For the music director; a psalm of David.
64:1 Listen to me, 2 O God, as I offer my lament!
Protect 3 my life from the enemy’s terrifying attacks. 4
64:2 Hide me from the plots of evil men,
from the crowd of evildoers. 5
64:3 They 6 sharpen their tongues like a sword;
they aim their arrow, a slanderous charge, 7
64:4 in order to shoot down the innocent 8 in secluded places.
They shoot at him suddenly and are unafraid of retaliation. 9
64:5 They encourage one another to carry out their evil deed. 10
They plan how to hide 11 snares,
and boast, 12 “Who will see them?” 13
64:6 They devise 14 unjust schemes;
they disguise 15 a well-conceived plot. 16
Man’s inner thoughts cannot be discovered. 17
64:7 But God will shoot 18 at them;
suddenly they will be 19 wounded by an arrow. 20
64:8 Their slander will bring about their demise. 21
All who see them will shudder, 22
64:9 and all people will fear. 23
They will proclaim 24 what God has done,
and reflect on his deeds.
64:10 The godly will rejoice in the Lord
and take shelter in him.
All the morally upright 25 will boast. 26
For the music director; a psalm of David, a song.
65:1 Praise awaits you, 28 O God, in Zion.
Vows made to you are fulfilled.
65:2 You hear prayers; 29
all people approach you. 30
65:3 Our record of sins overwhelms me, 31
but you forgive 32 our acts of rebellion.
65:4 How blessed 33 is the one whom you choose,
and allow to live in your palace courts. 34
May we be satisfied with the good things of your house –
your holy palace. 35
65:5 You answer our prayers by performing awesome acts of deliverance,
O God, our savior. 36
All the ends of the earth trust in you, 37
as well as those living across the wide seas. 38
65:6 You created the mountains by your power, 39
and demonstrated your strength. 40
65:7 You calm the raging seas 41
and their roaring waves,
as well as the commotion made by the nations. 42
65:8 Even those living in the most remote areas are awestruck by your acts; 43
you cause those living in the east and west to praise you. 44
65:9 You visit the earth and give it rain; 45
you make it rich and fertile 46
with overflowing streams full of water. 47
You provide grain for them, 48
for you prepare the earth to yield its crops. 49
65:10 You saturate 50 its furrows,
and soak 51 its plowed ground. 52
With rain showers you soften its soil, 53
and make its crops grow. 54
65:11 You crown the year with your good blessings, 55
and you leave abundance in your wake. 56
65:12 The pastures in the wilderness glisten with moisture, 57
and the hills are clothed with joy. 58
65:13 The meadows are clothed with sheep,
and the valleys are covered with grain.
They shout joyfully, yes, they sing.
For the music director; a song, a psalm.
66:1 Shout out praise to God, all the earth!
66:2 Sing praises about the majesty of his reputation! 60
Give him the honor he deserves! 61
66:3 Say to God:
“How awesome are your deeds!
Because of your great power your enemies cower in fear 62 before you.
66:4 All the earth worships 63 you
and sings praises to you!
They sing praises to your name!” (Selah)
66:5 Come and witness 64 God’s exploits! 65
His acts on behalf of people are awesome! 66
66:6 He turned the sea into dry land; 67
they passed through the river on foot. 68
Let us rejoice in him there! 69
66:7 He rules 70 by his power forever;
he watches 71 the nations.
Stubborn rebels should not exalt 72 themselves. (Selah)
66:8 Praise 73 our God, you nations!
Loudly proclaim his praise! 74
66:9 He preserves our lives 75
and does not allow our feet to slip.
66:10 For 76 you, O God, tested us;
you purified us like refined silver.
66:11 You led us into a trap; 77
you caused us to suffer. 78
66:12 You allowed men to ride over our heads;
we passed through fire and water,
but you brought us out into a wide open place. 79
66:13 I will enter 80 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.
66:15 I will offer up to you fattened animals as burnt sacrifices,
along with the smell of sacrificial rams.
