Psalms 32:2

32:2 How blessed is the one ¹  whose wrongdoing the Lord does not punish, ² 

in whose spirit there is no deceit. ³ 

Psalms 84:11

84:11 For the Lord God is our sovereign protector. ⁴ 

The Lord bestows favor ⁵  and honor;

he withholds no good thing from those who have integrity. ⁶ 

Psalms 119:80

119:80 May I be fully committed to your statutes, ⁷ 

so that I might not be ashamed.

Lamentations 3:25

ט (Tet)

3:25 The Lord is good to those who trust ⁸  in him,

to the one ⁹  who seeks him.

John 1:47

1:47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and exclaimed, ¹⁰  “Look, a true Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” ¹¹ 

Revelation 14:5

14:5 and no lie was found on their lips; ¹²  they ¹³  are blameless.

[32:2]  ¹ tn Heb “man.” The word choice reflects the perspective of the psalmist, who is male. The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender or age. To facilitate modern application, the gender and age specific “man” has been translated with the more neutral “one.”

[32:2]  ² tn Heb “blessed [is] the man to whom the Lord does not impute wrongdoing.”

[32:2]  ³ sn In whose spirit there is no deceit. The point is not that the individual is sinless and pure. In this context, which focuses on confession and forgiveness of sin, the psalmist refers to one who refuses to deny or hide his sin, but instead honestly confesses it to God.

[84:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “[is] a sun and a shield.” The epithet “sun,” though rarely used of Israel’s God in the OT, was a well-attested royal title in the ancient Near East. For several examples from Ugaritic texts, the Amarna letters, and Assyrian royal inscriptions, see R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 131, n. 2.

[84:11]  ⁵ tn Or “grace.”

[84:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “he does not withhold good to those walking in integrity.”

[119:80]  ⁷ tn Heb “may my heart be complete in your statutes.”

[3:25]  ⁸ tn Heb “wait for him”

[3:25]  ⁹ tn Heb “to the soul…” The term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul”) is a synecdoche of part (= “the soul who seeks him”) for the whole person (= “the person who seeks him”).

[1:47]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “said about him.”

[1:47]  ¹¹ tn Or “treachery.”

[14:5]  ¹² tn Grk “in their mouth was not found a lie.”

[14:5]  ¹³ tc Several mss (Ì⁴⁷ א 1 1006 1611 2351 Ï^K pc) have the conjunction “for” (γάρ, gar) here so that the phrase reads: “for they are blameless.” Other important mss (A C P 1854 2053 al lat) lack the word. The shorter reading is to be preferred since the scribes were more likely to make the connection explicit through the addition of “for” than they would have been to omit the conjunction. As it is, the passage without the conjunction makes good sense and evokes a very somber tone.