Psalms 2:3

2:3 They say, ¹  “Let’s tear off the shackles they’ve put on us! ² 

Let’s free ourselves from ³  their ropes!”

Psalms 62:5

62:5 Patiently wait for God alone, my soul! ⁴ 

For he is the one who gives me confidence. ⁵ 

Psalms 103:12

103:12 As far as the eastern horizon ⁶  is from the west, ⁷ 

so he removes the guilt of our rebellious actions ⁸  from us.

Psalms 109:17

109:17 He loved to curse ⁹  others, so those curses have come upon him. ¹⁰ 

He had no desire to bless anyone, so he has experienced no blessings. ¹¹ 

Psalms 18:8

18:8 Smoke ascended from ¹²  his nose; ¹³ 

fire devoured as it came from his mouth; ¹⁴ 

he hurled down fiery coals. ¹⁵ 

Psalms 33:8

33:8 Let the whole earth fear ¹⁶  the Lord!

Let all who live in the world stand in awe of him!

Psalms 55:12

55:12 Indeed, ¹⁷  it is not an enemy who insults me,

or else I could bear it;

it is not one who hates me who arrogantly taunts me, ¹⁸ 

or else I could hide from him.

Psalms 62:1

Psalm 62 ¹⁹ 

For the music director, Jeduthun; a psalm of David.

62:1 For God alone I patiently wait; ²⁰ 

he is the one who delivers me. ²¹ 

Psalms 22:23-24

22:23 You loyal followers of the Lord, ²²  praise him!

All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!

All you descendants of Israel, stand in awe of him! ²³ 

22:24 For he did not despise or detest the suffering ²⁴  of the oppressed; ²⁵ 

he did not ignore him; ²⁶ 

when he cried out to him, he responded. ²⁷ 

Psalms 35:10

35:10 With all my strength I will say, ²⁸ 

“O Lord, who can compare to you?

You rescue ²⁹  the oppressed from those who try to overpower them; ³⁰ 

the oppressed and needy from those who try to rob them.” ³¹ 

[2:3]  ¹ tn The words “they say” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The quotation represents the words of the rebellious kings.

[2:3]  ² tn Heb “their (i.e., the Lord’s and the king’s) shackles.” The kings compare the rule of the Lord and his vice-regent to being imprisoned.

[2:3]  ³ tn Heb “throw off from us.”

[62:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “only for God be silent, my soul.” The wording is similar to that of v. 1a. Here an imperatival form, דּוֹמִּי (dommiy, “be silent”), appears instead of the noun דּוּמִיָּה (dumiyyah, “silence”). The psalmist is encouraging himself to maintain his trust in God.

[62:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “for from him [is] my hope.”

[103:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “sunrise.”

[103:12]  ⁸ tn Or “sunset.”

[103:12]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew term פֶּשַׁע (pesha’, rebellious act”) is here used metonymically for the guilt such actions produce.

[109:17]  ¹⁰ sn A curse in OT times consists of a formal appeal to God to bring judgment down upon another. Curses were sometimes justified (such as the one spoken by the psalmist here in vv. 6-19), but when they were not, the one pronouncing the curse was in danger of bringing the anticipated judgment down upon himself.

[109:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and he loved a curse and it came [upon] him.” A reference to the evil man experiencing a curse seems premature here, for the psalmist is asking God to bring judgment on his enemies. For this reason some (cf. NIV, NRSV) prefer to repoint the vav (ו) on “it came” as conjunctive and translate the verb as a jussive of prayer (“may it come upon him!”). The prefixed form with vav consecutive in the next line is emended in the same way and translated, “may it be far from him.” However, the psalmist may be indicating that the evil man’s lifestyle has already begun to yield its destructive fruit.

[109:17]  ¹² tn Heb “and he did not delight in a blessing and it is far from him.”

[18:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “within”; or “[from] within.” For a discussion of the use of the preposition -בְּ (bÿ) here, see R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 163-64.

[18:8]  ¹⁴ tn Or “in his anger.” The noun אַף (’af) can carry the abstract meaning “anger,” but the parallelism (note “from his mouth”) suggests the more concrete meaning “nose” here. See also v. 15, “the powerful breath of your nose.”

[18:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “fire from his mouth devoured.” In this poetic narrative context the prefixed verbal form is best understood as a preterite indicating past tense, not an imperfect. Note the two perfect verbal forms in the verse.

[18:8]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “coals burned from him.” Perhaps the psalmist pictures God’s fiery breath igniting coals (cf. Job 41:21), which he then hurls as weapons (cf. Ps 120:4).

[33:8]  ¹⁶ tn In this context “fear” probably means “to demonstrate respect for the Lord’s power and authority by worshiping him and obeying his commandments.”

[55:12]  ¹⁹ tn Or “for.”

[55:12]  ²⁰ tn Heb “[who] magnifies against me.” See Pss 35:26; 38:16.

[62:1]  ²² sn Psalm 62. The psalmist expresses his unwavering confidence in God’s justice and in his ability to protect his people.

[62:1]  ²³ tn Heb “only for God [is] there silence [to] my soul.”

[62:1]  ²⁴ tn Heb “from him [is] my deliverance.”

[22:23]  ²⁵ tn Heb “[you] fearers of the Lord.” See Ps 15:4.

[22:23]  ²⁶ tn Heb “fear him.”

[22:24]  ²⁸ tn Or “affliction”; or “need.”

[22:24]  ²⁹ sn In this verse the psalmist refers to himself in the third person and characterizes himself as oppressed.

[22:24]  ³⁰ tn Heb “he did not hide his face from him.” For other uses of the idiom “hide the face” meaning “ignore,” see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9. Sometimes the idiom carries the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 27:9; 88:14).

[22:24]  ³¹ tn Heb “heard.”

[35:10]  ³¹ tn Heb “all my bones will say.”

[35:10]  ³² tn Heb “[the one who] rescues.” The substantival participle in the Hebrew text characterizes God as one who typically rescues the oppressed.

[35:10]  ³³ tn Heb “from [the one who is] too strong for him.” The singular forms are used in a representative sense. The typical oppressed individual and typical oppressor are in view.

[35:10]  ³⁴ tn Heb “the oppressed [one] and needy [one] from [the one who] robs him.” As in the previous line, the singular forms are used in a representative sense.