Psalms 19:13

19:13 Moreover, keep me from committing flagrant ¹  sins;

do not allow such sins to control me. ² 

Then I will be blameless,

and innocent of blatant ³  rebellion.

Psalms 31:19

31:19 How great is your favor, ⁴ 

which you store up for your loyal followers! ⁵ 

In plain sight of everyone you bestow it on those who take shelter ⁶  in you. ⁷ 

Psalms 40:10

40:10 I have not failed to tell about your justice; ⁸ 

I spoke about your reliability and deliverance;

I have not neglected to tell the great assembly about your loyal love and faithfulness. ⁹ 

Psalms 48:2

48:2 It is lofty and pleasing to look at, ¹⁰ 

a source of joy to the whole earth. ¹¹ 

Mount Zion resembles the peaks of Zaphon; ¹² 

it is the city of the great king.

Psalms 106:7

106:7 Our ancestors in Egypt failed to appreciate your miraculous deeds,

they failed to remember your many acts of loyal love,

and they rebelled at the sea, by the Red Sea. ¹³ 

[19:13]  ¹ tn Or “presumptuous.”

[19:13]  ² tn Heb “let them not rule over me.”

[19:13]  ³ tn Heb “great.”

[31:19]  ⁴ tn Or “How abundant are your blessings!”

[31:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “for those who fear you.”

[31:19]  ⁶ tn “Taking shelter” in the Lord is an idiom for seeking his protection. Seeking his protection presupposes and even demonstrates the subject’s loyalty to the Lord. In the psalms those who “take shelter” in the Lord are contrasted with the wicked and equated with those who love, fear, and serve the Lord (Pss 2:12; 5:11-12; 34:21-22).

[31:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “you work [your favor] for the ones seeking shelter in you before the sons of men.”

[40:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “your justice I have not hidden in the midst of my heart.”

[40:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “I have not hidden your loyal love and reliability.”

[48:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “beautiful of height.” The Hebrew term נוֹף (nof, “height”) is a genitive of specification after the qualitative noun “beautiful.” The idea seems to be that Mount Zion, because of its lofty appearance, is pleasing to the sight.

[48:2]  ¹¹ sn A source of joy to the whole earth. The language is hyperbolic. Zion, as the dwelling place of the universal king, is pictured as the world’s capital. The prophets anticipated this idealized picture becoming a reality in the eschaton (see Isa 2:1-4).

[48:2]  ¹² tn Heb “Mount Zion, the peaks of Zaphon.” Like all the preceding phrases in v. 2, both phrases are appositional to “city of our God, his holy hill” in v. 1, suggesting an identification in the poet’s mind between Mount Zion and Zaphon. “Zaphon” usually refers to the “north” in a general sense (see Pss 89:12; 107:3), but here, where it is collocated with “peaks,” it refers specifically to Mount Zaphon, located in the vicinity of ancient Ugarit and viewed as the mountain where the gods assembled (see Isa 14:13). By alluding to West Semitic mythology in this way, the psalm affirms that Mount Zion is the real divine mountain, for it is here that the Lord God of Israel lives and rules over the nations. See P. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (WBC), 353, and T. N. D. Mettinger, In Search of God, 103.

[106:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “Reed Sea” (also in vv. 9, 22). “Reed Sea” (or “Sea of Reeds”) is a more accurate rendering of the Hebrew expression יָם סוּף (yam suf), traditionally translated “Red Sea.” See the note on the term “Red Sea” in Exod 13:18.