Psalms 7:7

7:7 The countries are assembled all around you; ¹ 

take once more your rightful place over them! ² 

Psalms 9:8

9:8 He judges the world fairly;

he makes just legal decisions for the nations. ³ 

Psalms 65:7

65:7 You calm the raging seas ⁴ 

and their roaring waves,

as well as the commotion made by the nations. ⁵ 

Psalms 105:44

105:44 He handed the territory of nations over to them,

and they took possession of what other peoples had produced, ⁶ 

Psalms 148:11

148:11 you kings of the earth and all you nations,

you princes and all you leaders ⁷  on the earth,

Psalms 44:2

44:2 You, by your power, ⁸  defeated nations and settled our fathers on their land; ⁹ 

you crushed ¹⁰  the people living there ¹¹  and enabled our ancestors to occupy it. ¹² 

Psalms 67:4

67:4 Let foreigners ¹³  rejoice and celebrate!

For you execute justice among the nations,

and govern the people living on earth. ¹⁴  (Selah)

[7:7]  ¹ tn Heb “and the assembly of the peoples surrounds you.” Some understand the prefixed verbal form as a jussive, “may the assembly of the peoples surround you.”

[7:7]  ² tn Heb “over it (the feminine suffix refers back to the feminine noun “assembly” in the preceding line) on high return.” Some emend שׁוּבָה (shuvah, “return”) to שֵׁבָה (shevah, “sit [in judgment]”) because they find the implication of “return” problematic. But the psalmist does not mean to imply that God has abandoned his royal throne and needs to regain it. Rather he simply urges God, as sovereign king of the world, to once more occupy his royal seat of judgment and execute judgment, as the OT pictures God doing periodically.

[9:8]  ³ tn Heb “the peoples.” The imperfect verbal forms in v. 8 either describe God’s typical, characteristic behavior, or anticipate a future judgment of worldwide proportions (“will judge…”).

[65:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “the roar of the seas.”

[65:7]  ⁶ sn The raging seas…the commotion made by the nations. The raging seas symbolize the turbulent nations of the earth (see Ps 46:2-3, 6; Isa 17:12).

[105:44]  ⁷ tn Heb “and the [product of the] work of peoples they possessed.”

[148:11]  ⁹ tn Or “judges.”

[44:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “you, your hand.”

[44:2]  ¹² tn Heb “dispossessed nations and planted them.” The third masculine plural pronoun “them” refers to the fathers (v. 1). See Ps 80:8, 15.

[44:2]  ¹³ tn The verb form in the Hebrew text is a Hiphil preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive) from רָעַע (ra’a’, “be evil; be bad”). If retained it apparently means, “you injured; harmed.” Some prefer to derive the verb from רָעַע (“break”; cf. NEB “breaking up the peoples”), in which case the form must be revocalized as Qal (since this verb is unattested in the Hiphil).

[44:2]  ¹⁴ tn Or “peoples.”

[44:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and you sent them out.” The translation assumes that the third masculine plural pronoun “them” refers to the fathers (v. 1), as in the preceding parallel line. See Ps 80:11, where Israel, likened to a vine, “spreads out” its tendrils to the west and east. Another option is to take the “peoples” as the referent of the pronoun and translate, “and you sent them away,” though this does not provide as tight a parallel with the corresponding line.

[67:4]  ¹³ tn Or “peoples.”

[67:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “for you judge nations fairly, and [as for the] peoples in the earth, you lead them.” The imperfects are translated with the present tense because the statement is understood as a generalization about God’s providential control of the world. Another option is to understand the statement as anticipating God’s future rule (“for you will rule…and govern”).