Psalms 18:31

18:31 Indeed, ¹  who is God besides the Lord?

Who is a protector ²  besides our God? ³ 

Psalms 20:5

20:5 Then we will shout for joy over your ⁴  victory;

we will rejoice ⁵  in the name of our God!

May the Lord grant all your requests!

Psalms 20:7

20:7 Some trust in chariots and others in horses, ⁶ 

but we ⁷  depend on ⁸  the Lord our God.

Psalms 44:20

44:20 If we had rejected our God, ⁹ 

and spread out our hands in prayer to another god, ¹⁰ 

Psalms 48:1

Psalm 48 ¹¹ 

A song, a psalm by the Korahites.

48:1 The Lord is great and certainly worthy of praise

in the city of our God, ¹²  his holy hill.

Psalms 48:14

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

He guides ¹⁴  us! ¹⁵ 

Psalms 50:3

50:3 Our God approaches and is not silent; ¹⁶ 

consuming fire goes ahead of him

and all around him a storm rages. ¹⁷ 

Psalms 90:17

90:17 May our sovereign God extend his favor to us! ¹⁸ 

Make our endeavors successful!

Yes, make them successful! ¹⁹ 

Psalms 94:23

94:23 He will pay them back for their sin. ²⁰ 

He will destroy them because of ²¹  their evil;

the Lord our God will destroy them.

Psalms 95:7

95:7 For he is our God;

we are the people of his pasture,

the sheep he owns. ²² 

Today, if only you would obey him! ²³ 

Psalms 98:3

98:3 He remains loyal and faithful to the family of Israel. ²⁴ 

All the ends of the earth see our God deliver us. ²⁵ 

Psalms 99:8

99:8 O Lord our God, you answered them.

They found you to be a forgiving God,

but also one who punished their sinful deeds. ²⁶ 

Psalms 106:47

106:47 Deliver us, O Lord, our God!

Gather us from among the nations!

Then we will give thanks ²⁷  to your holy name,

and boast about your praiseworthy deeds. ²⁸ 

Psalms 147:1

Psalm 147 ²⁹ 

147:1 Praise the Lord,

for it is good to sing praises to our God!

Yes, ³⁰  praise is pleasant and appropriate!

[18:31]  ¹ tn Or “for.”

[18:31]  ² tn Heb “rocky cliff,” which is a metaphor of divine protection. See v. 2, where the Hebrew term צוּר (tsur) is translated “rocky summit.”

[18:31]  ³ tn The rhetorical questions anticipate the answer, “No one.” In this way the psalmist indicates that the Lord is the only true God and reliable source of protection. See also Deut 32:39, where the Lord affirms that he is the only true God. Note as well the emphasis on his role as protector (Heb “rocky cliff,” צוּר, tsur) in Deut 32:4, 15, 17-18, 30.

[20:5]  ⁴ sn Your victory. Here the king is addressed (see v. 1).

[20:5]  ⁵ tc The Hebrew verb דָּגַל (dagal) occurs only here in the Qal. If accepted as original, it may carry the nuance “raise a banner,” but it is preferable to emend the form to נגיל (“we will rejoice”) which provides better parallelism with “shout for joy” and fits well with the prepositional phrase “in the name of our God” (see Ps 89:16).

[20:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “these in chariots and these in horses.” No verb appears; perhaps the verb “invoke” is to be supplied from the following line. In this case the idea would be that some “invoke” (i.e., trust in) their military might for victory (cf. NEB “boast”; NIV “trust”; NRSV “take pride”). Verse 8 suggests that the “some/others” mentioned here are the nation’s enemies.

[20:7]  ⁸ tn The grammatical construction (conjunction + pronominal subject) highlights the contrast between God’s faithful people and the others mentioned in the previous line.

[20:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “we invoke the name of.” The Hiphil of זָכַר (zakhar), when combined with the phrase “in the name,” means “to invoke” (see Josh 23:7; Isa 48:1; Amos 6:10). By invoking the Lord’s name in prayer, the people demonstrate their trust in him.

[44:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “If we had forgotten the name of our God.” To “forget the name” here refers to rejecting the Lord’s authority (see Jer 23:27) and abandoning him as an object of prayer and worship (see the next line).

[44:20]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and spread out your hands to another god.” Spreading out the hands was a prayer gesture (see Exod 9:29, 33; 1 Kgs 8:22, 38; 2 Chr 6:12-13, 29; Ezra 9:15; Job 11:13; Isa 1:15). In its most fundamental sense זר (“another; foreign; strange”) refers to something that is outside one’s circle, often making association with it inappropriate. A “strange” god is an alien deity, an “outside god” (see L. A. Snijders, TDOT 4:54-55).

[48:1]  ¹³ sn Psalm 48. This so-called “Song of Zion” celebrates the greatness and glory of the Lord’s dwelling place, Jerusalem. His presence in the city elevates it above all others and assures its security.

[48:1]  ¹⁴ sn The city of our God is Jerusalem, which is also referred to here as “his holy hill,” that is, Zion (see v. 2, as well as Isa 66:20; Joel 2:1; 3:17; Zech 8:3; Pss 2:6; 15:1; 43:3; 87:1; Dan 9:16).

[48:14]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ tn The imperfect highlights the characteristic nature of the generalizing statement.

[48:14]  ¹⁸ 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.

[50:3]  ¹⁹ tn According to GKC 322 §109.e, the jussive (note the negative particle אַל, ’al) is used rhetorically here “to express the conviction that something cannot or should not happen.”

[50:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “fire before him devours, and around him it is very stormy.”

[90:17]  ²² tn Heb “and may the delight of the Master, our God, be on us.” The Hebrew term נֹעַם (no’am, “delight”) is used in Ps 27:4 of the Lord’s “beauty,” but here it seems to refer to his favor (see BDB 653 s.v.) or kindness (HALOT 706 s.v.).

[90:17]  ²³ tn Heb “and the work of our hands establish over us, and the work of our hands, establish it.”

[94:23]  ²⁵ tn The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive is used in a rhetorical sense, describing an anticipated development as if it were already reality.

[94:23]  ²⁶ tn Or “in.”

[95:7]  ²⁸ tn Heb “of his hand.”

[95:7]  ²⁹ 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.

[98:3]  ³¹ tn Heb “he remembers his loyal love and his faithfulness to the house of Israel.”

[98:3]  ³² tn Heb “the deliverance of our God,” with “God” being a subjective genitive (= God delivers).

[99:8]  ³⁴ tn Heb “a God of lifting up [i.e., forgiveness] you were to them, and an avenger concerning their deeds.” The present translation reflects the traditional interpretation, which understands the last line as qualifying the preceding one. God forgave Moses and Aaron, but he also disciplined them when they sinned (cf. NIV, NRSV). Another option is to take “their deeds” as referring to harmful deeds directed against Moses and Aaron. In this case the verse may be translated, “and one who avenged attacks against them.” Still another option is to emend the participial form נֹקֵם (noqem, “an avenger”) to נֹקָם (noqam), a rare Qal participial form of נָקַה (naqah, “purify”) with a suffixed pronoun. In this case one could translate, “and one who purified them from their [sinful] deeds” (cf. NEB “and held them innocent”).

[106:47]  ³⁷ tn Heb “to give thanks.” The infinitive construct indicates result after the imperative.

[106:47]  ³⁸ tn Heb “to boast in your praise.”

[147:1]  ⁴⁰ sn Psalm 147. The psalmist praises the Lord for he is the sovereign ruler of the world who cares for the needs of his covenant people.

[147:1]  ⁴¹ tn Or “for.”