Psalms 33:2

33:2 Give thanks to the Lord with the harp!

Sing to him to the accompaniment of a ten-stringed instrument!

Psalms 57:8

57:8 Awake, my soul! ¹ 

Awake, O stringed instrument and harp!

I will wake up at dawn! ² 

Psalms 68:25

68:25 Singers walk in front;

musicians follow playing their stringed instruments, ³ 

in the midst of young women playing tambourines. ⁴ 

Psalms 81:2-3

81:2 Sing ⁵  a song and play the tambourine,

the pleasant sounding harp, and the ten-stringed instrument!

81:3 Sound the ram’s horn on the day of the new moon, ⁶ 

and on the day of the full moon when our festival begins. ⁷ 

Psalms 149:3

149:3 Let them praise his name with dancing!

Let them sing praises to him to the accompaniment of the tambourine and harp!

Psalms 150:3-5

150:3 Praise him with the blast of the horn!

Praise him with the lyre and the harp!

150:4 Praise him with the tambourine and with dancing!

Praise him with stringed instruments and the flute!

150:5 Praise him with loud cymbals!

Praise him with clanging cymbals!

Psalms 150:1

Psalm 150 ⁸ 

150:1 Praise the Lord!

Praise God in his sanctuary!

Praise him in the sky, which testifies to his strength! ⁹ 

Psalms 15:1

Psalm 15 ¹⁰ 

A psalm of David.

15:1 Lord, who may be a guest in your home? ¹¹ 

Who may live on your holy hill? ¹² 

Psalms 25:6

25:6 Remember ¹³  your compassionate and faithful deeds, O Lord,

for you have always acted in this manner. ¹⁴ 

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!

Psalms 23:5

23:5 You prepare a feast before me ¹⁵ 

in plain sight of my enemies.

You refresh ¹⁶  my head with oil;

my cup is completely full. ¹⁷ 

Psalms 23:2

23:2 He takes me to lush pastures, ¹⁸ 

he leads me to refreshing water. ¹⁹ 

Psalms 29:1

Psalm 29 ²⁰ 

A psalm of David.

29:1 Acknowledge the Lord, you heavenly beings, ²¹ 

acknowledge the Lord’s majesty and power! ²² 

[57:8]  ¹ tn Heb “glory,” but that makes little sense in the context. Some view כָּבוֹד (kavod, “glory”) here as a metonymy for man’s inner being (see BDB 459 s.v. II כָּבוֹד 5), but it is preferable to emend the form to כְּבֵדִי (kÿvediy, “my liver”). Like the heart, the liver is viewed as the seat of one’s emotions. See also Pss 16:9; 30:12; 108:1, as well as H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 64, and M. Dahood, Psalms (AB), 1:90. For an Ugaritic example of the heart/liver as the source of joy, see G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 47-48: “her [Anat’s] liver swelled with laughter, her heart was filled with joy, the liver of Anat with triumph.”

[57:8]  ² tn BDB 1007 s.v. שַׁחַר takes “dawn” as an adverbial accusative, though others understand it as a personified direct object. “Dawn” is used metaphorically for the time of deliverance and vindication the psalmist anticipates. When salvation “dawns,” the psalmist will “wake up” in praise.

[68:25]  ³ tn Heb “after [are] the stringed instrument players.”

[68:25]  ⁴ sn To celebrate a military victory, women would play tambourines (see Exod 15:20; Judg 11:34; 1 Sam 18:6).

[81:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “lift up.”

[81:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “at the new moon.”

[81:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “at the full moon on the day of our festival.” The Hebrew word כֶּסֶה (keseh) is an alternate spelling of כֶּסֶא (kese’, “full moon”).

[150:1]  ⁸ sn Psalm 150. The Psalter concludes with a resounding call for praise from everything that has breath.

[150:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “the sky of his strength.”

[15:1]  ¹⁰ sn Psalm 15. This psalm describes the character qualities that one must possess to be allowed access to the divine presence.

[15:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Who may live as a resident alien in your tent?”

[15:1]  ¹² sn In this context the Lord’s holy hill probably refers to Zion/Jerusalem. See Isa 66:20; Joel 2:1; 3:17; Zech 8:3; Pss 2:6; 43:3; 48:1; 87:1; Dan 9:16.

