Psalms 112:7-8

112:7 He does not fear bad news.

He ¹  is confident; he trusts ²  in the Lord.

112:8 His resolve ³  is firm; he will not succumb to fear

before he looks in triumph on his enemies.

Psalms 112:1

Psalm 112 ⁴ 

112:1 Praise the Lord!

How blessed is the one ⁵  who obeys ⁶  the Lord,

who takes great delight in keeping his commands. ⁷ 

Psalms 29:1-2

Psalm 29 ⁸ 

A psalm of David.

29:1 Acknowledge the Lord, you heavenly beings, ⁹ 

acknowledge the Lord’s majesty and power! ¹⁰ 

29:2 Acknowledge the majesty of the Lord’s reputation! ¹¹ 

Worship the Lord in holy attire! ¹² 

Psalms 29:1

Psalm 29 ¹³ 

A psalm of David.

29:1 Acknowledge the Lord, you heavenly beings, ¹⁴ 

acknowledge the Lord’s majesty and power! ¹⁵ 

Psalms 30:12

30:12 So now ¹⁶  my heart ¹⁷  will sing to you and not be silent;

O Lord my God, I will always ¹⁸  give thanks to you.

Proverbs 16:1

16:1 The intentions of the heart ¹⁹  belong to a man, ²⁰ 

but the answer of the tongue ²¹  comes from ²²  the Lord. ²³ 

Romans 8:26

8:26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how we should pray, ²⁴  but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings.

Ephesians 2:18

2:18 so that ²⁵  through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

Ephesians 3:12

3:12 in whom we have boldness and confident access ²⁶  to God ²⁷  because of ²⁸  Christ’s ²⁹  faithfulness. ³⁰ 

James 1:16-17

1:16 Do not be led astray, my dear brothers and sisters. ³¹  1:17 All generous giving and every perfect gift ³²  is from above, coming down ³³  from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or the slightest hint of change. ³⁴ 

[112:7]  ¹ tn Heb “his heart,” viewed here as the seat of the volition and emotions (see Ps 108:1).

[112:7]  ² tn The passive participle בָּטֻחַ [בָּטוּחַ] (batuakh [batuakh]) expresses a state that results from the subject’s action. See Isa 26:3.

[112:8]  ³ tn Heb “his heart,” viewed here as the seat of the volition.

[112:1]  ⁴ sn Psalm 112. This wisdom psalm lists some of the benefits of living a godly life. The psalm is an acrostic. After the introductory call to praise, every poetic line (twenty-two in all) begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

[112:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man.” Hebrew wisdom literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The individual is representative of a larger group, called the “godly” in vv. 3-4. The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender specific “man” with the more neutral “one.” The generic masculine pronoun is used in the following verses.

[112:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “fears.”

[112:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “in his commands he delights very much.” The words “in keeping” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Taking delight in the law is metonymic here for obeying God’s moral will. See Ps 1:2.

[29:1]  ⁸ sn Psalm 29. In this hymn of praise the psalmist calls upon the heavenly assembly to acknowledge the royal splendor of the Lord. He describes the Lord’s devastating power as revealed in the thunderstorm and affirms that the Lord exerts this awesome might on behalf of his people. In its original context the psalm was a bold polemic against the Canaanite storm god Baal, for it affirms that the Lord is the real king who controls the elements of the storm, contrary to pagan belief. See R. B. Chisholm, Jr., “The Polemic against Baalism in Israel’s Early History and Literature,” BSac 150 (1994): 280-82.

[29:1]  ⁹ tc Heb “sons of gods,” or “sons of God.” Though אֵלִים (’elim) is vocalized as a plural form (“gods”) in the MT, it is likely that the final mem is actually enclitic, rather than a plural marker. In this case one may read “God.” Some, following a Qumran text and the LXX, also propose the phrase occurred in the original text of Deut 32:8.

[29:1]  ¹⁰ tn Or “ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.”

[29:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name.” The Hebrew term שֵׁם (shem, “name”) refers here to the Lord’s reputation. (The English term “name” is often used the same way.)

[29:2]  ¹² tn That is, properly dressed for the occasion.

[29:1]  ¹³ sn Psalm 29. In this hymn of praise the psalmist calls upon the heavenly assembly to acknowledge the royal splendor of the Lord. He describes the Lord’s devastating power as revealed in the thunderstorm and affirms that the Lord exerts this awesome might on behalf of his people. In its original context the psalm was a bold polemic against the Canaanite storm god Baal, for it affirms that the Lord is the real king who controls the elements of the storm, contrary to pagan belief. See R. B. Chisholm, Jr., “The Polemic against Baalism in Israel’s Early History and Literature,” BSac 150 (1994): 280-82.

