7:18 King David went in, sat before the Lord, and said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my family, 1 that you should have brought me to this point? 7:19 And you didn’t stop there, O Lord God! You have also spoken about the future of your servant’s family. 2 Is this your usual way of dealing with men, 3 O Lord God? 7:20 What more can David say to you? You have given your servant special recognition, 4 O Lord God!
Written by David, when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, causing the king to send him away. 6
34:1 I will praise 7 the Lord at all times;
my mouth will continually praise him. 8
34:2 I will boast 9 in the Lord;
let the oppressed hear and rejoice! 10
34:3 Magnify the Lord with me!
Let’s praise 11 his name together!
34:4 I sought the Lord’s help 12 and he answered me;
he delivered me from all my fears.
34:5 Those who look to him for help are happy;
their faces are not ashamed. 13
34:6 This oppressed man cried out and the Lord heard;
he saved him 14 from all his troubles.
Book 5
(Psalms 107-150)
107:1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
and his loyal love endures! 16
107:8 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his loyal love,
and for the amazing things he has done for people! 17
107:15 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his loyal love,
and for the amazing things he has done for people! 18
107:43 Whoever is wise, let him take note of these things!
Let them consider the Lord’s acts of loyal love!
116:1 I love the Lord
because he heard my plea for mercy, 20
116:2 and listened to me. 21
As long as I live, I will call to him when I need help. 22
116:3 The ropes of death tightened around me, 23
the snares 24 of Sheol confronted me.
I was confronted 25 with trouble and sorrow.
116:4 I called on the name of the Lord,
“Please Lord, rescue my life!”
116:5 The Lord is merciful and fair;
our God is compassionate.
116:6 The Lord protects 26 the untrained; 27
I was in serious trouble 28 and he delivered me.
116:7 Rest once more, my soul, 29
for the Lord has vindicated you. 30
1 tn Heb “house.”
2 tn Heb “and this was small in your eyes, O
3 tn Heb “and this [is] the law of man”; KJV “is this the manner of man, O Lord God?”; NAB “this too you have shown to man”; NRSV “May this be instruction for the people, O Lord God!” This part of the verse is very enigmatic; no completely satisfying solution has yet been suggested. The present translation tries to make sense of the MT by understanding the phrase as a question that underscores the uniqueness of God’s dealings with David as described here. The parallel passage in 1 Chr 17:17 reads differently (see the note there).
4 tn Heb “and you know your servant.” The verb here refers to recognizing another in a special way and giving them special treatment (see 1 Chr 17:18). Some English versions take this to refer to the Lord’s knowledge of David himself: CEV “you know my thoughts”; NLT “know what I am really like.”
5 sn Psalm 34. In this song of thanksgiving the psalmist praises God for delivering him from distress. He encourages others to be loyal to the Lord, tells them how to please God, and assures them that the Lord protects his servants. The psalm is an acrostic; vv. 1-21 begin with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. (Verse 6 begins with the letter he (ה) and v. 7 with the letter zayin (ז). The letter vav (ו), which comes between ה and ז, seems to be omitted, although it does appear at the beginning of v. 6b. The final verse of the psalm, which begins with the letter pe (פ), is outside the acrostic scheme.
6 tn Heb “By David, when he changed his sense before Abimelech and he drove him away and he went.”
7 tn Heb “bless.”
8 tn Heb “continually [will] his praise [be] in my mouth.”
9 tn Heb “my soul will boast”; or better, “let my soul boast.” Following the cohortative form in v. 1, it is likely that the prefixed verbal form here is jussive.
10 tn The two prefixed verbal forms in this verse are best taken as jussives, for the psalmist is calling his audience to worship (see v. 3).
11 tn Or “exalt.”
12 tn Heb “I sought the
13 tc Heb “they look to him and are radiant and their faces are not ashamed.” The third person plural subject (“they”) is unidentified; there is no antecedent in the Hebrew text. For this reason some prefer to take the perfect verbal forms in the first line as imperatives, “look to him and be radiant” (cf. NEB, NRSV). Some medieval Hebrew
14 tn The pronoun refers back to “this oppressed man,” namely, the psalmist.
15 sn Psalm 107. The psalmist praises God for his kindness to his exiled people.
16 tn Heb “for forever [is] his loyal love.”
17 tn Heb “and [for] his amazing deeds for the sons of man.”
18 tn Heb “and [for] his amazing deeds for the sons of man.” See v. 8.
19 sn Psalm 116. The psalmist thanks the Lord for delivering him from a life threatening crisis and promises to tell the entire covenant community what God has done for him.
20 tn Heb “I love because the
21 tn Heb “because he turned his ear to me.”
22 tn Heb “and in my days I will cry out.”
23 tn Heb “surrounded me.”
24 tn The Hebrew noun מצר (“straits; distress”) occurs only here, Ps 118:5 and Lam 1:3. If retained, it refers to Sheol as a place where one is confined or severely restricted (cf. BDB 865 s.v. מֵצַר, “the straits of Sheol”; NIV “the anguish of the grave”; NRSV “the pangs of Sheol”). However, HALOT 624 s.v. מֵצַר suggests an emendation to מְצָדֵי (mÿtsadey, “snares of”), a rare noun attested in Job 19:6 and Eccl 7:26. This proposal, which is reflected in the translation, produces better parallelism with “ropes” in the preceding line.
25 tn The translation assumes the prefixed verbal form is a preterite. The psalmist recalls the crisis from which the Lord delivered him.
26 tn Heb “guards.” The active participle indicates this is a characteristic of the
27 tn Or “the [morally] naive,” that is, the one who is young and still in the process of learning right from wrong and distinguishing wisdom from folly. See Ps 19:7.
28 tn Heb “I was low.”
29 tn Heb “return, my soul, to your place of rest.”
30 tn The Hebrew idiom גָּמַל עַל (gamal ’al) means “to repay,” here in a positive sense (cf. Ps 13:5).
31 tn The term συμβάλλουσα (sumballousa) suggests more than remembering. She is trying to put things together here (Josephus, Ant. 2.5.3 [2.72]). The words “what they might mean” have been supplied in the translation to make this clear. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.
32 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.
33 map For location see Map1-D3; Map2-C2; Map3-D5; Map4-C1; Map5-G3.
34 tn Or “was submitting.”
35 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast.
36 tn Or “all these words.”
37 sn On the phrase his mother kept all these things in her heart compare Luke 2:19.