Psalms 106:6

106:6 We have sinned like ¹  our ancestors; ² 

we have done wrong, we have done evil.

Psalms 51:7

51:7 Sprinkle me ³  with water ⁴  and I will be pure; ⁵ 

wash me ⁶  and I will be whiter than snow. ⁷ 

Psalms 78:17

78:17 Yet they continued to sin against him,

and rebelled against the sovereign One ⁸  in the desert.

Psalms 78:32

78:32 Despite all this, they continued to sin,

and did not trust him to do amazing things. ⁹ 

Psalms 119:11

119:11 In my heart I store up ¹⁰  your words, ¹¹ 

so I might not sin against you.

Psalms 4:4

4:4 Tremble with fear and do not sin! ¹² 

Meditate as you lie in bed, and repent of your ways! ¹³  (Selah)

Psalms 41:4

41:4 As for me, I said: ¹⁴ 

“O Lord, have mercy on me!

Heal me, for I have sinned against you!

Psalms 51:4

51:4 Against you – you above all ¹⁵  – I have sinned;

I have done what is evil in your sight.

So ¹⁶  you are just when you confront me; ¹⁷ 

you are right when you condemn me. ¹⁸ 

Psalms 39:1

Psalm 39 ¹⁹ 

For the music director, Jeduthun; a psalm of David.

39:1 I decided, ²⁰  “I will watch what I say

and make sure I do not sin with my tongue. ²¹ 

I will put a muzzle over my mouth

while in the presence of an evil man.” ²² 

[106:6]  ¹ tn Heb “with.”

[106:6]  ² tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 7).

[51:7]  ³ tn The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.

[51:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “cleanse me with hyssop.” “Hyssop” was a small plant (see 1 Kgs 4:33) used to apply water (or blood) in purification rites (see Exod 12:22; Lev 14:4-6, 49-52; Num 19:6-18. The psalmist uses the language and imagery of such rites to describe spiritual cleansing through forgiveness.

[51:7]  ⁵ tn After the preceding imperfect, the imperfect with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates result.

[51:7]  ⁶ tn The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.

[51:7]  ⁷ sn I will be whiter than snow. Whiteness here symbolizes the moral purity resulting from forgiveness (see Isa 1:18).

[78:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “rebelling [against] the Most High.”

[78:32]  ⁷ tn Heb “and did not believe in his amazing deeds.”

[119:11]  ⁹ tn Or “hide.”

[119:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “your word.” Some medieval Hebrew mss as well as the LXX read the plural, “your words.”

[4:4]  ¹¹ sn The psalmist warns his enemies that they need to tremble with fear before God and repudiate their sinful ways.

[4:4]  ¹² tn Heb “say in your heart(s) on your bed(s) and wail/lament.” The verb דֹמּוּ (dommu) is understood as a form of דָמָם (“wail, lament”) in sorrow and repentance. Another option is to take the verb from II דָמָם (damam, “be quiet”); cf. NIV, NRSV “be silent.”

[41:4]  ¹³ sn In vv. 4-10 the psalmist recites the prayer of petition and lament he offered to the Lord.

[51:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “only you,” as if the psalmist had sinned exclusively against God and no other. Since the Hebrew verb חָטָא (hata’, “to sin”) is used elsewhere of sinful acts against people (see BDB 306 s.v. 2.a) and David (the presumed author) certainly sinned when he murdered Uriah (2 Sam 12:9), it is likely that the psalmist is overstating the case to suggest that the attack on Uriah was ultimately an attack on God himself. To clarify the point of the hyperbole, the translation uses “especially,” rather than the potentially confusing “only.”

[51:4]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew term לְמַעַן (lÿma’an) normally indicates purpose (“in order that”), but here it introduces a logical consequence of the preceding statement. (Taking the clause as indicating purpose here would yield a theologically preposterous idea – the psalmist purposely sinned so that God’s justice might be vindicated!) For other examples of לְמַעַן indicating result, see 2 Kgs 22:17; Jer 27:15; Amos 2:7, as well as IBHS 638-40 §38.3.

[51:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “when you speak.” In this context the psalmist refers to God’s word of condemnation against his sin delivered through Nathan (cf. 2 Sam 12:7-12).

[51:4]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “when you judge.”

[39:1]  ¹⁷ sn Psalm 39. The psalmist laments his frailty and mortality as he begs the Lord to take pity on him and remove his disciplinary hand.

[39:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “I said.”

[39:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “I will watch my ways, from sinning with my tongue.”

[39:1]  ²⁰ sn The psalmist wanted to voice a lament to the Lord (see vv. 4-6), but he hesitated to do so in the presence of evil men, for such words might be sinful if they gave the wicked an occasion to insult God. See C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs, Psalms (ICC), 1:345.