Mazmur 5:7

5:7 But as for me, ¹  because of your great faithfulness I will enter your house; ² 

I will bow down toward your holy temple as I worship you. ³ 

Mazmur 40:10

40:10 I have not failed to tell about your justice; ⁴ 

I spoke about your reliability and deliverance;

I have not neglected to tell the great assembly about your loyal love and faithfulness. ⁵ 

Mazmur 51:4

51:4 Against you – you above all ⁶  – I have sinned;

I have done what is evil in your sight.

So ⁷  you are just when you confront me; ⁸ 

you are right when you condemn me. ⁹ 

Mazmur 89:19

89:19 Then you ¹⁰  spoke through a vision to your faithful followers ¹¹  and said:

“I have energized a warrior; ¹² 

I have raised up a young man ¹³  from the people.

[5:7]  ¹ sn But as for me. By placing the first person pronoun at the beginning of the verse, the psalmist highlights the contrast between the evildoers’ actions and destiny, outlined in the preceding verses, with his own.

[5:7]  ² sn I will enter your house. The psalmist is confident that God will accept him into his presence, in contrast to the evildoers (see v. 5).

[5:7]  ³ tn Heb “in fear [of] you.” The Hebrew noun יִרְאָה (yir’ah, “fear”), when used of fearing God, is sometimes used metonymically for what it ideally produces: “worship, reverence, piety.”

[40:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “your justice I have not hidden in the midst of my heart.”

[40:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “I have not hidden your loyal love and reliability.”

[51:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “only you,” as if the psalmist had sinned exclusively against God and no other. Since the Hebrew verb חָטָא (hata’, “to sin”) is used elsewhere of sinful acts against people (see BDB 306 s.v. 2.a) and David (the presumed author) certainly sinned when he murdered Uriah (2 Sam 12:9), it is likely that the psalmist is overstating the case to suggest that the attack on Uriah was ultimately an attack on God himself. To clarify the point of the hyperbole, the translation uses “especially,” rather than the potentially confusing “only.”

[51:4]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew term לְמַעַן (lÿma’an) normally indicates purpose (“in order that”), but here it introduces a logical consequence of the preceding statement. (Taking the clause as indicating purpose here would yield a theologically preposterous idea – the psalmist purposely sinned so that God’s justice might be vindicated!) For other examples of לְמַעַן indicating result, see 2 Kgs 22:17; Jer 27:15; Amos 2:7, as well as IBHS 638-40 §38.3.

[51:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “when you speak.” In this context the psalmist refers to God’s word of condemnation against his sin delivered through Nathan (cf. 2 Sam 12:7-12).

[51:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “when you judge.”

[89:19]  ¹⁰ tn The pronoun “you” refers to the Lord, who is addressed here. The quotation that follows further develops the announcement of vv. 3-4.

[89:19]  ¹¹ tc Many medieval mss read the singular here, “your faithful follower.” In this case the statement refers directly to Nathan’s oracle to David (see 2 Sam 7:17).

[89:19]  ¹² tn Heb “I have placed help upon a warrior.”

[89:19]  ¹³ tn Or perhaps “a chosen one.”