Psalms 16:5-6

16:5 Lord, you give me stability and prosperity; ¹ 

you make my future secure. ² 

16:6 It is as if I have been given fertile fields

or received a beautiful tract of land. ³ 

Psalms 115:13

115:13 He will bless his loyal followers, ⁴ 

both young and old. ⁵ 

Malachi 3:16-18

3:16 Then those who respected ⁶  the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord took notice. ⁷  A scroll ⁸  was prepared before him in which were recorded the names of those who respected the Lord and honored his name. 3:17 “They will belong to me,” says the Lord who rules over all, “in the day when I prepare my own special property. ⁹  I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. 3:18 Then once more you will see that I make a distinction between ¹⁰  the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one who does not.

Acts 10:35

10:35 but in every nation ¹¹  the person who fears him ¹²  and does what is right ¹³  is welcomed before him.

¹ tn Heb “O Lord, the portion of my possession and my cup”; or “the Lord [is] the portion of my possession and my cup.” The psalmist compares the Lord to landed property, which was foundational to economic stability in ancient Israel, and to a cup of wine, which may symbolize a reward (in Ps 11:6 it symbolizes the judgment one deserves) or divine blessing (see Ps 23:5). The metaphor highlights the fact that God is the psalmist’s source of security and prosperity.

² tc Heb “you take hold of my lot.” The form תּוֹמִיךְ (tomikh) should be emended to a participle, תוֹמֵךְ (tomekh). The psalmist pictures the Lord as casting his lot (a method used to allot landed property) for him, thus assuring that he will receive a fertile piece of land (see v. 6). As in the previous line, land represents security and economic stability, thus “you make my future secure.”

³ tn Heb “measuring lines have fallen for me in pleasant [places]; yes, property [or “an inheritance”] is beautiful for me.” On the dative use of עַל, see BDB 758 s.v. II.8. Extending the metaphor used in v. 5, the psalmist compares the divine blessings he has received to a rich, beautiful tract of land that one might receive by allotment or inheritance.

⁴ tn Heb “the fearers of the Lord.”

⁵ tn Heb “the small along with the great.” The translation assumes that “small” and “great” here refer to age (see 2 Chr 15:13). Another option is to translate “both the insignificant and the prominent” (see Job 3:19; cf. NEB “high and low alike”).

⁶ tn Or “fear” (so NAB); NRSV “revered”; NCV “honored.”

⁷ tn Heb “heard and listened”; NAB “listened attentively.”

⁸ sn The scroll mentioned here is a “memory book” (סֵפֶר זִכָּרוֹן, sefer zikkaron) in which the Lord keeps an ongoing record of the names of all the redeemed (see Exod 32:32; Isa 4:3; Dan 12:1; Rev 20:12-15).

⁹ sn The Hebrew word סְגֻלָּה (sÿgullah, “special property”) is a technical term referring to all the recipients of God’s redemptive grace, especially Israel (Exod 19:5; Deut 7:6; 14:2; 26:18). The Lord says here that he will not forget even one individual in the day of judgment and reward.

¹⁰ tn Heb “you will see between.” Cf. NRSV, TEV, NLT “see the difference.”

¹¹ sn See Luke 24:47.

¹² tn Or “shows reverence for him.”

¹³ tn Grk “works righteousness”; the translation “does what is right” for this phrase in this verse is given by L&N 25.85.