Psalms 56:12

56:12 I am obligated to fulfill the vows I made to you, O God; ¹ 

I will give you the thank-offerings you deserve, ² 

Psalms 65:1

Psalm 65 ³ 

For the music director; a psalm of David, a song.

65:1 Praise awaits you, ⁴  O God, in Zion.

Vows made to you are fulfilled.

Psalms 66:13-14

66:13 I will enter ⁵  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.

Psalms 116:14-18

116:14 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord

before all his people.

116:15 The Lord values

the lives of his faithful followers. ⁶ 

116:16 Yes, Lord! I am indeed your servant;

I am your lowest slave. ⁷ 

You saved me from death. ⁸ 

116:17 I will present a thank offering to you,

and call on the name of the Lord.

116:18 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord

before all his people,

Psalms 119:106

119:106 I have vowed and solemnly sworn

to keep your just regulations.

Psalms 119:2

119:2 How blessed are those who observe his rules,

and seek him with all their heart,

Psalms 7:1

Psalm 7 ⁹ 

A musical composition ¹⁰  by David, which he sang to the Lord concerning ¹¹  a Benjaminite named Cush. ¹² 

7:1 O Lord my God, in you I have taken shelter. ¹³ 

Deliver me from all who chase me! Rescue me!

¹ tn Heb “upon me, O God, [are] your vows.”

² tn Heb “I will repay thank-offerings to you.”

³ sn Psalm 65. The psalmist praises God because he forgives sin and blesses his people with an abundant harvest.

⁴ tn Heb “for you, silence, praise.” Many prefer to emend the noun דֻּמִיָּה (dumiyyah, “silence”) to a participle דּוֹמִיָּה (domiyyah), from the root דָּמָה (damah, “be silent”), understood here in the sense of “wait.”

⁵ sn Here the psalmist switches to the singular; he speaks as the representative of the nation.

⁶ tn Heb “precious in the eyes of the Lord [is] the death of his godly ones.” The point is not that God delights in or finds satisfaction in the death of his followers! The psalmist, who has been delivered from death, affirms that the life-threatening experiences of God’s followers get God’s attention, just as a precious or rare object would attract someone’s eye. See Ps 72:14 for a similar expression of this belief.

⁷ tn Heb “I am your servant, the son of your female servant.” The phrase “son of a female servant” (see also Ps 86:16) is used of a son born to a secondary wife or concubine (Exod 23:12). In some cases the child’s father is the master of the house (see Gen 21:10, 13; Judg 9:18). The use of the expression here certainly does not imply that the Lord has such a secondary wife or concubine! It is used metaphorically and idiomatically to emphasize the psalmist’s humility before the Lord and his status as the Lord’s servant.

⁸ tn Heb “you have loosed my bonds.” In this context the imagery refers to deliverance from death (see v. 3).

⁹ sn Psalm 7. The psalmist asks the Lord to intervene and deliver him from his enemies. He protests his innocence and declares his confidence in God’s justice.

¹⁰ tn The precise meaning of the Hebrew term שִׁגָּיוֹן (shiggayon; translated here “musical composition”) is uncertain. Some derive the noun from the verbal root שָׁגָה (shagah, “swerve, reel”) and understand it as referring to a “wild, passionate song, with rapid changes of rhythm” (see BDB 993 s.v. שִׁגָּיוֹן). But this proposal is purely speculative. The only other appearance of the noun is in Hab 3:1, where it occurs in the plural.

¹¹ tn Or “on account of.”

¹² sn Apparently this individual named Cush was one of David’s enemies.

¹³ tn The Hebrew perfect verbal form probably refers here to a completed action with continuing results.