Mazmur 43:5

43:5 Why are you depressed, ¹  O my soul? ² 

Why are you upset? ³ 

Wait for God!

For I will again give thanks

to my God for his saving intervention. ⁴ 

Mazmur 50:21

50:21 When you did these things, I was silent, ⁵ 

so you thought I was exactly like you. ⁶ 

But now I will condemn ⁷  you

and state my case against you! ⁸ 

Mazmur 74:9

74:9 We do not see any signs of God’s presence; ⁹ 

there are no longer any prophets ¹⁰ 

and we have no one to tell us how long this will last. ¹¹ 

Mazmur 110:3

110:3 Your people willingly follow you ¹²  when you go into battle. ¹³ 

On the holy hills ¹⁴  at sunrise ¹⁵  the dew of your youth ¹⁶  belongs to you. ¹⁷ 

Mazmur 138:7

138:7 Even when I must walk in the midst of danger, ¹⁸  you revive me.

You oppose my angry enemies, ¹⁹ 

and your right hand delivers me.

Mazmur 139:16

139:16 Your eyes saw me when I was inside the womb. ²⁰ 

All the days ordained for me

were recorded in your scroll

before one of them came into existence. ²¹ 

[43:5]  ¹ tn Heb “Why do you bow down?”

[43:5]  ² sn For poetic effect the psalmist addresses his soul, or inner self.

[43:5]  ³ tn Heb “and why are you in turmoil upon me?”

[43:5]  ⁴ tc Heb “for again I will give him thanks, the saving acts of my face and my God.” The last line should be emended to read יְשׁוּעֹת פְנֵי אֱלֹהָי (yÿshu’ot fÿney ’elohay, “[for] the saving acts of the face of my God,” that is, the saving acts associated with God’s presence/intervention. This refrain is identical to the one in Ps 42:11. See also 42:5, which differs only slightly.

[50:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “these things you did and I was silent.” Some interpret the second clause (“and I was silent”) as a rhetorical question expecting a negative answer, “[When you do these things], should I keep silent?” (cf. NEB). See GKC 335 §112.cc.

[50:21]  sn The Lord was silent in the sense that he delayed punishment. Of course, God’s patience toward sinners eventually runs out. The divine “silence” is only temporary (see v. 3, where the psalmist, having described God’s arrival, observes that “he is not silent”).

[50:21]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew infinitive construct (הֱיוֹת, heyot) appears to function like the infinitive absolute here, adding emphasis to the following finite verbal form (אֶהְיֶה, ’ehyeh). See GKC 339-40 §113.a. Some prefer to emend הֱיוֹת (heyot) to the infinitive absolute form הָיוֹ (hayo).

[50:21]  ⁷ tn Or “rebuke” (see v. 8).

[50:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “and I will set in order [my case against you] to your eyes.” The cohortative form expresses the Lord’s resolve to accuse and judge the wicked.

[74:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “our signs we do not see.” Because of the reference to a prophet in the next line, it is likely that the “signs” in view here include the evidence of God’s presence as typically revealed through the prophets. These could include miraculous acts performed by the prophets (see, for example, Isa 38:7-8) or object lessons which they acted out (see, for example, Isa 20:3).

[74:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “there is not still a prophet.”

[74:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and [there is] not with us one who knows how long.”

[110:3]  ¹² tn Heb “your people, free will offerings.” Perhaps the people, in their willingness to volunteer, are compared metaphorically to freewill offerings. Following the LXX, some revocalize the text and read “with you is nobility.”

[110:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “in the day of your power.”

[110:3]  ¹⁴ tc Heb “in splendor of holiness.” The plural construct form הַדְרֵי (hadrey, from הָדַר, hadar, “splendor”) occurs only here; it may indicate degree or perhaps refer by metonymy to garments (see Pss 29:2 and 96:9, where the phrase הַדְרַת קֹדֶשׁ [hadrat qodesh] refers to “holy attire”). If one retains the reading of the MT, this phrase should probably be taken with the preceding line. However, because of the subsequent references to “dawn” and to “dew,” it is better to emend the text to הַרְרֵי קֹדֶשׁ (harrey qodesh, “mountains of holiness”), a reading found in many medieval Hebrew mss and in some other ancient witnesses (see Joel 2:2; Ps 133:3, as well as L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 80). The “mountains of holiness” are probably the hills surrounding Zion (see Ps 87:1; 125:2; 133:3).

[110:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “from the womb of dawn.” The Hebrew noun רֶחֶם (rekhem, “womb”) is probably used here metonymically for “birth.” The form מִשְׁחָר (mishkhar) occurs only here and should be emended to שַׁחַר (shakhar, “dawn”) with the mem (מ) being understood as dittographic (note the final mem [ם] on the preceding word). The phrase “womb [i.e., “birth”] of dawn” refers to sunrise.

[110:3]  ¹⁶ sn The point of the metaphor is not entirely clear. The dew may symbolize the king’s youthful vitality or, more likely (note the parallelism), may refer to his army of strong, youthful warriors.

[110:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “to you [is].”

[138:7]  ¹⁸ tn Or “distress.”

[138:7]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “against the anger of my enemies you extend your hand.”

[139:16]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Your eyes saw my shapeless form.” The Hebrew noun גֹּלֶם (golem) occurs only here in the OT. In later Hebrew the word refers to “a lump, a shapeless or lifeless substance,” and to “unfinished matter, a vessel wanting finishing” (Jastrow 222 s.v. גּוֹלֶם). The translation employs the dynamic rendering “when I was inside the womb” to clarify that the speaker was still in his mother’s womb at the time he was “seen” by God.

[139:16]  ²¹ tn Heb “and on your scroll all of them were written, [the] days [which] were formed, and [there was] not one among them.” This “scroll” may be the “scroll of life” mentioned in Ps 69:28 (see the note on the word “living” there).