Psalms 99:1

Psalm 99 ¹ 

99:1 The Lord reigns!

The nations tremble. ² 

He sits enthroned above the winged angels; ³ 

the earth shakes. ⁴ 

Psalms 119:120

119:120 My body ⁵  trembles ⁶  because I fear you; ⁷ 

I am afraid of your judgments.

Isaiah 66:5

66:5 Hear the word of the Lord,

you who respect what he has to say! ⁸ 

Your countrymen, ⁹  who hate you

and exclude you, supposedly for the sake of my name,

say, “May the Lord be glorified,

then we will witness your joy.” ¹⁰ 

But they will be put to shame.

Daniel 6:26

6:26 I have issued an edict that throughout all the dominion of my kingdom people are to revere and fear the God of Daniel.

“For he is the living God;

he endures forever.

His kingdom will not be destroyed;

his authority is forever. ¹¹ 

[99:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 99. The psalmist celebrates the Lord’s just rule and recalls how he revealed himself to Israel’s leaders.

[99:1]  ² tn The prefixed verbal forms in v. 1 are understood here as indicating the nations’ characteristic response to the reality of the Lord’s kingship. Another option is to take them as jussives: “let the nations tremble…let the earth shake!”

[99:1]  ³ sn Winged angels (Heb “cherubs”). Cherubs, as depicted in the OT, possess both human and animal (lion, ox, and eagle) characteristics (see Ezek 1:10; 10:14, 21; 41:18). They are pictured as winged creatures (Exod 25:20; 37:9; 1 Kgs 6:24-27; Ezek 10:8, 19) and serve as the very throne of God when the ark of the covenant is in view (Ps 99:1; see Num 7:89; 1 Sam 4:4; 2 Sam 6:2; 2 Kgs 19:15). The picture of the Lord seated on the cherubs suggests they might be used by him as a vehicle, a function they carry out in Ezek 1:22-28 (the “living creatures” mentioned here are identified as cherubs in Ezek 10:20). In Ps 18:10 the image of a cherub serves to personify the wind.

[99:1]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew verb נוּט (nut) occurs only here in the OT, but the meaning can be determined on the basis of the parallelism with רָגַז (ragaz, “tremble”) and evidence from the cognate languages (see H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena [SBLDS], 121).

[119:120]  ⁵ tn Heb “my flesh.”

[119:120]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew verb סָמַר (samar, “to tremble”) occurs only here and in Job 4:15.

[119:120]  ⁷ tn Heb “from fear of you.” The pronominal suffix on the noun is an objective genitive.

[66:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “who tremble at his word.”

[66:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “brothers” (so NASB, NIV); NRSV “Your own people”; NLT “Your close relatives.”

[66:5]  ¹⁰ tn Or “so that we might witness your joy.” The point of this statement is unclear.

[6:26]  ¹¹ tn Aram “until the end.”