Psalms 6:3

6:3 I am absolutely terrified, ¹ 

and you, Lord – how long will this continue? ² 

Psalms 6:10

6:10 May all my enemies be humiliated ³  and absolutely terrified! ⁴ 

May they turn back and be suddenly humiliated!

Psalms 21:1

Psalm 21 ⁵ 

For the music director; a psalm of David.

21:1 O Lord, the king rejoices in the strength you give; ⁶ 

he takes great delight in the deliverance you provide. ⁷ 

Psalms 38:6

38:6 I am dazed ⁸  and completely humiliated; ⁹ 

all day long I walk around mourning.

Psalms 48:1

Psalm 48 ¹⁰ 

A song, a psalm by the Korahites.

48:1 The Lord is great and certainly worthy of praise

in the city of our God, ¹¹  his holy hill.

Psalms 50:3

50:3 Our God approaches and is not silent; ¹² 

consuming fire goes ahead of him

and all around him a storm rages. ¹³ 

Psalms 79:8

79:8 Do not hold us accountable for the sins of earlier generations! ¹⁴ 

Quickly send your compassion our way, ¹⁵ 

for we are in serious trouble! ¹⁶ 

Psalms 93:5

93:5 The rules you set down ¹⁷  are completely reliable. ¹⁸ 

Holiness ¹⁹  aptly adorns your house, O Lord, forever. ²⁰ 

Psalms 96:4

96:4 For the Lord is great and certainly worthy of praise;

he is more awesome than all gods. ²¹ 

Psalms 97:9

97:9 For you, O Lord, are the sovereign king ²²  over the whole earth;

you are elevated high above all gods.

Psalms 104:1

Psalm 104 ²³ 

104:1 Praise the Lord, O my soul!

O Lord my God, you are magnificent. ²⁴ 

You are robed in splendor and majesty.

Psalms 112:1

Psalm 112 ²⁵ 

112:1 Praise the Lord!

How blessed is the one ²⁶  who obeys ²⁷  the Lord,

who takes great delight in keeping his commands. ²⁸ 

Psalms 119:43

119:43 Do not completely deprive me of a truthful testimony, ²⁹ 

for I await your justice.

Psalms 139:14

139:14 I will give you thanks because your deeds are awesome and amazing. ³⁰ 

You knew me thoroughly; ³¹ 

Psalms 142:6

142:6 Listen to my cry for help,

for I am in serious trouble! ³² 

Rescue me from those who chase me,

for they are stronger than I am.

[6:3]  ¹ tn Heb “my being is very terrified.” The suffixed form of נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “being”) is often equivalent to a pronoun in poetic texts.

[6:3]  ² tn Heb “and you, Lord, how long?” The suffering psalmist speaks in broken syntax. He addresses God, but then simply cries out with a brief, but poignant, question: How long will this (= his suffering) continue?

[6:10]  ³ tn The four prefixed verbal forms in this verse are understood as jussives. The psalmist concludes his prayer with an imprecation, calling judgment down on his enemies.

[6:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “and may they be very terrified.” The psalmist uses the same expression in v. 3 to describe the terror he was experiencing. Now he asks the Lord to turn the tables and cause his enemies to know what absolute terror feels like.

[21:1]  ⁵ sn Psalm 21. The psalmist praises the Lord for the way he protects and blesses the Davidic king.

[21:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “in your strength.” The translation interprets the pronominal suffix as subjective, rather than merely descriptive (or attributive).

[21:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “and in your deliverance, how greatly he rejoices.”

[38:6]  ⁷ tn The verb’s precise shade of meaning in this context is not entirely clear. The verb, which literally means “to bend,” may refer to the psalmist’s posture. In Isa 21:3 it seems to mean “be confused, dazed.”

[38:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “I am bowed down to excess.”

[48:1]  ⁹ sn Psalm 48. This so-called “Song of Zion” celebrates the greatness and glory of the Lord’s dwelling place, Jerusalem. His presence in the city elevates it above all others and assures its security.

[48:1]  ¹⁰ sn The city of our God is Jerusalem, which is also referred to here as “his holy hill,” that is, Zion (see v. 2, as well as Isa 66:20; Joel 2:1; 3:17; Zech 8:3; Pss 2:6; 15:1; 43:3; 87:1; Dan 9:16).

