Mazmur 33:1--34:22
Konteks33:1 You godly ones, shout for joy because of the Lord!
It is appropriate for the morally upright to offer him praise.
33:2 Give thanks to the Lord with the harp!
Sing to him to the accompaniment of a ten-stringed instrument!
33:3 Sing to him a new song! 2
Play skillfully as you shout out your praises to him! 3
33:4 For 4 the Lord’s decrees 5 are just, 6
and everything he does is fair. 7
33:5 The Lord promotes 8 equity and justice;
the Lord’s faithfulness extends throughout the earth. 9
33:6 By the Lord’s decree 10 the heavens were made;
by a mere word from his mouth all the stars in the sky were created. 11
33:7 He piles up the water of the sea; 12
he puts the oceans 13 in storehouses.
33:8 Let the whole earth fear 14 the Lord!
Let all who live in the world stand in awe of him!
33:9 For he spoke, and it 15 came into existence,
he issued the decree, 16 and it stood firm.
33:10 The Lord frustrates 17 the decisions of the nations;
he nullifies the plans 18 of the peoples.
33:11 The Lord’s decisions stand forever;
his plans abide throughout the ages. 19
33:12 How blessed 20 is the nation whose God is the Lord,
the people whom he has chosen to be his special possession. 21
33:13 The Lord watches 22 from heaven;
he sees all people. 23
33:14 From the place where he lives he looks carefully
at all the earth’s inhabitants.
33:15 He is the one who forms every human heart, 24
and takes note of all their actions.
33:16 No king is delivered by his vast army;
a warrior is not saved by his great might.
33:17 A horse disappoints those who trust in it for victory; 25
despite its great strength, it cannot deliver.
33:18 Look, the Lord takes notice of his loyal followers, 26
those who wait for him to demonstrate his faithfulness 27
33:19 by saving their lives from death 28
and sustaining them during times of famine. 29
33:20 We 30 wait for the Lord;
he is our deliverer 31 and shield. 32
33:21 For our hearts rejoice in him,
for we trust in his holy name.
33:22 May we experience your faithfulness, O Lord, 33
for 34 we wait for you.
Written by David, when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, causing the king to send him away. 36
34:1 I will praise 37 the Lord at all times;
my mouth will continually praise him. 38
34:2 I will boast 39 in the Lord;
let the oppressed hear and rejoice! 40
34:3 Magnify the Lord with me!
Let’s praise 41 his name together!
34:4 I sought the Lord’s help 42 and he answered me;
he delivered me from all my fears.
34:5 Those who look to him for help are happy;
their faces are not ashamed. 43
34:6 This oppressed man cried out and the Lord heard;
he saved him 44 from all his troubles.
34:7 The Lord’s angel camps around
the Lord’s 45 loyal followers 46 and delivers them. 47
34:8 Taste 48 and see that the Lord is good!
How blessed 49 is the one 50 who takes shelter in him! 51
34:9 Remain loyal to 52 the Lord, you chosen people of his, 53
for his loyal followers 54 lack nothing!
34:10 Even young lions sometimes lack food and are hungry,
but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
34:11 Come children! Listen to me!
I will teach you what it means to fear the Lord. 55
34:12 Do you want to really live? 56
Would you love to live a long, happy life? 57
34:13 Then make sure you don’t speak evil words 58
or use deceptive speech! 59
34:14 Turn away from evil and do what is right! 60
Strive for peace and promote it! 61
34:15 The Lord pays attention to the godly
and hears their cry for help. 62
34:16 But the Lord opposes evildoers
and wipes out all memory of them from the earth. 63
34:17 The godly 64 cry out and the Lord hears;
he saves them from all their troubles. 65
34:18 The Lord is near the brokenhearted;
he delivers 66 those who are discouraged. 67
34:19 The godly 68 face many dangers, 69
but the Lord saves 70 them 71 from each one of them.
34:20 He protects 72 all his bones; 73
not one of them is broken. 74
34:21 Evil people self-destruct; 75
those who hate the godly are punished. 76
34:22 The Lord rescues his servants; 77
all who take shelter in him escape punishment. 78
[33:1] 1 sn Psalm 33. In this hymn the psalmist praises the Lord as the sovereign creator and just ruler of the world who protects and vindicates those who fear him.
