Psalms 30:6-7

30:6 In my self-confidence I said,

“I will never be upended.” ¹ 

30:7 O Lord, in your good favor you made me secure. ² 

Then you rejected me ³  and I was terrified.

Psalms 73:18-20

73:18 Surely ⁴  you put them in slippery places;

you bring them down ⁵  to ruin.

73:19 How desolate they become in a mere moment!

Terrifying judgments make their demise complete! ⁶ 

73:20 They are like a dream after one wakes up. ⁷ 

O Lord, when you awake ⁸  you will despise them. ⁹ 

Psalms 147:6

147:6 The Lord lifts up the oppressed,

but knocks ¹⁰  the wicked to the ground.

Psalms 147:1

Psalm 147 ¹¹ 

147:1 Praise the Lord,

for it is good to sing praises to our God!

Yes, ¹²  praise is pleasant and appropriate!

Psalms 2:7-8

2:7 The king says, ¹³  “I will announce the Lord’s decree. He said to me: ¹⁴ 

‘You are my son! ¹⁵  This very day I have become your father!

2:8 Ask me,

and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, ¹⁶ 

the ends of the earth as your personal property.

Psalms 2:2

2:2 The kings of the earth ¹⁷  form a united front; ¹⁸ 

the rulers collaborate ¹⁹ 

against the Lord and his anointed king. ²⁰ 

Psalms 25:8

25:8 The Lord is both kind and fair; ²¹ 

that is why he teaches sinners the right way to live. ²² 

Psalms 25:2

25:2 My God, I trust in you.

Please do not let me be humiliated;

do not let my enemies triumphantly rejoice over me!

Colossians 4:9

4:9 I sent him ²³  with Onesimus, the faithful and dear brother, who is one of you. ²⁴  They will tell ²⁵  you about everything here.

[30:6]  ¹ sn In my self-confidence I said… Here the psalmist begins to fill in the background of the crisis referred to in the earlier verses. He had been arrogant and self-confident, so the Lord withdrew his protection and allowed trouble to invade his life (vv. 8-11).

[30:7]  ² tn Heb “in your good favor you caused to stand for my mountain strength.” Apparently this means “you established strength for my mountain” (“mountain” in this case representing his rule, which would be centered on Mt. Zion) or “you established strength as my mountain” (“mountain” in this case being a metaphor for security).

[30:7]  ³ tn Heb “you hid your face.” The idiom “hide the face” can mean “ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or, as here, carry the stronger idea of “reject” (see Ps 88:14).

[73:18]  ⁴ tn The use of the Hebrew term אַךְ (’akh, “surely”) here literarily counteracts its use in v. 13. The repetition draws attention to the contrast between the two statements, the first of which expresses the psalmist’s earlier despair and the second his newly discovered confidence.

[73:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “cause them to fall.”

[73:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “they come to an end, they are finished, from terrors.”

[73:20]  ⁷ tn Heb “like a dream from awakening.” They lack any real substance; their prosperity will last for only a brief time.

[73:20]  ⁸ sn When you awake. The psalmist compares God’s inactivity to sleep and the time of God’s judgment to his awakening from sleep.

[73:20]  ⁹ tn Heb “you will despise their form.” The Hebrew term צֶלֶם (tselem, “form; image”) also suggests their short-lived nature. Rather than having real substance, they are like the mere images that populate one’s dreams. Note the similar use of the term in Ps 39:6.

[147:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “brings down.”

[147:1]  ¹¹ sn Psalm 147. The psalmist praises the Lord for he is the sovereign ruler of the world who cares for the needs of his covenant people.

[147:1]  ¹² tn Or “for.”

[2:7]  ¹³ tn The words “the king says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The speaker is the Lord’s chosen king.

[2:7]  ¹⁴ tn Or “I will relate the decree. The Lord said to me” (in accordance with the Masoretic accentuation).

[2:7]  ¹⁵ sn ‘You are my son!’ The Davidic king was viewed as God’s “son” (see 2 Sam 7:14; Ps 89:26-27). The idiom reflects ancient Near Eastern adoption language associated with covenants of grant, by which a lord would reward a faithful subject by elevating him to special status, referred to as “sonship.” Like a son, the faithful subject received an “inheritance,” viewed as an unconditional, eternal gift. Such gifts usually took the form of land and/or an enduring dynasty. See M. Weinfeld, “The Covenant of Grant in the Old Testament and in the Ancient Near East,” JAOS 90 (1970): 184-203, for general discussion and some striking extra-biblical parallels.

[2:8]  ¹⁶ sn I will give you the nations. The Lord promises the Davidic king universal dominion.

[2:2]  ¹⁷ sn The expression kings of the earth refers somewhat hyperbolically to the kings who had been conquered by and were subject to the Davidic king.

[2:2]  ¹⁸ tn Or “take their stand.” The Hebrew imperfect verbal form describes their action as underway.

[2:2]  ¹⁹ tn Or “conspire together.” The verbal form is a Niphal from יָסַד (yasad). BDB 413-14 s.v. יָסַד defines the verb as “establish, found,” but HALOT 417 s.v. II יסד proposes a homonym meaning “get together, conspire” (an alternate form of סוּד, sud).

[2:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and against his anointed one.” The Davidic king is the referent (see vv. 6-7).

[25:8]  ²¹ tn Heb “good and just.”

[25:8]  ²² tn Heb “teaches sinners in the way.”

[4:9]  ²³ tn The Greek sentence continues v. 9 with the phrase “with Onesimus,” but this is awkward in English, so the verb “I sent” was inserted and a new sentence started at the beginning of v. 9 in the translation.

[4:9]  ²⁴ tn Grk “is of you.”

[4:9]  ²⁵ tn Grk “will make known to you.” This has been simplified in the translation to “will tell.”