Mazmur 2:12

2:12 Give sincere homage! ¹ 

Otherwise he ²  will be angry, ³ 

and you will die because of your behavior, ⁴ 

when his anger quickly ignites. ⁵ 

How blessed ⁶  are all who take shelter in him! ⁷ 

Mazmur 18:6

18:6 In my distress I called to the Lord;

I cried out to my God. ⁸ 

From his heavenly temple ⁹  he heard my voice;

he listened to my cry for help. ¹⁰ 

Mazmur 18:50

18:50 He ¹¹  gives his chosen king magnificent victories; ¹² 

he is faithful ¹³  to his chosen ruler, ¹⁴ 

to David and his descendants ¹⁵  forever.” ¹⁶ 

Mazmur 20:6

20:6 Now I am sure ¹⁷  that the Lord will deliver ¹⁸  his chosen king; ¹⁹ 

he will intervene for him ²⁰  from his holy heavenly temple, ²¹ 

and display his mighty ability to deliver. ²² 

Mazmur 28:7

28:7 The Lord strengthens and protects me; ²³ 

I trust in him with all my heart. ²⁴ 

I am rescued ²⁵  and my heart is full of joy; ²⁶ 

I will sing to him in gratitude. ²⁷ 

Mazmur 30:5

30:5 For his anger lasts only a brief moment,

and his good favor restores one’s life. ²⁸ 

One may experience sorrow during the night,

but joy arrives in the morning. ²⁹ 

Mazmur 37:34

37:34 Rely ³⁰  on the Lord! Obey his commands! ³¹ 

Then he will permit you ³²  to possess the land;

you will see the demise of evil men. ³³ 

Mazmur 43:5

43:5 Why are you depressed, ³⁴  O my soul? ³⁵ 

Why are you upset? ³⁶ 

Wait for God!

For I will again give thanks

to my God for his saving intervention. ³⁷ 

Mazmur 52:7

52:7 “Look, here is the man who would not make ³⁸  God his protector!

He trusted in his great wealth

and was confident about his plans to destroy others.” ³⁹ 

Mazmur 59:13

59:13 Angrily wipe them out! Wipe them out so they vanish!

Let them know that God rules

in Jacob and to the ends of the earth! (Selah)

Mazmur 62:9

62:9 Men are nothing but a mere breath;

human beings are unreliable. ⁴⁰ 

When they are weighed in the scales,

all of them together are lighter than air. ⁴¹ 

Mazmur 77:2

77:2 In my time of trouble I sought ⁴²  the Lord.

I kept my hand raised in prayer throughout the night. ⁴³ 

I ⁴⁴  refused to be comforted.

Mazmur 78:5

78:5 He established a rule ⁴⁵  in Jacob;

he set up a law in Israel.

He commanded our ancestors

to make his deeds known to their descendants, ⁴⁶ 

Mazmur 81:5

81:5 He decreed it as a regulation in Joseph,

when he attacked the land of Egypt. ⁴⁷ 

I heard a voice I did not recognize. ⁴⁸ 

Mazmur 95:7

95:7 For he is our God;

we are the people of his pasture,

the sheep he owns. ⁴⁹ 

Today, if only you would obey him! ⁵⁰ 

Mazmur 106:9

106:9 He shouted at ⁵¹  the Red Sea and it dried up;

he led them through the deep water as if it were a desert.

Mazmur 144:2

144:2 who loves me ⁵²  and is my stronghold,

my refuge ⁵³  and my deliverer,

my shield and the one in whom I take shelter,

who makes nations submit to me. ⁵⁴ 

Mazmur 148:14

148:14 He has made his people victorious, ⁵⁵ 

and given all his loyal followers reason to praise –

the Israelites, the people who are close to him. ⁵⁶ 

Praise the Lord!

[2:12]  ¹ tn Traditionally, “kiss the son” (KJV). But בַּר (bar) is the Aramaic word for “son,” not the Hebrew. For this reason many regard the reading as suspect. Some propose emendations of vv. 11b-12a. One of the more popular proposals is to read בִּרְעָדָה נַשְּׁקוּ לְרַגְלָיו (bir’adah nashÿqu lÿraslayv, “in trembling kiss his feet”). It makes better sense to understand בַּר (bar) as an adjective meaning “pure” (see Pss 24:4; 73:1 and BDB 141 s.v. בַּר 3) functioning here in an adverbial sense. If read this way, then the syntactical structure of exhortation (imperative followed by adverbial modifier) corresponds to the two preceding lines (see v. 11). The verb נָשַׁק (nashaq, “kiss”) refers metonymically to showing homage (see 1 Sam 10:1; Hos 13:2). The exhortation in v. 12a advocates a genuine expression of allegiance and warns against insincerity. When swearing allegiance, vassal kings would sometimes do so insincerely, with the intent of rebelling when the time was right. The so-called “Vassal Treaties of Esarhaddon” also warn against such an attitude. In this treaty the vassal is told: “If you, as you stand on the soil where this oath [is sworn], swear the oath with your words and lips [only], do not swear with your entire heart, do not transmit it to your sons who will live after this treaty, if you take this curse upon yourselves but do not plan to keep the treaty of Esarhaddon…may your sons and grandsons because of this fear in the future” (see J. B. Pritchard, ed., The Ancient Near East, 2:62).

