Psalms 38:6

38:6 I am dazed ¹  and completely humiliated; ² 

all day long I walk around mourning.

Psalms 42:5

42:5 Why are you depressed, ³  O my soul? ⁴ 

Why are you upset? ⁵ 

Wait for God!

For I will again give thanks

to my God for his saving intervention. ⁶ 

Psalms 145:14

145:14 ⁷ The Lord supports all who fall,

and lifts up all who are bent over. ⁸ 

Psalms 146:8

146:8 The Lord gives sight to the blind.

The Lord lifts up all who are bent over. ⁹ 

The Lord loves the godly.

[38:6]  ¹ tn The verb’s precise shade of meaning in this context is not entirely clear. The verb, which literally means “to bend,” may refer to the psalmist’s posture. In Isa 21:3 it seems to mean “be confused, dazed.”

[38:6]  ² tn Heb “I am bowed down to excess.”

[42:5]  ³ tn Heb “Why do you bow down?”

[42:5]  ⁴ sn For poetic effect the psalmist addresses his soul, or inner self.

[42:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “and [why] are you in turmoil upon me?” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive here carries on the descriptive present nuance of the preceding imperfect. See GKC 329 §111.t.

[42:5]  ⁶ tc Heb “for again I will give him thanks, the saving acts of his face.” The verse division in the Hebrew text is incorrect. אֱלֹהַי (’elohay, “my God”) at the beginning of v. 7 belongs with the end of v. 6 (see the corresponding refrains in 42:11 and 43:5, both of which end with “my God” after “saving acts of my face”). The Hebrew term פָּנָיו (panayv, “his face”) should be emended to פְּנֵי (pÿney, “face of”). The emended text reads, “[for] the saving acts of the face of my God,” that is, the saving acts associated with God’s presence/intervention.

[145:14]  ⁷ tc Psalm 145 is an acrostic psalm, with each successive verse beginning with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. However, in the traditional Hebrew (Masoretic) text of Psalm 145 there is no verse beginning with the letter nun. One would expect such a verse to appear as the fourteenth verse, between the mem (מ) and samek (ס) verses. Several ancient witnesses, including one medieval Hebrew manuscript, the Qumran scroll from cave 11, the LXX, and the Syriac, supply the missing nun (נ) verse, which reads as follows: “The Lord is reliable in all his words, and faithful in all his deeds.” One might paraphrase this as follows: “The Lord’s words are always reliable; his actions are always faithful.” Scholars are divided as to the originality of this verse. L. C. Allen argues for its inclusion on the basis of structural considerations (Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 294-95), but there is no apparent explanation for why, if original, it would have been accidentally omitted. The psalm may be a partial acrostic, as in Pss 25 and 34 (see M. Dahood, Psalms [AB], 3:335). The glaring omission of the nun line would have invited a later redactor to add such a line.

[145:14]  ⁸ tn Perhaps “discouraged” (see Ps 57:6).

[146:8]  ⁹ tn Perhaps “discouraged” (see Ps 57:6).