[25:6]  ¹³ tn That is, “remember” with the intention of repeating.

[25:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “for from antiquity [are] they.”

[23:5]  ¹⁵ sn In v. 5 the metaphor switches. (It would be very odd for a sheep to have its head anointed and be served wine.) The background for the imagery is probably the royal banquet. Ancient Near Eastern texts describe such banquets in similar terms to those employed by the psalmist. (See M. L. Barre and J. S. Kselman, “New Exodus, Covenant, and Restoration in Psalm 23,” The Word of the Lord Shall Go Forth, 97-127.) The reality behind the imagery is the Lord’s favor. Through his blessings and protection he demonstrates to everyone, including dangerous enemies, that the psalmist has a special relationship with him.

[23:5]  ¹⁶ tn The imperfect verbal form in v. 5a carries on the generalizing mood of vv. 1-4. However, in v. 5b the psalmist switches to a perfect (דִּשַּׁנְתָּ, dishanta), which may have a generalizing force as well. But then again the perfect is conspicuous here and may be present perfect in sense, indicating that the divine host typically pours oil on his head prior to seating him at the banquet table. The verb דָשַׁן (dashan; the Piel is factitive) is often translated “anoint,” but this is misleading, for it might suggest a symbolic act of initiation into royal status. One would expect the verb מָשָׁח (mashan) in this case; דָשַׁן here describes an act of hospitality extended to guests and carries the nuance “refresh.” In Prov 15:30 it stands parallel to “make happy” and refers to the effect that good news has on the inner being of its recipient.

[23:5]  ¹⁷ tn The rare noun רְַָויָה (rÿvayah) is derived from the well-attested verb רָוָה (ravah, “be saturated, drink one’s fill”). In this context, where it describes a cup, it must mean “filled up,” but not necessarily to overflowing.

[23:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “he makes me lie down in lush pastures.” The Hiphil verb יַרְבִּיצֵנִי (yarbitseniy) has a causative-modal nuance here (see IBHS 445-46 §27.5 on this use of the Hiphil), meaning “allows me to lie down” (see also Jer 33:12). The point is that the shepherd takes the sheep to lush pastures and lets them eat and rest there. Both imperfect verbal forms in v. 2 are generalizing and highlight the psalmist’s typical experience.

[23:2]  ¹⁹ tn Both genitives in v. 2 indicate an attribute of the noun they modify: דֶּשֶׁא (deshe’) characterizes the pastures as “lush” (i.e., rich with vegetation), while מְנֻחוֹת (mÿnukhot) probably characterizes the water as refreshing. In this case the plural indicates an abstract quality. Some take מְנֻחוֹת in the sense of “still, calm” (i.e., as describing calm pools in contrast to dangerous torrents) but it is unlikely that such a pastoral scene is in view. Shepherds usually watered their sheep at wells (see Gen 29:2-3; Exod 2:16-19). Another option is to take מְנֻחוֹת as “resting places” and to translate, “water of/at the resting places” (i.e., a genitive of location; see IBHS 147-48 §9.5.2e).

[29:1]  ²⁰ sn Psalm 29. In this hymn of praise the psalmist calls upon the heavenly assembly to acknowledge the royal splendor of the Lord. He describes the Lord’s devastating power as revealed in the thunderstorm and affirms that the Lord exerts this awesome might on behalf of his people. In its original context the psalm was a bold polemic against the Canaanite storm god Baal, for it affirms that the Lord is the real king who controls the elements of the storm, contrary to pagan belief. See R. B. Chisholm, Jr., “The Polemic against Baalism in Israel’s Early History and Literature,” BSac 150 (1994): 280-82.

[29:1]  ²¹ tc Heb “sons of gods,” or “sons of God.” Though אֵלִים (’elim) is vocalized as a plural form (“gods”) in the MT, it is likely that the final mem is actually enclitic, rather than a plural marker. In this case one may read “God.” Some, following a Qumran text and the LXX, also propose the phrase occurred in the original text of Deut 32:8.

[29:1]  ²² tn Or “ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.”