[2:12]  ² tn Throughout the translation of this verse the third person masculine pronouns refer to the Lord (cf. v. 11).

[2:12]  ³ tn The implied subject of the verb is the Lord, mentioned in v. 11. Elsewhere the subject of this verb is consistently the Lord, suggesting it may be a technical term for divine anger. Anger is here used metonymically for judgment, as the following statement makes clear. A Moabite cognate occurs in the Mesha inscription, where it is used of the Moabite god Chemosh’s anger at his people (see J. B. Pritchard, ed., The Ancient Near East, 1:209).

[2:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “and you will perish [in the] way.” The Hebrew word דֶּרֶךְ (derekh, “way”) here refers to their rebellious behavior (not to a pathway, as often understood). It functions syntactically as an adverbial accusative in relation to the verb “perish.”

[2:12]  ⁵ tn Or “burns.” The Lord’s anger is compared here to fire, the most destructive force known in ancient Israel.

[2:12]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew noun is an abstract plural. The word often refers metonymically to the happiness that God-given security and prosperity produce (see Pss 1:1; 34:9; 41:1; 65:4; 84:12; 89:15; 106:3; 112:1; 127:5; 128:1; 144:15).

[2:12]  ⁷ sn Who take shelter in him. “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 5:11-12; 31:17-20; 34:21-22).

[18:6]  ⁸ tn In this poetic narrative context the four prefixed verbal forms in v. 6 are best understood as preterites indicating past tense, not imperfects.

[18:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “from his temple.” Verse 10, which pictures God descending from the sky, indicates that the heavenly temple is in view, not the earthly one.

[18:6]  ¹⁰ tc Heb “and my cry for help before him came into his ears.” 2 Sam 22:7 has a shorter reading, “my cry for help, in his ears.” It is likely that Ps 18:6 MT as it now stands represents a conflation of two readings: (1) “my cry for help came before him,” (2) “my cry for help came into his ears.” See F. M. Cross and D. N. Freedman, Studies in Ancient Yahwistic Poetry (SBLDS), 144, n. 13.

[18:50]  ¹¹ tn Or “the one who.”

[18:50]  ¹² tn Heb “magnifies the victories of his king.” “His king” refers to the psalmist, the Davidic king whom God has chosen to rule Israel.

[18:50]  ¹³ tn Heb “[the one who] does loyalty.”

[18:50]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “his anointed [one],” i.e., the psalmist/Davidic king. See Ps 2:2.

[18:50]  ¹⁵ tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”

[18:50]  ¹⁶ sn If David is the author of the psalm (see the superscription), then he here anticipates that God will continue to demonstrate loyalty to his descendants who succeed him. If the author is a later Davidic king, then he views the divine favor he has experienced as the outworking of God’s faithful promises to David his ancestor.

[20:6]  ¹⁷ tn Or “know.”

[20:6]  sn Now I am sure. The speaker is not identified. It is likely that the king, referring to himself in the third person (note “his chosen king”), responds to the people’s prayer. Perhaps his confidence is due to the reception of a divine oracle of salvation.

[20:6]  ¹⁸ tn The perfect verbal form is probably used rhetorically to state that the deliverance is as good as done. In this way the speaker emphasizes the certainty of the deliverance. Another option is to take the statement as generalizing; the psalmist affirms that the Lord typically delivers the king.

[20:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “his anointed one.” This title refers to the Davidic king. See Pss 2:2 and 18:50.

[20:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “he will answer him.”

[20:6]  ²¹ tn Heb “from his holy heavens.”

[20:6]  ²² tn Heb “with mighty acts of deliverance of his right hand.” The Lord’s “right hand” here symbolizes his power to protect and deliver (see Ps 17:7).

[28:7]  ²³ tn Heb “The Lord [is] my strength and my shield.”

[28:7]  ²⁴ tn Heb “in him my heart trusts.”

[28:7]  ²⁵ tn Or “I am helped.”

[28:7]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and my heart exults.”

[28:7]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and from my song I will thank him.” As pointed in the Hebrew text, מִשִּׁירִי (mishiri) appears to be “from my song,” but the preposition “from” never occurs elsewhere with the verb “to thank” (Hiphil of יָדָה, yadah). Perhaps משׁיר is a noun form meaning “song.” If so, it can be taken as an adverbial accusative, “and [with] my song I will thank him.” See P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (WBC), 236.

[30:5]  ²⁸ tn Heb “for [there is] a moment in his anger, [but] life in his favor.” Because of the parallelism with “moment,” some understand חַיִּים (khayyim) in a quantitative sense: “lifetime” (cf. NIV, NRSV). However, the immediate context, which emphasizes deliverance from death (see v. 3), suggests that חַיִּים has a qualitative sense: “physical life” or even “prosperous life” (cf. NEB “in his favour there is life”).

[30:5]  ²⁹ tn Heb “in the evening weeping comes to lodge, but at morning a shout of joy.” “Weeping” is personified here as a traveler who lodges with one temporarily.

