Psalms 3:6

3:6 I am not afraid ¹  of the multitude of people ² 

who attack me from all directions. ³ 

Psalms 18:11

18:11 He shrouded himself in darkness, ⁴ 

in thick rain clouds. ⁵ 

Psalms 50:3

50:3 Our God approaches and is not silent; ⁶ 

consuming fire goes ahead of him

and all around him a storm rages. ⁷ 

Psalms 76:11

76:11 Make vows to the Lord your God and repay them!

Let all those who surround him ⁸  bring tribute to the awesome one!

Psalms 89:7-8

89:7 a God who is honored ⁹  in the great angelic assembly, ¹⁰ 

and more awesome than ¹¹  all who surround him?

89:8 O Lord, sovereign God! ¹² 

Who is strong like you, O Lord?

Your faithfulness surrounds you.

Psalms 128:3

128:3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine ¹³ 

in the inner rooms of your house;

your children ¹⁴  will be like olive branches,

as they sit all around your table.

[3:6]  ¹ tn The imperfect verbal form here expresses the psalmist’s continuing attitude as he faces the crisis at hand.

[3:6]  ² tn Or perhaps “troops.” The Hebrew noun עָם (’am) sometimes refers to a military contingent or army.

[3:6]  ³ tn Heb “who all around take a stand against me.”

[18:11]  ⁴ tc Heb “he made darkness his hiding place around him, his covering.” 2 Sam 22:12 reads, “he made darkness around him coverings,” omitting “his hiding place” and pluralizing “covering.” Ps 18:11 may include a conflation of synonyms (“his hiding place” and “his covering”) or 2 Sam 22:12 may be the result of haplography/homoioarcton. Note that three successive words in Ps 18:11 begin with the Hebrew letter samek: סִתְרוֹ סְבִיבוֹתָיו סֻכָּתוֹ (sitro sÿvivotayv sukkato).

[18:11]  ⁵ tc Heb “darkness of water, clouds of clouds.” The noun “darkness” (חֶשְׁכַת, kheshkhat) is probably a corruption of an original reading חשׁרת, a form that is preserved in 2 Sam 22:12. The latter is a construct form of חַשְׁרָה (khashrah, “sieve”) which occurs only here in the OT. A cognate Ugaritic noun means “sieve,” and a related verb חָשַׁר (khashar, “to sift”) is attested in postbiblical Hebrew and Aramaic. The phrase חַשְׁרַת מַיִם (khashrat mayim) means literally “a sieve of water.” It pictures the rain clouds as a sieve through which the rain falls to the ground (see F. M. Cross and D. N. Freedman, Studies in Ancient Yahwistic Poetry [SBLDS], 146, n. 33).

[50:3]  ⁷ tn According to GKC 322 §109.e, the jussive (note the negative particle אַל, ’al) is used rhetorically here “to express the conviction that something cannot or should not happen.”

[50:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “fire before him devours, and around him it is very stormy.”

[76:11]  ¹⁰ tn The phrase “all those who surround him” may refer to the surrounding nations (v. 12 may favor this), but in Ps 89:7 the phrase refers to God’s heavenly assembly.

[89:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “feared.”

[89:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in the great assembly of the holy ones.”

[89:7]  ¹⁵ tn Or perhaps “feared by.”

[89:8]  ¹⁶ tn Traditionally “God of hosts.” The title here pictures the Lord as enthroned in the midst of the angelic hosts of heaven.

[128:3]  ¹⁹ sn The metaphor of the fruitful vine pictures the wife as fertile; she will give her husband numerous children (see the next line).

[128:3]  ²⁰ tn One could translate “sons” (see Ps 127:3 and the note on the word “sons” there), but here the term seems to refer more generally to children of both genders.