Psalms 57:8

57:8 Awake, my soul! ¹ 

Awake, O stringed instrument and harp!

I will wake up at dawn! ² 

Psalms 71:22

71:22 I will express my thanks to you with a stringed instrument,

praising ³  your faithfulness, O my God!

I will sing praises to you accompanied by a harp,

O Holy One of Israel! ⁴ 

Psalms 81:2

81:2 Sing ⁵  a song and play the tambourine,

the pleasant sounding harp, and the ten-stringed instrument!

Psalms 81:2

81:2 Sing ⁶  a song and play the tambourine,

the pleasant sounding harp, and the ten-stringed instrument!

Psalms 6:5

6:5 For no one remembers you in the realm of death, ⁷ 

In Sheol who gives you thanks? ⁸ 

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 ⁹  before the Lamb. Each ¹⁰  of them had a harp and golden bowls full of incense (which are the prayers of the saints). ¹¹ 

¹ tn Heb “glory,” but that makes little sense in the context. Some view כָּבוֹד (kavod, “glory”) here as a metonymy for man’s inner being (see BDB 459 s.v. II כָּבוֹד 5), but it is preferable to emend the form to כְּבֵדִי (kÿvediy, “my liver”). Like the heart, the liver is viewed as the seat of one’s emotions. See also Pss 16:9; 30:12; 108:1, as well as H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 64, and M. Dahood, Psalms (AB), 1:90. For an Ugaritic example of the heart/liver as the source of joy, see G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 47-48: “her [Anat’s] liver swelled with laughter, her heart was filled with joy, the liver of Anat with triumph.”

² tn BDB 1007 s.v. שַׁחַר takes “dawn” as an adverbial accusative, though others understand it as a personified direct object. “Dawn” is used metaphorically for the time of deliverance and vindication the psalmist anticipates. When salvation “dawns,” the psalmist will “wake up” in praise.

³ tn The word “praising” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁴ sn The basic sense of the word “holy” is “set apart from that which is commonplace, special, unique.” The Lord’s holiness is first and foremost his transcendent sovereignty as the ruler of the world. He is “set apart” from the world over which he rules. At the same time his holiness encompasses his moral authority, which derives from his royal position. As king he has the right to dictate to his subjects how they are to live; indeed his very own character sets the standard for proper behavior.

⁵ tn Heb “lift up.”

⁶ tn Heb “lift up.”

⁷ tn Heb “for there is not in death your remembrance.” The Hebrew noun זֵכֶר (zekher, “remembrance”) here refers to the name of the Lord as invoked in liturgy and praise. Cf. Pss 30:4; 97:12. “Death” here refers to the realm of death where the dead reside. See the reference to Sheol in the next line.

⁸ tn The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “no one.”

⁹ 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.”

¹⁰ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

¹¹ sn This interpretive comment by the author forms a parenthesis in the narrative.