Psalms 18:19

18:19 He brought me out into a wide open place;

he delivered me because he was pleased with me. ¹ 

Psalms 40:8

40:8 I want to do what pleases you, ²  my God.

Your law dominates my thoughts.” ³ 

Psalms 51:6

51:6 Look, ⁴  you desire ⁵  integrity in the inner man; ⁶ 

you want me to possess wisdom. ⁷ 

Psalms 73:25

73:25 Whom do I have in heaven but you?

I desire no one but you on earth. ⁸ 

Psalms 109:17

109:17 He loved to curse ⁹  others, so those curses have come upon him. ¹⁰ 

He had no desire to bless anyone, so he has experienced no blessings. ¹¹ 

Psalms 147:10

147:10 He is not enamored with the strength of a horse,

nor is he impressed by the warrior’s strong legs. ¹² 

[18:19]  ¹ tn Or “delighted in me.”

[40:8]  ² tn Or “your will.”

[40:8]  ³ tn Heb “your law [is] in the midst of my inner parts.” The “inner parts” are viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s thought life and moral decision making.

[51:6]  ³ sn The juxtaposition of two occurrences of “look” in vv. 5-6 draws attention to the sharp contrast between the sinful reality of the psalmist’s condition and the lofty ideal God has for him.

[51:6]  ⁴ tn The perfect is used in a generalizing sense here.

[51:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “in the covered [places],” i.e., in the inner man.

[51:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “in the secret [place] wisdom you cause me to know.” The Hiphil verbal form is causative, while the imperfect is used in a modal sense to indicate God’s desire (note the parallel verb “desire”).

[73:25]  ⁴ tn Heb “Who [is there] for me in heaven? And besides you I do not desire [anyone] in the earth.” The psalmist uses a merism (heaven/earth) to emphasize that God is the sole object of his desire and worship in the entire universe.

[109:17]  ⁵ sn A curse in OT times consists of a formal appeal to God to bring judgment down upon another. Curses were sometimes justified (such as the one spoken by the psalmist here in vv. 6-19), but when they were not, the one pronouncing the curse was in danger of bringing the anticipated judgment down upon himself.

[109:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “and he loved a curse and it came [upon] him.” A reference to the evil man experiencing a curse seems premature here, for the psalmist is asking God to bring judgment on his enemies. For this reason some (cf. NIV, NRSV) prefer to repoint the vav (ו) on “it came” as conjunctive and translate the verb as a jussive of prayer (“may it come upon him!”). The prefixed form with vav consecutive in the next line is emended in the same way and translated, “may it be far from him.” However, the psalmist may be indicating that the evil man’s lifestyle has already begun to yield its destructive fruit.

[109:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he did not delight in a blessing and it is far from him.”

[147:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “he does not desire the strength of the horse, he does not take delight in the legs of the man.” Here “the horse” refers to the war horse used by ancient Near Eastern chariot forces, and “the man” refers to the warrior whose muscular legs epitomize his strength.