Colossians 4:6

4:6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer everyone.

Psalms 28:7

28:7 The Lord strengthens and protects me; ¹ 

I trust in him with all my heart. ² 

I am rescued ³  and my heart is full of joy; ⁴ 

I will sing to him in gratitude. ⁵ 

Psalms 30:11-12

30:11 Then you turned my lament into dancing;

you removed my sackcloth and covered me with joy. ⁶ 

30:12 So now ⁷  my heart ⁸  will sing to you and not be silent;

O Lord my God, I will always ⁹  give thanks to you.

Psalms 47:6-7

47:6 Sing to God! Sing!

Sing to our king! Sing!

47:7 For God is king of the whole earth!

Sing a well-written song! ¹⁰ 

Psalms 63:4-6

63:4 For this reason ¹¹  I will praise you while I live;

in your name I will lift up my hands. ¹² 

63:5 As if with choice meat ¹³  you satisfy my soul. ¹⁴ 

My mouth joyfully praises you, ¹⁵ 

63:6 whenever ¹⁶  I remember you on my bed,

and think about you during the nighttime hours.

Psalms 71:23

71:23 My lips will shout for joy! Yes, ¹⁷  I will sing your praises!

I will praise you when you rescue me! ¹⁸ 

Psalms 103:1-2

Psalm 103 ¹⁹ 

By David.

103:1 Praise the Lord, O my soul!

With all that is within me, praise ²⁰  his holy name!

103:2 Praise the Lord, O my soul!

Do not forget all his kind deeds! ²¹ 

Psalms 138:1

Psalm 138 ²² 

By David.

138:1 I will give you thanks with all my heart;

before the heavenly assembly ²³  I will sing praises to you.

Psalms 138:1

Psalm 138 ²⁴ 

By David.

138:1 I will give you thanks with all my heart;

before the heavenly assembly ²⁵  I will sing praises to you.

Colossians 1:15

The Supremacy of Christ

1:15 ²⁶ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn ²⁷  over all creation, ²⁸ 

[28:7]  ¹ tn Heb “The Lord [is] my strength and my shield.”

[28:7]  ² tn Heb “in him my heart trusts.”

[28:7]  ³ tn Or “I am helped.”

[28:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “and my heart exults.”

[28:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “and from my song I will thank him.” As pointed in the Hebrew text, מִשִּׁירִי (mishiri) appears to be “from my song,” but the preposition “from” never occurs elsewhere with the verb “to thank” (Hiphil of יָדָה, yadah). Perhaps משׁיר is a noun form meaning “song.” If so, it can be taken as an adverbial accusative, “and [with] my song I will thank him.” See P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (WBC), 236.

[30:11]  ⁶ sn Covered me with joy. “Joy” probably stands metonymically for festive attire here.

[30:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “so that”; or “in order that.”

[30:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “glory.” Some view כָבוֹד (khavod, “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; 57:9; 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.” “Heart” is used in the translation above for the sake of English idiom; the expression “my liver sings” would seem odd indeed to the modern reader.

[30:12]  ⁹ tn Or “forever.”

[47:7]  ¹⁰ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. The word is derived from a verb meaning “to be prudent; to be wise.” Various options are: “a contemplative song,” “a song imparting moral wisdom,” or “a skillful [i.e., well-written] song.” The term also occurs in the superscriptions of Pss 32, 42, 44, 45, 52-55, 74, 78, 88, 89, and 142. Here, in a context of celebration, the meaning “skillful, well-written” would fit particularly well.

[63:4]  ¹¹ tn Or perhaps “then.”

[63:4]  ¹² sn I will lift up my hands. Lifting up one’s hands toward God was a gesture of prayer (see Ps 28:2; Lam 2:19) or respect (Ps 119:48).

[63:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “like fat and fatness.”

[63:5]  ¹⁴ tn Or “me.”

[63:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and [with] lips of joy my mouth praises.”

[63:6]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew term אִם (’im) is used here in the sense of “when; whenever,” as in Ps 78:34.

[71:23]  ¹⁷ tn Or “when.” The translation assumes that כִּי (ki) has an emphasizing (asseverative) function here.

[71:23]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and my life [or “soul”] which you will have redeemed.” The perfect verbal form functions here as a future perfect. The psalmist anticipates praising God, for God will have rescued him by that time.

[103:1]  ¹⁹ sn Psalm 103. The psalmist praises God for his mercy and willingness to forgive his people.

[103:1]  ²⁰ tn The verb “praise” is understood by ellipsis in the second line (see the preceding line).

[103:2]  ²¹ tn Or “his benefits” (see 2 Chr 32:25, where the noun is also used of kind deeds performed by the Lord).

[138:1]  ²² sn Psalm 138. The psalmist vows to thank the Lord for his deliverance and protection.

[138:1]  ²³ tn The referent of the Hebrew term אֱלֹהִים (’elohim) is unclear. It refers either to the angelic assembly (see Gen 3:5; Ps 8:5) or to the pagan gods (see Pss 82:1, 6; 86:8; 97:7), in which case the psalmist’s praise takes on a polemical tone.

[138:1]  ²⁴ sn Psalm 138. The psalmist vows to thank the Lord for his deliverance and protection.

[138:1]  ²⁵ tn The referent of the Hebrew term אֱלֹהִים (’elohim) is unclear. It refers either to the angelic assembly (see Gen 3:5; Ps 8:5) or to the pagan gods (see Pss 82:1, 6; 86:8; 97:7), in which case the psalmist’s praise takes on a polemical tone.

[1:15]  ²⁶ sn This passage has been typeset as poetry because many scholars regard this passage as poetic or hymnic. These terms are used broadly to refer to the genre of writing, not to the content. There are two broad criteria for determining if a passage is poetic or hymnic: “(a) stylistic: a certain rhythmical lilt when the passages are read aloud, the presence of parallelismus membrorum (i.e., an arrangement into couplets), the semblance of some metre, and the presence of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, chiasmus, and antithesis; and (b) linguistic: an unusual vocabulary, particularly the presence of theological terms, which is different from the surrounding context” (P. T. O’Brien, Philippians [NIGTC], 188-89). Classifying a passage as hymnic or poetic is important because understanding this genre can provide keys to interpretation. However, not all scholars agree that the above criteria are present in this passage, so the decision to typeset it as poetry should be viewed as a tentative decision about its genre.

[1:15]  ²⁷ tn The Greek term πρωτότοκος (prwtotokos) could refer either to first in order of time, such as a first born child, or it could refer to one who is preeminent in rank. M. J. Harris, Colossians and Philemon (EGGNT), 43, expresses the meaning of the word well: “The ‘firstborn’ was either the eldest child in a family or a person of preeminent rank. The use of this term to describe the Davidic king in Ps 88:28 LXX (=Ps 89:27 EVV), ‘I will also appoint him my firstborn (πρωτότοκον), the most exalted of the kings of the earth,’ indicates that it can denote supremacy in rank as well as priority in time. But whether the πρωτό- element in the word denotes time, rank, or both, the significance of the -τοκος element as indicating birth or origin (from τίκτω, give birth to) has been virtually lost except in ref. to lit. birth.” In Col 1:15 the emphasis is on the priority of Jesus’ rank as over and above creation (cf. 1:16 and the “for” clause referring to Jesus as Creator).

[1:15]  ²⁸ tn The genitive construction πάσης κτίσεως (pash" ktisew") is a genitive of subordination and is therefore translated as “over all creation.” See ExSyn 103-4.