Psalms 4:6

4:6 Many say, “Who can show us anything good?”

Smile upon us, Lord! ¹ 

Psalms 7:6

7:6 Stand up angrily, ²  Lord!

Rise up with raging fury against my enemies! ³ 

Wake up for my sake and execute the judgment you have decreed for them! ⁴ 

Psalms 24:4

24:4 The one whose deeds are blameless

and whose motives are pure, ⁵ 

who does not lie, ⁶ 

or make promises with no intention of keeping them. ⁷ 

Psalms 28:2

28:2 Hear my plea for mercy when I cry out to you for help,

when I lift my hands ⁸  toward your holy temple! ⁹ 

Psalms 28:9

28:9 Deliver your people!

Empower ¹⁰  the nation that belongs to you! ¹¹ 

Care for them like a shepherd and carry them in your arms ¹²  at all times! ¹³ 

Psalms 50:16

50:16 God says this to the evildoer: ¹⁴ 

“How can you declare my commands,

and talk about my covenant? ¹⁵ 

Psalms 55:12

55:12 Indeed, ¹⁶  it is not an enemy who insults me,

or else I could bear it;

it is not one who hates me who arrogantly taunts me, ¹⁷ 

or else I could hide from him.

Psalms 81:2

81:2 Sing ¹⁸  a song and play the tambourine,

the pleasant sounding harp, and the ten-stringed instrument!

Psalms 89:50

89:50 Take note, O Lord, ¹⁹  of the way your servants are taunted, ²⁰ 

and of how I must bear so many insults from people! ²¹ 

Psalms 99:8

99:8 O Lord our God, you answered them.

They found you to be a forgiving God,

but also one who punished their sinful deeds. ²² 

Psalms 121:1

Psalm 121 ²³ 

A song of ascents. ²⁴ 

121:1 I look up ²⁵  toward the hills.

From where ²⁶  does my help come?

[4:6]  ¹ tn Heb “lift up upon us the light of your face, Lord.” The verb נסה is apparently an alternate form of נשׂא, “lift up.” See GKC 217 §76.b. The idiom “light of your face” probably refers to a smile (see Eccl 8:1), which in turn suggests favor and blessing (see Num 6:25; Pss 31:16; 44:3; 67:1; 80:3, 7, 19; 89:15; Dan 9:17).

[7:6]  ² tn Heb “in your anger.”

[7:6]  ³ tn Heb “Lift yourself up in the angry outbursts of my enemies.” Many understand the preposition prefixed to עַבְרוֹת (’avrot, “angry outbursts”) as adversative, “against,” and the following genitive “enemies” as subjective. In this case one could translate, “rise up against my furious enemies” (cf. NIV, NRSV). The present translation, however, takes the preposition as indicating manner (cf. “in your anger” in the previous line) and understands the plural form of the noun as indicating an abstract quality (“fury”) or excessive degree (“raging fury”). Cf. Job 21:30.

[7:6]  ⁴ tc Heb “Wake up to me [with the] judgment [which] you have commanded.” The LXX understands אֵלִי (’eliy, “my God”) instead of אֵלַי (’elay, “to me”; the LXX reading is followed by NEB, NIV, NRSV.) If the reading of the MT is retained, the preposition probably has the sense of “on account of, for the sake of.” The noun מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat, “judgment”) is probably an adverbial accusative, modifying the initial imperative, “wake up.” In this case צִוִּיתָ (tsivvita, “[which] you have commanded”) is an asyndetic relative clause. Some take the perfect as precative. In this case one could translate the final line, “Wake up for my sake! Decree judgment!” (cf. NIV). However, not all grammarians are convinced that the perfect is used as a precative in biblical Hebrew.

[24:4]  ³ tn Heb “the innocent of hands and the pure of heart.” The “hands” allude to one’s actions, the “heart” to one’s thought life and motives.

[24:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “who does not lift up for emptiness my life.” The first person pronoun on נַפְשִׁי (nafshiy, “my life”) makes little sense here; many medieval Hebrew mss support the ancient versions in reading a third person pronoun “his.” The idiom “lift the life” here means to “long for” or “desire strongly.” In this context (note the reference to an oath in the following line) “emptiness” probably refers to speech (see Ps 12:2).

