Psalms 18:50

18:50 He ¹  gives his chosen king magnificent victories; ² 

he is faithful ³  to his chosen ruler, ⁴ 

to David and his descendants ⁵  forever.” ⁶ 

Psalms 21:4

21:4 He asked you to sustain his life, ⁷ 

and you have granted him long life and an enduring dynasty. ⁸ 

Psalms 24:7

24:7 Look up, ⁹  you gates!

Rise up, ¹⁰  you eternal doors!

Then the majestic king ¹¹  will enter! ¹² 

Psalms 24:9

24:9 Look up, you gates!

Rise up, you eternal doors!

Then the majestic king will enter!

Psalms 45:6

45:6 Your throne, ¹³  O God, is permanent. ¹⁴ 

The scepter ¹⁵  of your kingdom is a scepter of justice.

Psalms 48:14

48:14 For God, our God, is our defender forever! ¹⁶ 

He guides ¹⁷  us! ¹⁸ 

Psalms 52:8

52:8 But I ¹⁹  am like a flourishing ²⁰  olive tree in the house of God;

I continually ²¹  trust in God’s loyal love.

Psalms 61:7

61:7 May he reign ²²  forever before God!

Decree that your loyal love and faithfulness should protect him. ²³ 

Psalms 66:7

66:7 He rules ²⁴  by his power forever;

he watches ²⁵  the nations.

Stubborn rebels should not exalt ²⁶  themselves. (Selah)

Psalms 89:1-2

Psalm 89 ²⁷ 

A well-written song ²⁸  by Ethan the Ezrachite.

89:1 I will sing continually ²⁹  about the Lord’s faithful deeds;

to future generations I will proclaim your faithfulness. ³⁰ 

89:2 For I say, “Loyal love is permanently established; ³¹ 

in the skies you set up your faithfulness.” ³² 

Psalms 89:4

89:4 ‘I will give you an eternal dynasty ³³ 

and establish your throne throughout future generations.’” ³⁴  (Selah)

Psalms 90:2

90:2 Even before the mountains came into existence, ³⁵ 

or you brought the world into being, ³⁶ 

you were the eternal God. ³⁷ 

Psalms 103:17

103:17 But the Lord continually shows loyal love to his faithful followers, ³⁸ 

and is faithful to their descendants, ³⁹ 

Psalms 125:2

125:2 As the mountains surround Jerusalem, ⁴⁰ 

so the Lord surrounds his people,

now and forevermore.

Psalms 143:3

143:3 Certainly ⁴¹  my enemies ⁴²  chase me.

They smash me into the ground. ⁴³ 

They force me to live ⁴⁴  in dark regions, ⁴⁵ 

like those who have been dead for ages.

[18:50]  ¹ tn Or “the one who.”

[18:50]  ² tn Heb “magnifies the victories of his king.” “His king” refers to the psalmist, the Davidic king whom God has chosen to rule Israel.

[18:50]  ³ tn Heb “[the one who] does loyalty.”

[18:50]  ⁴ tn Heb “his anointed [one],” i.e., the psalmist/Davidic king. See Ps 2:2.

[18:50]  ⁵ tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”

[18:50]  ⁶ sn If David is the author of the psalm (see the superscription), then he here anticipates that God will continue to demonstrate loyalty to his descendants who succeed him. If the author is a later Davidic king, then he views the divine favor he has experienced as the outworking of God’s faithful promises to David his ancestor.

[21:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “life he asked from you.” Another option is to translate the perfect verbal forms in v. 4 with the present tense, “he asks…you grant.”

[21:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “you have granted him length of days forever and ever.” The phrase “length of days,” when used of human beings, usually refers to a lengthy period of time (such as one’s lifetime). See, for example, Deut 30:20; Job 12:12; Ps 91:16; Prov 3:2, 16; Lam 5:20. The additional phrase “forever and ever” is hyperbolic. While it seems to attribute eternal life to the king (see Pss 61:6-7; 72:5 as well), the underlying reality is the king’s enduring dynasty. He will live on, as it were, through his descendants, who will continue to rule over his kingdom long after he has passed off the scene.

[24:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “lift up your heads.” The gates of the Lord’s dwelling place are here personified. The idiom “lift up the head” often means “be confident, bold” (see Judg 8:28; Job 10:15; Ps 83:2; Zech 1:21).

[24:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “lift yourselves up.”

[24:7]  ¹⁵ tn Or “king of glory.”

