Psalms 22:22-25

22:22 I will declare your name to my countrymen! ¹ 

In the middle of the assembly I will praise you!

22:23 You loyal followers of the Lord, ²  praise him!

All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!

All you descendants of Israel, stand in awe of him! ³ 

22:24 For he did not despise or detest the suffering ⁴  of the oppressed; ⁵ 

he did not ignore him; ⁶ 

when he cried out to him, he responded. ⁷ 

22:25 You are the reason I offer praise ⁸  in the great assembly;

I will fulfill my promises before the Lord’s loyal followers. ⁹ 

Psalms 35:18

35:18 Then I will give you thanks in the great assembly; ¹⁰ 

I will praise you before a large crowd of people! ¹¹ 

Psalms 107:32

107:32 Let them exalt him in the assembly of the people!

Let them praise him in the place where the leaders preside! ¹² 

Psalms 111:1

Psalm 111 ¹³ 

111:1 Praise the Lord!

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart,

in the assembly of the godly and the congregation.

Psalms 116:12-18

116:12 How can I repay the Lord

for all his acts of kindness to me?

116:13 I will celebrate my deliverance, ¹⁴ 

and call on the name of the Lord.

116:14 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord

before all his people.

116:15 The Lord values

the lives of his faithful followers. ¹⁵ 

116:16 Yes, Lord! I am indeed your servant;

I am your lowest slave. ¹⁶ 

You saved me from death. ¹⁷ 

116:17 I will present a thank offering to you,

and call on the name of the Lord.

116:18 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord

before all his people,

Psalms 138:1

Psalm 138 ¹⁸ 

By David.

138:1 I will give you thanks with all my heart;

before the heavenly assembly ¹⁹  I will sing praises to you.

Psalms 138:4

138:4 Let all the kings of the earth give thanks ²⁰  to you, O Lord,

when they hear the words you speak. ²¹ 

Hebrews 2:12

2:12 saying, “I will proclaim your name to my brothers; ²²  in the midst of the assembly I will praise you.” ²³ 

¹ tn Or “brothers,” but here the term does not carry a literal familial sense. It refers to the psalmist’s fellow members of the Israelite covenant community (see v. 23).

² tn Heb “[you] fearers of the Lord.” See Ps 15:4.

³ tn Heb “fear him.”

⁴ tn Or “affliction”; or “need.”

⁵ sn In this verse the psalmist refers to himself in the third person and characterizes himself as oppressed.

⁶ tn Heb “he did not hide his face from him.” For other uses of the idiom “hide the face” meaning “ignore,” see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9. Sometimes the idiom carries the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 27:9; 88:14).

⁷ tn Heb “heard.”

⁸ tn Heb “from with you [is] my praise.”

⁹ tn Heb “my vows I will fulfill before those who fear him.” When asking the Lord for help, the psalmists would typically promise to praise the Lord publicly if he intervened and delivered them.

¹⁰ sn The great assembly is also mentioned in Ps 22:25.

¹¹ tn Heb “among numerous people.”

¹² tn Heb “in the seat of the elders.”

¹³ sn Psalm 111. The psalmist praises God for his marvelous deeds, especially the way in which he provides for and delivers his people. The psalm is an acrostic. After the introductory call to praise, every poetic line (twenty-two in all) begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

¹⁴ tn Heb “a cup of deliverance I will lift up.” Perhaps this alludes to a drink offering the psalmist will present as he thanks the Lord for his deliverance. See v. 17.

¹⁵ tn Heb “precious in the eyes of the Lord [is] the death of his godly ones.” The point is not that God delights in or finds satisfaction in the death of his followers! The psalmist, who has been delivered from death, affirms that the life-threatening experiences of God’s followers get God’s attention, just as a precious or rare object would attract someone’s eye. See Ps 72:14 for a similar expression of this belief.

¹⁶ tn Heb “I am your servant, the son of your female servant.” The phrase “son of a female servant” (see also Ps 86:16) is used of a son born to a secondary wife or concubine (Exod 23:12). In some cases the child’s father is the master of the house (see Gen 21:10, 13; Judg 9:18). The use of the expression here certainly does not imply that the Lord has such a secondary wife or concubine! It is used metaphorically and idiomatically to emphasize the psalmist’s humility before the Lord and his status as the Lord’s servant.

¹⁷ tn Heb “you have loosed my bonds.” In this context the imagery refers to deliverance from death (see v. 3).

¹⁸ sn Psalm 138. The psalmist vows to thank the Lord for his deliverance and protection.

¹⁹ tn The referent of the Hebrew term אֱלֹהִים (’elohim) is unclear. It refers either to the angelic assembly (see Gen 3:5; Ps 8:5) or to the pagan gods (see Pss 82:1, 6; 86:8; 97:7), in which case the psalmist’s praise takes on a polemical tone.

²⁰ tn The prefixed verbal forms here and in the following verse are understood as jussives, for the psalmist appears to be calling upon the kings to praise God. Another option is to take them as imperfects and translate, “the kings of the earth will give thanks…and will sing.” In this case the psalmist anticipates a universal response to his thanksgiving song.

²¹ tn Heb “the words of your mouth.”

²² tn Here, because of its occurrence in an OT quotation, τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς (tois adelfois) has been translated simply as “brothers” rather than “brothers and sisters” (see the note on the latter phrase in the previous verse).

²³ sn A quotation from Ps 22:22.