[29:1]  ¹⁴ tc Heb “sons of gods,” or “sons of God.” Though אֵלִים (’elim) is vocalized as a plural form (“gods”) in the MT, it is likely that the final mem is actually enclitic, rather than a plural marker. In this case one may read “God.” Some, following a Qumran text and the LXX, also propose the phrase occurred in the original text of Deut 32:8.

[29:1]  ¹⁵ tn Or “ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.”

[30:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “so that”; or “in order that.”

[30:12]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “glory.” Some view כָבוֹד (khavod, “glory”) here as a metonymy for man’s inner being (see BDB 459 s.v. II כָּבוֹד 5), but it is preferable to emend the form to כְּבֵדִי (kÿvediy, “my liver”). Like the heart, the liver is viewed as the seat of one’s emotions. See also Pss 16:9; 57:9; 108:1, as well as H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 64, and M. Dahood, Psalms (AB), 1:90. For an Ugaritic example of the heart/liver as the source of joy, see G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 47-48: “her [Anat’s] liver swelled with laughter, her heart was filled with joy, the liver of Anat with triumph.” “Heart” is used in the translation above for the sake of English idiom; the expression “my liver sings” would seem odd indeed to the modern reader.

[30:12]  ¹⁸ tn Or “forever.”

[16:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “plans of the heart” (so ASV, NASB, NIV). The phrase מַעַרְכֵי־לֵב (ma’arkhe-lev) means “the arrangements of the mind.”

[16:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “[are] to a man.”

[16:1]  ²¹ tn Here “the tongue” is a metonymy of cause in which the instrument of speech is put for what is said: the answer expressed.

[16:1]  ²² sn The contrasting prepositions enhance the contrasting ideas – the ideas belong to people, but the words come from the Lord.

[16:1]  ²³ sn There are two ways this statement can be taken: (1) what one intends to say and what one actually says are the same, or (2) what one actually says differs from what the person intended to say. The second view fits the contrast better. The proverb then is giving a glimpse of how God even confounds the wise. When someone is trying to speak [“answer” in the book seems to refer to a verbal answer] before others, the Lord directs the words according to his sovereign will.

[8:26]  ²⁴ tn Or “for we do not know what we ought to pray for.”

[2:18]  ²⁵ tn Or “for.” BDAG gives the consecutive ὅτι (Joti) as a possible category of NT usage (BDAG 732 s.v. 5.c).

[3:12]  ²⁶ tn Grk “access in confidence.”

[3:12]  ²⁷ tn The phrase “to God” is not in the text, but is clearly implied by the preceding, “access.”

[3:12]  ²⁸ tn Grk “through,” “by way of.”

[3:12]  ²⁹ tn Grk “his.”

[3:12]  ³⁰ tn Or “faith in him.” A decision is difficult here. Though traditionally translated “faith in Jesus Christ,” an increasing number of NT scholars are arguing that πίστις Χριστοῦ (pisti" Cristou) and similar phrases in Paul (here and in Rom 3:22, 26; Gal 2:16, 20; 3:22; Phil 3:9) involve a subjective genitive and mean “Christ’s faith” or “Christ’s faithfulness” (cf., e.g., G. Howard, “The ‘Faith of Christ’,” ExpTim 85 [1974]: 212-15; R. B. Hays, The Faith of Jesus Christ [SBLDS]; Morna D. Hooker, “Πίστις Χριστοῦ,” NTS 35 [1989]: 321-42). Noteworthy among the arguments for the subjective genitive view is that when πίστις takes a personal genitive it is almost never an objective genitive (cf. Matt 9:2, 22, 29; Mark 2:5; 5:34; 10:52; Luke 5:20; 7:50; 8:25, 48; 17:19; 18:42; 22:32; Rom 1:8; 12; 3:3; 4:5, 12, 16; 1 Cor 2:5; 15:14, 17; 2 Cor 10:15; Phil 2:17; Col 1:4; 2:5; 1 Thess 1:8; 3:2, 5, 10; 2 Thess 1:3; Titus 1:1; Phlm 6; 1 Pet 1:9, 21; 2 Pet 1:5). On the other hand, the objective genitive view has its adherents: A. Hultgren, “The Pistis Christou Formulations in Paul,” NovT 22 (1980): 248-63; J. D. G. Dunn, “Once More, ΠΙΣΤΙΣ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΥ,” SBL Seminar Papers, 1991, 730-44. Most commentaries on Romans and Galatians usually side with the objective view.

[1:16]  ³¹ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[1:17]  ³² tn The first phrase refers to the action of giving and the second to what is given.

[1:17]  ³³ tn Or “All generous giving and every perfect gift from above is coming down.”

[1:17]  ³⁴ tn Grk “variation or shadow of turning” (referring to the motions of heavenly bodies causing variations of light and darkness).