72:17 May his fame endure! 1
May his dynasty last as long as the sun remains in the sky! 2
May they use his name when they formulate their blessings! 3
May all nations consider him to be favored by God! 4
72:18 The Lord God, the God of Israel, deserves praise! 5
He alone accomplishes amazing things! 6
72:19 His glorious name deserves praise 7 forevermore!
May his majestic splendor 8 fill the whole earth!
We agree! We agree! 9
By David.
103:1 Praise the Lord, O my soul!
With all that is within me, praise 11 his holy name!
103:2 Praise the Lord, O my soul!
Do not forget all his kind deeds! 12
103:3 He is the one who forgives all your sins,
who heals all your diseases, 13
103:4 who delivers 14 your life from the Pit, 15
who crowns you with his loyal love and compassion,
103:5 who satisfies your life with good things, 16
so your youth is renewed like an eagle’s. 17
103:6 The Lord does what is fair,
and executes justice for all the oppressed. 18
103:7 The Lord revealed his faithful acts 19 to Moses,
his deeds to the Israelites.
103:8 The Lord is compassionate and merciful;
he is patient 20 and demonstrates great loyal love. 21
103:9 He does not always accuse,
and does not stay angry. 22
103:10 He does not deal with us as our sins deserve; 23
he does not repay us as our misdeeds deserve. 24
103:11 For as the skies are high above the earth,
so his loyal love towers 25 over his faithful followers. 26
103:12 As far as the eastern horizon 27 is from the west, 28
so he removes the guilt of our rebellious actions 29 from us.
103:13 As a father has compassion on his children, 30
so the Lord has compassion on his faithful followers. 31
103:14 For he knows what we are made of; 32
he realizes 33 we are made of clay. 34
103:15 A person’s life is like grass. 35
Like a flower in the field it flourishes,
103:16 but when the hot wind 36 blows by, it disappears,
and one can no longer even spot the place where it once grew.
103:17 But the Lord continually shows loyal love to his faithful followers, 37
and is faithful to their descendants, 38
103:18 to those who keep his covenant,
who are careful to obey his commands. 39
103:19 The Lord has established his throne in heaven;
his kingdom extends over everything. 40
103:20 Praise the Lord, you angels of his,
you powerful warriors who carry out his decrees
and obey his orders! 41
103:21 Praise the Lord, all you warriors of his, 42
you servants of his who carry out his desires! 43
103:22 Praise the Lord, all that he has made, 44
in all the regions 45 of his kingdom!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
1:3 Blessed 46 is 47 the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed 48 us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ.
1 tn Heb “may his name [be] permanent.” The prefixed verbal form is jussive, not imperfect.
2 tn Heb “before the sun may his name increase.” The Kethib (consonantal text) assumes יָנִין (yanin; a Hiphil of the verbal root נִין, nin) or יְנַיֵן (yÿnayen; a Piel form), while the Qere (marginal reading) assumes יִנּוֹן (yinnon; a Niphal form). The verb נִין occurs only here, though a derived noun, meaning “offspring,” appears elsewhere (see Isa 14:22). The verb appears to mean “propagate, increase” (BDB 630 s.v. נוּן, נִין) or “produce shoots, get descendants” (HALOT 696 s.v. נין). In this context this appears to be a prayer for a lasting dynasty that will keep the king’s name and memory alive.
3 tn Heb “may they bless one another by him,” that is, use the king’s name in their blessing formulae because he is a prime example of one blessed by God (for examples of such blessing formulae, see Gen 48:20 and Ruth 4:11). There is some debate on whether the Hitpael form of בָּרַךְ (barakh, “bless”) is reflexive-reciprocal (as assumed in the present translation) or passive. The Hitpael of בָּרַךְ occurs in five other passages, including the hotly debated Gen 22:18 and 26:4. In these two texts one could understand the verb form as passive and translate, “all the nations of the earth will be blessed through your offspring,” or one could take the Hitpael as reflexive or reciprocal and translate, “all the nations of the earth will pronounce blessings [i.e., on themselves or one another] by your offspring.” In the first instance Abraham’s (or Isaac’s) offspring are viewed as a channel of divine blessing. In the second instance they are viewed as a prime example of blessing that will appear as part of the nations’ blessing formulae, but not necessarily as a channel of blessing to the nations. In Deut 29:18 one reads: “When one hears the words of this covenant [or “oath”] and invokes a blessing on himself (Hitpael of בָּרַךְ) in his heart, saying: ‘I will have peace, even though I walk with a rebellious heart.’” In this case the Hitpael is clearly reflexive, as the phrases “in his heart” and “I will have peace” indicate. The Hitpael of בָּרַךְ appears twice in Isaiah 65:16: “The one who invokes a blessing on himself (see Deut 9:18) in the land will invoke that blessing by the God of truth; and the one who makes an oath in the land will make that oath by the God of truth.” A passive nuance does not fit here. The parallel line, which mentions making an oath, suggests that the Hitpael of בָּרַךְ refers here to invoking a blessing. Both pronouncements of blessing and oaths will appeal to God as the one who rewards and judges, respectively. Jer 4:2 states: “If you swear, ‘As surely as the
4 tn Heb “all the nations, may they regard him as happy.” The Piel is used here in a delocutive sense (“regard as”).
5 tn Heb “[be] blessed.” See Pss 18:46; 28:6; 31:21; 41:13.
6 tn Heb “[the] one who does amazing things by himself.”
7 tn Heb “[be] blessed.”
