Psalms 148:14

148:14 He has made his people victorious, ¹ 

and given all his loyal followers reason to praise –

the Israelites, the people who are close to him. ² 

Praise the Lord!

Psalms 148:1

Psalm 148 ³ 

148:1 Praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord from the sky!

Praise him in the heavens!

Colossians 1:2-3

1:2 to the saints, the faithful ⁴  brothers and sisters ⁵  in Christ, at Colossae. Grace and peace to you ⁶  from God our Father! ⁷ 

Paul’s Thanksgiving and Prayer for the Church

1:3 We always ⁸  give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,

Revelation 3:21

3:21 I will grant the one ⁹  who conquers ¹⁰  permission ¹¹  to sit with me on my throne, just as I too conquered ¹²  and sat down with my Father on his throne.

¹ 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.

² 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.

³ sn Psalm 148. The psalmist calls upon all creation to praise the Lord, for he is the creator and sovereign king of the world.

⁴ tn Grk “and faithful.” The construction in Greek (as well as Paul’s style) suggests that the saints are identical to the faithful; hence, the καί (kai) is best left untranslated (cf. Eph 1:1). See ExSyn 281-82.

⁵ tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” or “fellow Christians” as here (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited).

⁶ tn Or “Grace to you and peace.”

⁷ tc Most witnesses, including some important ones (א A C F G I [P] 075 Ï it bo), read “and the Lord Jesus Christ” at the end of this verse, no doubt to conform the wording to the typical Pauline salutation. However, excellent and early witnesses (B D K L Ψ 33 81 1175 1505 1739 1881 al sa) lack this phrase. Since the omission is inexplicable as arising from the longer reading (otherwise, these mss would surely have deleted the phrase in the rest of the corpus Paulinum), it is surely authentic.

⁸ tn The adverb πάντοτε (pantote) is understood to modify the indicative εὐχαριστοῦμεν (eucaristoumen) because it precedes περὶ ὑμῶν (peri Jumwn) which probably modifies the indicative and not the participle προσευχόμενοι (proseucomenoi). But see 1:9 where the same expression occurs and περὶ ὑμῶν modifies the participle “praying” (προσευχόμενοι).

⁹ tn Grk “The one who conquers, to him I will grant.”

¹⁰ tn Or “who is victorious”; traditionally, “who overcomes.”

¹¹ tn Grk “I will give [grant] to him.”

¹² tn Or “have been victorious”; traditionally, “have overcome.”