Mazmur 94:12

94:12 How blessed is the one ¹  whom you instruct, O Lord,

the one whom you teach from your law,

Mazmur 99:5

99:5 Praise ²  the Lord our God!

Worship ³  before his footstool!

He is holy!

Mazmur 117:2

117:2 For his loyal love towers ⁴  over us,

and the Lord’s faithfulness endures.

Praise the Lord!

Mazmur 124:1

Psalm 124 ⁵ 

A song of ascents, ⁶  by David.

124:1 “If the Lord had not been on our side” –

let Israel say this! –

Mazmur 132:6

132:6 Look, we heard about it ⁷  in Ephrathah, ⁸ 

we found it in the territory of Jaar. ⁹ 

Mazmur 147:5

147:5 Our Lord is great and has awesome power; ¹⁰ 

there is no limit to his wisdom. ¹¹ 

[94:12]  ¹ tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man.” Hebrew wisdom literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender or age. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender and age specific “man” with the more neutral “one.” The generic masculine pronoun is used in v. 2.

[99:5]  ² tn Or “exalt.”

[99:5]  ³ tn Or “bow down.”

[117:2]  ⁴ tn For this sense of the Hebrew verb גָּבַר (gavar), see Ps 103:11 and L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 17, 19.

[124:1]  ⁵ sn Psalm 124. Israel acknowledges that the Lord delivered them from certain disaster.

[124:1]  ⁶ sn The precise significance of this title, which appears in Pss 120-134, is unclear. Perhaps worshipers recited these psalms when they ascended the road to Jerusalem to celebrate annual religious festivals. For a discussion of their background see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 219-21.

[132:6]  ⁷ tn Rather than having an antecedent, the third feminine singular pronominal suffix here (and in the next line) appears to refer to the ark of the covenant, mentioned in v. 8. (The Hebrew term אָרוֹן [’aron, “ark”] is sometimes construed as grammatically feminine. See 1 Sam 4:17; 2 Chr 8:11.)

[132:6]  ⁸ sn Some understand Ephrathah as a reference to Kiriath-jearim because of the apparent allusion to this site in the next line (see the note on “Jaar”). The ark was kept in Kiriath-jearim after the Philistines released it (see 1 Sam 6:21-7:2). However, the switch in verbs from “heard about” to “found” suggests that Ephrathah not be equated with Jair. The group who is speaking heard about the ark while they were in Ephrath. They then went to retrieve it from Kiriath-jearim (“Jaar”). It is more likely that Ephrathah refers to a site near Bethel (Gen 35:16, 19; 48:7) or to Bethlehem (Ruth 4:11; Mic 5:2).

[132:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “fields of the forest.” The Hebrew term יָעַר (ya’ad, “forest”) is apparently a shortened alternative name for קִרְיַת יְעָרִים (qiryat yÿ’arim, “Kiriath-jearim”), the place where the ark was kept after it was released by the Philistines and from which David and his men retrieved it (see 1 Chr 13:6).

[147:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and great of strength.”

[147:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “to his wisdom there is no counting.”