Psalms 18:16

18:16 He reached down ¹  from above and took hold of me;

he pulled me from the surging water. ² 

Psalms 31:2

31:2 Listen to me! ³ 

Quickly deliver me!

Be my protector and refuge, ⁴ 

a stronghold where I can be safe! ⁵ 

Psalms 49:17

49:17 For he will take nothing with him when he dies;

his wealth will not follow him down into the grave. ⁶ 

Psalms 59:15

59:15 They wander around looking for something to eat;

they refuse to sleep until they are full. ⁷ 

Psalms 77:17

77:17 The clouds poured down rain; ⁸ 

the skies thundered. ⁹ 

Yes, your arrows ¹⁰  flashed about.

Psalms 78:27

78:27 He rained down meat on them like dust,

birds as numerous as the sand on the seashores. ¹¹ 

Psalms 81:9

81:9 There must be ¹²  no other ¹³  god among you.

You must not worship a foreign god.

Psalms 90:6

90:6 in the morning it glistens ¹⁴  and sprouts up;

at evening time it withers ¹⁵  and dries up.

Psalms 104:19

104:19 He made the moon to mark the months, ¹⁶ 

and the sun sets according to a regular schedule. ¹⁷ 

Psalms 105:33

105:33 He destroyed their vines and fig trees,

and broke the trees throughout their territory.

Psalms 113:3

113:3 From east to west ¹⁸ 

the Lord’s name is deserving of praise.

Psalms 141:6

141:6 They will be thrown down the side of a cliff by their judges. ¹⁹ 

They ²⁰  will listen to my words, for they are pleasant.

[18:16]  ¹ tn Heb “stretched.” Perhaps “his hand” should be supplied by ellipsis (see Ps 144:7). In this poetic narrative context the three prefixed verbal forms in this verse are best understood as preterites indicating past tense, not imperfects.

[18:16]  ² tn Heb “mighty waters.” The waters of the sea symbolize the psalmist’s powerful enemies, as well as the realm of death they represent (see v. 4 and Ps 144:7).

[31:2]  ³ tn Heb “turn toward me your ear.”

[31:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “become for me a rocky summit of refuge.”

[31:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “a house of strongholds to deliver me.”

[49:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “his glory will not go down after him.”

[59:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “if they are not full, they stay through the night.”

[77:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “water.”

[77:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “a sound the clouds gave.”

[77:17]  ¹¹ tn The lightning accompanying the storm is portrayed as the Lord’s “arrows” (see v. 18).

[78:27]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and like the sand of the seas winged birds.”

[81:9]  ¹³ tn The imperfect verbal forms in v. 9 have a modal function, expressing what is obligatory.

[81:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “different”; “illicit.”

[90:6]  ¹⁵ tn Or “flourishes.” The verb is used of a crown shining in Ps 132:18. Perhaps here in Ps 90:6 it refers to the glistening of the grass in the morning dew.

[90:6]  ¹⁶ tn The Polel form of this verb occurs only here. Perhaps the form should be emended to a Qal (which necessitates eliminating the final lamed [ל] as dittographic). See Ps 37:2.

[104:19]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “he made [the] moon for appointed times.” The phrase “appointed times” probably refers to the months of the Hebrew lunar calendar.

[104:19]  ¹⁸ tn Heb more metaphorically, “knows its setting.”

[113:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “from the rising of the sun to its setting.” The extent is not temporal (“from sunrise to sunset”) but spatial (“from the place where the sun rises [the east] to the place where it sets [the west].” In the phenomenological language of OT cosmology, the sun was described as rising in the east and setting in the west.

[141:6]  ²¹ tn Heb “they are thrown down by the hands of a cliff, their judges.” The syntax of the Hebrew text is difficult and the meaning uncertain. The perfect verbal form is understood as rhetorical; the psalmist describes the anticipated downfall of the wicked as if it had already occurred. “Their judges” could be taken as the subject of the verb, but this makes little, if any, sense. The translation assumes the judges are the agents and that the wicked, mentioned earlier in the psalm, are the subjects of the verb.

[141:6]  ²² tn It is unclear how this statement relates to the preceding sentence. Perhaps the judges are the referent of the pronominal subject (“they”) of the verb “will listen,” and “my words” are the referent of the pronominal subject (“they”) of the phrase “are pleasant.” The psalmist may be affirming here his confidence that he will be vindicated when he presents his case before the judges, while the wicked will be punished.