Psalms 16:2

16:2 I say to the Lord, “You are the Lord,

my only source of well-being.” ¹ 

Psalms 16:5

16:5 Lord, you give me stability and prosperity; ² 

you make my future secure. ³ 

Psalms 22:10

22:10 I have been dependent on you since birth; ⁴ 

from the time I came out of my mother’s womb you have been my God. ⁵ 

Psalms 31:14

31:14 But I trust in you, O Lord!

I declare, “You are my God!”

Psalms 39:9

39:9 I am silent and cannot open my mouth

because of what you have done. ⁶ 

Psalms 44:4

44:4 You are my ⁷  king, O God!

Decree ⁸  Jacob’s ⁹  deliverance!

Psalms 65:3

65:3 Our record of sins overwhelms me, ¹⁰ 

but you forgive ¹¹  our acts of rebellion.

Psalms 71:5

71:5 For you give me confidence, ¹²  O Lord;

O Lord, I have trusted in you since I was young. ¹³ 

Psalms 74:14

74:14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan; ¹⁴ 

you fed ¹⁵  him to the people who live along the coast. ¹⁶ 

Psalms 77:14

77:14 You are the God who does amazing things;

you have revealed your strength among the nations.

Psalms 85:6

85:6 Will you not revive us once more?

Then your people will rejoice in you!

Psalms 89:26

89:26 He will call out to me,

‘You are my father, ¹⁷  my God, and the protector who delivers me.’ ¹⁸ 

Psalms 91:9

91:9 For you have taken refuge in the Lord,

my shelter, the sovereign One. ¹⁹ 

Psalms 109:27

109:27 Then they will realize ²⁰  this is your work, ²¹ 

and that you, Lord, have accomplished it.

Psalms 139:2

139:2 You know when I sit down and when I get up;

even from far away you understand my motives.

Psalms 139:8

139:8 If I were to ascend ²²  to heaven, you would be there.

If I were to sprawl out in Sheol, there you would be. ²³ 

Psalms 139:13

139:13 Certainly ²⁴  you made my mind and heart; ²⁵ 

you wove me together ²⁶  in my mother’s womb.

[16:2]  ¹ tn Heb “my good [is] not beyond you.” For the use of the preposition עַל (’al) in the sense of “beyond,” see BDB 755 s.v. 2.

[16:5]  ² tn Heb “O Lord, the portion of my possession and my cup”; or “the Lord [is] the portion of my possession and my cup.” The psalmist compares the Lord to landed property, which was foundational to economic stability in ancient Israel, and to a cup of wine, which may symbolize a reward (in Ps 11:6 it symbolizes the judgment one deserves) or divine blessing (see Ps 23:5). The metaphor highlights the fact that God is the psalmist’s source of security and prosperity.

[16:5]  ³ tc Heb “you take hold of my lot.” The form תּוֹמִיךְ (tomikh) should be emended to a participle, תוֹמֵךְ (tomekh). The psalmist pictures the Lord as casting his lot (a method used to allot landed property) for him, thus assuring that he will receive a fertile piece of land (see v. 6). As in the previous line, land represents security and economic stability, thus “you make my future secure.”

[22:10]  ³ tn Heb “upon you I was cast from [the] womb.”

[22:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “from the womb of my mother you [have been] my God.”

[39:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “because you acted.” The psalmist has in mind God’s disciplinary measures (see vv. 10-13).

[44:4]  ⁵ sn The speaker changes here to an individual, perhaps the worship leader or the king. The oscillation between singular (vv. 4, 6) and plural (vv. 1-3, 5, 7-8) in vv. 1-8 may reflect an antiphonal ceremony.

[44:4]  ⁶ tc The LXX assumes a participle here (מְצַוֶּה [mÿtsavveh], “the one who commands/decrees”) which would stand in apposition to “my God.” It is possible that the MT, which has the imperative (צַוֵּה, tsavveh) form, has suffered haplography of the letter mem (ם). Note that the preceding word (אֱלֹהִים, ’elohim) ends in mem. Another option is that the MT is divided in the wrong place; perhaps one could move the final mem from אֱלֹהִים to the beginning of the next word and read מְצַוֶּה אֱלֹהָי (’elohay mÿtsavveh, “[You are my king,] my God, the one who decrees”).

[44:4]  ⁷ tn That is, Israel. See Pss 14:7; 22:23.

[65:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “the records of sins are too strong for me.”

[65:3]  ⁷ tn Or “make atonement for.”

