Psalms 5:12

5:12 Certainly you reward the godly, Lord.

Like a shield you protect them in your good favor.

Psalms 31:18

31:18 May lying lips be silenced –

lips that speak defiantly against the innocent

with arrogance and contempt!

Psalms 37:25

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

I have never seen a godly man abandoned,

or his children forced to search for food. 10 

Psalms 58:10

58:10 The godly 11  will rejoice when they see vengeance carried out;

they will bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked.

Psalms 64:10

64:10 The godly will rejoice in the Lord

and take shelter in him.

All the morally upright 12  will boast. 13 


tn Or “For.”

tn Or “bless.” The imperfect verbal forms here and in the next line highlight how God characteristically rewards and protects the godly.

tn Or “innocent.” The singular form is used here in a collective or representative sense.

tn Heb “surround.” In 1 Sam 23:26 the verb describes how Saul and his men hemmed David in as they chased him.

tn Heb “him.” The singular form is used here in a collective or representative sense and is thus translated “them.”

tn Or “with favor” (cf. NRSV). There is no preposition before the noun in the Hebrew text, nor is there a pronoun attached. “Favor” here stands by metonymy for God’s defensive actions on behalf of the one whom he finds acceptable.

tn Heb “the [ones which].”

tn Or “godly.”

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.

19 tn The singular is representative here, as is the singular from “wicked” in the next line.

25 tn Heb “upright in heart.”

26 tn That is, about the Lord’s accomplishments on their behalf.