Psalms 36:5-7

36:5 O Lord, your loyal love reaches to the sky; ¹ 

your faithfulness to the clouds. ² 

36:6 Your justice is like the highest mountains, ³ 

your fairness like the deepest sea;

you preserve ⁴  mankind and the animal kingdom. ⁵ 

36:7 How precious ⁶  is your loyal love, O God!

The human race finds shelter under your wings. ⁷ 

Psalms 52:1

Psalm 52 ⁸ 

For the music director; a well-written song ⁹  by David. It was written when Doeg the Edomite went and informed Saul: “David has arrived at the home of Ahimelech.” ¹⁰ 

52:1 Why do you boast about your evil plans, ¹¹  O powerful man?

God’s loyal love protects me all day long! ¹² 

Psalms 104:24-28

104:24 How many living things you have made, O Lord! ¹³ 

You have exhibited great skill in making all of them; ¹⁴ 

the earth is full of the living things you have made.

104:25 Over here is the deep, wide sea, ¹⁵ 

which teems with innumerable swimming creatures, ¹⁶ 

living things both small and large.

104:26 The ships travel there,

and over here swims the whale ¹⁷  you made to play in it.

104:27 All of your creatures ¹⁸  wait for you

to provide them with food on a regular basis. ¹⁹ 

104:28 You give food to them and they receive it;

you open your hand and they are filled with food. ²⁰ 

Psalms 145:9

145:9 The Lord is good to all,

and has compassion on all he has made. ²¹ 

Psalms 145:15-16

145:15 Everything looks to you in anticipation, ²² 

and you provide them with food on a regular basis. ²³ 

145:16 You open your hand,

and fill every living thing with the food they desire. ²⁴ 

Luke 6:35

6:35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing back. ²⁵  Then ²⁶  your reward will be great, and you will be sons ²⁷  of the Most High, ²⁸  because he is kind to ungrateful and evil people. ²⁹ 

[36:5]  ¹ tn Heb “[is] in the heavens.”

[36:5]  ² sn The Lord’s loyal love/faithfulness is almost limitless. He is loyal and faithful to his creation and blesses mankind and the animal kingdom with physical life and sustenance (vv. 6-9).

[36:6]  ³ tn Heb “mountains of God.” The divine name אֵל (’el, “God”) is here used in an idiomatic manner to indicate the superlative.

[36:6]  ⁴ tn Or “deliver.”

[36:6]  ⁵ sn God’s justice/fairness is firm and reliable like the highest mountains and as abundant as the water in the deepest sea. The psalmist uses a legal metaphor to describe God’s preservation of his creation. Like a just judge who vindicates the innocent, God protects his creation from destructive forces.

[36:7]  ⁶ tn Or “valuable.”

[36:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “and the sons of man in the shadow of your wings find shelter.” The preservation of physical life is in view, as the next verse makes clear.

[52:1]  ⁸ sn Psalm 52. The psalmist confidently confronts his enemy and affirms that God will destroy evildoers and vindicate the godly.

[52:1]  ⁹ 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 occurs in the superscriptions of Pss 32, 42, 44, 45, 52-55, 74, 78, 88, 89, and 142, as well as in Ps 47:7.

[52:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul and said to him, ‘David has come to the house of Ahimelech.’”

[52:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Why do you boast in evil?”

[52:1]  ¹² tn Heb “the loyal love of God [is] all the day.” In this context, where the psalmist is threatened by his enemy, the point seems to be that the psalmist is protected by God’s loyal love at all times.

[104:24]  ¹³ tn Heb “How many [are] your works, O Lord.” In this case the Lord’s “works” are the creatures he has made, as the preceding and following contexts make clear.

[104:24]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “all of them with wisdom you have made.”

[104:25]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “this [is] the sea, great and broad of hands [i.e., “sides” or “shores”].”

[104:25]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “where [there are] swimming things, and without number.”

[104:26]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “[and] this Leviathan, [which] you formed to play in it.” Elsewhere Leviathan is a multiheaded sea monster that symbolizes forces hostile to God (see Ps 74:14; Isa 27:1), but here it appears to be an actual marine creature created by God, probably some type of whale.

[104:27]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “All of them.” The pronoun “them” refers not just to the sea creatures mentioned in vv. 25-26, but to all living things (see v. 24). This has been specified in the translation as “all of your creatures” for clarity.

[104:27]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “to give their food in its time.”

[104:28]  ²⁰ tn Heb “they are satisfied [with] good.”

[145:9]  ²¹ tn Heb “and his compassion is over all his works.”

[145:15]  ²² tn Heb “the eyes of all wait for you.”

[145:15]  ²³ tn Heb “and you give to them their food in its season” (see Ps 104:27).

[145:16]  ²⁴ tn Heb “[with what they] desire.”

[6:35]  ²⁵ tn Or “in return.”

[6:35]  ²⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the outcome or result. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started in the translation at this point.

[6:35]  ²⁷ sn The character of these actions reflects the grace and kindness of God, bearing witness to a “line of descent” or relationship of the individual to God (sons of the Most High). There is to be a unique kind of ethic at work with disciples. Jesus refers specifically to sons here because in the ancient world sons had special privileges which were rarely accorded to daughters. However, Jesus is most likely addressing both men and women in this context, so women too would receive these same privileges.

[6:35]  ²⁸ sn That is, “sons of God.”

[6:35]  ²⁹ tn Or “to the ungrateful and immoral.” The word “people” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.