Mazmur 22:28

22:28 For the Lord is king ¹ 

and rules over the nations.

Mazmur 45:3

45:3 Strap your sword to your thigh, O warrior! ² 

Appear in your majestic splendor! ³ 

Mazmur 48:4

48:4 For ⁴  look, the kings assemble; ⁵ 

they advance together.

Mazmur 58:2

58:2 No! ⁶  You plan how to do what is unjust; ⁷ 

you deal out violence in the earth. ⁸ 

Mazmur 142:2

142:2 I pour out my lament before him;

I tell him about ⁹  my troubles.

Mazmur 89:36

89:36 His dynasty will last forever. ¹⁰ 

His throne will endure before me, like the sun, ¹¹ 

[22:28]  ¹ tn Heb “for to the Lord [is] dominion.”

[45:3]  ² tn Or “mighty one.”

[45:3]  ³ tn The Hebrew text has simply, “your majesty and your splendor,” which probably refers to the king’s majestic splendor when he appears in full royal battle regalia.

[48:4]  ⁴ tn The logical connection between vv. 3-4 seems to be this: God is the protector of Zion and reveals himself as the city’s defender – this is necessary because hostile armies threaten the city.

[48:4]  ⁵ tn The perfect verbal forms in vv. 4-6 are understood as descriptive. In dramatic style (note הִנֵּה, hinneh, “look”) the psalm describes an enemy attack against the city as if it were occurring at this very moment. Another option is to take the perfects as narrational (“the kings assembled, they advanced”), referring to a particular historical event, such as Sennacherib’s siege of the city in 701 b.c. (cf. NIV, NRSV). Even if one translates the verses in a dramatic-descriptive manner (as the present translation does), the Lord’s victory over the Assyrians was probably what served as the inspiration of the description (see v. 8).

[58:2]  ⁶ tn The particle אַף (’af, “no”) is used here as a strong adversative emphasizing the following statement, which contrasts reality with the rulers’ claim alluded to in the rhetorical questions (see Ps 44:9).

[58:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “in the heart unjust deeds you do.” The phrase “in the heart” (i.e., “mind”) seems to refer to their plans and motives. The Hebrew noun עַוְלָה (’avlah, “injustice”) is collocated with פָּעַל (pa’al, “do”) here and in Job 36:23 and Ps 119:3. Some emend the plural form עוֹלֹת (’olot, “unjust deeds”; see Ps 64:6) to the singular עָוֶל (’avel, “injustice”; see Job 34:32), taking the final tav (ת) as dittographic (note that the following verbal form begins with tav). Some then understand עָוֶל (’avel, “injustice”) as a genitive modifying “heart” and translate, “with a heart of injustice you act.”

[58:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “in the earth the violence of your hands you weigh out.” The imagery is from the economic realm. The addressees measure out violence, rather than justice, and distribute it like a commodity. This may be ironic, since justice was sometimes viewed as a measuring scale (see Job 31:6).

[142:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “my trouble before him I declare.”

[89:36]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “his offspring forever will be.”

[89:36]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and his throne like the sun before me.”