Psalms 3:7

3:7 Rise up, ¹  Lord!

Deliver me, my God!

Yes, ²  you will strike ³  all my enemies on the jaw;

you will break the teeth ⁴  of the wicked. ⁵ 

Psalms 19:4

19:4 Yet its voice ⁶  echoes ⁷  throughout the earth;

its ⁸  words carry ⁹  to the distant horizon. ¹⁰ 

In the sky ¹¹  he has pitched a tent for the sun. ¹² 

Psalms 20:5

20:5 Then we will shout for joy over your ¹³  victory;

we will rejoice ¹⁴  in the name of our God!

May the Lord grant all your requests!

Psalms 22:14

22:14 My strength drains away like water; ¹⁵ 

all my bones are dislocated;

my heart ¹⁶  is like wax;

it melts away inside me.

Psalms 25:5

25:5 Guide me into your truth ¹⁷  and teach me.

For you are the God who delivers me;

on you I rely all day long.

Psalms 38:12

38:12 Those who seek my life try to entrap me; ¹⁸ 

those who want to harm me speak destructive words;

all day long they say deceitful things.

Psalms 40:16

40:16 May all those who seek you be happy and rejoice in you!

May those who love to experience ¹⁹  your deliverance say continually, ²⁰ 

“May the Lord be praised!” ²¹ 

Psalms 70:4

70:4 May all those who seek you be happy and rejoice in you!

May those who love to experience ²²  your deliverance say continually, ²³ 

“May God ²⁴  be praised!” ²⁵ 

Psalms 71:24

71:24 All day long my tongue will also tell about your justice,

for those who want to harm me ²⁶  will be embarrassed and ashamed. ²⁷ 

Psalms 73:28

73:28 But as for me, God’s presence is all I need. ²⁸ 

I have made the sovereign Lord my shelter,

as ²⁹  I declare all the things you have done.

Psalms 111:10

111:10 To obey the Lord is the fundamental principle for wise living; ³⁰ 

all who carry out his precepts acquire good moral insight. ³¹ 

He will receive praise forever. ³² 

Psalms 139:16

139:16 Your eyes saw me when I was inside the womb. ³³ 

All the days ordained for me

were recorded in your scroll

before one of them came into existence. ³⁴ 

[3:7]  ¹ tn In v. 2 the psalmist describes his enemies as those who “confront” him (קָמִים [qamim], literally, “rise up against him”). Now, using the same verbal root (קוּם, qum) he asks the Lord to rise up (קוּמָה, qumah) in his defense.

[3:7]  ² tn Elsewhere in the psalms the particle כִּי (ki), when collocated with a perfect verbal form and subordinated to a preceding imperative directed to God, almost always has an explanatory or causal force (“for, because”) and introduces a motivating argument for why God should respond positively to the request (see Pss 5:10; 6:2; 12:1; 16:1; 41:4; 55:9; 56:1; 57:1; 60:2; 69:1; 74:20; 119:94; 123:3; 142:6; 143:8). (On three occasions the כִּי is recitative after a verb of perception [“see/know that,” see Pss 4:3; 25:19; 119:159]). If כִּי is taken as explanatory here, then the psalmist is arguing that God should deliver him now because that is what God characteristically does. However, such a motivating argument is not used in the passages cited above. The motivating argument usually focuses on the nature of the psalmist’s dilemma or the fact that he trusts in the Lord. For this reason it is unlikely that כִּי has its normal force here. Most scholars understand the particle כִּי as having an asseverative (emphasizing) function here (“indeed, yes”; NEB leaves the particle untranslated).

[3:7]  ³ tn If the particle כִּי (ki) is taken as explanatory, then the perfect verbal forms in v. 7b would describe God’s characteristic behavior. However, as pointed out in the preceding note on the word “yes,” the particle probably has an asseverative force here. If so, the perfects may be taken as indicating rhetorically the psalmist’s certitude and confidence that God will intervene. The psalmist is so confident of God’s positive response to his prayer, he can describe God’s assault on his enemies as if it had already happened. Such confidence is consistent with the mood of the psalm, as expressed before (vv. 3-6) and after this (v. 8). Another option is to take the perfects as precative, expressing a wish or request (“Strike all my enemies on the jaw, break the teeth of the wicked”). See IBHS 494-95 §30.5.4c, d. However, not all grammarians are convinced that the perfect is used as a precative in biblical Hebrew.

[3:7]  ⁴ sn The expression break the teeth may envision violent hand-to hand combat, though it is possible that the enemies are pictured here as a dangerous animal (see Job 29:17).

