Psalms 21:11

21:11 Yes, ¹  they intend to do you harm; ² 

they dream up a scheme, ³  but they do not succeed. ⁴ 

Psalms 31:12

31:12 I am forgotten, like a dead man no one thinks about; ⁵ 

I am regarded as worthless, like a broken jar. ⁶ 

Psalms 44:20

44:20 If we had rejected our God, ⁷ 

and spread out our hands in prayer to another god, ⁸ 

Psalms 78:7

78:7 Then they will place their confidence in God.

They will not forget the works of God,

and they will obey ⁹  his commands.

Psalms 84:5

84:5 How blessed are those who ¹⁰  find their strength in you,

and long to travel the roads that lead to your temple! ¹¹ 

[21:11]  ¹ tn Or “for.”

[21:11]  ² tn Heb “they extend against you harm.” The perfect verbal forms in v. 11 are taken as generalizing, stating factually what the king’s enemies typically do. Another option is to translate with the past tense (“they intended…planned”).

[21:11]  ³ sn See Ps 10:2.

[21:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “they lack ability.”

[31:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “I am forgotten, like a dead man, from [the] heart.” The “heart” is here viewed as the center of one’s thoughts.

[31:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “I am like a broken jar.” One throws away a broken jar without a second thought because it is considered worthless and useless.

[44:20]  ⁹ tn Heb “If we had forgotten the name of our God.” To “forget the name” here refers to rejecting the Lord’s authority (see Jer 23:27) and abandoning him as an object of prayer and worship (see the next line).

[44:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and spread out your hands to another god.” Spreading out the hands was a prayer gesture (see Exod 9:29, 33; 1 Kgs 8:22, 38; 2 Chr 6:12-13, 29; Ezra 9:15; Job 11:13; Isa 1:15). In its most fundamental sense זר (“another; foreign; strange”) refers to something that is outside one’s circle, often making association with it inappropriate. A “strange” god is an alien deity, an “outside god” (see L. A. Snijders, TDOT 4:54-55).

[78:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “keep.”

[84:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man.” Hebrew literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The principle stated here was certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender or age. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender and age specific “man” with the plural “those.” The individual referred to in v. 5a is representative of followers of God, as the use of plural forms in vv. 5b-7 indicates.

[84:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “roads [are] in their heart[s].” The roads are here those that lead to Zion (see v. 7).