Mazmur 20:5

20:5 Then we will shout for joy over your ¹  victory;

we will rejoice ²  in the name of our God!

May the Lord grant all your requests!

Mazmur 23:1

Psalm 23 ³ 

A psalm of David.

23:1 The Lord is my shepherd, ⁴ 

I lack nothing. ⁵ 

Mazmur 40:3

40:3 He gave me reason to sing a new song, ⁶ 

praising our God. ⁷ 

May many see what God has done,

so that they might swear allegiance to him and trust in the Lord! ⁸ 

Mazmur 45:4

45:4 Appear in your majesty and be victorious! ⁹ 

Ride forth for the sake of what is right, ¹⁰ 

on behalf of justice! ¹¹ 

Then your right hand will accomplish mighty acts! ¹² 

Mazmur 47:9

47:9 The nobles of the nations assemble,

along with the people of the God of Abraham, ¹³ 

for God has authority over the rulers ¹⁴  of the earth.

He is highly exalted! ¹⁵ 

Mazmur 48:8

48:8 We heard about God’s mighty deeds, now we have seen them, ¹⁶ 

in the city of the Lord, the invincible Warrior, ¹⁷ 

in the city of our God.

God makes it permanently secure. ¹⁸  (Selah)

Mazmur 65:9

65:9 You visit the earth and give it rain; ¹⁹ 

you make it rich and fertile ²⁰ 

with overflowing streams full of water. ²¹ 

You provide grain for them, ²² 

for you prepare the earth to yield its crops. ²³ 

Mazmur 72:20

72:20 This collection of the prayers of David son of Jesse ends here. ²⁴ 

Mazmur 91:4

91:4 He will shelter you ²⁵  with his wings; ²⁶ 

you will find safety under his wings.

His faithfulness is like a shield or a protective wall. ²⁷ 

Mazmur 93:1

Psalm 93 ²⁸ 

93:1 The Lord reigns!

He is robed in majesty,

the Lord is robed,

he wears strength around his waist. ²⁹ 

Indeed, the world is established, it cannot be moved.

Mazmur 96:10

96:10 Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!

The world is established, it cannot be moved.

He judges the nations fairly.”

Mazmur 132:12

132:12 If your sons keep my covenant

and the rules I teach them,

their sons will also sit on your throne forever.”

Mazmur 137:4

137:4 How can we sing a song to the Lord

in a foreign land?

[20:5]  ¹ sn Your victory. Here the king is addressed (see v. 1).

[20:5]  ² tc The Hebrew verb דָּגַל (dagal) occurs only here in the Qal. If accepted as original, it may carry the nuance “raise a banner,” but it is preferable to emend the form to נגיל (“we will rejoice”) which provides better parallelism with “shout for joy” and fits well with the prepositional phrase “in the name of our God” (see Ps 89:16).

[23:1]  ³ sn Psalm 23. In vv. 1-4 the psalmist pictures the Lord as a shepherd who provides for his needs and protects him from danger. The psalmist declares, “The Lord is my shepherd,” and then extends and develops that metaphor, speaking as if he were a sheep. In vv. 5-6 the metaphor changes as the psalmist depicts a great royal banquet hosted by the Lord. The psalmist is a guest of honor and recipient of divine favor, who enjoys unlimited access to the divine palace and the divine presence.

[23:1]  ⁴ sn The LORD is my shepherd. The opening metaphor suggests the psalmist is assuming the role of a sheep. In vv. 1b-4 the psalmist extends the metaphor and explains exactly how the LORD is like a shepherd to him. At the surface level the language can be understood in terms of a shepherd’s relationship to his sheep. The translation of vv. 1-4 reflects this level. But, of course, each statement also points to an underlying reality.

[23:1]  ⁵ tn The imperfect verbal form is best understood as generalizing; the psalmist highlights his typical or ongoing experience as a result of having the LORD as his shepherd (habitual present use). The next verse explains more specifically what he means by this statement.

[40:3]  ⁶ sn A new song was appropriate because the Lord had intervened in the psalmist’s experience in a fresh and exciting way.

[40:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he placed in my mouth a new song, praise to our God.”

[40:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “may many see and fear and trust in the Lord.” The translation assumes that the initial prefixed verbal form is a jussive (“may many see”), rather than an imperfect (“many will see”). The following prefixed verbal forms with vav (ו) conjunctive are taken as indicating purpose or result (“so that they might swear allegiance…and trust”) after the introductory jussive.

[45:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “and your majesty, be successful.” The syntax is awkward. The phrase “and your majesty” at the beginning of the verse may be accidentally repeated (dittography); it appears at the end of v. 3.

