Psalms 36:6

36:6 Your justice is like the highest mountains, ¹ 

your fairness like the deepest sea;

you preserve ²  mankind and the animal kingdom. ³ 

Psalms 51:14

51:14 Rescue me from the guilt of murder, ⁴  O God, the God who delivers me!

Then my tongue will shout for joy because of your deliverance. ⁵ 

Psalms 71:15

71:15 I will tell about your justice,

and all day long proclaim your salvation, ⁶ 

though I cannot fathom its full extent. ⁷ 

Psalms 71:24

71:24 All day long my tongue will also tell about your justice,

for those who want to harm me ⁸  will be embarrassed and ashamed. ⁹ 

Psalms 40:10

40:10 I have not failed to tell about your justice; ¹⁰ 

I spoke about your reliability and deliverance;

I have not neglected to tell the great assembly about your loyal love and faithfulness. ¹¹ 

[36:6]  ¹ tn Heb “mountains of God.” The divine name אֵל (’el, “God”) is here used in an idiomatic manner to indicate the superlative.

[36:6]  ² tn Or “deliver.”

[36:6]  ³ sn God’s justice/fairness is firm and reliable like the highest mountains and as abundant as the water in the deepest sea. The psalmist uses a legal metaphor to describe God’s preservation of his creation. Like a just judge who vindicates the innocent, God protects his creation from destructive forces.

[51:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “from bloodshed.” “Bloodshed” here stands by metonymy for the guilt which it produces.

[51:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “my tongue will shout for joy your deliverance.” Another option is to take the prefixed verbal form as a jussive, “may my tongue shout for joy.” However, the pattern in vv. 12-15 appears to be prayer/request (see vv. 12, 14a, 15a) followed by promise/vow (see vv. 13, 14b, 15b).

[71:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “my mouth declares your vindication, all the day your deliverance.”

[71:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “though I do not know [the] numbers,” that is, the tally of God’s just and saving acts. HALOT 768 s.v. סְפֹרוֹת understands the plural noun to mean “the art of writing.”

[71:24]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “those who seek my harm.”

[71:24]  ¹¹ tn Heb “will have become embarrassed and ashamed.” The perfect verbal forms function here as future perfects, indicating future actions which will precede chronologically the action expressed by the main verb in the preceding line.

[40:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “your justice I have not hidden in the midst of my heart.”

[40:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “I have not hidden your loyal love and reliability.”