Psalms 16:8

16:8 I constantly trust in the Lord; ¹ 

because he is at my right hand, I will not be upended.

Psalms 17:8-14

17:8 Protect me as you would protect the pupil of your eye! ² 

Hide me in the shadow of your wings! ³ 

17:9 Protect me from ⁴  the wicked men who attack ⁵  me,

my enemies who crowd around me for the kill. ⁶ 

17:10 They are calloused; ⁷ 

they speak arrogantly. ⁸ 

17:11 They attack me, now they surround me; ⁹ 

they intend to throw me to the ground. ¹⁰ 

17:12 He ¹¹  is like a lion ¹²  that wants to tear its prey to bits, ¹³ 

like a young lion crouching ¹⁴  in hidden places.

17:13 Rise up, Lord!

Confront him! ¹⁵  Knock him down! ¹⁶ 

Use your sword to rescue me from the wicked man! ¹⁷ 

17:14 Lord, use your power to deliver me from these murderers, ¹⁸ 

from the murderers of this world! ¹⁹ 

They enjoy prosperity; ²⁰ 

you overwhelm them with the riches they desire. ²¹ 

They have many children,

and leave their wealth to their offspring. ²² 

Psalms 21:7-8

21:7 For the king trusts ²³  in the Lord,

and because of the sovereign Lord’s ²⁴  faithfulness he is not upended. ²⁵ 

21:8 You ²⁶  prevail over ²⁷  all your enemies;

your power is too great for those who hate you. ²⁸ 

Psalms 62:6

62:6 He alone is my protector ²⁹  and deliverer.

He is my refuge; ³⁰  I will not be upended. ³¹ 

Psalms 125:1-3

Psalm 125 ³² 

A song of ascents. ³³ 

125:1 Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion;

it cannot be upended and will endure forever.

125:2 As the mountains surround Jerusalem, ³⁴ 

so the Lord surrounds his people,

now and forevermore.

125:3 Indeed, ³⁵  the scepter of a wicked king ³⁶  will not settle ³⁷ 

upon the allotted land of the godly.

Otherwise the godly might

do what is wrong. ³⁸ 

Romans 8:35-39

8:35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ³⁹  8:36 As it is written, “For your sake we encounter death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” ⁴⁰  8:37 No, in all these things we have complete victory ⁴¹  through him ⁴²  who loved us! 8:38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor heavenly rulers, ⁴³  nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor powers, 8:39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

[16:8]  ¹ tn Heb “I set the Lord before me continually.” This may mean that the psalmist is aware of the Lord’s presence and sensitive to his moral guidance (see v. 7), or that he trusts in the Lord’s protection (see the following line).

[17:8]  ² tc Heb “Protect me like the pupil, a daughter of an eye.” The noun בַּת (bat, “daughter”) should probably be emended to בָּבַת (bavat, “pupil”). See Zech 2:12 HT (2:8 ET) and HALOT 107 s.v. *בָּבָה.

[17:8]  ³ sn Your wings. The metaphor compares God to a protective mother bird.

[17:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “from before”; or “because.” In the Hebrew text v. 9 is subordinated to v. 8. The words “protect me” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[17:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “destroy.” The psalmist uses the perfect verbal form to emphasize the degree of danger. He describes the wicked as being already in the process of destroying him.

[17:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “my enemies, at the risk of life they surround me.” The Hebrew phrase בְּנֶפֶשׁ (bÿnefesh) sometimes has the nuance “at the risk of [one’s] life” (see 1 Kgs 2:23; Prov 7:23; Lam 5:9).

[17:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “their fat they close.” The Hebrew term חֵלֶב (khelev, “fat”) appears to stand by metonymy for their calloused hearts. They attack the psalmist without feeling any pity or remorse. Some propose emending the text to חֵלֶב לִבָּמוֹ (khelev libbamo, “fat of their heart[s]; cf. Ps 119:70, “their heart is insensitive like fat”). This assumes haplography of the לב (lamed-bet) consonantal sequence.

[17:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “[with] their mouth they speak with arrogance.”

[17:11]  ⁹ tc Heb “our steps, now they surround me.” The Kethib (consonantal text) has “surround me,” while the Qere (marginal reading) has “surround us,” harmonizing the pronoun to the preceding “our steps.” The first person plural pronoun does not fit the context, where the psalmist speaks as an individual. In the preceding verses the psalmist uses a first person singular verbal or pronominal form twenty times. For this reason it is preferable to emend “our steps” to אִשְּׁרוּנִי (’ishÿruni, “they attack me”) from the verbal root אָשֻׁר (’ashur, “march, stride, track”).

[17:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “their eyes they set to bend down in the ground.”

[17:12]  ¹¹ tn Here the psalmist switches to the singular pronoun; he views his enemies collectively, or singles out a representative of the group, perhaps its leader.

