Mazmur 34:11-16

34:11 Come children! Listen to me!

I will teach you what it means to fear the Lord. ¹ 

34:12 Do you want to really live? ² 

Would you love to live a long, happy life? ³ 

34:13 Then make sure you don’t speak evil words ⁴ 

or use deceptive speech! ⁵ 

34:14 Turn away from evil and do what is right! ⁶ 

Strive for peace and promote it! ⁷ 

34:15 The Lord pays attention to the godly

and hears their cry for help. ⁸ 

34:16 But the Lord opposes evildoers

and wipes out all memory of them from the earth. ⁹ 

Mazmur 71:18

71:18 Even when I am old and gray, ¹⁰ 

O God, do not abandon me,

until I tell the next generation about your strength,

and those coming after me about your power. ¹¹ 

Mazmur 78:3-8

78:3 What we have heard and learned ¹²  –

that which our ancestors ¹³  have told us –

78:4 we will not hide from their ¹⁴  descendants.

We will tell the next generation

about the Lord’s praiseworthy acts, ¹⁵ 

about his strength and the amazing things he has done.

78:5 He established a rule ¹⁶  in Jacob;

he set up a law in Israel.

He commanded our ancestors

to make his deeds known to their descendants, ¹⁷ 

78:6 so that the next generation, children yet to be born,

might know about them.

They will grow up and tell their descendants about them. ¹⁸ 

78:7 Then they will place their confidence in God.

They will not forget the works of God,

and they will obey ¹⁹  his commands.

78:8 Then they will not be like their ancestors,

who were a stubborn and rebellious generation,

a generation that was not committed

and faithful to God. ²⁰ 

[34:11]  ¹ tn Heb “the fear of the Lord I will teach you.” In vv. 13-14 the psalmist explains to his audience what it means to “fear” the Lord.

[34:12]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “[Who] loves days to see good?”

[34:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “guard your tongue from evil.”

[34:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “and your lips from speaking deception.”

[34:14]  ⁶ tn Or “do good.”

[34:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “seek peace and pursue it.”

[34:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “the eyes of the Lord [are] toward the godly, and his ears [are] toward their cry for help.”

[34:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “the face of the Lord [is] against the doers of evil to cut off from the earth memory of them.”

[71:18]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and even unto old age and gray hair.”

[71:18]  ¹¹ tn Heb “until I declare your arm to a generation, to everyone who comes your power.” God’s “arm” here is an anthropomorphism that symbolizes his great strength.

[78:3]  ¹² tn Or “known.”

[78:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 5, 8, 12, 57).

[78:4]  ¹⁴ tn The pronominal suffix refers back to the “fathers” (“our ancestors,” v. 3).

[78:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “to a following generation telling the praises of the Lord.” “Praises” stand by metonymy for the mighty acts that prompt worship. Cf. Ps 9:14.

[78:5]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew noun עֵדוּת (’edut) refers here to God’s command that the older generation teach their children about God’s mighty deeds in the nation’s history (see Exod 10:2; Deut 4:9; 6:20-25).

[78:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “which he commanded our fathers to make them known to their sons.” The plural suffix “them” probably refers back to the Lord’s mighty deeds (see vv. 3-4).

[78:6]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “in order that they might know, a following generation, sons [who] will be born, they will arise and will tell to their sons.”

[78:7]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “keep.”

[78:8]  ²⁰ tn Heb “a generation that did not make firm its heart and whose spirit was not faithful with God.” The expression “make firm the heart” means “to be committed, devoted” (see 1 Sam 7:3).