Psalms 73:20

73:20 They are like a dream after one wakes up. ¹ 

O Lord, when you awake ²  you will despise them. ³ 

Psalms 48:8

48:8 We heard about God’s mighty deeds, now we have seen them, ⁴ 

in the city of the Lord, the invincible Warrior, ⁵ 

in the city of our God.

God makes it permanently secure. ⁶  (Selah)

Psalms 31:21

31:21 The Lord deserves praise ⁷ 

for he demonstrated his amazing faithfulness to me when I was besieged by enemies. ⁸ 

Psalms 48:1

Psalm 48 ⁹ 

A song, a psalm by the Korahites.

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

in the city of our God, ¹⁰  his holy hill.

Psalms 55:9

55:9 Confuse them, ¹¹  O Lord!

Frustrate their plans! ¹² 

For I see violence and conflict in the city.

[73:20]  ¹ tn Heb “like a dream from awakening.” They lack any real substance; their prosperity will last for only a brief time.

[73:20]  ² sn When you awake. The psalmist compares God’s inactivity to sleep and the time of God’s judgment to his awakening from sleep.

[73:20]  ³ tn Heb “you will despise their form.” The Hebrew term צֶלֶם (tselem, “form; image”) also suggests their short-lived nature. Rather than having real substance, they are like the mere images that populate one’s dreams. Note the similar use of the term in Ps 39:6.

[48:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “As we have heard, so we have seen.” The community had heard about God’s mighty deeds in the nation’s history. Having personally witnessed his saving power with their own eyes, they could now affirm that the tradition was not exaggerated or inaccurate.

[48:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “the Lord of hosts.” The title “Lord of hosts” here pictures the Lord as a mighty warrior-king who leads armies into battle (see Pss 24:10; 46:7, 11).

[48:8]  ⁶ tn Or “God makes it secure forever.” The imperfect highlights the characteristic nature of the generalizing statement.

[31:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “blessed [be] the Lord.”

[31:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “for he caused his faithfulness to be amazing to me in a besieged city.” The psalmist probably speaks figuratively here. He compares his crisis to being trapped in a besieged city, but the Lord answered his prayer for help. Verses 19-24 were apparently written after the Lord answered the prayer of vv. 1-18.

[48:1]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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).

[55:9]  ¹³ tn Traditionally בַּלַּע (bala’) has been taken to mean “swallow” in the sense of “devour” or “destroy” (cf. KJV), but this may be a homonym meaning “confuse” (see BDB 118 s.v. בַּלַּע; HALOT 135 s.v. III *בֶּלַע). “Their tongue” is the understood object of the verb (see the next line).

[55:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “split their tongue,” which apparently means “confuse their speech,” or, more paraphrastically, “frustrate the plans they devise with their tongues.”