5:7 But as for me, 1 because of your great faithfulness I will enter your house; 2
I will bow down toward your holy temple as I worship you. 3
66:13 I will enter 4 your temple with burnt sacrifices;
I will fulfill the vows I made to you,
66:14 which my lips uttered
and my mouth spoke when I was in trouble.
118:19 Open for me the gates of the just king’s temple! 5
I will enter through them and give thanks to the Lord.
A song of ascents, 7 by David.
122:1 I was glad because 8 they said to me,
“We will go to the Lord’s temple.”
2:3 many peoples will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain,
to the temple of the God of Jacob,
so 9 he can teach us his requirements, 10
and 11 we can follow his standards.” 12
For Zion will be the center for moral instruction; 13
the Lord will issue edicts from Jerusalem. 14
1 sn But as for me. By placing the first person pronoun at the beginning of the verse, the psalmist highlights the contrast between the evildoers’ actions and destiny, outlined in the preceding verses, with his own.
2 sn I will enter your house. The psalmist is confident that God will accept him into his presence, in contrast to the evildoers (see v. 5).
3 tn Heb “in fear [of] you.” The Hebrew noun יִרְאָה (yir’ah, “fear”), when used of fearing God, is sometimes used metonymically for what it ideally produces: “worship, reverence, piety.”
4 sn Here the psalmist switches to the singular; he speaks as the representative of the nation.
5 tn Heb “the gates of justice.” The gates of the
6 sn Psalm 122. The psalmist expresses his love for Jerusalem and promises to pray for the city’s security.
7 sn The precise significance of this title, which appears in Pss 120-134, is unclear. Perhaps worshipers recited these psalms when they ascended the road to Jerusalem to celebrate annual religious festivals. For a discussion of their background see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 219-21.
8 tn Heb “in the ones saying to me.” After the verb שָׂמַח (samakh), the preposition בְּ (bet) usually introduces the reason for joy.
9 tn The prefixed verb form with simple vav (ו) introduces a purpose/result clause after the preceding prefixed verb form (probably to be taken as a cohortative; see IBHS 650 §39.2.2a).
10 tn Heb “his ways.” In this context God’s “ways” are the standards of moral conduct he decrees that people should live by.
11 tn The cohortative with vav (ו) after the prefixed verb form indicates the ultimate purpose/goal of their action.
12 tn Heb “walk in his ways.”
13 tn Heb “for out of Zion will go instruction.”
14 tn Heb “the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”