Psalms 36:7-8

36:7 How precious ¹  is your loyal love, O God!

The human race finds shelter under your wings. ² 

36:8 They are filled with food from your house,

and you allow them to drink from the river of your delicacies.

Psalms 63:3-5

63:3 Because ³  experiencing ⁴  your loyal love is better than life itself,

my lips will praise you.

63:4 For this reason ⁵  I will praise you while I live;

in your name I will lift up my hands. ⁶ 

63:5 As if with choice meat ⁷  you satisfy my soul. ⁸ 

My mouth joyfully praises you, ⁹ 

Psalms 65:4

65:4 How blessed ¹⁰  is the one whom you choose,

and allow to live in your palace courts. ¹¹ 

May we be satisfied with the good things of your house –

your holy palace. ¹² 

Psalms 103:3-5

103:3 He is the one who forgives all your sins,

who heals all your diseases, ¹³ 

103:4 who delivers ¹⁴  your life from the Pit, ¹⁵ 

who crowns you with his loyal love and compassion,

103:5 who satisfies your life with good things, ¹⁶ 

so your youth is renewed like an eagle’s. ¹⁷ 

Jeremiah 31:15

31:15 The Lord says,

“A sound is heard in Ramah, ¹⁸ 

a sound of crying in bitter grief.

It is the sound of Rachel weeping for her children

and refusing to be comforted, because her children are gone.” ¹⁹ 

Zechariah 9:17

9:17 How precious and fair! ²⁰  Grain will make the young men flourish and new wine the young women.

[36:7]  ¹ tn Or “valuable.”

[36:7]  ² tn Heb “and the sons of man in the shadow of your wings find shelter.” The preservation of physical life is in view, as the next verse makes clear.

[63:3]  ³ tn This line is understood as giving the basis for the praise promised in the following line. Another option is to take the Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) as asseverative/emphasizing, “Indeed, your loyal love is better” (cf. NEB, which leaves the particle untranslated).

[63:3]  ⁴ tn The word “experiencing” is supplied in the translation for clarification. The psalmist does not speak here of divine loyal love in some abstract sense, but of loyal love revealed and experienced.

[63:4]  ⁵ tn Or perhaps “then.”

[63:4]  ⁶ sn I will lift up my hands. Lifting up one’s hands toward God was a gesture of prayer (see Ps 28:2; Lam 2:19) or respect (Ps 119:48).

[63:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “like fat and fatness.”

[63:5]  ⁸ tn Or “me.”

[63:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “and [with] lips of joy my mouth praises.”

[65:4]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew noun is an abstract plural. The word often refers metonymically to the happiness that God-given security and prosperity produce (see Pss 1:1; 2:12; 34:9; 41:1; 84:12; 89:15; 106:3; 112:1; 127:5; 128:1; 144:15).

[65:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “[whom] you bring near [so that] he might live [in] your courts.”

[65:4]  ¹² tn Or “temple.”

[103:3]  ¹³ tn This relatively rare noun refers to deadly diseases (see Deut 29:22; Jer 14:18; 16:4; 2 Chr 21:19).

[103:4]  ¹⁴ tn Or “redeems.”

[103:4]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew term שַׁחַת (shakhat, “pit”) is often used as a title for Sheol (see Pss 16:10; 30:9; 49:9; 55:24.

[103:5]  ¹⁶ tc Heb “who satisfies with the good of your ornaments.” The text as it stands makes little, if any, sense. The translation assumes an emendation of עֶדְיֵךְ (’ed’ekh, “your ornaments”) to עֹדֵכִי (’odekhiy, “your duration; your continuance”) that is, “your life” (see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 18).

[103:5]  ¹⁷ sn The expression your youth is renewed like an eagle’s may allude to the phenomenon of molting, whereby the eagle grows new feathers.

[31:15]  ¹⁸ sn Ramah is a town in Benjamin approximately five miles (8 km) north of Jerusalem. It was on the road between Bethel and Bethlehem. Traditionally, Rachel’s tomb was located near there at a place called Zelzah (1 Sam 10:2). Rachel was the mother of Joseph and Benjamin and was very concerned about having children because she was barren (Gen 30:1-2) and went to great lengths to have them (Gen 30:3, 14-15, 22-24). She was the grandmother of Ephraim and Manasseh which were two of the major tribes in northern Israel. Here Rachel is viewed metaphorically as weeping for her “children,” the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh, who had been carried away into captivity in 722 b.c.

[31:15]  ¹⁹ tn Or “gone into exile” (cf. v. 16), though some English versions take this as meaning “dead” (e.g., NCV, CEV, NLT), presumably in light of Matt 2:18.

[9:17]  ²⁰ sn This expostulation best fits the whole preceding description of God’s eschatological work on behalf of his people. His goodness is especially evident in his nurturing of the young men and women of his kingdom.