[37:34]  ³⁰ tn Or “wait.”

[37:34]  ³¹ tn Heb “keep his way.” The Lord’s “way” refers here to the “conduct required” by the Lord. In Ps 25 the Lord’s “ways” are associated with his covenantal demands (see vv. 4, 9-10). See also Ps 119:3 (cf. vv. 1, 4), as well as Deut 8:6; 10:12; 11:22; 19:9; 26:17; 28:9; 30:16.

[37:34]  ³² tn Heb “and he will lift you up.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) is best taken here as a result clause following the imperatives in the preceding lines.

[37:34]  ³³ tn Heb “when evil men are cut off you will see.”

[43:5]  ³⁴ tn Heb “Why do you bow down?”

[43:5]  ³⁵ sn For poetic effect the psalmist addresses his soul, or inner self.

[43:5]  ³⁶ tn Heb “and why are you in turmoil upon me?”

[43:5]  ³⁷ 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.

[52:7]  ³⁸ tn The imperfect verbal form here draws attention to the ongoing nature of the action. The evildoer customarily rejected God and trusted in his own abilities. Another option is to take the imperfect as generalizing, “[here is the man who] does not make.”

[52:7]  ³⁹ tn Heb “he was strong in his destruction.” “Destruction” must refer back to the destructive plans mentioned in v. 2. The verb (derived from the root עָזַז, ’azaz, “be strong”) as it stands is either an imperfect (if so, probably used in a customary sense) or a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive). However the form should probably be emended to וַיָּעָז (vayya’az), a Qal preterite (with vav [ו] consecutive) from עָזַז. Note the preterite form without vav (ו) consecutive in the preceding line (וַיִּבְטַח, vayyivtakh, “and he trusted”). The prefixed vav (ו) was likely omitted by haplography (note the suffixed vav [ו] on the preceding עָשְׁרוֹ, ’oshro, “his wealth”).

[62:9]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “only a breath [are] the sons of mankind, a lie [are] the sons of man.” The phrases “sons of mankind” and “sons of man” also appear together in Ps 49:2. Because of the parallel line there, where “rich and poor” are mentioned, a number of interpreters and translators treat these expressions as polar opposites, בְּנֵי אָדָם (bÿney ’adam) referring to the lower classes and בְּנֵי אִישׁ (bÿney ’ish) to higher classes. But usage does not support such a view. The rare phrase בְּנֵי אִישׁ (“sons of man”) appears to refer to human beings in general in its other uses (see Pss 4:2; Lam 3:33). It is better to understand the phrases as synonymous expressions.

[62:9]  ⁴¹ tn The noun הֶבֶל (hevel), translated “a breath” earlier in the verse, appears again here.

[77:2]  ⁴² tn Here the psalmist refers back to the very recent past, when he began to pray for divine help.

[77:2]  ⁴³ tn Heb “my hand [at] night was extended and was not growing numb.” The verb נָגַר (nagar), which can mean “flow” in certain contexts, here has the nuance “be extended.” The imperfect form (תָפוּג, tafug, “to be numb”) is used here to describe continuous action in the past.

[77:2]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “my soul.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) with a pronominal suffix is often equivalent to a pronoun, especially in poetry (see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 4.a).

[78:5]  ⁴⁵ 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]  ⁴⁶ 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).

[81:5]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “in his going out against the land of Egypt.” This apparently refers to the general time period of Israel’s exodus from Egypt. The LXX reads, “from Egypt,” in which case “Joseph” (see the preceding line) would be the subject of the verb, “when he [Joseph = Israel] left Egypt.”

[81:5]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “a lip I did not know, I heard.” Here the term “lip” probably stands for speech or a voice. Apparently the psalmist speaks here and refers to God’s voice, whose speech is recorded in the following verses.

[95:7]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “of his hand.”

[95:7]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “if only you would listen to his voice.” The Hebrew particle אִם (’im, “if”) and following prefixed verbal form here express a wish (cf. Ps 81:8). Note that the apodosis (the “then” clause of the conditional sentence) is suppressed.

[106:9]  ⁵¹ tn Or “rebuked.”

[144:2]  ⁵² tn Heb “my loyal love,” which is probably an abbreviated form of “the God of my loyal love” (see Ps 59:10, 17).

[144:2]  ⁵³ tn Or “my elevated place.”

[144:2]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “the one who subdues nations beneath me.”

[148:14]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “and he lifted up a horn for his people.” The horn of an ox underlies the metaphor (see Deut 33:17; 1 Kgs 22:11; Ps 92:10). The horn of the wild ox is frequently a metaphor for military strength; the idiom “exalt/lift up the horn” signifies military victory (see 1 Sam 2:10; Pss 75:10; 89:17, 24; 92:10; Lam 2:17). Another option is to take the “horn” as a symbol for the Davidic king, through whom the Lord gives his people military victory.

[148:14]  ⁵⁶ tn “[there is] praise for all his loyal followers, to the sons of Israel, the people near him.” Here “praise” stands by metonymy for the victory that prompts it.