I will offer cattle and goats. (Selah)
66:16 Come! Listen, all you who are loyal to God! 81
I will declare what he has done for me.
66:17 I cried out to him for help 82
and praised him with my tongue. 83
66:18 If I had harbored sin in my heart, 84
the Lord would not have listened.
66:19 However, God heard;
he listened to my prayer.
66:20 God deserves praise, 85
for 86 he did not reject my prayer
or abandon his love for me! 87
1 sn Psalm 64. The psalmist asks God to protect him from his dangerous enemies and then confidently affirms that God will destroy his enemies and demonstrate his justice in the sight of all observers.
2 tn Heb “my voice.”
3 tn The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s request.
4 tn Heb “from the terror of [the] enemy.” “Terror” is used here metonymically for the enemy’s attacks that produce fear because they threaten the psalmist’s life.
5 tn Heb “workers of wickedness.”
6 tn Heb “who.” A new sentence was started here in the translation for stylistic reasons.
7 tn Heb “a bitter word.”
8 tn The psalmist uses the singular because he is referring to himself here as representative of a larger group.
9 tn Heb “and are unafraid.” The words “of retaliation” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
10 tn Heb “they give strength to themselves, an evil matter [or “word”].”
11 tn Heb “they report about hiding.”
12 tn Heb “they say.”
13 tn If this is a direct quotation (cf. NASB, NIV), the pronoun “them” refers to the snares mentioned in the previous line. If it is an indirect quotation, then the pronoun may refer to the enemies themselves (cf. NEB, which is ambiguous). Some translations retain the direct quotation but alter the pronoun to “us,” referring clearly to the enemies (cf. NRSV).
14 tn Heb “search out, examine,” which here means (by metonymy) “devise.”
15 tc The MT has תַּמְנוּ (tamnu, “we are finished”), a Qal perfect first common plural form from the verbal root תָּמַם (tamam). Some understand this as the beginning of a quotation of the enemies’ words and translate, “we have completed,” but the Hiphil would seem to be required in this case. The present translation follows many medieval Hebrew
16 tn Heb “a searched-out search,” which is understood as referring here to a thoroughly planned plot to destroy the psalmist.
17 tn Heb “and the inner part of man, and a heart [is] deep.” The point seems to be that a man’s inner thoughts are incapable of being discovered. No one is a mind reader! Consequently the psalmist is vulnerable to his enemies’ well-disguised plots.
18 tn The prefixed verb with vav (ו) consecutive is normally used in narrative contexts to describe completed past actions. It is possible that the conclusion to the psalm (vv. 7-10) was added to the lament after God’s judgment of the wicked in response to the psalmist’s lament (vv. 1-6). The translation assumes that these verses are anticipatory and express the psalmist’s confidence that God would eventually judge the wicked. The psalmist uses a narrative style as a rhetorical device to emphasize his certitude. See GKC 329-30 §111.w.
19 tn The perfect verbal form here expresses the psalmist’s certitude about the coming demise of the wicked.
20 tn The translation follows the traditional accentuation of the MT. Another option is to translate, “But God will shoot them down with an arrow, suddenly they will be wounded” (cf. NIV, NRSV).
21 tc The MT reads literally, “and they caused him to stumble, upon them, their tongue.” Perhaps the third plural subject of the verb is indefinite with the third singular pronominal suffix on the verb being distributive (see Ps 63:10). In this case one may translate, “each one will be made to stumble.” The preposition עַל (’al) might then be taken as adversative, “against them [is] their tongue.” Many prefer to emend the text to וַיַּכְשִׁילֵמוֹ עֲלֵי לְשׁוֹנָם (vayyakhshilemo ’aley lÿshonam, “and he caused them to stumble over their tongue”). However, if this reading is original, it is difficult to see how the present reading of the MT arose. Furthermore, the preposition is not collocated with the verb כָּשַׁל (kashal) elsewhere. It is likely that the MT is corrupt, but a satisfying emendation has not yet been proposed.
