Psalms 39:5

39:5 Look, you make my days short-lived, ¹ 

and my life span is nothing from your perspective. ² 

Surely all people, even those who seem secure, are nothing but vapor. ³ 

Psalms 39:11

39:11 You severely discipline people for their sins; ⁴ 

like a moth you slowly devour their strength. ⁵ 

Surely all people are a mere vapor. (Selah)

Psalms 39:1

Psalm 39 ⁶ 

For the music director, Jeduthun; a psalm of David.

39:1 I decided, ⁷  “I will watch what I say

and make sure I do not sin with my tongue. ⁸ 

I will put a muzzle over my mouth

while in the presence of an evil man.” ⁹ 

Psalms 18:5

18:5 The ropes of Sheol tightened around me, ¹⁰ 

the snares of death trapped me. ¹¹ 

Psalms 18:7

18:7 The earth heaved and shook; ¹² 

the roots of the mountains ¹³  trembled; ¹⁴ 

they heaved because he was angry.

Psalms 23:1

Psalm 23 ¹⁵ 

A psalm of David.

23:1 The Lord is my shepherd, ¹⁶ 

I lack nothing. ¹⁷ 

Psalms 23:1

Psalm 23 ¹⁸ 

A psalm of David.

23:1 The Lord is my shepherd, ¹⁹ 

I lack nothing. ²⁰ 

Psalms 23:1-2

Psalm 23 ²¹ 

A psalm of David.

23:1 The Lord is my shepherd, ²² 

I lack nothing. ²³ 

23:2 He takes me to lush pastures, ²⁴ 

he leads me to refreshing water. ²⁵ 

Psalms 15:1

Psalm 15 ²⁶ 

A psalm of David.

15:1 Lord, who may be a guest in your home? ²⁷ 

Who may live on your holy hill? ²⁸ 

Matthew 21:9

21:9 The crowds that went ahead of him and those following kept shouting, ²⁹  “Hosanna ³⁰  to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! ³¹  Hosanna in the highest!”

John 19:15

19:15 Then they ³²  shouted out, “Away with him! Away with him! ³³  Crucify ³⁴  him!” Pilate asked, ³⁵  “Shall I crucify your king?” The high priests replied, “We have no king except Caesar!”

[39:5]  ¹ tn Heb “Look, handbreadths you make my days.” The “handbreadth” (equivalent to the width of four fingers) was one of the smallest measures used by ancient Israelites. See P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (WBC), 309.

[39:5]  ² tn Heb “is like nothing before you.”

[39:5]  ³ tn Heb “surely, all vapor [is] all mankind, standing firm.” Another option is to translate, “Surely, all mankind, though seemingly secure, is nothing but a vapor.”

[39:11]  ⁴ tn “with punishments on account of sin you discipline a man.”

[39:11]  ⁵ tc Heb “you cause to dissolve, like a moth, his desired [thing].” The translation assumes an emendation of חֲמוּדוֹ (khamudo, “his desirable [thing]”) to חֶמְדוֹ (khemdo, “his loveliness” [or “beauty”]), a reading that is supported by a few medieval Hebrew mss.

[39:1]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Heb “I said.”

[39:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “I will watch my ways, from sinning with my tongue.”

[39:1]  ⁹ 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.

[18:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “surrounded me.”

[18:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “confronted me.”

[18:7]  ¹² sn The earth heaved and shook. The imagery pictures an earthquake in which the earth’s surface rises and falls. The earthquake motif is common in OT theophanies of God as warrior and in ancient Near Eastern literary descriptions of warring gods and kings. See R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 160-62.

[18:7]  ¹³ tn 2 Sam 22:8 has “heavens” which forms a merism with “earth” in the preceding line. The “foundations of the heavens” would be the mountains. However, the reading “foundations of the mountains” has a parallel in Deut 32:22.

[18:7]  ¹⁴ tn In this poetic narrative context the prefixed verbal form is best understood as a preterite indicating past tense, not an imperfect. Note the three prefixed verbal forms with vav (ו) consecutive in the verse.

[23:1]  ¹⁵ sn Psalm 23. In vv. 1-4 the psalmist pictures the Lord as a shepherd who provides for his needs and protects him from danger. The psalmist declares, “The Lord is my shepherd,” and then extends and develops that metaphor, speaking as if he were a sheep. In vv. 5-6 the metaphor changes as the psalmist depicts a great royal banquet hosted by the Lord. The psalmist is a guest of honor and recipient of divine favor, who enjoys unlimited access to the divine palace and the divine presence.

