Psalms 62:5

62:5 Patiently wait for God alone, my soul! ¹ 

For he is the one who gives me confidence. ² 

Psalms 103:12

103:12 As far as the eastern horizon ³  is from the west, ⁴ 

so he removes the guilt of our rebellious actions ⁵  from us.

Psalms 109:17

109:17 He loved to curse ⁶  others, so those curses have come upon him. ⁷ 

He had no desire to bless anyone, so he has experienced no blessings. ⁸ 

[62:5]  ¹ tn Heb “only for God be silent, my soul.” The wording is similar to that of v. 1a. Here an imperatival form, דּוֹמִּי (dommiy, “be silent”), appears instead of the noun דּוּמִיָּה (dumiyyah, “silence”). The psalmist is encouraging himself to maintain his trust in God.

[62:5]  ² tn Heb “for from him [is] my hope.”

[103:12]  ³ tn Heb “sunrise.”

[103:12]  ⁴ tn Or “sunset.”

[103:12]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew term פֶּשַׁע (pesha’, rebellious act”) is here used metonymically for the guilt such actions produce.

[109:17]  ⁵ sn A curse in OT times consists of a formal appeal to God to bring judgment down upon another. Curses were sometimes justified (such as the one spoken by the psalmist here in vv. 6-19), but when they were not, the one pronouncing the curse was in danger of bringing the anticipated judgment down upon himself.

[109:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “and he loved a curse and it came [upon] him.” A reference to the evil man experiencing a curse seems premature here, for the psalmist is asking God to bring judgment on his enemies. For this reason some (cf. NIV, NRSV) prefer to repoint the vav (ו) on “it came” as conjunctive and translate the verb as a jussive of prayer (“may it come upon him!”). The prefixed form with vav consecutive in the next line is emended in the same way and translated, “may it be far from him.” However, the psalmist may be indicating that the evil man’s lifestyle has already begun to yield its destructive fruit.

[109:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he did not delight in a blessing and it is far from him.”