[17:12]  ¹² tn Heb “his likeness [is] like a lion.”

[17:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “[that] longs to tear.”

[17:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “sitting.”

[17:13]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Be in front of his face.”

[17:13]  ¹⁶ tn Or “bring him to his knees.”

[17:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “rescue my life from the wicked [one] [by] your sword.”

[17:14]  ¹⁸ tc Heb “from men [by] your hand, Lord.” The translation assumes an emendation (both here and in the following line) of מִמְתִים (mimtim, “from men”) to מִמְמִתִים (mimmitim, “from those who kill”). For other uses of the plural form of the Hiphil participle of מוּת (mut, “die”), see 2 Kgs 17:26 (used with lions as subject), Job 33:22 (apparently referring to the agents of death), and Jer 26:15 (used of those seeking Jeremiah’s life).

[17:14]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “from men, from [the] world.” On the emendation of “men” to “murderers,” see the preceding note on the word “murderers.”

[17:14]  ²⁰ tn Heb “their portion, in life.”

[17:14]  ²¹ tn Heb “and [with] your treasures you fill their belly.”

[17:14]  ²² tn Heb “they are satisfied [with] sons and leave their abundance to their children.”

[21:7]  ²³ tn The active participle draws attention to the ongoing nature of the action.

[21:7]  ²⁴ tn Traditionally “the Most High’s.” The divine title “Most High” (עֶלְיוֹן, ’elyon) pictures God as the exalted ruler of the universe who vindicates the innocent and judges the wicked. Note the focus of vv. 8-12 and see Ps 47:2.

[21:7]  ²⁵ tn Another option is to translate the imperfect verbal form as future, “he will not be upended” (cf. NRSV “he shall not be moved”). Even if one chooses this option, the future tense must be understood in a generalizing sense.

[21:8]  ²⁶ tn The king is now addressed. One could argue that the Lord is still being addressed, but v. 9 militates against this proposal, for there the Lord is mentioned in the third person and appears to be distinct from the addressee (unless, of course, one takes “Lord” in v. 9 as vocative; see the note on “them” in v. 9b). Verse 7 begins this transition to a new addressee by referring to both the king and the Lord in the third person (in vv. 1-6 the Lord is addressed and only the king referred to in the third person).

[21:8]  ²⁷ tn Heb “your hand finds.” The idiom pictures the king grabbing hold of his enemies and defeating them (see 1 Sam 23:17). The imperfect verbal forms in vv. 8-12 may be translated with the future tense, as long as the future is understood as generalizing.

[21:8]  ²⁸ tn Heb “your right hand finds those who hate you.”

[62:6]  ²⁹ tn Heb “my high rocky summit.”

[62:6]  ³⁰ tn Or “my elevated place” (see Ps 18:2).

[62:6]  ³¹ sn The wording is identical to that of v. 2, except that רַבָּה (rabbah, “greatly”) does not appear in v. 6.

[125:1]  ³² sn Psalm 125. The psalmist affirms his confidence in the Lord’s protection and justice.

[125:1]  ³³ sn The precise significance of this title, which appears in Pss 120-134, is unclear. Perhaps worshipers recited these psalms when they ascended the road to Jerusalem to celebrate annual religious festivals. For a discussion of their background see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 219-21.

[125:2]  ³⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[125:3]  ³⁵ tn Or “for.”

[125:3]  ³⁶ tn Heb “a scepter of wickedness.” The “scepter” symbolizes royal authority; when collocated with “wickedness” the phrase refers to an oppressive foreign conqueror.

[125:3]  ³⁷ tn Or “rest.”

[125:3]  ³⁸ tn Heb “so that the godly might not stretch out their hands in wrongdoing.” A wicked king who sets a sinful example can have an adverse moral and ethical effect on the people he rules.

[8:35]  ³⁹ tn Here “sword” is a metonymy that includes both threats of violence and acts of violence, even including death (although death is not necessarily the only thing in view here).

[8:36]  ⁴⁰ sn A quotation from Ps 44:22.

[8:37]  ⁴¹ tn BDAG 1034 s.v. ὑπερνικάω states, “as a heightened form of νικᾶν prevail completely ὑπερνικῶμεν we are winning a most glorious victory Ro 8:37.”

[8:37]  ⁴² tn Here the referent could be either God or Christ, but in v. 39 it is God’s love that is mentioned.

[8:38]  ⁴³ tn BDAG 138 s.v. ἀρχή 6 takes this term as a reference to angelic or transcendent powers (as opposed to merely human rulers). To clarify this, the adjective “heavenly” has been supplied in the translation. Some interpreters see this as a reference to fallen angels or demonic powers, and this view is reflected in some recent translations (NIV, NLT).