Psalms 2:11

2:11 Serve ¹  the Lord in fear!

Repent in terror! ² 

Psalms 90:11

90:11 Who can really fathom the intensity of your anger? ³ 

Your raging fury causes people to fear you. ⁴ 

Psalms 119:38

119:38 Confirm to your servant your promise, ⁵ 

which you made to the one who honors you. ⁶ 

Psalms 34:11

34:11 Come children! Listen to me!

I will teach you what it means to fear the Lord. ⁷ 

Psalms 55:5

55:5 Fear and panic overpower me; ⁸ 

terror overwhelms ⁹  me.

Psalms 5:7

5:7 But as for me, ¹⁰  because of your great faithfulness I will enter your house; ¹¹ 

I will bow down toward your holy temple as I worship you. ¹² 

Psalms 19:9

19:9 The commands to fear the Lord are right ¹³ 

and endure forever. ¹⁴ 

The judgments given by the Lord are trustworthy

and absolutely just. ¹⁵ 

Psalms 111:10

111:10 To obey the Lord is the fundamental principle for wise living; ¹⁶ 

all who carry out his precepts acquire good moral insight. ¹⁷ 

He will receive praise forever. ¹⁸ 

[2:11]  ¹ tn The Hebrew verb translated “serve” refers here to submitting to the Lord’s sovereignty as expressed through the rule of the Davidic king. Such “service” would involve maintaining allegiance to the Davidic king by paying tribute on a regular basis.

[2:11]  ² tn Traditionally, “rejoice with trembling” (KJV). The verb גִּיל (gil) normally means “rejoice,” but this meaning does not fit well here in conjunction with “in trembling.” Some try to understand “trembling” (and the parallel יִרְאָה, yir’ah, “fear”) in the sense of “reverential awe” and then take the verbs “serve” and “rejoice” in the sense of “worship” (cf. NASB). But רְעָדָה (rÿ’adah, “trembling”) and its related terms consistently refer to utter terror and fear (see Exod 15:15; Job 4:14; Pss 48:6; 55:5; 104:32; Isa 33:14; Dan 10:11) or at least great emotional distress (Ezra 10:9). It seems more likely here that גִּיל carries its polarized meaning “mourn, lament,” as in Hos 10:5. “Mourn, lament” would then be metonymic in this context for “repent” (referring to one’s rebellious ways). On the meaning of the verb in Hos 10:5, see F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman, Hosea (AB), 556-57.

[90:11]  ³ tn Heb “Who knows the strength of your anger?”

[90:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “and like your fear [is] your raging fury.” Perhaps one should emend וּכְיִרְאָתְךְ (ukhyir’otekh, “and like your fear”) to יִרְאָתְךְ (yir’otkh, “your fear”), understanding a virtual dittography (אַפֶּךָ וּכְיִרְאָתְךְ, ’apekha ukhyir’otekh) to have occurred. In this case the psalmist asserts “your fear [is] your raging fury,” that is, your raging fury is what causes others to fear you. The suffix on “fear” is understood as objective.

[119:38]  ⁵ tn Heb “word.”

[119:38]  ⁶ tn Heb “which [is] for your fear,” that is, the promise made to those who exhibit fear of God.

[34:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “the fear of the Lord I will teach you.” In vv. 13-14 the psalmist explains to his audience what it means to “fear” the Lord.

[55:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “fear and trembling enter into me.”

[55:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “covers.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive carries on the descriptive (present progressive) force of the preceding imperfect.

[5:7]  ¹¹ sn But as for me. By placing the first person pronoun at the beginning of the verse, the psalmist highlights the contrast between the evildoers’ actions and destiny, outlined in the preceding verses, with his own.

[5:7]  ¹² sn I will enter your house. The psalmist is confident that God will accept him into his presence, in contrast to the evildoers (see v. 5).

[5:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “in fear [of] you.” The Hebrew noun יִרְאָה (yir’ah, “fear”), when used of fearing God, is sometimes used metonymically for what it ideally produces: “worship, reverence, piety.”

[19:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “the fear of the Lord is clean.” The phrase “fear of the Lord” probably refers here to the law, which teaches one how to demonstrate proper reverence for the Lord. See Ps 111:10 for another possible use of the phrase in this sense.

[19:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “[it] stands permanently.”

[19:9]  ¹⁵ sn Trustworthy and absolutely just. The Lord’s commands accurately reflect God’s moral will for his people and are an expression of his just character.

[111:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the beginning of wisdom [is] the fear of the Lord.”

[111:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “good sense [is] to all who do them.” The third masculine plural pronominal suffix must refer back to the “precepts” mentioned in v. 7. In the translation the referent has been specified for clarity. The phrase שֵׂכֶל טוֹב (shekhel tov) also occurs in Prov 3:4; 13:15 and 2 Chr 30:22.

[111:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “his praise stands forever.”