Mazmur 87:3

87:3 People say wonderful things about you, ¹ 

O city of God. (Selah)

Mazmur 89:4

89:4 ‘I will give you an eternal dynasty ² 

and establish your throne throughout future generations.’” ³  (Selah)

Mazmur 3:2

3:2 Many say about me,

“God will not deliver him.” ⁴  (Selah) ⁵ 

Mazmur 3:8

3:8 The Lord delivers; ⁶ 

you show favor to your people. ⁷  (Selah)

Mazmur 21:2

21:2 You grant ⁸  him his heart’s desire;

you do not refuse his request. ⁹  (Selah)

Mazmur 24:6

24:6 Such purity characterizes the people who seek his favor,

Jacob’s descendants, who pray to him. ¹⁰  (Selah)

Mazmur 24:10

24:10 Who is this majestic king?

The Lord who commands armies! ¹¹ 

He is the majestic king! (Selah)

Mazmur 46:3

46:3 when its waves ¹²  crash ¹³  and foam,

and the mountains shake ¹⁴  before the surging sea. ¹⁵  (Selah)

Mazmur 46:7

46:7 The Lord who commands armies is on our side! ¹⁶ 

The God of Jacob ¹⁷  is our protector! ¹⁸  (Selah)

Mazmur 50:6

50:6 The heavens declare his fairness, ¹⁹ 

for God is judge. ²⁰  (Selah)

Mazmur 50:15

50:15 Pray to me when you are in trouble! ²¹ 

I will deliver you, and you will honor me!” ²² 

Mazmur 55:7

55:7 Look, I will escape to a distant place;

I will stay in the wilderness. (Selah)

Mazmur 66:4

66:4 All the earth worships ²³  you

and sings praises to you!

They sing praises to your name!” (Selah)

Mazmur 68:32

68:32 O kingdoms of the earth, sing to God!

Sing praises to the Lord, (Selah)

Mazmur 75:3

75:3 When the earth and all its inhabitants dissolve in fear, ²⁴ 

I make its pillars secure.” ²⁵  (Selah)

Mazmur 77:3

77:3 I said, “I will remember God while I groan;

I will think about him while my strength leaves me.” ²⁶  (Selah)

Mazmur 82:2

82:2 He says, ²⁷  “How long will you make unjust legal decisions

and show favoritism to the wicked? ²⁸  (Selah)

Mazmur 83:8

83:8 Even Assyria has allied with them,

lending its strength to the descendants of Lot. ²⁹  (Selah)

Mazmur 85:2

85:2 You pardoned ³⁰  the wrongdoing of your people;

you forgave ³¹  all their sin. (Selah)

Mazmur 87:6

87:6 The Lord writes in the census book of the nations, ³² 

“This one was born there.” ³³  (Selah)

Mazmur 89:37

89:37 it will remain stable, like the moon, ³⁴ 

his throne will endure like the skies.” ³⁵  (Selah)

Mazmur 89:45

89:45 You have cut short his youth, ³⁶ 

and have covered him with shame. (Selah)

Mazmur 140:3

140:3 Their tongues wound like a serpent; ³⁷ 

a viper’s ³⁸  venom is behind ³⁹  their lips. (Selah)

Mazmur 140:8

140:8 O Lord, do not let the wicked have their way! ⁴⁰ 

Do not allow their ⁴¹  plan to succeed when they attack! ⁴²  (Selah)

Mazmur 143:6

143:6 I spread my hands out to you in prayer; ⁴³ 

my soul thirsts for you in a parched ⁴⁴  land. ⁴⁵ 

[87:3]  ¹ tn Heb “glorious things are spoken about you.” The translation assumes this is a general reference to compliments paid to Zion by those who live within her walls and by those who live in the surrounding areas and lands. Another option is that this refers to a prophetic oracle about the city’s glorious future. In this case one could translate, “wonderful things are announced concerning you.”

[89:4]  ² tn Heb “forever I will establish your offspring.”

[89:4]  ³ tn Heb “and I will build to a generation and a generation your throne.”

[3:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “there is no deliverance for him in God.”

[3:2]  ⁵ sn The function of the Hebrew term סֶלָה (selah), transliterated here “Selah,” is uncertain. It may be a musical direction of some kind.

[3:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “to the Lord [is] deliverance.”

