Psalms 1:2

1:2 Instead ¹  he finds pleasure in obeying the Lord’s commands; ² 

he meditates on ³  his commands ⁴  day and night.

Psalms 6:6

6:6 I am exhausted as I groan;

all night long I drench my bed in tears; ⁵ 

my tears saturate the cushion beneath me. ⁶ 

Psalms 16:7

16:7 I will praise ⁷  the Lord who ⁸  guides ⁹  me;

yes, during the night I reflect and learn. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 17:3

17:3 You have scrutinized my inner motives; ¹¹ 

you have examined me during the night. ¹² 

You have carefully evaluated me, but you find no sin.

I am determined I will say nothing sinful. ¹³ 

Psalms 22:2

22:2 My God, I cry out during the day,

but you do not answer,

and during the night my prayers do not let up. ¹⁴ 

Psalms 32:4

32:4 For day and night you tormented me; ¹⁵ 

you tried to destroy me ¹⁶  in the intense heat ¹⁷  of summer. ¹⁸  (Selah)

Psalms 42:8

42:8 By day the Lord decrees his loyal love, ¹⁹ 

and by night he gives me a song, ²⁰ 

a prayer ²¹  to the living God.

Psalms 55:10

55:10 Day and night they walk around on its walls, ²² 

while wickedness and destruction ²³  are within it.

Psalms 74:16

74:16 You established the cycle of day and night; ²⁴ 

you put the moon ²⁵  and sun in place. ²⁶ 

Psalms 77:6

77:6 I said, “During the night I will remember the song I once sang;

I will think very carefully.”

I tried to make sense of what was happening. ²⁷ 

Psalms 90:4

90:4 Yes, ²⁸  in your eyes a thousand years

are like yesterday that quickly passes,

or like one of the divisions of the nighttime. ²⁹ 

Psalms 104:20

104:20 You make it dark and night comes, ³⁰ 

during which all the beasts of the forest prowl around.

Psalms 139:12

139:12 even the darkness is not too dark for you to see, ³¹ 

and the night is as bright as ³²  day;

darkness and light are the same to you. ³³ 

[1:2]  ¹ tn Here the Hebrew expression כִּי־אִם (ki-’im, “instead”) introduces a contrast between the sinful behavior depicted in v. 1 and the godly lifestyle described in v. 2.

[1:2]  ² tn Heb “his delight [is] in the law of the Lord.” In light of the following line, which focuses on studying the Lord’s law, one might translate, “he finds pleasure in studying the Lord’s commands.” However, even if one translates the line this way, it is important to recognize that mere study and intellectual awareness are not ultimately what bring divine favor. Study of the law is metonymic here for the correct attitudes and behavior that should result from an awareness of and commitment to God’s moral will; thus “obeying” has been used in the translation rather than “studying.”

[1:2]  ³ tn The Hebrew imperfect verbal form draws attention to the characteristic behavior described here and lends support to the hyperbolic adverbial phrase “day and night.” The verb הָגָה (hagag) means “to recite quietly; to meditate” and refers metonymically to intense study and reflection.

[1:2]  ⁴ tn Or “his law.”

[6:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “I cause to swim through all the night my bed.”

[6:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “with my tears my bed I flood/melt.”

[16:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “bless,” that is, “proclaim as worthy of praise.”

[16:7]  ¹⁰ tn Or “because.”

[16:7]  ¹¹ tn Or “counsels, advises.”

[16:7]  ¹² tn Heb “yes, [during] nights my kidneys instruct [or “correct”] me.” The “kidneys” are viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s moral character (see Ps 26:2). In the quiet darkness the Lord speaks to his inner being, as it were, and enables him to grow in moral understanding.

[17:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “you tested my heart.”

[17:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “you visited [at] night.”

[17:3]  ¹⁵ tc Heb “you tested me, you do not find, I plan, my mouth will not cross over.” The Hebrew verbal form זַמֹּתִי (zammotiy) is a Qal perfect, first person singular from the root זָמַם (zamam, “plan, plan evil”). Some emend the form to a suffixed form of the noun, זִמָּתִי (zimmatiy, “my plan/evil plan”), and take it as the object of the preceding verb “find.” However, the suffix seems odd, since the psalmist is denying that he has any wrong thoughts. If one takes the form with what precedes, it might make better sense to read זִמּוֹת (zimmot, “evil plans”). However, this emendation leaves an unclear connection with the next line. The present translation maintains the verbal form found in the MT and understands it in a neutral sense, “I have decided” (see Jer 4:28). The words “my mouth will not cross over” (i.e., “transgress, sin”) can then be taken as a noun clause functioning as the object of the verb.

[22:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “there is no silence to me.”

[32:4]  ²¹ tn Heb “your hand was heavy upon me.”

[32:4]  ²² tc Heb “my [?] was turned.” The meaning of the Hebrew term לְשַׁד (lÿshad) is uncertain. A noun לָשָׁד (lashad, “cake”) is attested in Num 11:8, but it would make no sense to understand that word in this context. It is better to emend the form to לְשֻׁדִּי (lÿshuddiy, “to my destruction”) and understand “your hand” as the subject of the verb “was turned.” In this case the text reads, “[your hand] was turned to my destruction.” In Lam 3:3 the author laments that God’s “hand” was “turned” (הָפַךְ, hafakh) against him in a hostile sense.

[32:4]  ²³ tn The translation assumes that the plural form indicates degree. If one understands the form as a true plural, then one might translate, “in the times of drought.”

[32:4]  ²⁴ sn Summer. Perhaps the psalmist suffered during the hot season and perceived the very weather as being an instrument of divine judgment. Another option is that he compares his time of suffering to the uncomfortable and oppressive heat of summer.

[42:8]  ²⁵ sn The psalmist believes that the Lord has not abandoned him, but continues to extend his loyal love. To this point in the psalm, the author has used the name “God,” but now, as he mentions the divine characteristic of loyal love, he switches to the more personal divine name Yahweh (rendered in the translation as “the Lord”).

[42:8]  ²⁶ tn Heb “his song [is] with me.”

[42:8]  ²⁷ tc A few medieval Hebrew mss read תְּהִלָּה (tÿhillah, “praise”) instead of תְּפִלָּה (tÿfillah, “prayer”).

[55:10]  ²⁹ tn Heb “day and night they surround it, upon its walls.” Personified “violence and conflict” are the likely subjects. They are compared to watchmen on the city’s walls.

[55:10]  ³⁰ sn Wickedness and destruction. These terms are also closely associated in Ps 7:14.

[74:16]  ³³ tn Heb “To you [is] day, also to you [is] night.”

[74:16]  ³⁴ tn Heb “[the] light.” Following the reference to “day and night” and in combination with “sun,” it is likely that the Hebrew term מָאוֹר (ma’or, “light”) refers here to the moon.

[74:16]  ³⁵ tn Heb “you established [the] light and [the] sun.”

[77:6]  ³⁷ tn Heb “I will remember my song in the night, with my heart I will reflect. And my spirit searched.” As in v. 4, the words of v. 6a are understood as what the psalmist said earlier. Consequently the words “I said” are supplied in the translation for clarification (see v. 10). The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive at the beginning of the final line is taken as sequential to the perfect “I thought” in v. 6.

[90:4]  ⁴¹ tn Or “for.”

[90:4]  ⁴² sn The divisions of the nighttime. The ancient Israelites divided the night into distinct periods, or “watches.”

[104:20]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “you make darkness, so that it might be night.”

[139:12]  ⁴⁹ tn The words “to see” are supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.

[139:12]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “shines like.”

[139:12]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “like darkness, like light.”