[45:4]  ¹⁰ tn Or “for the sake of truth.”

[45:4]  ¹¹ tc The precise meaning of the MT is uncertain. The form עַנְוָה (’anvah) occurs only here. One could emend the text to עֲנָוָה וְצֶדֶק (’anavah vÿtsedeq, “[for the sake of truth], humility, and justice”). In this case “humility” would perhaps allude to the king’s responsibility to “serve” his people by promoting justice (cf. NIV “in behalf of truth, humility and righteousness”). The present translation assumes an emendation to יַעַן (ya’an, “because; on account of”) which would form a suitable parallel to עַל־דְּבַר (’al-dÿvar, “because; for the sake of”) in the preceding line.

[45:4]  ¹² tn Heb “and your right hand will teach you mighty acts”; or “and may your right hand teach you mighty acts.” After the imperatives in the first half of the verse, the prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive likely indicates purpose (“so that your right hand might teach you mighty acts”) or result (see the present translation). The “right hand” here symbolizes the king’s military strength. His right hand will “teach” him mighty acts by performing them and thereby causing him to experience their magnificence.

[47:9]  ¹³ tc The words “along with” do not appear in the MT. However, the LXX has “with,” suggesting that the original text may have read עִם עַם (’im ’am, “along with the people”). In this case the MT is haplographic (the consonantal sequence ayin-mem [עם] being written once instead of twice). Another option is that the LXX is simply and correctly interpreting “people” as an adverbial accusative and supplying the appropriate preposition.

[47:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “for to God [belong] the shields of the earth.” Perhaps the rulers are called “shields” because they are responsible for protecting their people. See Ps 84:9, where the Davidic king is called “our shield,” and perhaps also Hos 4:18.

[47:9]  ¹⁵ tn The verb עָלָה (’alah, “ascend”) appears once more (see v. 5), though now in the Niphal stem.

[48:8]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “As we have heard, so we have seen.” The community had heard about God’s mighty deeds in the nation’s history. Having personally witnessed his saving power with their own eyes, they could now affirm that the tradition was not exaggerated or inaccurate.

[48:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the Lord of hosts.” The title “Lord of hosts” here pictures the Lord as a mighty warrior-king who leads armies into battle (see Pss 24:10; 46:7, 11).

[48:8]  ¹⁸ tn Or “God makes it secure forever.” The imperfect highlights the characteristic nature of the generalizing statement.

[65:9]  ¹⁹ tn The verb form is a Polel from שׁוּק (shuq, “be abundant”), a verb which appears only here and in Joel 2:24 and 3:13, where it is used in the Hiphil stem and means “overflow.”

[65:9]  ²⁰ tn Heb “you greatly enrich it.”

[65:9]  ²¹ tn Heb “[with] a channel of God full of water.” The divine name is probably used here in a superlative sense to depict a very deep stream (“a stream fit for God,” as it were).

[65:9]  ²² tn The pronoun apparently refers to the people of the earth, mentioned in v. 8.

[65:9]  ²³ tn Heb “for thus [referring to the provision of rain described in the first half of the verse] you prepare it.” The third feminine singular pronominal suffix attached to the verb “prepare” refers back to the “earth,” which is a feminine noun with regard to grammatical form.

[72:20]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the prayers of David, son of Jesse, are concluded.” As noted earlier, v. 20 appears to be a remnant of an earlier collection of psalms or an earlier edition of the Psalter. In the present arrangement of the Book of Psalms, not all psalms prior to this are attributed to David (see Pss 1-2, 10, 33, 42-50, 66-67, 71-72) and several psalms attributed to David appear after this (see Pss 86, 101, 103, 108-110, 122, 124, 131, 138-145).

[91:4]  ²⁵ tn Heb “put a cover over you” (see Ps 5:11).

[91:4]  ²⁶ tc The Hebrew text has the singular, but the plural should be read. The final yod (י) of the suffix, which indicates the plural, has dropped off by haplography (note the yod [י] at the beginning of the next word).

[91:4]  ²⁷ tn Traditionally the Hebrew term סֹחֵרָה (sokherah), which occurs only here in the OT, has been understood to refer to a buckler or small shield (see BDB 695 s.v.). But HALOT 750 s.v., on the basis of evidence from the cognate languages, proposes the meaning “wall.”

[93:1]  ²⁸ sn Psalm 93. The psalmist affirms that the Lord is the king of the universe who preserves order and suppresses the destructive forces in the world.

[93:1]  ²⁹ sn Strength is compared here to a belt that one wears for support. The Lord’s power undergirds his rule.