[3:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “upon your people [is] your blessing.” In this context God’s “blessing” includes deliverance/protection, vindication, and sustained life (see Pss 21:3, 6; 24:5).

[21:2]  ⁸ tn The translation assumes the perfect verbal forms in v. 2 are generalizing, stating factually what God typically does for the king. Another option is to take them as present perfects, “you have granted…you have not refused.” See v. 4, which mentions a specific request for a long reign.

[21:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “and the request of his lips you do not refuse.”

[24:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “this [is the] generation of the ones seeking him, the ones seeking your face, Jacob.” To “seek the Lord’s face” means to seek his favor through prayer (see 2 Sam 21:1; Pss 27:8; 105:4).

[24:6]  sn This verse presents a somewhat idealized view of Jacob’s descendants as devoted worshipers of the Lord.

[24:10]  ¹¹ tn Traditionally, “the Lord of hosts,” a title which here pictures the Lord as a mighty warrior-king who leads armies into battle.

[46:3]  ¹² tn Heb “its waters.”

[46:3]  ¹³ tn Or “roar.”

[46:3]  ¹⁴ tn The three imperfect verbal forms in v. 3 draw attention to the characteristic nature of the activity described.

[46:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “at its swelling.” The Hebrew word often means “pride.” If the sea is symbolic of hostile nations, then this may be a case of double entendre. The surging, swelling sea symbolizes the proud, hostile nations. On the surface the psalmist appears to be depicting a major natural catastrophe, perhaps a tidal wave. If so, then the situation would be hypothetical. However, the repetition of the verbs הָמָה (hamah, “crash; roar,” v. 3) and מוֹט (mot, “shake,” v. 2) in v. 6, where nations/kingdoms “roar” and “shake,” suggests that the language of vv. 2-3 is symbolic and depicts the upheaval that characterizes relationships between the nations of the earth. As some nations (symbolized by the surging, chaotic waters) show hostility, others (symbolized by the mountains) come crashing down to destruction. The surging waters are symbolic of chaotic forces in other poetic texts (see, for example, Isa 17:12; Jer 51:42) and mountains can symbolize strong kingdoms (see, for example, Jer 51:25).

[46:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the Lord of hosts is with us.” The title “Lord of hosts” here pictures the Lord as a mighty warrior-king who leads armies into battle (see Ps 24:10). The military imagery is further developed in vv. 8-9.

[46:7]  ¹⁷ tn That is, Israel, or Judah (see Ps 20:1).

[46:7]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “our elevated place” (see Pss 9:9; 18:2).

[50:6]  ¹⁹ tn Or “justice.”

[50:6]  ²⁰ tn Or “for God, he is about to judge.” The participle may be taken as substantival (as in the translation above) or as a predicate (indicating imminent future action in this context).

[50:15]  ²¹ tn Heb “call [to] me in a day of trouble.”

[50:15]  ²² sn In vv. 7-15 the Lord makes it clear that he was not rebuking Israel because they had failed to offer sacrifices (v. 8a). On the contrary, they had been faithful in doing so (v. 8b). However, their understanding of the essence of their relationship with God was confused. Apparently they believed that he needed/desired such sacrifices and that offering them would ensure their prosperity. But the Lord owns all the animals of the world and did not need Israel’s meager sacrifices (vv. 9-13). Other aspects of the relationship were more important to the Lord. He desired Israel to be thankful for his blessings (v. 14a), to demonstrate gratitude for his intervention by repaying the vows they made to him (v. 14b), and to acknowledge their absolute dependence on him (v. 15a). Rather than viewing their sacrifices as somehow essential to God’s well-being, they needed to understand their dependence on him.

[66:4]  ²³ tn Or “bows down to.” The prefixed verbal forms in v. 4 are taken (1) as imperfects expressing what is typical. Another option (2) is to interpret them as anticipatory (“all the earth will worship you”) or (3) take them as jussives, expressing a prayer or wish (“may all the earth worship you”).

[75:3]  ²⁴ tn Heb “melt.”

[75:3]  ²⁵ tn The statement is understood in a generalizing sense; God typically prevents the world from being overrun by chaos. One could take this as referring to an anticipated event, “I will make its pillars secure.”

