Mazmur 16:5

16:5 Lord, you give me stability and prosperity; ¹ 

you make my future secure. ² 

Mazmur 33:7

33:7 He piles up the water of the sea; ³ 

he puts the oceans ⁴  in storehouses.

Mazmur 89:25

89:25 I will place his hand over the sea,

his right hand over the rivers. ⁵ 

Mazmur 93:3

93:3 The waves ⁶  roar, O Lord,

the waves roar,

the waves roar and crash. ⁷ 

Mazmur 96:11

96:11 Let the sky rejoice, and the earth be happy!

Let the sea and everything in it shout!

Mazmur 110:2

110:2 The Lord ⁸  extends ⁹  your dominion ¹⁰  from Zion.

Rule in the midst of your enemies!

[16:5]  ¹ tn Heb “O Lord, the portion of my possession and my cup”; or “the Lord [is] the portion of my possession and my cup.” The psalmist compares the Lord to landed property, which was foundational to economic stability in ancient Israel, and to a cup of wine, which may symbolize a reward (in Ps 11:6 it symbolizes the judgment one deserves) or divine blessing (see Ps 23:5). The metaphor highlights the fact that God is the psalmist’s source of security and prosperity.

[16:5]  ² tc Heb “you take hold of my lot.” The form תּוֹמִיךְ (tomikh) should be emended to a participle, תוֹמֵךְ (tomekh). The psalmist pictures the Lord as casting his lot (a method used to allot landed property) for him, thus assuring that he will receive a fertile piece of land (see v. 6). As in the previous line, land represents security and economic stability, thus “you make my future secure.”

[33:7]  ³ 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 Lord confines to one place (Exod 15:8; Josh 3:13, 16; Ps 78:13). This verse appears to refer to Gen 1:9, where God decrees that the watery deep be gathered to one place so that dry land might appear. If so, the participles in this and the following line depict this action with special vividness, as if the reader were present on the occasion. Another option is that the participles picture the confinement of the sea to one place as an ongoing divine activity.

[33:7]  ⁴ tn Or “watery depths.” The form תְּהוֹמוֹת (tÿhomot, “watery depths”) is the plural form of תְּהוֹם (tÿhom, “great deep”; see Gen 1:2).

[89:25]  ⁵ tn Some identify “the sea” as the Mediterranean and “the rivers” as the Euphrates and its tributaries. However, it is more likely that “the sea” and “the rivers” are symbols for hostile powers that oppose God and the king (see v. 9, as well as Ps 93:3-4).

[93:3]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew noun translated “waves” often refers to rivers or streams, but here it appears to refer to the surging waves of the sea (see v. 4, Ps 24:2).

[93:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “the waves lift up, O Lord, the waves lift up their voice, the waves lift up their crashing.”

[110:2]  ⁸ tn Since the Lord is mentioned in the third person (note the use of the first person in v. 1), it is likely that these are the psalmist’s words to the king, not a continuation of the oracle per se.

[110:2]  ⁹ tn The prefixed verbal form is understood here as descriptive-dramatic or as generalizing, though it could be taken as future.

[110:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “your strong scepter,” symbolic of the king’s royal authority and dominion.