8 tn Or “glory.”
9 tn Heb “surely and surely” (אָמֵן וְאָמֵן [’amen vÿ’amen], i.e., “Amen and amen”). This is probably a congregational response of agreement to the immediately preceding statement about the propriety of praising God.
10 sn Psalm 103. The psalmist praises God for his mercy and willingness to forgive his people.
11 tn The verb “praise” is understood by ellipsis in the second line (see the preceding line).
12 tn Or “his benefits” (see 2 Chr 32:25, where the noun is also used of kind deeds performed by the
13 tn This relatively rare noun refers to deadly diseases (see Deut 29:22; Jer 14:18; 16:4; 2 Chr 21:19).
14 tn Or “redeems.”
15 tn The Hebrew term שַׁחַת (shakhat, “pit”) is often used as a title for Sheol (see Pss 16:10; 30:9; 49:9; 55:24.
16 tc Heb “who satisfies with the good of your ornaments.” The text as it stands makes little, if any, sense. The translation assumes an emendation of עֶדְיֵךְ (’ed’ekh, “your ornaments”) to עֹדֵכִי (’odekhiy, “your duration; your continuance”) that is, “your life” (see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 18).
17 sn The expression your youth is renewed like an eagle’s may allude to the phenomenon of molting, whereby the eagle grows new feathers.
18 tn Heb “the
19 tn Heb “made known his ways.” God’s “ways” in this context are his protective and salvific acts in fulfillment of his promise (see also Deut 32:4; Pss 18:30; 67:2; 77:13 [note vv. 11-12, 14]; 138:5; 145:17).
20 tn Heb “slow to anger” (see Ps 86:15).
21 tn Heb “and great of loyal love” (see Ps 86:15).
22 tn The Hebrew verb נָטַר (natar) is usually taken to mean “to keep; to guard,” with “anger” being understood by ellipsis. The idiom “to guard anger” is then understood to mean “to remain angry” (see Lev 19:18; Jer 3:5, 12; Nah 1:2). However, it is possible that this is a homonymic root meaning “to be angry” (see HALOT 695 s.v. נטר).
23 tn Heb “not according to our sins does he do to us.”
24 tn Heb “and not according to our misdeeds does he repay us.”
25 tn For this sense of the verb גָבַר (gavar), see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 17, 19.
26 tn Heb “those who fear him.”
27 tn Heb “sunrise.”
28 tn Or “sunset.”
29 tn The Hebrew term פֶּשַׁע (pesha’, rebellious act”) is here used metonymically for the guilt such actions produce.
30 tn Or “sons,” but the Hebrew term sometimes refers to children in general.
31 tn Heb “those who fear him.”
32 tn Heb “our form.”
33 tn Heb “remembers.”
34 tn Heb “we [are] clay.”
35 tn Heb “[as for] mankind, like grass [are] his days.” The Hebrew noun אֱנוֹשׁ (’enosh) is used here generically of human beings. What is said is true of all mankind.
36 tn Heb “[the] wind.” The word “hot” is supplied in the translation for clarification.
37 tn Heb “but the loyal love of the
38 tn Heb “and his righteousness to sons of sons.”
39 tn Heb “to those who remember his precepts to do them.”
40 tn Heb “his kingdom rules over all.”
41 tn Heb “[you] mighty ones of strength, doers of his word, by listening to the voice of his word.”
42 tn Heb “all his hosts.”
43 tn Heb “his attendants, doers of his desire.”
44 tn Heb “all his works,” which includes mankind.
45 tn Heb “places.”
46 sn Eph 1:3-14 comprises one long sentence in Greek, with three major sections. Each section ends with a note of praise for God (vv. 6, 12, 14), focusing on a different member of the Trinity. After an opening summary of all the saints’ spiritual blessings (v. 3), the first section (vv. 4-6) offers up praise that the Father has chosen us in eternity past; the second section (vv. 7-12) offers up praise that the Son has redeemed us in the historical past (i.e., at the cross); the third section (vv. 13-14) offers up praise that the Holy Spirit has sealed us in our personal past, at the point of conversion.
47 tn There is no verb in the Greek text; either the optative (“be”) or the indicative (“is”) can be supplied. The meaning of the term εὐλογητός (euloghtos), the author’s intention at this point in the epistle, and the literary genre of this material must all come into play to determine which is the preferred nuance. εὐλογητός as an adjective can mean either that one is praised or that one is blessed, that is, in a place of favor and benefit. The meaning “blessed” would be more naturally paired with an indicative verb here and would suggest that blessedness is an intrinsic part of God’s character. The meaning “praised” would be more naturally paired with an optative verb here and would suggest that God ought to be praised. Pauline style in the epistles generally moves from statements to obligations, expressing the reality first and then the believer’s necessary response, which would favor the indicative. However, many scholars regard Eph 1:3-14 as a berakah psalm (cf. A. T. Lincoln, Ephesians [WBC], 10-11). Rooted in the OT and Jewish worship, berakah psalms were songs of praise in which the worshiper gave praise to God; this would favor the optative (although not all scholars are agreed on this genre classification here; see H. W. Hoehner, Ephesians, 153-59, for discussion and an alternate conclusion). When considered as a whole, although a decision is difficult, the indicative seems to fit all the factors better. The author seems to be pointing to who God is and what he has done for believers in this section; the indicative more naturally fits that emphasis. Cf. also 2 Cor 1:3; 1 Pet 1:3.
48 tn Or “enriched,” “conferred blessing.”