[3:7]  ⁵ tn In the psalms the Hebrew term רְשָׁעִים (rÿsha’im, “wicked”) describes people who are proud, practical atheists (Ps 10:2, 4, 11) who hate God’s commands, commit sinful deeds, speak lies and slander (Ps 50:16-20), and cheat others (Ps 37:21). They oppose God and his people.

[19:4]  ⁶ tc The MT reads, “their measuring line” (קוּם, qum). The noun קַו (qav, “measuring line”) makes no sense in this context. The reading קוֹלָם (qolam, “their voice”) which is supported by the LXX, is preferable.

[19:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “goes out,” or “proceeds forth.”

[19:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “their” (see the note on the word “its” in v. 3).

[19:4]  ⁹ tn The verb is supplied in the translation. The Hebrew text has no verb; יָצָא (yatsa’, “goes out”) is understood by ellipsis.

[19:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “to the end of the world.”

[19:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “in them” (i.e., the heavens).

[19:4]  ¹² sn He has pitched a tent for the sun. The personified sun emerges from this “tent” in order to make its daytime journey across the sky. So the “tent” must refer metaphorically to the place where the sun goes to rest during the night.

[20:5]  ¹¹ sn Your victory. Here the king is addressed (see v. 1).

[20:5]  ¹² tc The Hebrew verb דָּגַל (dagal) occurs only here in the Qal. If accepted as original, it may carry the nuance “raise a banner,” but it is preferable to emend the form to נגיל (“we will rejoice”) which provides better parallelism with “shout for joy” and fits well with the prepositional phrase “in the name of our God” (see Ps 89:16).

[22:14]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “like water I am poured out.”

[22:14]  ¹⁷ sn The heart is viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s strength and courage.

[25:5]  ²¹ sn The Lord’s commandments are referred to as truth here because they are a trustworthy and accurate expression of the divine will.

[38:12]  ²⁶ tn Heb “lay snares.”

[40:16]  ³¹ tn Heb “those who love,” which stands metonymically for its cause, the experience of being delivered by the Lord.

[40:16]  ³² tn The three prefixed verbal forms prior to the quotation are understood as jussives. The psalmist balances out his imprecation against his enemies with a prayer of blessing upon the godly.

[40:16]  ³³ tn The prefixed verbal form is taken as a jussive, “may the Lord be magnified [in praise].” Another option is to take the verb as an imperfect, “the Lord is great” (cf. NRSV). See Ps 35:27.

[70:4]  ³⁶ tn Heb “those who love,” which stands metonymically for its cause, the experience of being delivered by God.

[70:4]  ³⁷ tn The three prefixed verbal forms prior to the quotation are understood as jussives. The psalmist balances out his imprecation against his enemies with a prayer of blessing on the godly.

[70:4]  ³⁸ tn Ps 40:16 uses the divine name “Lord” here instead of “God.”

[70:4]  ³⁹ tn The prefixed verbal form is taken as a jussive, “may the Lord be magnified [in praise].” Another option is to take the verb as an imperfect, “the Lord is great.” See Ps 35:27.

[71:24]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “those who seek my harm.”

[71:24]  ⁴² tn Heb “will have become embarrassed and ashamed.” The perfect verbal forms function here as future perfects, indicating future actions which will precede chronologically the action expressed by the main verb in the preceding line.

[73:28]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “but as for me, the nearness of God for me [is] good.”

[73:28]  ⁴⁷ tn The infinitive construct with -לְ (lÿ) is understood here as indicating an attendant circumstance. Another option is to take it as indicating purpose (“so that I might declare”) or result (“with the result that I declare”).

[111:10]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “the beginning of wisdom [is] the fear of the Lord.”

[111:10]  ⁵² tn Heb “good sense [is] to all who do them.” The third masculine plural pronominal suffix must refer back to the “precepts” mentioned in v. 7. In the translation the referent has been specified for clarity. The phrase שֵׂכֶל טוֹב (shekhel tov) also occurs in Prov 3:4; 13:15 and 2 Chr 30:22.

[111:10]  ⁵³ tn Heb “his praise stands forever.”

[139:16]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “Your eyes saw my shapeless form.” The Hebrew noun גֹּלֶם (golem) occurs only here in the OT. In later Hebrew the word refers to “a lump, a shapeless or lifeless substance,” and to “unfinished matter, a vessel wanting finishing” (Jastrow 222 s.v. גּוֹלֶם). The translation employs the dynamic rendering “when I was inside the womb” to clarify that the speaker was still in his mother’s womb at the time he was “seen” by God.

[139:16]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “and on your scroll all of them were written, [the] days [which] were formed, and [there was] not one among them.” This “scroll” may be the “scroll of life” mentioned in Ps 69:28 (see the note on the word “living” there).