Psalms 20:1

Psalm 20 ¹ 

For the music director; a psalm of David.

20:1 May the Lord answer ²  you ³  when you are in trouble; ⁴ 

may the God of Jacob ⁵  make you secure!

Psalms 27:5

27:5 He will surely ⁶  give me shelter ⁷  in the day of danger; ⁸ 

he will hide me in his home; ⁹ 

he will place me ¹⁰  on an inaccessible rocky summit. ¹¹ 

Psalms 41:1

Psalm 41 ¹² 

For the music director; a psalm of David.

41:1 How blessed ¹³  is the one who treats the poor properly! ¹⁴ 

When trouble comes, ¹⁵  the Lord delivers him. ¹⁶ 

Psalms 56:9

56:9 My enemies will turn back when I cry out to you for help; ¹⁷ 

I know that God is on my side. ¹⁸ 

Psalms 110:3

110:3 Your people willingly follow you ¹⁹  when you go into battle. ²⁰ 

On the holy hills ²¹  at sunrise ²²  the dew of your youth ²³  belongs to you. ²⁴ 

Psalms 140:7

140:7 O sovereign Lord, my strong deliverer, ²⁵ 

you shield ²⁶  my head in the day of battle.

[20:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 20. The people pray for the king’s success in battle. When the king declares his assurance that the Lord will answer the people’s prayer, they affirm their confidence in God’s enablement.

[20:1]  ² tn The prefixed verbal forms here and in vv. 1b-5 are interpreted as jussives of prayer (cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV). Another option is to understand them as imperfects, “the Lord will answer,” etc. In this case the people declare their confidence that the Lord will intervene on behalf of the king and extend to him his favor.

[20:1]  ³ sn May the Lord answer you. The people address the king as they pray to the Lord.

[20:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “in a day of trouble.”

[20:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “the name of the God of Jacob.” God’s “name” refers metonymically to his very person and to the divine characteristics suggested by his name, in this case “God of Jacob,” which highlights his relationship to Israel.

[27:5]  ⁶ tn Or “for he will.” The translation assumes the כִּי (ki) is asseverative here, rather than causal.

[27:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “he will hide me in his hut.”

[27:5]  ⁸ tn Or “trouble.”

[27:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “tent.”

[27:5]  ¹⁰ tn The three imperfect verb forms in v. 5 anticipate a positive response to the prayer offered in vv. 7-12.

[27:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “on a rocky summit he lifts me up.” The Lord places the psalmist in an inaccessible place where his enemies cannot reach him. See Ps 18:2.

[41:1]  ¹¹ sn Psalm 41. The psalmist is confident (vv. 11-12) that the Lord has heard his request to be healed (vv. 4-10), and he anticipates the joy he will experience when the Lord intervenes (vv. 1-3). One must assume that the psalmist is responding to a divine oracle of assurance (see P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 319-20). The final verse is a fitting conclusion to this psalm, but it is also serves as a fitting conclusion to the first “book” (or major editorial division) of the Psalter. Similar statements appear at or near the end of each of the second, third, and fourth “books” of the Psalter (see Pss 72:19, 89:52, and 106:48 respectively).

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

[41:1]  ¹³ sn One who treats the poor properly. The psalmist is characterizing himself as such an individual and supplying a reason why God has responded favorably to his prayer. The Lord’s attitude toward the merciful mirrors their treatment of the poor.

[41:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in the day of trouble” (see Ps 27:5).

[41:1]  ¹⁵ tn That is, the one who has been kind to the poor. The prefixed verbal form could be taken as jussive of prayer (“may the Lord deliver,” see v. 2), but the preceding parallel line is a declaration of fact, not a prayer per se. The imperfect can be taken here as future (“will deliver,” cf. NEB, NASB) or as generalizing (“delivers,” cf. NIV, NRSV). The parallel line, which has a generalizing tone, favors the latter. At the same time, though the psalmist uses a generalizing style here, he clearly has himself primarily in view.

[56:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “then my enemies will turn back in the day I cry out.” The Hebrew particle אָז (’az, “then”) is probably used here to draw attention to the following statement.

[56:9]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “this I know, that God is for me.”

[110:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “your people, free will offerings.” Perhaps the people, in their willingness to volunteer, are compared metaphorically to freewill offerings. Following the LXX, some revocalize the text and read “with you is nobility.”

[110:3]  ²² tn Heb “in the day of your power.”

[110:3]  ²³ tc Heb “in splendor of holiness.” The plural construct form הַדְרֵי (hadrey, from הָדַר, hadar, “splendor”) occurs only here; it may indicate degree or perhaps refer by metonymy to garments (see Pss 29:2 and 96:9, where the phrase הַדְרַת קֹדֶשׁ [hadrat qodesh] refers to “holy attire”). If one retains the reading of the MT, this phrase should probably be taken with the preceding line. However, because of the subsequent references to “dawn” and to “dew,” it is better to emend the text to הַרְרֵי קֹדֶשׁ (harrey qodesh, “mountains of holiness”), a reading found in many medieval Hebrew mss and in some other ancient witnesses (see Joel 2:2; Ps 133:3, as well as L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 80). The “mountains of holiness” are probably the hills surrounding Zion (see Ps 87:1; 125:2; 133:3).

[110:3]  ²⁴ tn Heb “from the womb of dawn.” The Hebrew noun רֶחֶם (rekhem, “womb”) is probably used here metonymically for “birth.” The form מִשְׁחָר (mishkhar) occurs only here and should be emended to שַׁחַר (shakhar, “dawn”) with the mem (מ) being understood as dittographic (note the final mem [ם] on the preceding word). The phrase “womb [i.e., “birth”] of dawn” refers to sunrise.

[110:3]  ²⁵ sn The point of the metaphor is not entirely clear. The dew may symbolize the king’s youthful vitality or, more likely (note the parallelism), may refer to his army of strong, youthful warriors.

[110:3]  ²⁶ tn Heb “to you [is].”

[140:7]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the strength of my deliverance.”

[140:7]  ²⁷ tn Heb “cover.”