Mazmur 4:6

4:6 Many say, “Who can show us anything good?”

Smile upon us, Lord! ¹ 

Mazmur 18:50

18:50 He ²  gives his chosen king magnificent victories; ³ 

he is faithful ⁴  to his chosen ruler, ⁵ 

to David and his descendants ⁶  forever.” ⁷ 

Mazmur 31:2

31:2 Listen to me! ⁸ 

Quickly deliver me!

Be my protector and refuge, ⁹ 

a stronghold where I can be safe! ¹⁰ 

Mazmur 31:19

31:19 How great is your favor, ¹¹ 

which you store up for your loyal followers! ¹² 

In plain sight of everyone you bestow it on those who take shelter ¹³  in you. ¹⁴ 

Mazmur 34:1

Psalm 34 ¹⁵ 

Written by David, when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, causing the king to send him away. ¹⁶ 

34:1 I will praise ¹⁷  the Lord at all times;

my mouth will continually praise him. ¹⁸ 

Mazmur 37:7

37:7 Wait patiently for the Lord! ¹⁹ 

Wait confidently ²⁰  for him!

Do not fret over the apparent success of a sinner, ²¹ 

a man who carries out wicked schemes!

Mazmur 84:11

84:11 For the Lord God is our sovereign protector. ²² 

The Lord bestows favor ²³  and honor;

he withholds no good thing from those who have integrity. ²⁴ 

Mazmur 87:4

87:4 I mention Rahab ²⁵  and Babylon to my followers. ²⁶ 

Here are ²⁷  Philistia and Tyre, ²⁸  along with Ethiopia. ²⁹ 

It is said of them, “This one was born there.” ³⁰ 

Mazmur 97:10

97:10 You who love the Lord, hate evil!

He protects ³¹  the lives of his faithful followers;

he delivers them from the power ³²  of the wicked.

Mazmur 109:16

109:16 For he never bothered to show kindness; ³³ 

he harassed the oppressed and needy,

and killed the disheartened. ³⁴ 

[4:6]  ¹ tn Heb “lift up upon us the light of your face, Lord.” The verb נסה is apparently an alternate form of נשׂא, “lift up.” See GKC 217 §76.b. The idiom “light of your face” probably refers to a smile (see Eccl 8:1), which in turn suggests favor and blessing (see Num 6:25; Pss 31:16; 44:3; 67:1; 80:3, 7, 19; 89:15; Dan 9:17).

[4:6]  sn Smile upon us. Though many are discouraged, the psalmist asks the Lord to intervene and transform the situation.

[18:50]  ² tn Or “the one who.”

[18:50]  ³ tn Heb “magnifies the victories of his king.” “His king” refers to the psalmist, the Davidic king whom God has chosen to rule Israel.

[18:50]  ⁴ tn Heb “[the one who] does loyalty.”

[18:50]  ⁵ tn Heb “his anointed [one],” i.e., the psalmist/Davidic king. See Ps 2:2.

[18:50]  ⁶ tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”

[18:50]  ⁷ sn If David is the author of the psalm (see the superscription), then he here anticipates that God will continue to demonstrate loyalty to his descendants who succeed him. If the author is a later Davidic king, then he views the divine favor he has experienced as the outworking of God’s faithful promises to David his ancestor.

[31:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “turn toward me your ear.”

[31:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “become for me a rocky summit of refuge.”

[31:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “a house of strongholds to deliver me.”

[31:19]  ¹¹ tn Or “How abundant are your blessings!”

[31:19]  ¹² tn Heb “for those who fear you.”

[31:19]  ¹³ tn “Taking shelter” in the Lord is an idiom for seeking his protection. Seeking his protection presupposes and even demonstrates the subject’s loyalty to the Lord. In the psalms those who “take shelter” in the Lord are contrasted with the wicked and equated with those who love, fear, and serve the Lord (Pss 2:12; 5:11-12; 34:21-22).

[31:19]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “you work [your favor] for the ones seeking shelter in you before the sons of men.”

