Psalms 6:8

6:8 Turn back from me, all you who behave wickedly, ¹ 

for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping! ² 

Psalms 28:2

28:2 Hear my plea for mercy when I cry out to you for help,

when I lift my hands ³  toward your holy temple! ⁴ 

Psalms 29:3

29:3 The Lord’s shout is heard over the water; ⁵ 

the majestic God thunders, ⁶ 

the Lord appears over the surging water. ⁷ 

Psalms 29:5

29:5 The Lord’s shout breaks ⁸  the cedars,

the Lord shatters ⁹  the cedars of Lebanon. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 29:9

29:9 The Lord’s shout bends ¹¹  the large trees ¹² 

and strips ¹³  the leaves from the forests. ¹⁴ 

Everyone in his temple says, “Majestic!” ¹⁵ 

Psalms 68:33

68:33 to the one who rides through the sky from ancient times! ¹⁶ 

Look! He thunders loudly. ¹⁷ 

Psalms 77:17-18

77:17 The clouds poured down rain; ¹⁸ 

the skies thundered. ¹⁹ 

Yes, your arrows ²⁰  flashed about.

77:18 Your thunderous voice was heard in the wind;

the lightning bolts lit up the world;

the earth trembled and shook. ²¹ 

Psalms 118:15

118:15 They celebrate deliverance in the tents of the godly. ²² 

The Lord’s right hand conquers, ²³ 

Psalms 140:6

140:6 I say to the Lord, “You are my God.”

O Lord, pay attention to my plea for mercy!

[6:8]  ¹ tn Heb “all [you] workers of wickedness.” See Ps 5:5.

[6:8]  ² sn The Lord has heard. The psalmist’s mood abruptly changes because the Lord responded positively to the lament and petition of vv. 1-7 and promised him deliverance.

[28:2]  ³ sn I lift my hands. Lifting one’s hands toward God was a gesture of prayer.

[28:2]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew term דְּבִיר (dÿvir, “temple”) actually refers to the most holy place within the sanctuary.

[29:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “the voice of the Lord [is] over the water.” As the next line makes clear, the “voice of the Lord” is here the thunder that accompanies a violent storm. The psalm depicts the Lord in the role of a warrior-king, so the thunder is his battle cry, as it were.

[29:3]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew perfect verbal form is probably descriptive. In dramatic fashion the psalmist portrays the Lord coming in the storm to do battle with his enemies and to vindicate his people.

[29:3]  ⁷ tn Traditionally “many waters.” The geographical references in the psalm (Lebanon, Sirion, Kadesh) suggest this is a reference to the Mediterranean Sea (see Ezek 26:19; 27:26). The psalmist describes a powerful storm moving in from the sea and sweeping over the mountainous areas north of Israel. The “surging waters” may symbolize the hostile enemies of God who seek to destroy his people (see Pss 18:17; 32:6; 77:20; 93:4; 144:7; Isa 17:13; Jer 51:55; Ezek 26:19; Hab 3:15). In this case the Lord is depicted as elevated above and sovereign over the raging waters.

[29:5]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew participial form draws attention to the durative nature of the action being described.

[29:5]  ⁸ tn The prefixed verbal forms with vav (ו) consecutive here and in v. 6a carry on the descriptive function of the preceding participle (see GKC 329 §111.u). The verb שָׁבַר (shavar) appears in the Qal in the first line of the verse, and in the Piel in the second line. The verb, which means “break” in the Qal, appears thirty-six times in the Piel, always with multiple objects (the object is either a collective singular or grammatically plural or dual form). The Piel may highlight the repetition of the pluralative action, or it may suggest an intensification of action, indicating repeated action comprising a whole, perhaps with the nuance “break again and again, break in pieces.” Another option is to understand the form as resultative: “make broken” (see IBHS 404-7 §24.3).

[29:5]  ⁹ sn The cedars of the Lebanon forest were well-known in ancient Israel for their immense size. Here they may symbolize the arrogant enemies of God (see Isa 2:12-13).

[29:9]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew imperfect verbal form is descriptive in function; the psalmist depicts the action as underway.

[29:9]  ¹⁰ tc Heb “the deer.” Preserving this reading, some translate the preceding verb, “causes [the deer] to give premature birth” (cf. NEB, NASB). But the Polel of חוּל/חִיל (khul/khil) means “give birth,” not “cause to give birth,” and the statement “the Lord’s shout gives birth to deer” is absurd. In light of the parallelism (note “forests” in the next line) and v. 5, it is preferable to emend אַיָּלוֹת (’ayyalot, “deer”) to אֵילוֹת (’elot, “large trees”) understanding the latter as an alternate form of the usual plural form אַיָּלִים (’ayyalim).

[29:9]  ¹¹ tn The verb is used in Joel 1:7 of locusts stripping the leaves from a tree. The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive here carries the descriptive function of the preceding imperfect. See GKC 329 §111.t.

[29:9]  ¹² tn The usual form of the plural of יַעַר (ya’ar, “forest”) is יְעָרִים (yÿ’arim). For this reason some propose an emendation to יְעָלוֹת (yÿ’alot, “female mountain goats”) which would fit nicely in the parallelism with “deer” (cf. NEB “brings kids early to birth”). In this case one would have to understand the verb חָשַׂף (khasaf) to mean “cause premature birth,” an otherwise unattested homonym of the more common חָשַׂף (“strip bare”).

[29:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “In his temple, all of it says, ‘Glory.’”

[68:33]  ¹¹ tc Heb “to the one who rides through the skies of skies of ancient times.” If the MT is retained, one might translate, “to the one who rides through the ancient skies.” (שְׁמֵי [shÿmey, “skies of”] may be accidentally repeated.) The present translation assumes an emendation to בַּשָּׁמַיִם מִקֶּדֶם (bashamayim miqqedem, “[to the one who rides] through the sky from ancient times”), that is, God has been revealing his power through the storm since ancient times.

[68:33]  ¹² tn Heb “he gives his voice a strong voice.” In this context God’s “voice” is the thunder that accompanies the rain (see vv. 8-9, as well as Deut 33:26).

[77:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “water.”

[77:17]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “a sound the clouds gave.”

[77:17]  ¹⁵ tn The lightning accompanying the storm is portrayed as the Lord’s “arrows” (see v. 18).

[77:18]  ¹⁵ tn The prefixed verbal form may be taken as a preterite or as an imperfect with past progressive force.

[118:15]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the sound of a ringing shout and deliverance [is] in the tents of the godly.”

[118:15]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “does valiantly.” The statement refers here to military success (see Num 24:18; 1 Sam 14:48; Pss 60:12; 108:13).