Psalms 18:30

18:30 The one true God acts in a faithful manner; ¹ 

the Lord’s promise ²  is reliable; ³ 

he is a shield to all who take shelter ⁴  in him.

Psalms 25:15

25:15 I continually look to the Lord for help, ⁵ 

for he will free my feet from the enemy’s net. ⁶ 

Psalms 44:21

44:21 would not God discover it,

for he knows ⁷  one’s thoughts? ⁸ 

Psalms 45:11

45:11 Then ⁹  the king will be attracted by ¹⁰  your beauty.

After all, he is your master! Submit ¹¹  to him! ¹² 

Psalms 48:14

48:14 For God, our God, is our defender forever! ¹³ 

He guides ¹⁴  us! ¹⁵ 

Psalms 62:2

62:2 He alone is my protector ¹⁶  and deliverer.

He is my refuge; ¹⁷  I will not be upended. ¹⁸ 

Psalms 95:7

95:7 For he is our God;

we are the people of his pasture,

the sheep he owns. ¹⁹ 

Today, if only you would obey him! ²⁰ 

Psalms 96:4

96:4 For the Lord is great and certainly worthy of praise;

he is more awesome than all gods. ²¹ 

Psalms 101:6

101:6 I will favor the honest people of the land, ²² 

and allow them to live with me. ²³ 

Those who walk in the way of integrity will attend me. ²⁴ 

Psalms 149:9

149:9 and execute the judgment to which their enemies ²⁵  have been sentenced. ²⁶ 

All his loyal followers will be vindicated. ²⁷ 

Praise the Lord!

[18:30]  ¹ tn Heb “[As for] the God, his way is blameless.” The term הָאֵל (ha’el, “the God”) stands as a nominative (or genitive) absolute in apposition to the resumptive pronominal suffix on “way.” The prefixed article emphasizes his distinctiveness as the one true God (cf. Deut 33:26). God’s “way” in this context refers to his protective and salvific acts in fulfillment of his promise (see also Deut 32:4; Pss 67:2; 77:13 [note vv. 11-12, 14]; 103:7; 138:5; 145:17).

[18:30]  ² sn The Lord’s promise. In the ancient Near East kings would typically seek and receive oracles from their god(s) prior to battle. For examples, see R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 241-42.

[18:30]  ³ tn Heb “the word of the Lord is purified.” The Lord’s “word” probably refers here to his oracle(s) of victory delivered to the psalmist before the battle(s) described in the following context. See also Pss 12:5-7 and 138:2-3. David frequently received such oracles before going into battle (see 1 Sam 23:2, 4-5, 10-12; 30:8; 2 Sam 5:19). The Lord’s word of promise is absolutely reliable; it is compared to metal that has been refined in fire and cleansed of impurities. See Ps 12:6.

[18:30]  ⁴ sn Take shelter. See the note on the word “shelter” in v. 2.

[25:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “my eyes continually [are] toward the Lord.”

[25:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “for he will bring out from a net my feet.” The hostility of the psalmist’s enemies is probably in view (see v. 19).

[44:21]  ⁹ tn The active participle describes what is characteristically true.

[44:21]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “would not God search out this, for he knows the hidden things of [the] heart?” The expression “search out” is used metonymically here, referring to discovery, the intended effect of a search. The “heart” (i.e., mind) is here viewed as the seat of one’s thoughts. The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he would!” The point seems to be this: There is no way the Israelites who are the speakers in the psalm would reject God and turn to another god, for the omniscient God would easily discover such a sin.

[45:11]  ¹³ tn After the preceding imperatives, the jussive verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive is best understood as introducing a purpose (“so that the king might desire your beauty”) or result clause (see the present translation and cf. also NASB). The point seems to be this: The bride might tend to be homesick, which in turn might cause her to mourn and diminish her attractiveness. She needs to overcome this temptation to unhappiness and enter into the marriage with joy. Then the king will be drawn to her natural beauty.

[45:11]  ¹⁴ tn Or “desire.”

[45:11]  ¹⁵ tn Or “bow down.”

[45:11]  ¹⁶ sn Submit to him. The poet here makes the point that the young bride is obligated to bring pleasure to her new husband. Though a foreign concept to modern western culture, this was accepted as the cultural norm in the psalmist’s day.

[48:14]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “for this is God, our God, forever and ever.” “This” might be paraphrased, “this protector described and praised in the preceding verses.”

[48:14]  ¹⁸ tn The imperfect highlights the characteristic nature of the generalizing statement.

[48:14]  ¹⁹ tn In the Hebrew text the psalm ends with the words עַל־מוּת (’al-mut, “upon [unto?] dying”), which make little, if any, sense. M. Dahood (Psalms [AB], 1:293) proposes an otherwise unattested plural form עֹלָמוֹת (’olamot; from עוֹלָם, ’olam, “eternity”). This would provide a nice parallel to עוֹלָם וָעֶד (’olam va’ed, “forever”) in the preceding line, but elsewhere the plural of עוֹלָם appears as עֹלָמִים (’olamim). It is preferable to understand the phrase as a musical direction of some sort (see עַל־מוּת [’al-mut] in the superscription of Ps 9) or to emend the text to עַל־עֲלָמוֹת (’al-’alamot, “according to the alamoth style”; see the heading of Ps 46). In either case it should be understood as belonging with the superscription of the following psalm.

[62:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “my high rocky summit.”

[62:2]  ²² tn Or “my elevated place” (see Ps 18:2).

[62:2]  ²³ tn The Hebrew text adds רַבָּה (rabbah, “greatly”) at the end of the line. It is unusual for this adverb to follow a negated verb. Some see this as qualifying the assertion to some degree, but this would water down the affirmation too much (see v. 6b, where the adverb is omitted). If the adverb has a qualifying function, it would suggest that the psalmist might be upended, though not severely. This is inconsistent with the confident mood of the psalm. The adverb probably has an emphatic force here, “I will not be greatly upended” meaning “I will not be annihilated.”

[95:7]  ²⁵ tn Heb “of his hand.”

[95:7]  ²⁶ tn Heb “if only you would listen to his voice.” The Hebrew particle אִם (’im, “if”) and following prefixed verbal form here express a wish (cf. Ps 81:8). Note that the apodosis (the “then” clause of the conditional sentence) is suppressed.

[96:4]  ²⁹ tn Or perhaps “and feared by all gods.” See Ps 89:7.

[101:6]  ³³ tn Heb “my eyes [are] on the faithful of the land.”

[101:6]  ³⁴ tn The Hebrew text simply reads, “in order to live with me.”

[101:6]  ³⁵ tn Heb “one who walks in the way of integrity, he will minister to me.”

[149:9]  ³⁷ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the enemies of the people of God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[149:9]  ³⁸ tn Heb “to do against them judgment [that] is written.”

[149:9]  ³⁹ tn Heb “it is honor for all his godly ones.” The judgment of the oppressive kings will bring vindication and honor to God’s people (see vv. 4-5).