[77:3]  ²⁶ tn Heb “I will remember God and I will groan, I will reflect and my spirit will grow faint.” The first three verbs are cohortatives, the last a perfect with vav (ו) consecutive. The psalmist’s statement in v. 4 could be understood as concurrent with v. 1, or, more likely, as a quotation of what he had said earlier as he prayed to God (see v. 2). The words “I said” are supplied in the translation at the beginning of the verse to reflect this interpretation (see v. 10).

[82:2]  ²⁷ tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation to indicate that the following speech is God’s judicial decision (see v. 1).

[82:2]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and the face of the wicked lift up.”

[83:8]  ²⁹ tn Heb “they are an arm for the sons of Lot.” The “arm” is here a symbol of military might.

[83:8]  sn The descendants of Lot were the Moabites and Ammonites.

[85:2]  ³⁰ tn Heb “lifted up.”

[85:2]  ³¹ tn Heb “covered over.”

[87:6]  ³² tn Heb “the Lord records in the writing of the nations.”

[87:6]  ³³ tn As noted in v. 4, the translation assumes a contrast between “there” (the various foreign lands) and “in her” (Zion). In contrast to foreigners, the citizens of Zion have special status because of their birthplace (v. 5). In this case vv. 4 and 6 form a structural frame around v. 5.

[89:37]  ³⁴ tn Heb “like the moon it will be established forever.”

[89:37]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and a witness in the sky, secure.” Scholars have offered a variety of opinions as to the identity of the “witness” referred to here, none of which is very convincing. It is preferable to join וְעֵד (vÿ’ed) to עוֹלָם (’olam) in the preceding line and translate the commonly attested phrase עוֹלָם וְעֵד (“forever”). In this case one may translate the second line, “[it] will be secure like the skies.” Another option (the one reflected in the present translation) is to take עד as a rare noun meaning “throne” or “dais.” This noun is attested in Ugaritic; see, for example, CTA 16 vi 22-23, where ksi (= כִּסֵּא, kisse’, “throne”) and ’d (= עד, “dais”) appear as synonyms in the poetic parallelism (see G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 91). Emending בַּשַּׁחַק (bashakhaq, “in the heavens”) to כַּשַׁחַק (kashakhaq, “like the heavens”) – bet/kaf (כ/ב) confusion is widely attested – one can then read “[his] throne like the heavens [is] firm/stable.” Verse 29 refers to the enduring nature of the heavens, while Job 37:18 speaks of God spreading out the heavens (שְׁחָקִים, shÿkhaqim) and compares their strength to a bronze mirror. Ps 89:29 uses the term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim, “skies”) which frequently appears in parallelism to שְׁחָקִים.

[89:45]  ³⁶ tn Heb “the days of his youth” (see as well Job 33:25).

[140:3]  ³⁷ tn Heb “they sharpen their tongue like a serpent.” Ps 64:3 reads, “they sharpen their tongues like sword.” Perhaps Ps 140:3 uses a mixed metaphor, the point being that “they sharpen their tongues [like a sword],” as it were, so that when they speak, their words wound like a serpent’s bite. Another option is that the language refers to the pointed or forked nature of a serpent’s tongue, which is viewed metaphorically as “sharpened.”

[140:3]  ³⁸ tn The Hebrew term is used only here in the OT.

[140:3]  ³⁹ tn Heb “under.”

[140:8]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “do not grant the desires of the wicked.”

[140:8]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “his.” The singular is used in a representative sense (see v. 1).

[140:8]  ⁴² tn Heb “his plot do not promote, they rise up.” The translation understands the final verb as being an unmarked temporal clause. Another option is to revocalize the verb as a Hiphil and take the verb with the next verse, “those who surround me lift up [their] head,” which could refer to their proud attitude as they anticipate victory (see Ps 27:6).

[143:6]  ⁴³ tn The words “in prayer” are supplied in the translation to clarify that the psalmist is referring to a posture of prayer.

[143:6]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “faint” or “weary.” See Ps 63:1.

[143:6]  ⁴⁵ tc Heb “my soul like a faint land for you.” A verb (perhaps “thirsts”) is implied (see Ps 63:1). The translation assumes an emendation of the preposition -כְּ (kÿ, “like”) to -בְּ (bÿ, “in,” see Ps 63:1; cf. NEB “athirst for thee in a thirsty land”). If the MT is retained, one might translate, “my soul thirsts for you, as a parched land does for water/rain” (cf. NIV, NRSV).