22 tn The Hitpolel verbal form is probably from the root נוּד (nud; see HALOT 678 s.v. נוד), which is attested elsewhere in the Hitpolel stem, not the root נָדַד (nadad, as proposed by BDB 622 s.v. I נָדַד), which does not occur elsewhere in this stem.
23 tc Many medieval Hebrew
24 tn Heb “the work of God,” referring to the judgment described in v. 7.
25 tn Heb “upright in heart.”
26 tn That is, about the
27 sn Psalm 65. The psalmist praises God because he forgives sin and blesses his people with an abundant harvest.
28 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.”
29 tn Heb “O one who hears prayer.”
30 tn Heb “to you all flesh comes.”
31 tn Heb “the records of sins are too strong for me.”
32 tn Or “make atonement for.”
33 tn The Hebrew noun is an abstract plural. The word often refers metonymically to the happiness that God-given security and prosperity produce (see Pss 1:1; 2:12; 34:9; 41:1; 84:12; 89:15; 106:3; 112:1; 127:5; 128:1; 144:15).
34 tn Heb “[whom] you bring near [so that] he might live [in] your courts.”
35 tn Or “temple.”
36 tn Heb “[with] awesome acts in deliverance you answer us, O God of our salvation.”
37 tn Heb “a source of confidence [for] all the ends of the earth.”
38 tc Heb “and [the] distant sea.” The plural adjective is problematic after the singular form “sea.” One could emend יָם (yam, “sea”) to יָמִים (yamim, “seas”), or emend the plural form רְחֹקִים (rÿkhoqim, “far”) to the singular רָחֹק (rakhoq). In this case the final mem (ם) could be treated as dittographic; note the mem on the beginning of the first word in v. 6.
39 tn Heb “[the] one who establishes [the] mountains by his power.”
40 tn Heb “one [who] is girded with strength”; or “one [who] girds himself with strength.”
41 tn Heb “the roar of the seas.”
42 sn The raging seas…the commotion made by the nations. The raging seas symbolize the turbulent nations of the earth (see Ps 46:2-3, 6; Isa 17:12).
43 tn Heb “and the inhabitants of the ends fear because of your signs.” God’s “signs” are the “awesome acts” (see v. 5) he performs in the earth.
44 tn Heb “the goings out of the morning and the evening you cause to shout for joy.” The phrase “goings out of the morning and evening” refers to the sunrise and sunset, that is, the east and the west.
45 tn The verb form is a Polel from שׁוּק (shuq, “be abundant”), a verb which appears only here and in Joel 2:24 and 3:13, where it is used in the Hiphil stem and means “overflow.”
46 tn Heb “you greatly enrich it.”
47 tn Heb “[with] a channel of God full of water.” The divine name is probably used here in a superlative sense to depict a very deep stream (“a stream fit for God,” as it were).
48 tn The pronoun apparently refers to the people of the earth, mentioned in v. 8.
49 tn Heb “for thus [referring to the provision of rain described in the first half of the verse] you prepare it.” The third feminine singular pronominal suffix attached to the verb “prepare” refers back to the “earth,” which is a feminine noun with regard to grammatical form.
50 tn Heb “saturating” [the form is an infinitive absolute].
51 tn Heb “flatten, cause to sink.”
52 tn Heb “trenches,” or “furrows.”
53 tn Heb “soften it,” that is, the earth.
54 tn Heb “its vegetation you bless.” Divine “blessing” often involves endowing an object with special power or capacity.
55 tn Heb “your good,” which refers here to agricultural blessings.
56 tn Heb “and your paths drip with abundance.”
57 tn Heb “drip.”
58 tn That is, with rich vegetation that brings joy to those who see it.
59 sn Psalm 66. The psalmist praises God because he has delivered his people from a crisis.
60 tn Heb “his name,” which here stands metonymically for God’s reputation.
61 tn Heb “make honorable his praise.”
