Psalms 35:8

35:8 Let destruction take them by surprise! ¹ 

Let the net they hid catch them!

Let them fall into destruction! ² 

Psalms 44:21

44:21 would not God discover it,

for he knows ³  one’s thoughts? ⁴ 

Psalms 74:9

74:9 We do not see any signs of God’s presence; ⁵ 

there are no longer any prophets ⁶ 

and we have no one to tell us how long this will last. ⁷ 

Psalms 92:6

92:6 The spiritually insensitive do not recognize this;

the fool does not understand this. ⁸ 

[35:8]  ¹ tn Heb “let destruction [which] he does not know come to him.” The singular is used of the enemy in v. 8, probably in a representative or collective sense. The psalmist has more than one enemy, as vv. 1-7 make clear.

[35:8]  ² tn The psalmist’s prayer for his enemies’ demise continues. See vv. 4-6.

[44:21]  ³ tn The active participle describes what is characteristically true.

[44:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “would not God search out this, for he knows the hidden things of [the] heart?” The expression “search out” is used metonymically here, referring to discovery, the intended effect of a search. The “heart” (i.e., mind) is here viewed as the seat of one’s thoughts. The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he would!” The point seems to be this: There is no way the Israelites who are the speakers in the psalm would reject God and turn to another god, for the omniscient God would easily discover such a sin.

[74:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “our signs we do not see.” Because of the reference to a prophet in the next line, it is likely that the “signs” in view here include the evidence of God’s presence as typically revealed through the prophets. These could include miraculous acts performed by the prophets (see, for example, Isa 38:7-8) or object lessons which they acted out (see, for example, Isa 20:3).

[74:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “there is not still a prophet.”

[74:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “and [there is] not with us one who knows how long.”

[92:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “the brutish man does not know, and the fool does not understand this.” The adjective בַּעַר (ba’ar, “brutish”) refers to spiritual insensitivity, not mere lack of intelligence or reasoning ability (see Pss 49:10; 73:22; Prov 12:1; 30:2, as well as the use of the related verb in Ps 94:8).