[50:3]  ¹¹ tn According to GKC 322 §109.e, the jussive (note the negative particle אַל, ’al) is used rhetorically here “to express the conviction that something cannot or should not happen.”

[50:3]  ¹² tn Heb “fire before him devours, and around him it is very stormy.”

[79:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “do not remember against us sins, former.” Some understand “former” as an attributive adjective modifying sins, “former [i.e., chronologically prior] sins” (see BDB 911 s.v. רִאשׁוֹן). The present translation assumes that ראשׁנים (“former”) here refers to those who lived formerly, that is, the people’s ancestors (see Lam 5:7). The word is used in this way in Lev 26:45; Deut 19:14 and Eccl 1:11.

[79:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “may your compassion quickly confront us.” The prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive, indicating a tone of prayer.

[79:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “for we are very low.”

[93:5]  ¹⁵ tn Traditionally “your testimonies.” The Hebrew noun עֵדוּת (’edut) refers here to the demands of God’s covenant law. See Ps 19:7.

[93:5]  ¹⁶ sn The rules you set down. God’s covenant contains a clear, reliable witness to his moral character and demands.

[93:5]  ¹⁷ sn Holiness refers here to God’s royal transcendence (see vv. 1-4), as well as his moral authority and perfection (see v. 5a).

[93:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “for your house holiness is fitting, O Lord, for length of days.”

[96:4]  ¹⁷ tn Or perhaps “and feared by all gods.” See Ps 89:7.

[97:9]  ¹⁹ tn Traditionally “Most High.”

[104:1]  ²¹ sn Psalm 104. The psalmist praises God as the ruler of the world who sustains all life.

[104:1]  ²² tn Heb “very great.”

[112:1]  ²³ sn Psalm 112. This wisdom psalm lists some of the benefits of living a godly life. The psalm is an acrostic. After the introductory call to praise, every poetic line (twenty-two in all) begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

[112:1]  ²⁴ tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man.” Hebrew wisdom literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The individual is representative of a larger group, called the “godly” in vv. 3-4. The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender specific “man” with the more neutral “one.” The generic masculine pronoun is used in the following verses.

[112:1]  ²⁵ tn Heb “fears.”

[112:1]  ²⁶ tn Heb “in his commands he delights very much.” The words “in keeping” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Taking delight in the law is metonymic here for obeying God’s moral will. See Ps 1:2.

[119:43]  ²⁵ tn Heb “do not snatch from my mouth a word of truth to excess.” The psalmist wants to be able to give a reliable testimony about the Lord’s loyal love (vv. 41-42), but if God does not intervene, the psalmist will be deprived of doing so, for the evidence of such love (i.e., deliverance) will be lacking.

[139:14]  ²⁷ tc Heb “because awesome things, I am distinct, amazing [are] your works.” The text as it stands is syntactically problematic and makes little, if any, sense. The Niphal of פָּלָה (pala’) occurs elsewhere only in Exod 33:16. Many take the form from פָלָא (pala’; see GKC 216 §75.qq), which in the Niphal perfect means “to be amazing” (see 2 Sam 1:26; Ps 118:23; Prov 30:18). Some, following the LXX and some other ancient witnesses, also prefer to emend the verb from first to second person, “you are amazing” (see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 249, 251). The present translation assumes the text conflates two variants: נפלאים, the otherwise unattested masculine plural participle of פָלָא, and נִפְלָאוֹת (nifla’ot), the usual (feminine) plural form of the Niphal participle. The latter has been changed to a verb by later scribes in an attempt to accommodate it syntactically. The original text likely read, נוראות נפלאותים מעשׂיך (“your works [are] awesome [and] amazing”).

[139:14]  ²⁸ tc Heb “and my being knows very much.” Better parallelism is achieved (see v. 15a) if one emends יֹדַעַת (yoda’at), a Qal active participle, feminine singular form, to יָדַעְתָּ (yada’ta), a Qal perfect second masculine singular perfect. See L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 252.

[142:6]  ²⁹ tn Heb “for I am very low.”