[23:1]  ¹⁶ sn The LORD is my shepherd. The opening metaphor suggests the psalmist is assuming the role of a sheep. In vv. 1b-4 the psalmist extends the metaphor and explains exactly how the LORD is like a shepherd to him. At the surface level the language can be understood in terms of a shepherd’s relationship to his sheep. The translation of vv. 1-4 reflects this level. But, of course, each statement also points to an underlying reality.

[23:1]  ¹⁷ tn The imperfect verbal form is best understood as generalizing; the psalmist highlights his typical or ongoing experience as a result of having the LORD as his shepherd (habitual present use). The next verse explains more specifically what he means by this statement.

[23:1]  ¹⁸ sn Psalm 23. In vv. 1-4 the psalmist pictures the Lord as a shepherd who provides for his needs and protects him from danger. The psalmist declares, “The Lord is my shepherd,” and then extends and develops that metaphor, speaking as if he were a sheep. In vv. 5-6 the metaphor changes as the psalmist depicts a great royal banquet hosted by the Lord. The psalmist is a guest of honor and recipient of divine favor, who enjoys unlimited access to the divine palace and the divine presence.

[23:1]  ¹⁹ sn The LORD is my shepherd. The opening metaphor suggests the psalmist is assuming the role of a sheep. In vv. 1b-4 the psalmist extends the metaphor and explains exactly how the LORD is like a shepherd to him. At the surface level the language can be understood in terms of a shepherd’s relationship to his sheep. The translation of vv. 1-4 reflects this level. But, of course, each statement also points to an underlying reality.

[23:1]  ²⁰ tn The imperfect verbal form is best understood as generalizing; the psalmist highlights his typical or ongoing experience as a result of having the LORD as his shepherd (habitual present use). The next verse explains more specifically what he means by this statement.

[23:1]  ²¹ sn Psalm 23. In vv. 1-4 the psalmist pictures the Lord as a shepherd who provides for his needs and protects him from danger. The psalmist declares, “The Lord is my shepherd,” and then extends and develops that metaphor, speaking as if he were a sheep. In vv. 5-6 the metaphor changes as the psalmist depicts a great royal banquet hosted by the Lord. The psalmist is a guest of honor and recipient of divine favor, who enjoys unlimited access to the divine palace and the divine presence.

[23:1]  ²² sn The LORD is my shepherd. The opening metaphor suggests the psalmist is assuming the role of a sheep. In vv. 1b-4 the psalmist extends the metaphor and explains exactly how the LORD is like a shepherd to him. At the surface level the language can be understood in terms of a shepherd’s relationship to his sheep. The translation of vv. 1-4 reflects this level. But, of course, each statement also points to an underlying reality.

[23:1]  ²³ tn The imperfect verbal form is best understood as generalizing; the psalmist highlights his typical or ongoing experience as a result of having the LORD as his shepherd (habitual present use). The next verse explains more specifically what he means by this statement.

[23:2]  ²⁴ 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]  ²⁵ 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).

[15:1]  ²⁶ sn Psalm 15. This psalm describes the character qualities that one must possess to be allowed access to the divine presence.

[15:1]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Who may live as a resident alien in your tent?”

[15:1]  ²⁸ 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.

[21:9]  ²⁹ tn Grk “were shouting, saying.” The participle λέγοντας (legontas) is redundant here in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[21:9]  ³⁰ tn The expression ῾Ωσαννά (Jwsanna, literally in Hebrew, “O Lord, save”) in the quotation from Ps 118:25-26 was probably by this time a familiar liturgical expression of praise, on the order of “Hail to the king,” although both the underlying Aramaic and Hebrew expressions meant “O Lord, save us.” In words familiar to every Jew, the author is indicating that at this point every messianic expectation is now at the point of realization. It is clear from the words of the psalm shouted by the crowd that Jesus is being proclaimed as messianic king. See E. Lohse, TDNT 9:682-84.

[21:9]  ³¹ sn A quotation from Ps 118:25-26.

[19:15]  ³² tn Grk “Then these.”

[19:15]  ³³ tn The words “with him” (twice) are not in the Greek text. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[19:15]  ³⁴ sn See the note on Crucify in 19:6.

[19:15]  ³⁵ tn Grk “Pilate said to them.” The words “to them” are not translated because it is clear in English who Pilate is addressing.