[24:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “and does not swear an oath deceitfully.”

[28:2]  ⁴ sn I lift my hands. Lifting one’s hands toward God was a gesture of prayer.

[28:2]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew term דְּבִיר (dÿvir, “temple”) actually refers to the most holy place within the sanctuary.

[28:9]  ⁵ tn Or “bless.”

[28:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “your inheritance.” The parallelism (note “your people”) indicates that Israel is in view.

[28:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “shepherd them and lift them up.”

[28:9]  ⁸ tn Or “forever.”

[50:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “evil [one].” The singular adjective is used here in a representative sense; it refers to those within the larger covenant community who have blatantly violated the Lord’s commandments. In the psalms the “wicked” (רְשָׁעִים, rÿsha’im) are typically proud, practical atheists (Ps 10:2, 4, 11) who hate God’s commands, commit sinful deeds, speak lies and slander, and cheat others (Ps 37:21).

[50:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “What to you to declare my commands and lift up my covenant upon your mouth?” The rhetorical question expresses sarcastic amazement. The Lord is shocked that such evildoers would give lip-service to his covenantal demands, for their lifestyle is completely opposed to his standards (see vv. 18-20).

[55:12]  ⁷ tn Or “for.”

[55:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “[who] magnifies against me.” See Pss 35:26; 38:16.

[81:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “lift up.”

[89:50]  ⁹ tc Many medieval Hebrew mss read here יְהוָה (yehvah, “the Lord”).

[89:50]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “remember, O Lord, the taunt against your servants.” Many medieval Hebrew mss read the singular here, “your servant” (that is, the psalmist).

[89:50]  ¹¹ tn Heb “my lifting up in my arms [or “against my chest”] all of the many, peoples.” The term רַבִּים (rabbim, “many”) makes no apparent sense here. For this reason some emend the text to רִבֵי (rivey, “attacks by”), a defectively written plural construct form of רִיב (riv, “dispute; quarrel”).

[99:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “a God of lifting up [i.e., forgiveness] you were to them, and an avenger concerning their deeds.” The present translation reflects the traditional interpretation, which understands the last line as qualifying the preceding one. God forgave Moses and Aaron, but he also disciplined them when they sinned (cf. NIV, NRSV). Another option is to take “their deeds” as referring to harmful deeds directed against Moses and Aaron. In this case the verse may be translated, “and one who avenged attacks against them.” Still another option is to emend the participial form נֹקֵם (noqem, “an avenger”) to נֹקָם (noqam), a rare Qal participial form of נָקַה (naqah, “purify”) with a suffixed pronoun. In this case one could translate, “and one who purified them from their [sinful] deeds” (cf. NEB “and held them innocent”).

[121:1]  ¹¹ sn Psalm 121. The psalm affirms that the Lord protects his people Israel. Unless the psalmist addresses an observer (note the second person singular forms in vv. 3-8), it appears there are two or three speakers represented in the psalm, depending on how one takes v. 3. The translation assumes that speaker one talks in vv. 1-2, that speaker two responds to him with a prayer in v. 3 (this assumes the verbs are true jussives of prayer), and that speaker three responds with words of assurance in vv. 4-8. If the verbs in v. 3 are taken as a rhetorical use of the jussive, then there are two speakers. Verses 3-8 are speaker two’s response to the words of speaker one. See the note on the word “sleep” at the end of v. 3.

[121:1]  ¹² sn The precise significance of this title, which appears in Pss 120-134, is unclear. Perhaps worshipers recited these psalms when they ascended the road to Jerusalem to celebrate annual religious festivals. For a discussion of their background see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 219-21.

[121:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “I lift my eyes.”

[121:1]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew term מֵאַיִן (me’ayin) is interrogative, not relative, in function. Rather than directly stating that his source of help descends from the hills, the psalmist is asking, “From where does my help come?” Nevertheless, the first line does indicate that he is looking toward the hills for help, probably indicating that he is looking up toward the sky in anticipation of supernatural intervention. The psalmist assumes the dramatic role of one needing help. He answers his own question in v. 2.