73:25 Whom do I have in heaven but you?
I desire no one but you on earth. 1
73:26 My flesh and my heart may grow weak, 2
but God always 3 protects my heart and gives me stability. 4
73:27 Yes, 5 look! Those far from you 6 die;
you destroy everyone who is unfaithful to you. 7
73:28 But as for me, God’s presence is all I need. 8
I have made the sovereign Lord my shelter,
as 9 I declare all the things you have done.
1 tn Heb “Who [is there] for me in heaven? And besides you I do not desire [anyone] in the earth.” The psalmist uses a merism (heaven/earth) to emphasize that God is the sole object of his desire and worship in the entire universe.
2 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).
3 tn Or “forever.”
4 tn Heb “is the rocky summit of my heart and my portion.” The psalmist compares the
5 tn Or “for.”
6 sn The following line defines the phrase far from you in a spiritual sense. Those “far” from God are those who are unfaithful and disloyal to him.
7 tn Heb “everyone who commits adultery from you.”
8 tn Heb “but as for me, the nearness of God for me [is] good.”
9 tn The infinitive construct with -לְ (lÿ) is understood here as indicating an attendant circumstance. Another option is to take it as indicating purpose (“so that I might declare”) or result (“with the result that I declare”).