Psalms 4:7

4:7 You make me happier ¹ 

than those who have abundant grain and wine. ² 

Psalms 18:40

18:40 You make my enemies retreat; ³ 

I destroy those who hate me. ⁴ 

Psalms 60:4

60:4 You have given your loyal followers ⁵  a rallying flag,

so that they might seek safety from the bow. ⁶  (Selah)

[4:7]  ¹ tn Heb “you place joy in my heart.” Another option is to understand the perfect verbal form as indicating certitude, “you will make me happier.”

[4:7]  ² tn Heb “from (i.e., more than) the time (when) their grain and their wine are abundant.”

[18:40]  ³ tn Heb “and [as for] my enemies, you give to me [the] back [or “neck”].” The idiom “give [the] back” means “to cause [one] to turn the back and run away.” Cf. Exod 23:27.

[18:40]  ⁴ sn Those who hate me. See v. 17, where it is the Lord who delivered the psalmist from those who hated him.

[60:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “those who fear you.”

[60:4]  ⁶ tn There is a ray of hope in that God has allowed his loyal followers to rally under a battle flag. The translation assumes the verb is from the root נוּס (nus, “flee”) used here in the Hitpolel in the sense of “find safety for oneself” (HALOT 681 s.v. נוס) or “take flight for oneself” (BDB 630-31 s.v. נוּס). Another option is to take the verb as a denominative from נֵס (nes, “flag”) and translate “that it may be displayed” (BDB 651 s.v. II נסס) or “that they may assemble under the banner” (HALOT 704 s.v. II נסס). Here קֹשֶׁט (qoshet) is taken as an Aramaized form of קֶשֶׁת (qeshet, “bow”; BDB 905-6 s.v. קֶשֶׁת), though some understand the homonymic קֹשְׁטְ (qosht, “truth”) here (see Prov 22:21; cf. NASB). If one follows the latter interpretation, the line may be translated, “so that they might assemble under the banner for the sake of truth.”