Psalms 24:5

24:5 Such godly people are rewarded by the Lord, 1 

and vindicated by the God who delivers them. 2 

Psalms 118:23

118:23 This is the Lord’s work.

We consider it amazing! 3 

Psalms 109:20

109:20 May the Lord repay my accusers in this way, 4 

those who say evil things about 5  me! 6 

Psalms 27:4

27:4 I have asked the Lord for one thing –

this is what I desire!

I want to live 7  in the Lord’s house 8  all the days of my life,

so I can gaze at the splendor 9  of the Lord

and contemplate in his temple.

1 tn Heb “he (the righteous individual described in v. 4) lifts up a blessing from the Lord.” The singular subject is representative here, as v. 6 makes clear. The referent (godly people like the individual in v. 4) has been specified in the translation for clarity. The imperfect verbal form is generalizing; such people are typically rewarded for their deeds.

2 tn “and vindication from the God of his deliverance.”

3 tn Heb “it is amazing in our eyes.” The use of the plural pronoun here and in vv. 24-27 suggests that the psalmist may be speaking for the entire nation. However, it is more likely that vv. 22-27 are the people’s response to the psalmist’s thanksgiving song (see especially v. 26). They rejoice with him because his deliverance on the battlefield (see vv. 10-12) had national repercussions.

5 tn Heb “[may] this [be] the repayment to my accusers from the Lord.”

6 tn Or “against.”

7 tn The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “being; soul”) with a pronominal suffix is often equivalent to a pronoun, especially in poetry (see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 4.a).

7 tn Heb “my living.”

8 sn The Lord’s house. This probably refers to the tabernacle (if one accepts Davidic authorship) or the temple (see Judg 19:18; 1 Sam 1:7, 24; 2 Sam 12:20; 1 Kgs 7:12, 40, 45, 51).

9 tn Or “beauty.”