Psalms 16:11

16:11 You lead me in ¹  the path of life; ² 

I experience absolute joy in your presence; ³ 

you always give me sheer delight. ⁴ 

Psalms 17:15

17:15 As for me, because I am innocent I will see your face; ⁵ 

when I awake you will reveal yourself to me. ⁶ 

Psalms 34:15

34:15 The Lord pays attention to the godly

and hears their cry for help. ⁷ 

Psalms 73:23-24

73:23 But I am continually with you;

you hold my right hand.

73:24 You guide ⁸  me by your wise advice,

and then you will lead me to a position of honor. ⁹ 

Job 36:7

36:7 He does not take his eyes ¹⁰  off the righteous;

but with kings on the throne

he seats the righteous ¹¹  and exalts them forever. ¹² 

John 17:24

17:24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, ¹³  so that they can see my glory that you gave me because you loved me before the creation of the world ¹⁴ .

[16:11]  ¹ tn Heb “cause me to know”; or “cause me to experience.”

[16:11]  ² tn This is a metaphorical way of saying, “you preserve my life.” The phrase “path of life” stands in contrast to death/Sheol in Prov 2:18-19; 5:5-6; 15:24.

[16:11]  ³ tn Heb “abundance of joy [is] with your face.” The plural form of the noun שִׂמְחָה (simkhah, “joy”) occurs only here and in Ps 45:15. It may emphasize the degree of joy experienced.

[16:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “delight [is] in your right hand forever.” The plural form of the adjective נָעִים (na’im, “pleasant, delightful”) may here emphasize the degree of delight experienced (see Job 36:11).

[17:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “I, in innocence, I will see your face.” To “see” God’s “face” means to have access to his presence and to experience his favor (see Ps 11:7; see also Job 33:26 [where רָאָה (ra’ah), not חָזַה (khazah), is used]). Here, however, the psalmist may be anticipating a mystical experience. See the following note on the word “me.”

[17:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “I will be satisfied, when I awake, [with] your form.” The noun תְּמוּנָה (tÿmunah) normally carries the nuance “likeness” or “form.” In Job 4:16 it refers to a ghostlike spiritual entity (see v. 15) that revealed itself to Eliphaz during the night. The psalmist may anticipate a mystical encounter with God in which he expects to see a manifestation of God’s presence (i.e., a theophany), perhaps in conjunction with an oracle of deliverance. During the quiet darkness of the night, God examines the psalmist’s inner motives and finds them to be pure (see v. 3). The psalmist is confident that when he awakens, perhaps sometime during the night or in the morning, he will be visited by God and assured of vindication.

[34:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “the eyes of the Lord [are] toward the godly, and his ears [are] toward their cry for help.”

[73:24]  ⁸ tn The imperfect verbal form here suggests this is the psalmist’s ongoing experience.

[73:24]  ⁹ tn Heb “and afterward [to] glory you will take me.” Some interpreters view this as the psalmist’s confidence in an afterlife in God’s presence and understand כָּבוֹד (cavod) as a metonymic reference to God’s presence in heaven. But this seems unlikely in the present context. The psalmist anticipates a time of vindication, when the wicked are destroyed and he is honored by God for his godly life style. The verb לָקַח (laqakh, “take”) here carries the nuance “lead, guide, conduct,” as in Num 23:14, 27-28; Josh 24:3 and Prov 24:11.

[36:7]  ¹⁰ tc Many commentators accept the change of “his eyes” to “his right” (reading דִּינוֹ [dino] for עֵינָיו [’enayv]). There is no compelling reason for the change; it makes the line commonplace.

[36:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “them”; the referent (the righteous) has been repeated from the first part of the verse for clarity.

[36:7]  ¹² tn Heb “he seats them forever and exalts them.” The last verb can be understood as expressing a logical consequence of the preceding action (cf. GKC 328 §111.l = “he seats them forever so that he exalts them”). Or the two verbs can be taken as an adverbial hendiadys whereby the first modifies the second adverbially: “he exalts them by seating them forever” or “when he seats them forever” (cf. GKC 326 §111.d). Some interpret this verse to say that God seats kings on the throne, making a change in subject in the middle of the verse. But it makes better sense to see the righteous as the subject matter throughout – they are not only protected, but are exalted.

[17:24]  ¹³ tn Grk “the ones you have given me, I want these to be where I am with me.”

[17:24]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “before the foundation of the world.”