Psalms 31:19

31:19 How great is your favor, ¹ 

which you store up for your loyal followers! ² 

In plain sight of everyone you bestow it on those who take shelter ³  in you. ⁴ 

Psalms 39:1

Psalm 39 ⁵ 

For the music director, Jeduthun; a psalm of David.

39:1 I decided, ⁶  “I will watch what I say

and make sure I do not sin with my tongue. ⁷ 

I will put a muzzle over my mouth

while in the presence of an evil man.” ⁸ 

Psalms 42:5

42:5 Why are you depressed, ⁹  O my soul? ¹⁰ 

Why are you upset? ¹¹ 

Wait for God!

For I will again give thanks

to my God for his saving intervention. ¹² 

Psalms 71:18

71:18 Even when I am old and gray, ¹³ 

O God, do not abandon me,

until I tell the next generation about your strength,

and those coming after me about your power. ¹⁴ 

[31:19]  ¹ tn Or “How abundant are your blessings!”

[31:19]  ² tn Heb “for those who fear you.”

[31:19]  ³ tn “Taking shelter” in the Lord is an idiom for seeking his protection. Seeking his protection presupposes and even demonstrates the subject’s loyalty to the Lord. In the psalms those who “take shelter” in the Lord are contrasted with the wicked and equated with those who love, fear, and serve the Lord (Pss 2:12; 5:11-12; 34:21-22).

[31:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “you work [your favor] for the ones seeking shelter in you before the sons of men.”

[39:1]  ⁵ sn Psalm 39. The psalmist laments his frailty and mortality as he begs the Lord to take pity on him and remove his disciplinary hand.

[39:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “I said.”

[39:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “I will watch my ways, from sinning with my tongue.”

[39:1]  ⁸ sn The psalmist wanted to voice a lament to the Lord (see vv. 4-6), but he hesitated to do so in the presence of evil men, for such words might be sinful if they gave the wicked an occasion to insult God. See C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs, Psalms (ICC), 1:345.

[42:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “Why do you bow down?”

[42:5]  ¹⁰ sn For poetic effect the psalmist addresses his soul, or inner self.

[42:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and [why] are you in turmoil upon me?” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive here carries on the descriptive present nuance of the preceding imperfect. See GKC 329 §111.t.

[42:5]  ¹² tc Heb “for again I will give him thanks, the saving acts of his face.” The verse division in the Hebrew text is incorrect. אֱלֹהַי (’elohay, “my God”) at the beginning of v. 7 belongs with the end of v. 6 (see the corresponding refrains in 42:11 and 43:5, both of which end with “my God” after “saving acts of my face”). The Hebrew term פָּנָיו (panayv, “his face”) should be emended to פְּנֵי (pÿney, “face of”). The emended text reads, “[for] the saving acts of the face of my God,” that is, the saving acts associated with God’s presence/intervention.

[71:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “and even unto old age and gray hair.”

[71:18]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “until I declare your arm to a generation, to everyone who comes your power.” God’s “arm” here is an anthropomorphism that symbolizes his great strength.