Psalms 16:9

16:9 So my heart rejoices

and I am happy; ¹ 

My life is safe. ² 

Psalms 27:2

27:2 When evil men attack me ³ 

to devour my flesh, ⁴ 

when my adversaries and enemies attack me, ⁵ 

they stumble and fall. ⁶ 

Psalms 63:1

Psalm 63 ⁷ 

A psalm of David, written when he was in the Judean wilderness. ⁸ 

63:1 O God, you are my God! I long for you! ⁹ 

My soul thirsts ¹⁰  for you,

my flesh yearns for you,

in a dry and parched ¹¹  land where there is no water.

[16:9]  ¹ tn Heb “my glory is happy.” Some view the Hebrew term כְּבוֹדִי (kÿvodiy, “my glory”) 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 30:12; 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.”

[16:9]  ² tn Heb “yes, my flesh dwells securely.” The psalmist’s “flesh” stands by metonymy for his body and, by extension, his physical life.

[27:2]  ³ tn Heb “draw near to me.”

[27:2]  ⁴ sn To devour my flesh. The psalmist compares his enemies to dangerous, hungry predators (see 2 Kgs 9:36; Ezek 39:17).

[27:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “my adversaries and my enemies against me.” The verb “draw near” (that is, “attack”) is understood by ellipsis; see the previous line.

[27:2]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew verbal forms are perfects. The translation assumes the psalmist is generalizing here, but another option is to take this as a report of past experience, “when evil men attacked me…they stumbled and fell.”

[63:1]  ⁵ sn Psalm 63. The psalmist expresses his intense desire to be in God’s presence and confidently affirms that God will judge his enemies.

[63:1]  ⁶ sn According to the psalm superscription David wrote the psalm while in the “wilderness of Judah.” Perhaps this refers to the period described in 1 Sam 23-24 or to the incident mentioned in 2 Sam 15:23.

[63:1]  ⁷ tn Or “I will seek you.”

[63:1]  ⁸ tn Or “I thirst.”

[63:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “faint” or “weary.” This may picture the land as “faint” or “weary,” or it may allude to the effect this dry desert has on those who are forced to live in it.