Psalms 45:3

45:3 Strap your sword to your thigh, O warrior! ¹ 

Appear in your majestic splendor! ² 

Psalms 8:1

Psalm 8 ³ 

For the music director, according to the gittith style; ⁴  a psalm of David.

8:1 O Lord, our Lord, ⁵ 

how magnificent ⁶  is your reputation ⁷  throughout the earth!

You reveal your majesty in the heavens above! ⁸ 

[45:3]  ¹ tn Or “mighty one.”

[45:3]  ² tn The Hebrew text has simply, “your majesty and your splendor,” which probably refers to the king’s majestic splendor when he appears in full royal battle regalia.

[8:1]  ³ sn Psalm 8. In this hymn to the sovereign creator, the psalmist praises God’s majesty and marvels that God has given mankind dominion over the created order.

[8:1]  ⁴ tn The precise meaning of the Hebrew term הגתית is uncertain; it probably refers to a musical style or type of instrument.

[8:1]  ⁵ tn The plural form of the title emphasizes the Lord’s absolute sovereignty.

[8:1]  ⁶ tn Or “awesome”; or “majestic.”

[8:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “name,” which here stands metonymically for God’s reputation.

[8:1]  ⁸ tc Heb “which, give, your majesty on the heavens.” The verb form תְּנָה (tÿnah; an imperative?) is corrupt. The form should be emended to a second masculine singular perfect (נָתַתָּה, natatah) or imperfect (תִתֵן, titen) form. The introductory אֲשֶׁר (’asher, “which”) can be taken as a relative pronoun (“you who”) or as a causal conjunction (“because”). One may literally translate, “you who [or “because you”] place your majesty upon the heavens.” For other uses of the phrase “place majesty upon” see Num 27:20 and 1 Chr 29:25.