Text -- Psalms 89:47-52 (NET)

89:47 Take note of my brief lifespan! Why do you make all people so mortal? 89:48 No man can live on without experiencing death, or deliver his life from the power of Sheol. (Selah) 89:49 Where are your earlier faithful deeds, O Lord, the ones performed in accordance with your reliable oath to David? 89:50 Take note, O Lord, of the way your servants are taunted, and of how I must bear so many insults from people! 89:51 Your enemies, O Lord, hurl insults; they insult your chosen king as they dog his footsteps. 89:52 The Lord deserves praise forevermore! We agree! We agree!

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Psa 89:47

¹ tn Heb “remember me, what is [my] lifespan.” The Hebrew term חֶלֶד (kheled) is also used of one’s lifespan in Ps 39:5. Because the Hebrew text is so awkward here, some prefer to emend it to read מֶה חָדֵל אָנִי (meh khadel ’aniy, “[remember] how transient [that is, “short-lived”] I am”; see Ps 39:4).

² tn Heb “For what emptiness do you create all the sons of mankind?” In this context the term שָׁוְא (shavah) refers to mankind’s mortal nature and the brevity of life (see vv. 45, 48).

NET Notes: Psa 89:48

¹ tn Heb “Who [is] the man [who] can live and not see death, [who] can deliver his life from the hand of Sheol?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “No one!”

NET Notes: Psa 89:49

¹ sn The Lord’s faithful deeds are also mentioned in Pss 17:7 and 25:6.

² tc Many medieval Hebrew mss read here יְהוָה (yehvah, “the Lord”).

³ tn Heb “[which] you swore on oath to David by your faithfulness.”

NET Notes: Psa 89:50

¹ tc Many medieval Hebrew mss read here יְהוָה (yehvah, “the Lord”).

² tn Heb “remember, O Lord, the taunt against your servants.” Many medieval Hebrew mss read the singular here, “your servant” (that is, the psalmist).

³ tn Heb “my lifting up in my arms [or “against my chest”] all of the many, peoples.” The term רַבִּים (rabbim, “many”) makes no apparent sense here. For this reason some emend the text to רִבֵי (rivey, “attacks by”), a defectively written plural construct form of רִיב (riv, “dispute; quarrel”).

NET Notes: Psa 89:51

¹ tn Heb “[by] which your enemies, O Lord, taunt, [by] which they taunt [at] the heels of your anointed one.”

NET Notes: Psa 89:52

¹ sn The final verse of Ps 89, v. 52, is a conclusion to this third “book” (or major editorial division) of the Psalter. Similar statements appear at or near the end of each of the first, second and fourth “books” of the Psalter (see Pss 41:13; 72:18-19; 106:48, respectively).

² tn Heb “[be] blessed.” See Pss 18:46; 28:6; 31:21.

³ tn Heb “surely and surely” (אָמֵן וְאָמֵן [’amen vÿ’amen], i.e., “Amen and amen”). This is probably a congregational response to the immediately preceding statement about the propriety of praising God; thus it has been translated “We agree! We agree!”