Psalms 37:22-25

37:22 Surely ¹  those favored by the Lord ²  will possess the land,

but those rejected ³  by him will be wiped out. ⁴ 

37:23 The Lord grants success to the one

whose behavior he finds commendable. ⁵ 

37:24 Even if ⁶  he trips, he will not fall headlong, ⁷ 

for the Lord holds ⁸  his hand.

37:25 I was once young, now I am old.

I have never seen a godly man abandoned,

or his children ⁹  forced to search for food. ¹⁰ 

¹ tn The particle כִּי is best understood as asseverative or emphatic here.

² tn Heb “those blessed by him.” The pronoun “him” must refer to the Lord (see vv. 20, 23), so the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Heb “cursed.”

⁴ tn Or “cut off”; or “removed” (see v. 9).

⁵ tn Heb “from the Lord the steps of a man are established, and in his way he delights.” The second line qualifies the first. The man whose behavior is commendable in God’s sight is the one whose ways are established by God. Another option is that the second line refers to the godly man delighting in God’s “way,” namely the lifestyle which he prescribes for men. In this case one might translate, “The Lord grants success to the one who desires to obey his commands.”

⁹ tn Other translation options for כִּי in this context are “when” (so NASB) or “though” (so NEB, NIV, NRSV).

¹⁰ tn Heb “be hurled down.”

¹¹ tn The active participle indicates this is characteristically true. See v. 17.

¹³ tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “or his offspring searching for food.” The expression “search for food” also appears in Lam 1:11, where Jerusalem’s refugees are forced to search for food and to trade their valuable possessions for something to eat.