[33:3] 2 sn A new song is appropriate because the Lord is constantly intervening in the lives of his people in fresh and exciting ways.
[33:3] 3 tn Heb “play skillfully with a loud shout.”
[33:4] 4 sn For the
[33:4] 5 tn Heb “word.” In this context, which depicts the
[33:4] 7 tn Heb “and all his work [is] in faithfulness.”
[33:5] 8 tn Heb “loves.” The verb “loves” is here metonymic; the
[33:5] 9 tn Heb “fills the earth.”
[33:6] 11 tn Heb “and by the breath of his mouth all their host.” The words “were created” are added in the translation for stylistic reasons; they are understood by ellipsis (note “were made” in the preceding line). The description is consistent with Gen 1:16, which indicates that God spoke the heavenly luminaries into existence.
[33:7] 12 tn Heb “[he] gathers like a pile the waters of the sea.” Some prefer to emend נֵד (ged, “heap, pile”; cf. NASB) to נֹד (nod, “bottle”; cf. NRSV; NIV “into jars”), but “pile” is used elsewhere to describe water that the
[33:7] 13 tn Or “watery depths.” The form תְּהוֹמוֹת (tÿhomot, “watery depths”) is the plural form of תְּהוֹם (tÿhom, “great deep”; see Gen 1:2).
[33:8] 14 tn In this context “fear” probably means “to demonstrate respect for the
[33:9] 15 tn That is, “all the earth” in the first line of v. 8. The apparent antecedent of the masculine subject of the verbs in v. 9 (note וַיֶּהִי [vayyehiy] and וַיַּעֲמֹד [vayya’amod]) is “earth” or “world,” both of which are feminine nouns. However, כָּל (kol, “all”) may be the antecedent, or the apparent lack of agreement may be explained by the collective nature of the nouns involved here (see GKC 463 §145.e).
[33:9] 16 tn Heb “he commanded.”
[33:10] 17 tn Heb “breaks” or “destroys.” The Hebrew perfect verbal forms here and in the next line generalize about the
[33:11] 19 tn Heb “the thoughts of his heart for generation to generation.” The verb “abides” is supplied in the translation. The
[33:12] 20 tn The Hebrew noun is an abstract plural. The word often refers metonymically to the happiness that God-given security and prosperity produce (see Pss 1:1; 2:12; 34:9; 41:1; 65:4; 84:12; 89:15; 106:3; 112:1; 127:5; 128:1; 144:15).
[33:12] 21 tn Heb “inheritance.”
[33:13] 22 tn The Hebrew perfect verbal forms in v. 13 state general facts.
[33:13] 23 tn Heb “all the sons of men.”
[33:15] 24 tn Heb “the one who forms together their heart[s].” “Heart” here refers to human nature, composed of intellect, emotions and will. The precise force of יָחַד (yakhad, “together”) is unclear here. The point seems to be that the
[33:17] 25 tn Heb “a lie [is] the horse for victory.”
[33:18] 26 tn Heb “look, the eye of the
[33:18] 27 tn Heb “for the ones who wait for his faithfulness.”
[33:19] 28 tn Heb “to save from death their live[s].”
[33:19] 29 tn Heb “and to keep them alive in famine.”
[33:20] 30 tn Or “our lives.” The suffixed form of נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “being, life”) is often equivalent to a pronoun in poetic texts.
[33:20] 31 tn Or “[source of] help.”
[33:22] 33 tn Heb “let your faithfulness, O
[34:1] 35 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] 36 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] 38 tn Heb “continually [will] his praise [be] in my mouth.”
[34:2] 39 tn Heb “my soul will boast”; or better, “let my soul boast.” Following the cohortative form in v. 1, it is likely that the prefixed verbal form here is jussive.
[34:2] 40 tn The two prefixed verbal forms in this verse are best taken as jussives, for the psalmist is calling his audience to worship (see v. 3).