[71:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “for you [are] my hope.”

[71:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “O Lord, my source of confidence from my youth.”

[74:14]  ⁸ sn You crushed the heads of Leviathan. The imagery of vv. 13-14 originates in West Semitic mythology. The description of Leviathan should be compared with the following excerpts from Ugaritic mythological texts: (1) “Was not the dragon [Ugaritic tnn, cognate with Hebrew תַּנִין (tanin), translated “sea monster” in v. 13] vanquished and captured? I did destroy the wriggling [Ugaritic ’qltn, cognate to Hebrew עֲקַלָּתוֹן (’aqallaton), translated “squirming” in Isa 27:1] serpent, the tyrant with seven heads” (note the use of the plural “heads” here and in v. 13). (See CTA 3.iii.38-39 in G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 50.) (2) “For all that you smote Leviathan the slippery [Ugaritic brh, cognate to Hebrew בָּרִחַ (bariakh), translated “fast moving” in Isa 27:1] serpent, [and] made an end of the wriggling serpent, the tyrant with seven heads” (See CTA 5.i.1-3 in G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 68.) In the myths Leviathan is a sea creature that symbolizes the destructive water of the sea and, in turn, the forces of chaos that threaten the established order. In the OT, the battle with the sea motif is applied to Yahweh’s victories over the forces of chaos at creation and in history (see Pss 74:13-14; 77:16-20; 89:9-10; Isa 51:9-10). Yahweh’s subjugation of the waters of chaos is related to his kingship (see Pss 29:3, 10; 93:3-4). Isa 27:1 applies imagery from Canaanite mythology to Yahweh’s eschatological victory over his enemies. Apocalyptic literature employs the imagery as well. The beasts of Dan 7 emerge from the sea, while Rev 13 speaks of a seven-headed beast coming from the sea. Here in Ps 74:13-14 the primary referent is unclear. The psalmist may be describing God’s creation of the world (note vv. 16-17 and see Ps 89:9-12), when he brought order out of a watery mass, or the exodus (see Isa 51:9-10), when he created Israel by destroying the Egyptians in the waters of the sea.

[74:14]  ⁹ tn The prefixed verbal form is understood as a preterite in this narrational context.

[74:14]  ¹⁰ sn You fed him to the people. This pictures the fragments of Leviathan’s dead corpse washing up on shore and being devoured by those who find them. If the exodus is in view, then it may allude to the bodies of the dead Egyptians which washed up on the shore of the Red Sea (see Exod 14:30).

[89:26]  ⁹ sn You are my father. The Davidic king was viewed as God’s “son” (see 2 Sam 7:14; Ps 2:7). The idiom reflects ancient Near Eastern adoption language associated with covenants of grant, by which a lord would reward a faithful subject by elevating him to special status, referred to as “sonship.” Like a son, the faithful subject received an “inheritance,” viewed as an unconditional, eternal gift. Such gifts usually took the form of land and/or an enduring dynasty. See M. Weinfeld, “The Covenant of Grant in the Old Testament and in the Ancient Near East,” JAOS 90 (1970): 184-203, for general discussion and some striking extra-biblical parallels.

[89:26]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the rocky summit of my deliverance.”

[91:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “for you, the Lord, my shelter, the Most High, you have made your dwelling place.”

[109:27]  ¹¹ tn After the preceding imperative, the prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose or result.

[109:27]  ¹² tn Heb “that your hand [is] this.”

[139:8]  ¹² tn The Hebrew verb סָלַק (salaq, “to ascend”) occurs only here in the OT, but the word is well-attested in Aramaic literature from different time periods and displays a wide semantic range (see DNWSI 2:788-90).

[139:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “look, you.”

[139:13]  ¹³ tn Or “for.”

[139:13]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “my kidneys.” The kidneys were sometimes viewed as the seat of one’s emotions and moral character (cf. Pss 7:9; 26:2). A number of translations, recognizing that “kidneys” does not communicate this idea to the modern reader, have generalized the concept: “inmost being” (NAB, NIV); “inward parts” (NASB, NRSV); “the delicate, inner parts of my body” (NLT). In the last instance, the focus is almost entirely on the physical body rather than the emotions or moral character. The present translation, by using a hendiadys (one concept expressed through two terms), links the concepts of emotion (heart) and moral character (mind).

[139:13]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew verb סָכַךְ (sakhakh, “to weave together”) is an alternate form of שָׂכַךְ (sakhakh, “to weave”) used in Job 10:11.