Psalms 29:11

29:11 The Lord gives ¹  his people strength; ² 

the Lord grants his people security. ³ 

Psalms 112:1

Psalm 112 ⁴ 

112:1 Praise the Lord!

How blessed is the one ⁵  who obeys ⁶  the Lord,

who takes great delight in keeping his commands. ⁷ 

Psalms 128:1

Psalm 128 ⁸ 

A song of ascents. ⁹ 

128:1 How blessed is every one of the Lord’s loyal followers, ¹⁰ 

each one who keeps his commands! ¹¹ 

Psalms 128:4-5

128:4 Yes indeed, the man who fears the Lord

will be blessed in this way. ¹² 

128:5 May the Lord bless you ¹³  from Zion,

that you might see ¹⁴  Jerusalem ¹⁵  prosper

all the days of your life,

Malachi 3:16-17

3:16 Then those who respected ¹⁶  the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord took notice. ¹⁷  A scroll ¹⁸  was prepared before him in which were recorded the names of those who respected the Lord and honored his name. 3:17 “They will belong to me,” says the Lord who rules over all, “in the day when I prepare my own special property. ¹⁹  I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.

Malachi 4:2

4:2 But for you who respect my name, the sun of vindication ²⁰  will rise with healing wings, ²¹  and you will skip about ²²  like calves released from the stall.

Luke 1:50

1:50 from ²³  generation to generation he is merciful ²⁴  to those who fear ²⁵  him.

Acts 13:26

13:26 Brothers, ²⁶  descendants ²⁷  of Abraham’s family, ²⁸  and those Gentiles among you who fear God, ²⁹  the message ³⁰  of this salvation has been sent to us.

Colossians 3:11

3:11 Here there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave ³¹  or free, but Christ is all and in all.

[29:11]  ¹ tn The imperfect verbal forms in v. 11 are either descriptive or generalizing.

[29:11]  ² sn Strength. This probably refers to military power; see the use of the noun in 1 Sam 2:10 and Ps 86:16.

[29:11]  ³ tn Heb “blesses his people with peace.” The Hebrew term שָׁלוֹם (shalom, “peace”) probably refers here to the protection and prosperity experienced by God’s people after the Lord intervenes in battle on their behalf.

[112:1]  ⁴ sn Psalm 112. This wisdom psalm lists some of the benefits of living a godly life. The psalm is an acrostic. After the introductory call to praise, every poetic line (twenty-two in all) begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

[112:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man.” Hebrew wisdom literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The individual is representative of a larger group, called the “godly” in vv. 3-4. The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender specific “man” with the more neutral “one.” The generic masculine pronoun is used in the following verses.

[112:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “fears.”

[112:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “in his commands he delights very much.” The words “in keeping” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Taking delight in the law is metonymic here for obeying God’s moral will. See Ps 1:2.

[128:1]  ⁸ sn Psalm 128. The psalmist observes that the godly individual has genuine happiness because the Lord rewards such a person with prosperity and numerous children.

[128:1]  ⁹ sn The precise significance of this title, which appears in Pss 120-134, is unclear. Perhaps worshipers recited these psalms when they ascended the road to Jerusalem to celebrate annual religious festivals. For a discussion of their background see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 219-21.

[128:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “every fearer of the Lord.”

[128:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the one who walks in his ways.”

[128:4]  ¹² tn Heb “look, indeed thus will the man, the fearer of the Lord, be blessed.”

[128:5]  ¹³ tn The prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive of prayer (note the imperatives that are subordinated to this clause in vv. 5b-6a). Having described the blessings that typically come to the godly, the psalmist concludes by praying that this ideal may become reality for the representative godly man being addressed.

[128:5]  ¹⁴ tn The imperative with prefixed vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the preceding jussive.

[128:5]  ¹⁵ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[3:16]  ¹⁶ tn Or “fear” (so NAB); NRSV “revered”; NCV “honored.”

[3:16]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “heard and listened”; NAB “listened attentively.”

[3:16]  ¹⁸ sn The scroll mentioned here is a “memory book” (סֵפֶר זִכָּרוֹן, sefer zikkaron) in which the Lord keeps an ongoing record of the names of all the redeemed (see Exod 32:32; Isa 4:3; Dan 12:1; Rev 20:12-15).

[3:17]  ¹⁹ sn The Hebrew word סְגֻלָּה (sÿgullah, “special property”) is a technical term referring to all the recipients of God’s redemptive grace, especially Israel (Exod 19:5; Deut 7:6; 14:2; 26:18). The Lord says here that he will not forget even one individual in the day of judgment and reward.

[4:2]  ²⁰ tn Here the Hebrew word צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah), usually translated “righteousness” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT; cf. NAB “justice”), has been rendered as “vindication” because it is the vindication of God’s people that is in view in the context. Cf. BDB 842 s.v. צְדָקָה 6; “righteousness as vindicated, justification, salvation, etc.”

[4:2]  ²¹ sn The point of the metaphor of healing wings is unclear. The sun seems to be compared to a bird. Perhaps the sun’s “wings” are its warm rays. “Healing” may refer to a reversal of the injury done by evildoers (see Mal 3:5).

[4:2]  ²² tn Heb “you will go out and skip about.”

[1:50]  ²³ tn Grk “and from.” Here καί (kai) has been translated by a semicolon to improve the English style.

[1:50]  ²⁴ sn God’s mercy refers to his “loyal love” or “steadfast love,” expressed in faithful actions, as the rest of the psalm illustrates.

[1:50]  ²⁵ tn That is, “who revere.” This refers to those who show God a reverential respect for his sovereignty.

[13:26]  ²⁶ tn Grk “Men brothers,” but this is both awkward and unnecessary in English.

[13:26]  ²⁷ tn Grk “sons”

[13:26]  ²⁸ tn Or “race.”

[13:26]  ²⁹ tn Grk “and those among you who fear God,” but this is practically a technical term for the category called God-fearers, Gentiles who worshiped the God of Israel and in many cases kept the Mosaic law, but did not take the final step of circumcision necessary to become a proselyte to Judaism. See further K. G. Kuhn, TDNT 6:732-34, 743-44. Note how Paul includes God-fearing Gentiles as recipients of this promise.

[13:26]  ³⁰ tn Grk “word.”

[3:11]  ³¹ tn See the note on “fellow slave” in 1:7.