Mazmur 46:5

46:5 God lives within it, ¹  it cannot be moved. ² 

God rescues it ³  at the break of dawn. ⁴ 

Mazmur 73:20

73:20 They are like a dream after one wakes up. ⁵ 

O Lord, when you awake ⁶  you will despise them. ⁷ 

Mazmur 139:17

139:17 How difficult it is for me to fathom your thoughts about me, O God! ⁸ 

How vast is their sum total! ⁹ 

[46:5]  ¹ tn Heb “God [is] within her.” The feminine singular pronoun refers to the city mentioned in v. 4.

[46:5]  ² tn Another option is to translate the imperfect verbal form as future, “it will not be upended.” Even if one chooses this option, the future tense must be understood in a generalizing sense. The verb מוֹט (mot), translated “upended” here, is used in v. 2 of the mountains “tumbling” into the seas and in v. 6 of nations being “upended.” By way of contrast, Jerusalem, God’s dwelling place, is secure and immune from such turmoil and destruction.

[46:5]  ³ tn Or “helps her.” The imperfect draws attention to the generalizing character of the statement.

[46:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “at the turning of morning.” (For other uses of the expression see Exod 14:27 and Judg 19:26).

[46:5]  sn At the break of dawn. The “morning” is viewed metaphorically as a time of deliverance and vindication after the dark “night” of trouble (see Ps 30:5; Isa 17:14). There may be an allusion here to Exod 14:27 (where the Lord destroyed the Egyptians at the “break of dawn”) or, more likely, to the miraculous deliverance of Jerusalem from the Assyrian siege, when the people discovered the dead bodies of the Assyrian army in the morning (Isa 37:36).

[73:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “like a dream from awakening.” They lack any real substance; their prosperity will last for only a brief time.

[73:20]  ⁶ sn When you awake. The psalmist compares God’s inactivity to sleep and the time of God’s judgment to his awakening from sleep.

[73:20]  ⁷ tn Heb “you will despise their form.” The Hebrew term צֶלֶם (tselem, “form; image”) also suggests their short-lived nature. Rather than having real substance, they are like the mere images that populate one’s dreams. Note the similar use of the term in Ps 39:6.

[139:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “and to me how precious are your thoughts, O God.” The Hebrew verb יָקַר (yaqar) probably has the sense of “difficult [to comprehend]” here (see HALOT 432 s.v. יקר qal.1 and note the use of Aramaic יַקִּר in Dan 2:11). Elsewhere in the immediate context the psalmist expresses his amazement at the extent of God’s knowledge about him (see vv. 1-6, 17b-18).

[139:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “how vast are their heads.” Here the Hebrew word “head” is used of the “sum total” of God’s knowledge of the psalmist.