Psalms 33:2

33:2 Give thanks to the Lord with the harp!

Sing to him to the accompaniment of a ten-stringed instrument!

Psalms 92:3-4

92:3 to the accompaniment of a ten-stringed instrument and a lyre,

to the accompaniment of the meditative tone of the harp.

92:4 For you, O Lord, have made me happy by your work.

I will sing for joy because of what you have done. ¹ 

Psalms 92:1

Psalm 92 ² 

A psalm; a song for the Sabbath day.

92:1 It is fitting ³  to thank the Lord,

and to sing praises to your name, O sovereign One! ⁴ 

Psalms 15:1

Psalm 15 ⁵ 

A psalm of David.

15:1 Lord, who may be a guest in your home? ⁶ 

Who may live on your holy hill? ⁷ 

Psalms 25:1-6

Psalm 25 ⁸ 

By David.

25:1 O Lord, I come before you in prayer. ⁹ 

25:2 My God, I trust in you.

Please do not let me be humiliated;

do not let my enemies triumphantly rejoice over me!

25:3 Certainly none who rely on you will be humiliated.

Those who deal in treachery will be thwarted ¹⁰  and humiliated.

25:4 Make me understand your ways, O Lord!

Teach me your paths! ¹¹ 

25:5 Guide me into your truth ¹²  and teach me.

For you are the God who delivers me;

on you I rely all day long.

25:6 Remember ¹³  your compassionate and faithful deeds, O Lord,

for you have always acted in this manner. ¹⁴ 

Psalms 25:2

25:2 My God, I trust in you.

Please do not let me be humiliated;

do not let my enemies triumphantly rejoice over me!

Psalms 29:1

Psalm 29 ¹⁵ 

A psalm of David.

29:1 Acknowledge the Lord, you heavenly beings, ¹⁶ 

acknowledge the Lord’s majesty and power! ¹⁷ 

Revelation 5:8

5:8 and when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders threw themselves to the ground ¹⁸  before the Lamb. Each ¹⁹  of them had a harp and golden bowls full of incense (which are the prayers of the saints). ²⁰ 

Revelation 14:2-3

14:2 I also heard a sound ²¹  coming out of heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. Now ²²  the sound I heard was like that made by harpists playing their harps, 14:3 and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No ²³  one was able to learn the song except the one hundred and forty-four thousand who had been redeemed from the earth.

¹ tn Heb “the works of your hands.”

² sn Psalm 92. The psalmist praises God because he defeats the wicked and vindicates his loyal followers.

³ tn Or “good.”

⁴ tn Traditionally “O Most High.”

⁵ sn Psalm 15. This psalm describes the character qualities that one must possess to be allowed access to the divine presence.

⁶ tn Heb “Who may live as a resident alien in your tent?”

⁷ sn In this context the Lord’s holy hill probably refers to Zion/Jerusalem. See Isa 66:20; Joel 2:1; 3:17; Zech 8:3; Pss 2:6; 43:3; 48:1; 87:1; Dan 9:16.

⁸ sn Psalm 25. The psalmist asks for divine protection, guidance and forgiveness as he affirms his loyalty to and trust in the Lord. This psalm is an acrostic; every verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet, except for v. 18, which, like v. 19, begins with ר (resh) instead of the expected ק (qof). The final verse, which begins with פ (pe), stands outside the acrostic scheme.

⁹ tn Heb “to you, O Lord, my life I lift up.” To “lift up” one’s “life” to the Lord means to express one’s trust in him through prayer. See Pss 86:4; 143:8.

¹⁰ tn Heb “those who deal in treachery in vain.” The adverb רֵיקָם (reqam, “in vain”) probably refers to the failure (or futility) of their efforts. Another option is to understand it as meaning “without cause” (cf. NIV “without excuse”; NRSV “wantonly treacherous”).

¹¹ sn Teach me your paths. In this context the Lord’s “ways” and “paths” refer to the moral principles which the Lord prescribes for his followers. See vv. 8-10.

¹² sn The Lord’s commandments are referred to as truth here because they are a trustworthy and accurate expression of the divine will.

¹³ tn That is, “remember” with the intention of repeating.

¹⁴ tn Heb “for from antiquity [are] they.”

¹⁵ sn Psalm 29. In this hymn of praise the psalmist calls upon the heavenly assembly to acknowledge the royal splendor of the Lord. He describes the Lord’s devastating power as revealed in the thunderstorm and affirms that the Lord exerts this awesome might on behalf of his people. In its original context the psalm was a bold polemic against the Canaanite storm god Baal, for it affirms that the Lord is the real king who controls the elements of the storm, contrary to pagan belief. See R. B. Chisholm, Jr., “The Polemic against Baalism in Israel’s Early History and Literature,” BSac 150 (1994): 280-82.

¹⁶ tc Heb “sons of gods,” or “sons of God.” Though אֵלִים (’elim) is vocalized as a plural form (“gods”) in the MT, it is likely that the final mem is actually enclitic, rather than a plural marker. In this case one may read “God.” Some, following a Qumran text and the LXX, also propose the phrase occurred in the original text of Deut 32:8.

¹⁷ tn Or “ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.”

¹⁸ tn Grk “fell down.” BDAG 815 s.v. πίπτω 1.b.α.ב. has “fall down, throw oneself to the ground as a sign of devotion or humility, before high-ranking persons or divine beings.”

¹⁹ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

²⁰ sn This interpretive comment by the author forms a parenthesis in the narrative.

²¹ tn Or “a voice” (cf. Rev 1:15), but since in this context nothing is mentioned as the content of the voice, it is preferable to translate φωνή (fwnh) as “sound” here.

²² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the introduction of a new topic.

²³ tn Grk “elders, and no one.” This is a continuation of the previous sentence in the Greek text, but because of the length and complexity of the sentence a new sentence was started here in the translation.