62 tn See Deut 33:29; Ps 81:15 for other uses of the verb כָּחַשׁ (kakhash) in the sense “cower in fear.” In Ps 18:44 the verb seems to carry the nuance “be weak, powerless” (see also Ps 109:24).
63 tn Or “bows down to.” The prefixed verbal forms in v. 4 are taken (1) as imperfects expressing what is typical. Another option (2) is to interpret them as anticipatory (“all the earth will worship you”) or (3) take them as jussives, expressing a prayer or wish (“may all the earth worship you”).
64 tn Or “see.”
65 tn Or “acts” (see Ps 46:8).
66 tn Heb “awesome [is] an act toward the sons of man.” It is unclear how the prepositional phrase relates to what precedes. If collocated with “act,” it may mean “on behalf of” or “toward.” If taken with “awesome” (see 1 Chr 16:25; Pss 89:7; 96:4; Zeph 2:11), one might translate “his awesome acts are beyond human comprehension” or “his awesome acts are superior to anything men can do.”
67 sn He turned the sea into dry land. The psalmist alludes to Israel’s crossing the Red Sea (Exod 14:21).
68 tn Because of the reference to “the river,” some understand this as an allusion to Israel’s crossing the Jordan River. However, the Hebrew term נָהָר (nahad) does not always refer to a “river” in the technical sense; it can be used of sea currents (see Jonah 2:4). So this line may also refer to the Red Sea crossing (cf. NEB).
69 tn The adverb שָׁם (sham, “there”) is used here, as often in poetic texts, to point “to a spot in which a scene is localized vividly in the imagination” (BDB 1027 s.v.).
70 tn Heb “[the] one who rules.”
71 tn Heb “his eyes watch.” “Eyes” are an anthropomorphism, attributed to God here to emphasize his awareness of all that happens on earth.
72 tn The verb form is jussive (note the negative particle אַל, ’al). The Kethib (consonantal text) has a Hiphil form of the verb, apparently to be understood in an exhibitive sense (“demonstrate stubborn rebellion”; see BDB 927 s.v. רוּם Hiph), while the Qere (marginal reading) has a Qal form, to be understood in an intransitive sense. The preposition -לְ (lamed) with pronominal suffix should be understood in a reflexive sense (“for themselves”) and indicates that the action is performed with the interest of the subject in mind.
73 tn Heb “bless,” in the sense of declaring “God to be the source of…special power” (see HALOT 160 s.v. II ברך pi).
74 tn Heb “cause the voice of his praise to be heard.”
75 tn Heb “the one who places our soul in life.”
76 tn Or “indeed.”
77 tn Heb “you brought us into a net.” This rare word for “net” also occurs in Ezek 12:13; 13:21; 17:20.
78 tn Heb “you placed suffering on our hips.” The noun מוּעָקָה (mu’aqah, “suffering”) occurs only here in the OT.
79 tc The MT reads רְוָיָה (“saturation”) but this should be emended to רְוָחָה (rÿvakhah, “wide open place”; i.e., “relief”), a reading supported by several ancient versions (LXX, Syriac, Jerome, Targum).
80 sn Here the psalmist switches to the singular; he speaks as the representative of the nation.
81 tn Heb “all of the fearers of God.”
82 tn Heb “to him [with] my mouth I called.”
83 tn Heb “and he was extolled under my tongue.” The form רוֹמַם (romam) appears to be a polal (passive) participle from רוּם (rum, “be exalted”), but many prefer to read רוֹמָם, “high praise [was under my tongue]” (cf. NEB). See BDB 928 s.v. רוֹמָם.
84 tn Heb “sin if I had seen in my heart.”
85 tn Heb “blessed [be] God.”
86 tn Or “who.” In a blessing formula after בָּרוּךְ (barukh, “blessed be”) the form אֲשֶׁר (’asher), whether taken as a relative pronoun or causal particle, introduces the basis for the blessing/praise.
87 tn Heb “did not turn aside my prayer and his loyal love with me.”