Psalms 50:13

50:13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls?

Do I drink the blood of goats? ¹ 

Psalms 102:5

102:5 Because of the anxiety that makes me groan,

my bones protrude from my skin. ² 

Psalms 109:24

109:24 I am so starved my knees shake; ³ 

I have turned into skin and bones. ⁴ 

Psalms 119:120

119:120 My body ⁵  trembles ⁶  because I fear you; ⁷ 

I am afraid of your judgments.

Psalms 38:7

38:7 For I am overcome with shame ⁸ 

and my whole body is sick. ⁹ 

Psalms 65:2

65:2 You hear prayers; ¹⁰ 

all people approach you. ¹¹ 

Psalms 78:39

78:39 He remembered ¹²  that they were made of flesh,

and were like a wind that blows past and does not return. ¹³ 

Psalms 136:25

136:25 to the one who gives food to all living things, ¹⁴ 

for his loyal love endures.

Psalms 16:9

16:9 So my heart rejoices

and I am happy; ¹⁵ 

My life is safe. ¹⁶ 

Psalms 27:2

27:2 When evil men attack me ¹⁷ 

to devour my flesh, ¹⁸ 

when my adversaries and enemies attack me, ¹⁹ 

they stumble and fall. ²⁰ 

Psalms 38:3

38:3 My whole body is sick because of your judgment; ²¹ 

I am deprived of health because of my sin. ²² 

Psalms 56:4

56:4 In God – I boast in his promise ²³  –

in God I trust, I am not afraid.

What can mere men ²⁴  do to me? ²⁵ 

Psalms 79:2

79:2 They have given the corpses of your servants

to the birds of the sky; ²⁶ 

the flesh of your loyal followers

to the beasts of the earth.

Psalms 145:21

145:21 My mouth will praise the Lord. ²⁷ 

Let all who live ²⁸  praise his holy name forever!

Psalms 84:2

84:2 I desperately want to be ²⁹ 

in the courts of the Lord’s temple. ³⁰ 

My heart and my entire being ³¹  shout for joy

to the living God.

Psalms 63:1

Psalm 63 ³² 

A psalm of David, written when he was in the Judean wilderness. ³³ 

63:1 O God, you are my God! I long for you! ³⁴ 

My soul thirsts ³⁵  for you,

my flesh yearns for you,

in a dry and parched ³⁶  land where there is no water.

[50:13]  ¹ tn The rhetorical questions assume an emphatic negative response, “Of course not!”

[102:5]  ² tn Heb “from the sound of my groaning my bone[s] stick to my flesh.” The preposition at the beginning of the verse is causal; the phrase “sound of my groaning” is metonymic for the anxiety that causes the groaning. The point seems to be this: Anxiety (which causes the psalmist to groan) keeps him from eating (v. 4). This physical deprivation in turn makes him emaciated – he is turned to “skin and bones,” so to speak.

[109:24]  ³ tn Heb “my knees stagger from fasting.”

[109:24]  ⁴ tn Heb “and my flesh is lean away from fatness [i.e., “lean so as not to be fat”].”

[119:120]  ⁴ tn Heb “my flesh.”

[119:120]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew verb סָמַר (samar, “to tremble”) occurs only here and in Job 4:15.

[119:120]  ⁶ tn Heb “from fear of you.” The pronominal suffix on the noun is an objective genitive.

[38:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “for my loins are filled with shame.” The “loins” are viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s emotions. The present translation assumes that נִקְלֶה (niqleh) is derived from קָלָה (qalah, “be dishonored”). Some derive it instead from a homonymic root קָלָה (qalah), meaning “to roast.” In this case one might translate “fever” (cf. NEB “my loins burn with fever”).

[38:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “there is no soundness in my flesh” (see v. 3).

[65:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “O one who hears prayer.”

[65:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “to you all flesh comes.”

[78:39]  ⁷ tn The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive signals a return to the narrative.

[78:39]  ⁸ tn Heb “and he remembered that they [were] flesh, a wind [that] goes and does not return.”

