33:13 The Lord watches 1 from heaven;
he sees all people. 2
76:8 From heaven you announced what their punishment would be. 3
The earth 4 was afraid and silent
85:11 Faithfulness grows from the ground,
and deliverance looks down from the sky. 5
14:2 The Lord looks down from heaven 6 at the human race, 7
to see if there is anyone who is wise 8 and seeks God. 9
57:3 May he send help from heaven and deliver me 10
from my enemies who hurl insults! 11 (Selah)
May God send his loyal love and faithfulness!
80:14 O God, invincible warrior, 12 come back!
Look down from heaven and take notice!
Take care of this vine,
102:19 For he will look down from his sanctuary above; 13
from heaven the Lord will look toward earth, 14
53:2 God looks down from heaven 15 at the human race, 16
to see if there is anyone who is wise 17 and seeks God. 18
1 tn The Hebrew perfect verbal forms in v. 13 state general facts.
2 tn Heb “all the sons of men.”
3 tn Heb “a [legal] decision,” or “sentence.”
4 tn “The earth” stands here by metonymy for its inhabitants.
5 sn The psalmist already sees undeniable signs of God’s faithfulness and expects deliverance to arrive soon.
7 sn The picture of the
8 tn Heb “upon the sons of man.”
9 tn Or “acts wisely.” The Hiphil is exhibitive.
10 sn Anyone who is wise and seeks God refers to the person who seeks to have a relationship with God by obeying and worshiping him.
9 tn Heb “may he send from heaven and deliver me.” The prefixed verbal forms are understood as jussives expressing the psalmist’s prayer. The second verb, which has a vav (ו) conjunctive prefixed to it, probably indicates purpose. Another option is to take the forms as imperfects expressing confidence, “he will send from heaven and deliver me” (cf. NRSV).
10 tn Heb “he hurls insults, one who crushes me.” The translation assumes that this line identifies those from whom the psalmist seeks deliverance. (The singular is representative; the psalmist is surrounded by enemies, see v. 4.) Another option is to understand God as the subject of the verb חָרַף (kharaf), which could then be taken as a homonym of the more common root חָרַף (“insult”) meaning “confuse.” In this case “one who crushes me” is the object of the verb. One might translate, “he [God] confuses my enemies.”
11 tn Heb “O God, hosts.” One expects the construct form אֱלֹהֵי before צְבָאוֹת (tsÿva’ot, “hosts”; see Ps 89:9), but יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים (yehvah ’elohim) precedes צְבָאוֹת (tsÿva’ot) in Pss 59:5 and 84:8 as well. See also vv. 4, 7 for a similar construction.
13 tn Heb “from the height of his sanctuary.”
14 tn The perfect verbal forms in v. 19 are functioning as future perfects, indicating future actions that will precede the future developments described in v. 18.
15 sn The picture of the
16 tn Heb “upon the sons of man.”
17 tn Or “acts wisely.” The Hiphil is exhibitive.
18 tn That is, who seeks to have a relationship with God by obeying and worshiping him.