Psalms 56:4

56:4 In God – I boast in his promise ¹  –

in God I trust, I am not afraid.

What can mere men ²  do to me? ³ 

Psalms 119:162

119:162 I rejoice in your instructions,

like one who finds much plunder. ⁴ 

Psalms 119:2

119:2 How blessed are those who observe his rules,

and seek him with all their heart,

Psalms 7:1

Psalm 7 ⁵ 

A musical composition ⁶  by David, which he sang to the Lord concerning ⁷  a Benjaminite named Cush. ⁸ 

7:1 O Lord my God, in you I have taken shelter. ⁹ 

Deliver me from all who chase me! Rescue me!

Luke 1:45-47

1:45 And blessed ¹⁰  is she who believed that ¹¹  what was spoken to her by ¹²  the Lord would be fulfilled.” ¹³ 

Mary’s Hymn of Praise

1:46 And Mary ¹⁴  said, ¹⁵ 

“My soul exalts ¹⁶  the Lord, ¹⁷ 

1:47 and my spirit has begun to rejoice ¹⁸  in God my Savior,

[56:4]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ tn The rhetorical question assumes the answer, “Nothing!” The imperfect is used in a modal sense here, indicating capability or potential.

[119:162]  ⁴ tn Heb “like one who finds great plunder.” See Judg 5:30. The image is that of a victorious warrior who finds a large amount of plunder on the field of battle.

[7:1]  ⁵ sn Psalm 7. The psalmist asks the Lord to intervene and deliver him from his enemies. He protests his innocence and declares his confidence in God’s justice.

[7:1]  ⁶ tn The precise meaning of the Hebrew term שִׁגָּיוֹן (shiggayon; translated here “musical composition”) is uncertain. Some derive the noun from the verbal root שָׁגָה (shagah, “swerve, reel”) and understand it as referring to a “wild, passionate song, with rapid changes of rhythm” (see BDB 993 s.v. שִׁגָּיוֹן). But this proposal is purely speculative. The only other appearance of the noun is in Hab 3:1, where it occurs in the plural.

[7:1]  ⁷ tn Or “on account of.”

[7:1]  ⁸ sn Apparently this individual named Cush was one of David’s enemies.

[7:1]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew perfect verbal form probably refers here to a completed action with continuing results.

[1:45]  ¹⁰ sn Again the note of being blessed makes the key point of the passage about believing God.

[1:45]  ¹¹ tn This ὅτι (Joti) clause, technically indirect discourse after πιστεύω (pisteuw), explains the content of the faith, a belief in God’s promise coming to pass.

[1:45]  ¹² tn That is, “what was said to her (by the angel) at the Lord’s command” (BDAG 756 s.v. παρά A.2).

[1:45]  ¹³ tn Grk “that there would be a fulfillment of what was said to her from the Lord.”

[1:46]  ¹⁴ tc A few witnesses, especially Latin mss, (a b l* Ir^arm Or^lat mss Nic) read “Elizabeth” here, since she was just speaking, but the ms evidence overwhelmingly supports “Mary” as the speaker.

[1:46]  ¹⁵ sn The following passage has been typeset as poetry because many scholars regard this passage as poetic or hymnic. These terms are used broadly to refer to the genre of writing, not to the content. There are two broad criteria for determining if a passage is poetic or hymnic: “(a) stylistic: a certain rhythmical lilt when the passages are read aloud, the presence of parallelismus membrorum (i.e., an arrangement into couplets), the semblance of some metre, and the presence of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, chiasmus, and antithesis; and (b) linguistic: an unusual vocabulary, particularly the presence of theological terms, which is different from the surrounding context” (P. T. O’Brien, Philippians [NIGTC], 188-89). Classifying a passage as hymnic or poetic is important because understanding this genre can provide keys to interpretation. However, not all scholars agree that the above criteria are present in this passage, so the decision to typeset it as poetry should be viewed as a tentative decision about its genre.

[1:46]  ¹⁶ tn Or “lifts up the Lord in praise.”

[1:46]  ¹⁷ sn This psalm (vv. 46-55) is one of the few praise psalms in the NT. Mary praises God and then tells why both in terms of his care for her (vv. 46-49) and for others, including Israel (vv. 50-55). Its traditional name, the “Magnificat,” comes from the Latin for the phrase My soul magnifies the Lord at the hymn’s start.

[1:47]  ¹⁸ tn Or “rejoices.” The translation renders this aorist, which stands in contrast to the previous line’s present tense, as ingressive, which highlights Mary’s joyous reaction to the announcement. A comprehensive aorist is also possible here.