]  ³² tn Or “peoples.”

[44:2]  ³³ tn Heb “and you sent them out.” The translation assumes that the third masculine plural pronoun “them” refers to the fathers (v. 1), as in the preceding parallel line. See Ps 80:11, where Israel, likened to a vine, “spreads out” its tendrils to the west and east. Another option is to take the “peoples” as the referent of the pronoun and translate, “and you sent them away,” though this does not provide as tight a parallel with the corresponding line.

[46:1]  ³⁴ sn Psalm 46. In this so-called “Song Of Zion” God’s people confidently affirm that they are secure because the great warrior-king dwells within Jerusalem and protects it from the nations that cause such chaos in the earth. A refrain (vv. 7, 11) concludes the song’s two major sections.

[46:1]  ³⁵ sn The meaning of the Hebrew term עֲלָמוֹת (alamoth, which means “young women”) is uncertain; perhaps it refers to a particular style of music. Cf. 1 Chr 15:20.

[46:1]  ³⁶ tn Heb “our refuge and strength,” which is probably a hendiadys meaning “our strong refuge” (see Ps 71:7). Another option is to translate, “our refuge and source of strength.”

[46:1]  ³⁷ tn Heb “a helper in times of trouble he is found [to be] greatly.” The perfect verbal form has a generalizing function here. The adverb מְאֹד (mÿ’od, “greatly”) has an emphasizing function.

[68:16]  ³⁸ tn The meaning of the Hebrew verb רָצַד (ratsad), translated here “look with envy,” is uncertain; it occurs only here in the OT. See BDB 952-53. A cognate verb occurs in later Aramaic with the meaning “to lie in wait; to watch” (Jastrow 1492 s.v. רְצַד).

[68:16]  ³⁹ tn Perhaps the apparent plural form should be read as a singular with enclitic mem (ם; later misinterpreted as a plural ending). The preceding verse has the singular form.

[68:16]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “[at] the mountain God desires for his dwelling place.” The reference is to Mount Zion/Jerusalem.

[68:16]  ⁴¹ tn The Hebrew particle אַף (’af) has an emphasizing function here.

[68:16]  ⁴² tn The word “there” is supplied in the translation for clarification.