Psalms 34:1

Psalm 34 ¹ 

Written by David, when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, causing the king to send him away. ² 

34:1 I will praise ³  the Lord at all times;

my mouth will continually praise him. 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 63:11

63:11 But the king ⁹  will rejoice in God;

everyone who takes oaths in his name ¹⁰  will boast,

for the mouths of those who speak lies will be shut up. ¹¹ 

Psalms 69:15

69:15 Don’t let the current overpower me!

Don’t let the deep swallow me up!

Don’t let the pit ¹²  devour me! ¹³ 

Psalms 126:2

126:2 At that time we laughed loudly

and shouted for joy. ¹⁴ 

At that time the nations said, ¹⁵ 

“The Lord has accomplished great things for these people.”

Psalms 133:2

133:2 It is like fine oil poured on the head

which flows down the beard ¹⁶  –

Aaron’s beard,

and then flows down his garments. ¹⁷ 

[34:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 34. In this song of thanksgiving the psalmist praises God for delivering him from distress. He encourages others to be loyal to the Lord, tells them how to please God, and assures them that the Lord protects his servants. The psalm is an acrostic; vv. 1-21 begin with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. (Verse 6 begins with the letter he (ה) and v. 7 with the letter zayin (ז). The letter vav (ו), which comes between ה and ז, seems to be omitted, although it does appear at the beginning of v. 6b. The final verse of the psalm, which begins with the letter pe (פ), is outside the acrostic scheme.

[34:1]  ² tn Heb “By David, when he changed his sense before Abimelech and he drove him away and he went.”

[34:1]  ³ tn Heb “bless.”

[34:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “continually [will] his praise [be] in my mouth.”

[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.

[63:11]  ⁹ sn The psalmist probably refers to himself in the third person here.

[63:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “who swears [an oath] by him.”

[63:11]  ¹¹ tn The Niphal of this verb occurs only here and in Gen 8:2, where it is used of God “stopping” or “damming up” the great deep as he brought the flood to an end.

[69:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “well,” which here symbolizes the place of the dead (cf. Ps 55:23).

[69:15]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “do not let the well close its mouth upon me.”

[126:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with a shout.”

[126:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “they said among the nations.”

[133:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “[it is] like the good oil on the head, going down on the beard.”

[133:2]  ²² tn Heb “which goes down in accordance with his measured things.” The Hebrew phrase מִדּוֹתָיו (middotayv, “his measured things”) refers here to the robes worn by Aaron. HALOT 546 s.v. *מַד derives the form from מַד (midah, “robe”) rather than מִדָּה (middah, “measured thing”). Ugaritic md means “robe” and is pluralized mdt.