Psalms 73:23

73:23 But I am continually with you;

you hold my right hand.

Psalms 73:26

73:26 My flesh and my heart may grow weak, ¹ 

but God always ²  protects my heart and gives me stability. ³ 

Psalms 109:31

109:31 because he stands at the right hand of the needy,

to deliver him from those who threaten ⁴  his life.

Psalms 110:5

110:5 O sovereign Lord, ⁵  at your right hand

he strikes down ⁶  kings in the day he unleashes his anger. ⁷ 

Psalms 121:5

121:5 The Lord is your protector;

the Lord is the shade at your right hand.

¹ tn The Hebrew verb כָלָה (khalah, “to fail; to grow weak”) does not refer here to physical death per se, but to the physical weakness that sometimes precedes death (see Job 33:21; Pss 71:9; 143:7; Prov 5:11).

² tn Or “forever.”

³ tn Heb “is the rocky summit of my heart and my portion.” The psalmist compares the Lord to a rocky summit where one could go for protection and to landed property, which was foundational to economic stability in ancient Israel.

⁴ tn Heb “judge.”

⁵ tn As pointed in the Hebrew text, this title refers to God (many medieval Hebrew mss read יְהוָה, yehveh, “Lord” here). The present translation assumes that the psalmist here addresses the Lord as he celebrates what the king is able to accomplish while positioned at God’s “right hand.” According to this view the king is the subject of the third person verb forms in vv. 5b-7. (2) Another option is to understand the king as the addressee (as in vv. 2-3). In this case “the Lord” is the subject of the third person verbs throughout vv. 5-7 and is depicted as a warrior in a very anthropomorphic manner. In this case the Lord is pictured as being at the psalmist’s right hand (just the opposite of v. 1). See Pss 16:8; 121:5. (3) A third option is to revocalize אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “Lord”) as אֲדֹנִי (’adoniy, “my lord”; see v. 1). In this case one may translate, “My lord, at his [God’s] right hand, strikes down.” In this case the king is the subject of the third person verbs in vv. 5b-7.

⁶ tn The perfect verbal forms in vv. 5-6 are understood here as descriptive-dramatic or as generalizing. Another option is to take them as rhetorical. In this case the psalmist describes anticipated events as if they had already taken place.

⁷ tn Heb “in the day of his anger.”