Psalms 132:2

132:2 and how he made a vow to the Lord,

and swore an oath to the powerful ruler of Jacob. ¹ 

Psalms 15:4

15:4 He despises a reprobate, ² 

but honors the Lord’s loyal followers. ³ 

He makes firm commitments and does not renege on his promise. ⁴ 

Psalms 24:4

24:4 The one whose deeds are blameless

and whose motives are pure, ⁵ 

who does not lie, ⁶ 

or make promises with no intention of keeping them. ⁷ 

Psalms 110:4

110:4 The Lord makes this promise on oath ⁸  and will not revoke it: ⁹ 

“You are an eternal priest ¹⁰  after the pattern of ¹¹  Melchizedek.” ¹² 

Psalms 132:11

132:11 The Lord made a reliable promise to David; ¹³ 

he will not go back on his word. ¹⁴ 

He said, ¹⁵  “I will place one of your descendants ¹⁶  on your throne.

[132:2]  ¹ tn Heb “the powerful [one] of Jacob.”

[15:4]  ² tn Heb “despised in his eyes [is] a rejected [one].” The Hebrew term נִמְאָס (nim’as, “rejected [one]”) apparently refers here to one who has been rejected by God because of his godless behavior. It stands in contrast to “those who fear God” in the following line.

[15:4]  ³ tn Heb “those who fear the Lord.” The one who fears the Lord respects his sovereignty and obeys his commandments. See Ps 128:1; Prov 14:2.

[15:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “he takes an oath to do harm and does not change.” The phrase “to do harm” cannot mean “do harm to others,” for the preceding verse clearly characterizes this individual as one who does not harm others. In this context the phrase must refer to an oath to which a self-imprecation is attached. The godly individual takes his commitments to others so seriously he is willing to “swear to his own hurt.” For an example of such an oath, see Ruth 1:16-17.

[24:4]  ³ tn Heb “the innocent of hands and the pure of heart.” The “hands” allude to one’s actions, the “heart” to one’s thought life and motives.

[24:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “who does not lift up for emptiness my life.” The first person pronoun on נַפְשִׁי (nafshiy, “my life”) makes little sense here; many medieval Hebrew mss support the ancient versions in reading a third person pronoun “his.” The idiom “lift the life” here means to “long for” or “desire strongly.” In this context (note the reference to an oath in the following line) “emptiness” probably refers to speech (see Ps 12:2).

[24:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “and does not swear an oath deceitfully.”

[110:4]  ⁴ tn Or “swears, vows.”

[110:4]  ⁵ tn Or “will not change his mind.” The negated Niphal imperfect of נָחַם (nakham) is a way of marking an announcement as an irrevocable decree. See 1 Sam 15:29; Ezek 24:14, as well as R. B. Chisholm, “Does God ‘Change His Mind’?” BSac 152 (1995): 387-99.

[110:4]  ⁶ sn You are an eternal priest. The Davidic king exercised a non-Levitical priestly role. The king superintended Judah’s cultic ritual, had authority over the Levites, and sometimes led in formal worship. David himself instructed the Levites to bring the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem (1 Chr 15:11-15), joined the procession, offered sacrifices, wore a priestly ephod, and blessed the people (2 Sam 6:12-19). At the dedication of the temple Solomon led the ceremony, offering sacrifices and praying on behalf of the people (1 Kgs 8).

[110:4]  ⁷ tn The phrase עַל־דִּבְרָתִי (’al-divratiy) is a variant of עַל־דִּבְרָת (’al-divrat; the final yod [י] being an archaic genitival ending), which in turn is a variant of עַל דָּבַר (’al davar). Both phrases can mean “concerning” or “because of,” but neither of these nuances fits the use of עַל־דִּבְרָתִי in Ps 110:4. Here the phrase probably carries the sense “according to the manner of.” See L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 81.

[110:4]  ⁸ sn The Davidic king’s priestly role is analogous to that of Melchizedek, who was both “king of Salem” (i.e., Jerusalem) and a “priest of God Most High” in the time of Abraham (Gen 14:18-20). Like Melchizedek, the Davidic king was a royal priest, distinct from the Aaronic line (see Heb 7). The analogy focuses on the king’s priestly role; the language need not imply that Melchizedek himself was “an eternal priest.”

[132:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “the Lord swore an oath to David [in] truth.”

[132:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “he will not turn back from it.”

[132:11]  ⁷ tn The words “he said” are supplied in the translation to clarify that what follows are the Lord’s words.

[132:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “the fruit of your body.”