[24:7]  ¹⁶ tn Following the imperatives of the preceding lines, the prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose or result.

[45:6]  ¹⁹ sn The king’s throne here symbolizes his rule.

[45:6]  ²⁰ tn Or “forever and ever.”

[45:6]  ²¹ sn The king’s scepter symbolizes his royal authority.

[48:14]  ²⁵ 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]  ²⁶ tn The imperfect highlights the characteristic nature of the generalizing statement.

[48:14]  ²⁷ 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.

[52:8]  ³¹ tn The disjunctive construction (vav [ו] + subject) highlights the contrast between the evildoer’s destiny (vv. 5-7) and that of the godly psalmist’s security.

[52:8]  ³² tn Or “luxuriant, green, leafy.”

[52:8]  ³³ tn Or, hyperbolically, “forever and ever.”

[61:7]  ³⁷ tn Heb “sit [enthroned].” The prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive here, expressing the psalmist’s prayer.

[61:7]  ³⁸ tn Heb “loyal love and faithfulness appoint, let them protect him.”

[66:7]  ⁴³ tn Heb “[the] one who rules.”

[66:7]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “his eyes watch.” “Eyes” are an anthropomorphism, attributed to God here to emphasize his awareness of all that happens on earth.

[66:7]  ⁴⁵ tn The verb form is jussive (note the negative particle אַל, ’al). The Kethib (consonantal text) has a Hiphil form of the verb, apparently to be understood in an exhibitive sense (“demonstrate stubborn rebellion”; see BDB 927 s.v. רוּם Hiph), while the Qere (marginal reading) has a Qal form, to be understood in an intransitive sense. The preposition -לְ (lamed) with pronominal suffix should be understood in a reflexive sense (“for themselves”) and indicates that the action is performed with the interest of the subject in mind.

[89:1]  ⁴⁹ sn Psalm 89. The psalmist praises God as the sovereign creator of the world. He recalls God’s covenant with David, but then laments that the promises of the covenant remain unrealized. The covenant promised the Davidic king military victories, but the king has now been subjected to humiliating defeat.

[89:1]  ⁵⁰ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. See the note on the phrase “well-written song” in the superscription of Ps 88.

[89:1]  ⁵¹ tn Or “forever.”

[89:1]  ⁵² tn Heb “to a generation and a generation I will make known your faithfulness with my mouth.”

[89:2]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “built.”

[89:2]  ⁵⁶ sn You set up your faithfulness. This may allude to the Lord’s heavenly throne, which symbolizes his just rule and from which the Lord decrees his unconditional promises (see vv. 8, 14).

[89:4]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “forever I will establish your offspring.”

[89:4]  ⁶² tn Heb “and I will build to a generation and a generation your throne.”

[90:2]  ⁶⁷ tn Heb “were born.”

[90:2]  ⁶⁸ tn Heb “and you gave birth to the earth and world.” The Polel verbal form in the Hebrew text pictures God giving birth to the world. The LXX and some other ancient textual witnesses assume a polal (passive) verbal form here. In this case the earth becomes the subject of the verb and the verb is understood as third feminine singular rather than second masculine singular.

[90:2]  ⁶⁹ tn Heb “and from everlasting to everlasting you [are] God.” Instead of אֵל (’el, “God”) the LXX reads אַל (’al, “not”) and joins the negative particle to the following verse, making the verb תָּשֵׁב (tashev) a jussive. In this case v. 3a reads as a prayer, “do not turn man back to a low place.” However, taking תָּשֵׁב as a jussive is problematic in light of the following following wayyiqtol form וַתֹּאמֶר (vato’mer, “and you said/say”).

[103:17]  ⁷³ tn Heb “but the loyal love of the Lord [is] from everlasting to everlasting over those who fear him.”

[103:17]  ⁷⁴ tn Heb “and his righteousness to sons of sons.”

[125:2]  ⁷⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[143:3]  ⁸⁵ tn Or “for.”

[143:3]  ⁸⁶ tn Heb “an enemy.” The singular is used in a representative sense to describe a typical member of the larger group of enemies (note the plural “enemies” in vv. 9, 12).

[143:3]  ⁸⁷ tn Heb “he crushes on the ground my life.”

[143:3]  ⁸⁸ tn Or “sit.”

[143:3]  ⁸⁹ sn Dark regions refers to Sheol, which the psalmist views as a dark place located deep in the ground (see Ps 88:6).