Mazmur 31:19

31:19 How great is your favor, ¹ 

which you store up for your loyal followers! ² 

In plain sight of everyone you bestow it on those who take shelter ³  in you. ⁴ 

Mazmur 51:4

51:4 Against you – you above all ⁵  – I have sinned;

I have done what is evil in your sight.

So ⁶  you are just when you confront me; ⁷ 

you are right when you condemn me. ⁸ 

Mazmur 126:2

126:2 At that time we laughed loudly

and shouted for joy. ⁹ 

At that time the nations said, ¹⁰ 

“The Lord has accomplished great things for these people.”

[31:19]  ¹ tn Or “How abundant are your blessings!”

[31:19]  ² tn Heb “for those who fear you.”

[31:19]  ³ tn “Taking shelter” in the Lord is an idiom for seeking his protection. Seeking his protection presupposes and even demonstrates the subject’s loyalty to the Lord. In the psalms those who “take shelter” in the Lord are contrasted with the wicked and equated with those who love, fear, and serve the Lord (Pss 2:12; 5:11-12; 34:21-22).

[31:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “you work [your favor] for the ones seeking shelter in you before the sons of men.”

[51:4]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Heb “when you judge.”

[126:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with a shout.”

[126:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “they said among the nations.”