[34:1]  ¹⁵ sn Psalm 34. In this song of thanksgiving the psalmist praises God for delivering him from distress. He encourages others to be loyal to the Lord, tells them how to please God, and assures them that the Lord protects his servants. The psalm is an acrostic; vv. 1-21 begin with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. (Verse 6 begins with the letter he (ה) and v. 7 with the letter zayin (ז). The letter vav (ו), which comes between ה and ז, seems to be omitted, although it does appear at the beginning of v. 6b. The final verse of the psalm, which begins with the letter pe (פ), is outside the acrostic scheme.

[34:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “By David, when he changed his sense before Abimelech and he drove him away and he went.”

[34:1]  sn Pretended to be insane. The psalm heading appears to refer to the account in 1 Sam 21:10-15 which tells how David, fearful that King Achish of Gath might kill him, pretended to be insane in hopes that the king would simply send him away. The psalm heading names the king Abimelech, not Achish, suggesting that the tradition is confused on this point. However, perhaps “Abimelech” was a royal title, rather than a proper name. See P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (WBC), 278.

[34:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “bless.”

[34:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “continually [will] his praise [be] in my mouth.”

[37:7]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Be quiet before the Lord!”

[37:7]  ²⁰ tc The Hebrew text has וְהִתְחוֹלֵל (vÿhitkholel, Hitpolel of חִיל, khil, “writhe with fear, suffer”) but this idea fits awkwardly here. The text should be changed to וְתוֹחֵל (vÿtokhel; Hiphil of יָחַל, yakhal, “wait”). It appears that the Hebrew text is the product of dittography: (1) the initial וה (vav-he) is accidentally repeated from the preceding word (יְהוָה, yÿhvah) and (2) the final lamed (ל) is accidentally repeated (note the preceding lamed and the initial lamed on the following form, לו).

[37:7]  ²¹ tn Heb “over one who causes his way to be successful.”

[84:11]  ²² tn Heb “[is] a sun and a shield.” The epithet “sun,” though rarely used of Israel’s God in the OT, was a well-attested royal title in the ancient Near East. For several examples from Ugaritic texts, the Amarna letters, and Assyrian royal inscriptions, see R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 131, n. 2.

[84:11]  ²³ tn Or “grace.”

[84:11]  ²⁴ tn Heb “he does not withhold good to those walking in integrity.”

[87:4]  ²⁵ sn “Rahab,” which means “proud one,” is used here as a title for Egypt (see Isa 30:7).

[87:4]  ²⁶ tn Heb “to those who know me” (see Ps 36:10). Apparently the Lord speaks here. The verbal construction (the Hiphil of זָכַר, zakhar, “remember” followed by the preposition -לְ [le] with a substantive) is rare, but the prepositional phrase is best understood as indicating the recipient of the announcement (see Jer 4:16). Some take the preposition in the sense of “among” and translate, “among those who know me” (cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV). In this case these foreigners are viewed as the Lord’s people and the psalm is interpreted as anticipating a time when all nations will worship the Lord (see Ps 86:9) and be considered citizens of Zion.

[87:4]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Look.”

[87:4]  ²⁸ map For location see Map1 A2; Map2 G2; Map4 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[87:4]  ²⁹ tn Heb “Cush.”

[87:4]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and this one was born there.” The words “It is said of them” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied for clarification and stylistic purposes (see v. 5). Those advocating the universalistic interpretation understand “there” as referring to Zion, but it seems more likely that the adverb refers to the nations just mentioned. The foreigners are identified by their native lands.

[97:10]  ³¹ tn The participle may be verbal, though it might also be understood as substantival and appositional to “the Lord.” In this case one could translate, “Hate evil, you who love the Lord, the one who protects the lives…and delivers them.”

[97:10]  ³² tn Heb “hand.”

[109:16]  ³³ tn Heb “he did not remember to do loyal love.”

[109:16]  ³⁴ tn Heb “and he chased an oppressed and needy man, and one timid of heart to put [him] to death.”