Psalms 111:8

111:8 They are forever firm,

and should be faithfully and properly carried out. ¹ 

Psalms 119:116

119:116 Sustain me as you promised, ²  so that I will live. ³ 

Do not disappoint me! ⁴ 

Psalms 3:5

3:5 I rested and slept;

I awoke, ⁵  for the Lord protects ⁶  me.

Psalms 37:17

37:17 for evil men will lose their power, ⁷ 

but the Lord sustains ⁸  the godly.

Psalms 37:24

37:24 Even if ⁹  he trips, he will not fall headlong, ¹⁰ 

for the Lord holds ¹¹  his hand.

Psalms 51:12

51:12 Let me again experience the joy of your deliverance!

Sustain me by giving me the desire to obey! ¹² 

Psalms 54:4

54:4 Look, God is my deliverer! ¹³ 

The Lord is among those who support me. ¹⁴ 

Psalms 88:7

88:7 Your anger bears down on me,

and you overwhelm me with all your waves. (Selah)

Psalms 112:8

112:8 His resolve ¹⁵  is firm; he will not succumb to fear

before he looks in triumph on his enemies.

Psalms 145:14

145:14 ¹⁶ The Lord supports all who fall,

and lifts up all who are bent over. ¹⁷ 

[111:8]  ¹ tn Heb “done in faithfulness and uprightness.” The passive participle probably has the force of a gerund. See L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 89.

[119:116]  ² tn Heb “according to your word.”

[119:116]  ³ tn The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the preceding imperative.

[119:116]  ⁴ tn Heb “do not make me ashamed of my hope.” After the Hebrew verb בּוֹשׁ (bosh, “to be ashamed”) the preposition מִן (min, “from”) often introduces the reason for shame.

[3:5]  ³ tn The three verbal forms that appear in succession here (perfect + vav [ו] consecutive with preterite + perfect) are most naturally taken as narrational. When the psalmist received an assuring word from the Lord, he was able to sleep calmly. Because the Lord was protecting him, he awoke safely from his sleep.

[3:5]  ⁴ tn Or “supports”; “sustains.” In this explanatory causal clause the imperfect verbal form probably has a habitual or present progressive nuance, for the psalmist is confident of God’s continual protection (see v. 3). Another option is to take the verb as a preterite, “for the Lord protected me.” In this case, the psalmist focuses specifically on the protection God provided while he slept.

[37:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “for the arms of the evil ones will be broken.”

[37:17]  ⁵ tn The active participle here indicates this is characteristically true.

[37:24]  ⁵ tn Other translation options for כִּי in this context are “when” (so NASB) or “though” (so NEB, NIV, NRSV).

[37:24]  ⁶ tn Heb “be hurled down.”

[37:24]  ⁷ tn The active participle indicates this is characteristically true. See v. 17.

[51:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “and [with] a willing spirit sustain me.” The psalmist asks that God make him the kind of person who willingly obeys the divine commandments. The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.

[54:4]  ⁷ tn Or “my helper.”

[54:4]  ⁸ tn Or “sustain my life.”

[112:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “his heart,” viewed here as the seat of the volition.

[145:14]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ tn Perhaps “discouraged” (see Ps 57:6).