[136:25]  ⁸ tn Heb “to all flesh,” which can refer to all people (see Pss 65:2; 145:21) or more broadly to mankind and animals. Elsewhere the psalms view God as the provider for all living things (see Pss 104:27-28; 145:15).

[16:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “my glory is happy.” Some view the Hebrew term כְּבוֹדִי (kÿvodiy, “my glory”) as a metonymy for man’s inner being (see BDB 459 s.v. II כָּבוֹד 5), but it is preferable to emend the form to כְּבֵדִי (kÿvediy, “my liver”). Like the heart, the liver is viewed as the seat of one’s emotions. See also Pss 30:12; 57:9; 108:1, as well as H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 64, and M. Dahood, Psalms (AB), 1:90. For an Ugaritic example of the heart/liver as the source of joy, see G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 47-48: “her [Anat’s] liver swelled with laughter, her heart was filled with joy, the liver of Anat with triumph.”

[16:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “yes, my flesh dwells securely.” The psalmist’s “flesh” stands by metonymy for his body and, by extension, his physical life.

[27:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “draw near to me.”

[27:2]  ¹¹ sn To devour my flesh. The psalmist compares his enemies to dangerous, hungry predators (see 2 Kgs 9:36; Ezek 39:17).

[27:2]  ¹² tn Heb “my adversaries and my enemies against me.” The verb “draw near” (that is, “attack”) is understood by ellipsis; see the previous line.

[27:2]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew verbal forms are perfects. The translation assumes the psalmist is generalizing here, but another option is to take this as a report of past experience, “when evil men attacked me…they stumbled and fell.”

[38:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “there is no soundness in my flesh from before your anger.” “Anger” here refers metonymically to divine judgment, which is the practical effect of God’s anger at the psalmist’s sin.

[38:3]  ¹² tn Heb “there is no health in my bones from before my sin.”

[56:4]  ¹² tn Heb “in God I boast, his word.” The syntax in the Hebrew text is difficult. (1) The line could be translated, “in God I boast, [in] his word.” Such a translation assumes that the prepositional phrase “in God” goes with the following verb “I boast” (see Ps 44:8) and that “his word” is appositional to “in God” and more specifically identifies the basis for the psalmist’s confidence. God’s “word” is here understood as an assuring promise of protection. Another option (2) is to translate, “in God I will boast [with] a word.” In this case, the “word” is a song of praise. (In this view the pronominal suffix “his” must be omitted as in v. 10.) The present translation reflects yet another option (3): In this case “I praise his word” is a parenthetical statement, with “his word” being the object of the verb. The sentence begun with the prepositional phrase “in God” is then completed in the next line, with the prepositional phrase being repeated after the parenthesis.

[56:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “flesh,” which refers by metonymy to human beings (see v. 11, where “man” is used in this same question), envisioned here as mortal and powerless before God.

[56:4]  ¹⁴ tn The rhetorical question assumes the answer, “Nothing!” The imperfect is used in a modal sense here, indicating capability or potential.

[79:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “[as] food for the birds of the sky.”

[145:21]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the praise of the Lord my mouth will speak.”

[145:21]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “all flesh.”

[84:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “my soul longs, it even pines for.”

[84:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the courts of the Lord” (see Ps 65:4).

[84:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “my flesh,” which stands for his whole person and being.

[63:1]  ¹⁶ sn Psalm 63. The psalmist expresses his intense desire to be in God’s presence and confidently affirms that God will judge his enemies.

[63:1]  ¹⁷ sn According to the psalm superscription David wrote the psalm while in the “wilderness of Judah.” Perhaps this refers to the period described in 1 Sam 23-24 or to the incident mentioned in 2 Sam 15:23.

[63:1]  ¹⁸ tn Or “I will seek you.”

[63:1]  ¹⁹ tn Or “I thirst.”

[63:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “faint” or “weary.” This may picture the land as “faint” or “weary,” or it may allude to the effect this dry desert has on those who are forced to live in it.