[34:4] 42 tn Heb “I sought the
[34:5] 43 tc Heb “they look to him and are radiant and their faces are not ashamed.” The third person plural subject (“they”) is unidentified; there is no antecedent in the Hebrew text. For this reason some prefer to take the perfect verbal forms in the first line as imperatives, “look to him and be radiant” (cf. NEB, NRSV). Some medieval Hebrew
[34:6] 44 tn The pronoun refers back to “this oppressed man,” namely, the psalmist.
[34:7] 45 tn Heb “his”; the referent (the
[34:7] 46 tn Heb “those who fear him.”
[34:7] 47 tn The prefixed verb with vav (ו) consecutive here carries the same generalizing force as the active participle in the first line. See GKC 329 §111.u.
[34:8] 48 tn This verb is normally used of tasting or savoring food. The metaphor here appears to compare the
[34:8] 49 tn The Hebrew noun is an abstract plural. The word often refers metonymically to the happiness that God-given security and prosperity produce (see Pss 1:1, 3; 2:12; 41:1; 65:4; 84:12; 89:15; 106:3; 112:1; 127:5; 128:1; 144:15).
[34:8] 50 tn Heb “man.” 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.”
[34:8] 51 tn “Taking shelter” in the
[34:9] 53 tn Heb “O holy ones of his.”
[34:9] 54 tn Heb “those who fear him.”
[34:11] 55 tn Heb “the fear of the
[34:12] 56 tn Heb “Who is the man who desires life?” The rhetorical question is used to grab the audience’s attention. “Life” probably refers here to quality of life, not just physical existence or even duration of life. See the following line.
[34:12] 57 tn Heb “[Who] loves days to see good?”
[34:13] 58 tn Heb “guard your tongue from evil.”
[34:13] 59 tn Heb “and your lips from speaking deception.”
[34:14] 61 tn Heb “seek peace and pursue it.”
[34:15] 62 tn Heb “the eyes of the
[34:16] 63 tn Heb “the face of the
[34:17] 64 tn Heb “they” (i.e., the godly mentioned in v. 15).
[34:17] 65 tn The three perfect verbal forms are taken in a generalizing sense in v. 17 and translated with the present tense (note the generalizing mood of vv. 18-22).
[34:18] 66 tn The Hebrew imperfect verbal form highlights the generalizing statement and draws attention to the fact that the
[34:18] 67 tn Heb “the crushed in spirit.”
[34:19] 68 tn The Hebrew text uses the singular form; the representative or typical godly person is envisioned.
[34:19] 70 tn The Hebrew imperfect verbal form highlights the generalizing statement and draws attention to the fact that the
[34:19] 71 tn Heb “him,” agreeing with the singular form in the preceding line.
[34:20] 72 tn The Hebrew participial form suggests such protection is characteristic.
[34:20] 73 tn That is, he protects the godly from physical harm.
[34:20] 74 sn Not one of them is broken. The author of the Gospel of John saw a fulfillment of these words in Jesus’ experience on the cross (see John 19:31-37), for the Roman soldiers, when they saw that Jesus was already dead, did not break his legs as was customarily done to speed the death of crucified individuals. John’s use of the psalm seems strange, for the statement in its original context suggests that the Lord protects the godly from physical harm. Jesus’ legs may have remained unbroken, but he was brutally and unjustly executed by his enemies. John seems to give the statement a literal sense that is foreign to its original literary context by applying a promise of divine protection to a man who was seemingly not saved by God. However, John saw in this incident a foreshadowing of Jesus’ ultimate deliverance and vindication. His unbroken bones were a reminder of God’s commitment to the godly and a sign of things to come. Jesus’ death on the cross was not the end of the story; God vindicated him, as John goes on to explain in the following context (John 19:38-20:18).
[34:21] 75 tn Heb “evil kills the wicked [one].” The singular form is representative; the typical evil person is envisioned. The Hebrew imperfect verbal form draws attention to the typical nature of the action.
[34:21] 76 tn Heb “are guilty,” but the verb is sometimes used metonymically with the meaning “to suffer the consequences of guilt,” the effect being substituted for the cause.
[34:22] 77 tn Heb “redeems the life of his servants.” The Hebrew participial form suggests such deliverance is characteristic.
[34:22] 78 tn “Taking shelter” in the
