Psalms 2:8

2:8 Ask me,

and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, ¹ 

the ends of the earth as your personal property.

Psalms 4:4

4:4 Tremble with fear and do not sin! ² 

Meditate as you lie in bed, and repent of your ways! ³  (Selah)

Psalms 17:15

17:15 As for me, because I am innocent I will see your face; ⁴ 

when I awake you will reveal yourself to me. ⁵ 

Psalms 18:29

18:29 Indeed, ⁶  with your help ⁷  I can charge against ⁸  an army; ⁹ 

by my God’s power ¹⁰  I can jump over a wall. ¹¹ 

Psalms 22:27

22:27 Let all the people of the earth acknowledge the Lord and turn to him! ¹² 

Let all the nations ¹³  worship you! ¹⁴ 

Psalms 34:12

34:12 Do you want to really live? ¹⁵ 

Would you love to live a long, happy life? ¹⁶ 

Psalms 68:23

68:23 so that your feet may stomp ¹⁷  in their blood,

and your dogs may eat their portion of the enemies’ corpses.” ¹⁸ 

Psalms 72:5

72:5 People will fear ¹⁹  you ²⁰  as long as the sun and moon remain in the sky,

for generation after generation. ²¹ 

Psalms 84:4

84:4 How blessed ²²  are those who live in your temple

and praise you continually! (Selah)

Psalms 89:14

89:14 Equity and justice are the foundation of your throne. ²³ 

Loyal love and faithfulness characterize your rule. ²⁴ 

Psalms 104:2

104:2 He covers himself with light as if it were a garment.

He stretches out the skies like a tent curtain,

Psalms 104:13-14

104:13 He waters the mountains from the upper rooms of his palace; ²⁵ 

the earth is full of the fruit you cause to grow. ²⁶ 

104:14 He provides grass ²⁷  for the cattle,

and crops for people to cultivate, ²⁸ 

so they can produce food from the ground, ²⁹ 

[2:8]  ¹ sn I will give you the nations. The Lord promises the Davidic king universal dominion.

[4:4]  ² sn The psalmist warns his enemies that they need to tremble with fear before God and repudiate their sinful ways.

[4:4]  ³ tn Heb “say in your heart(s) on your bed(s) and wail/lament.” The verb דֹמּוּ (dommu) is understood as a form of דָמָם (“wail, lament”) in sorrow and repentance. Another option is to take the verb from II דָמָם (damam, “be quiet”); cf. NIV, NRSV “be silent.”

[17:15]  ³ tn Heb “I, in innocence, I will see your face.” To “see” God’s “face” means to have access to his presence and to experience his favor (see Ps 11:7; see also Job 33:26 [where רָאָה (ra’ah), not חָזַה (khazah), is used]). Here, however, the psalmist may be anticipating a mystical experience. See the following note on the word “me.”

[17:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “I will be satisfied, when I awake, [with] your form.” The noun תְּמוּנָה (tÿmunah) normally carries the nuance “likeness” or “form.” In Job 4:16 it refers to a ghostlike spiritual entity (see v. 15) that revealed itself to Eliphaz during the night. The psalmist may anticipate a mystical encounter with God in which he expects to see a manifestation of God’s presence (i.e., a theophany), perhaps in conjunction with an oracle of deliverance. During the quiet darkness of the night, God examines the psalmist’s inner motives and finds them to be pure (see v. 3). The psalmist is confident that when he awakens, perhaps sometime during the night or in the morning, he will be visited by God and assured of vindication.

[18:29]  ⁴ tn Or “for.” The translation assumes that כִּי (ki) is asseverative here.

[18:29]  ⁵ tn Heb “by you.”

[18:29]  ⁶ tn Heb “I will run.” The imperfect verbal forms in v. 29 indicate the subject’s potential or capacity to perform an action. Though one might expect a preposition to follow the verb here, this need not be the case with the verb רוּץ (ruts; see 1 Sam 17:22). Some emend the Qal to a Hiphil form of the verb and translate, “I put to flight [Heb “cause to run”] an army.”

[18:29]  ⁷ tn More specifically, the noun גְּדוּד (gÿdud) refers to a raiding party or to a contingent of troops.

[18:29]  ⁸ tn Heb “and by my God.”

[18:29]  ⁹ sn I can jump over a wall. The psalmist uses hyperbole to emphasize his God-given military superiority.

[22:27]  ⁵ tn Heb “may all the ends of the earth remember and turn to the Lord.” The prefixed verbal forms in v. 27 are understood as jussives (cf. NEB). Another option (cf. NIV, NRSV) is to take the forms as imperfects and translate, “all the people of the earth will acknowledge and turn…and worship.” See vv. 29-32.

[22:27]  ⁶ tn Heb “families of the nations.”

[22:27]  ⁷ tn Heb “before you.”

[34:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “Who is the man who desires life?” The rhetorical question is used to grab the audience’s attention. “Life” probably refers here to quality of life, not just physical existence or even duration of life. See the following line.

[34:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “[Who] loves days to see good?”

[68:23]  ⁷ tc Some (e.g. NRSV) prefer to emend מָחַץ (makhats, “smash; stomp”; see v. 21) to רָחַץ (rakhats, “bathe”; see Ps 58:10).

[68:23]  ⁸ tn Heb “[and] the tongue of your dogs from [the] enemies [may eat] its portion.”

[72:5]  ⁸ tn In this context “fear” probably means “to demonstrate respect for the Lord’s power and authority by worshiping him and obeying his commandments.” See Ps 33:8. Some interpreters, with the support of the LXX, prefer to read וְיַאֲרִיךְ (vÿ’a’arikh, “and he [the king in this case] will prolong [days]”), that is, “will live a long time” (cf. NIV, NRSV).

[72:5]  ⁹ tn God is the addressee (see vv. 1-2).

[72:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “with [the] sun, and before [the] moon [for] a generation, generations.” The rare expression דּוֹר דּוֹרִים (dor dorim, “generation, generations”) occurs only here, in Ps 102:24, and in Isa 51:8.

[84:4]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew noun is an abstract plural. The word often refers metonymically to the happiness that God-given security and prosperity produce (see v. 12 and Pss 1:1; 2:12; 34:9; 41:1; 65:4; 89:15; 106:3; 112:1; 127:5; 128:1; 144:15).

[89:14]  ¹⁰ sn The Lord’s throne symbolizes his kingship.

[89:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “are in front of your face.” The idiom can mean “confront” (Ps 17:13) or “meet, enter the presence of” (Ps 95:2).

[104:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “from his upper rooms.”

[104:13]  ¹² tn Heb “from the fruit of your works the earth is full.” The translation assumes that “fruit” is literal here. If “fruit” is understood more abstractly as “product; result,” then one could translate, “the earth flourishes as a result of your deeds” (cf. NIV, NRSV, REB).

[104:14]  ¹² tn Heb “causes the grass to sprout up.”

[104:14]  ¹³ tn Heb “for the service of man” (see Gen 2:5).

[104:14]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “to cause food to come out from the earth.”