Psalms 8:1

Psalm 8 ¹ 

For the music director, according to the gittith style; ²  a psalm of David.

8:1 O Lord, our Lord, ³ 

how magnificent ⁴  is your reputation ⁵  throughout the earth!

You reveal your majesty in the heavens above! ⁶ 

Psalms 34:1

Psalm 34 ⁷ 

Written by David, when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, causing the king to send him away. ⁸ 

34:1 I will praise ⁹  the Lord at all times;

my mouth will continually praise him. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 62:8

62:8 Trust in him at all times, you people!

Pour out your hearts before him! ¹¹ 

God is our shelter! (Selah)

[8:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 8. In this hymn to the sovereign creator, the psalmist praises God’s majesty and marvels that God has given mankind dominion over the created order.

[8:1]  ² tn The precise meaning of the Hebrew term הגתית is uncertain; it probably refers to a musical style or type of instrument.

[8:1]  ³ tn The plural form of the title emphasizes the Lord’s absolute sovereignty.

[8:1]  ⁴ tn Or “awesome”; or “majestic.”

[8:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “name,” which here stands metonymically for God’s reputation.

[8:1]  ⁶ tc Heb “which, give, your majesty on the heavens.” The verb form תְּנָה (tÿnah; an imperative?) is corrupt. The form should be emended to a second masculine singular perfect (נָתַתָּה, natatah) or imperfect (תִתֵן, titen) form. The introductory אֲשֶׁר (’asher, “which”) can be taken as a relative pronoun (“you who”) or as a causal conjunction (“because”). One may literally translate, “you who [or “because you”] place your majesty upon the heavens.” For other uses of the phrase “place majesty upon” see Num 27:20 and 1 Chr 29:25.

[34:1]  ⁷ sn Psalm 34. In this song of thanksgiving the psalmist praises God for delivering him from distress. He encourages others to be loyal to the Lord, tells them how to please God, and assures them that the Lord protects his servants. The psalm is an acrostic; vv. 1-21 begin with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. (Verse 6 begins with the letter he (ה) and v. 7 with the letter zayin (ז). The letter vav (ו), which comes between ה and ז, seems to be omitted, although it does appear at the beginning of v. 6b. The final verse of the psalm, which begins with the letter pe (פ), is outside the acrostic scheme.

[34:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “By David, when he changed his sense before Abimelech and he drove him away and he went.”

[34:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “bless.”

[34:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “continually [will] his praise [be] in my mouth.”

[62:8]  ¹³ tn To “pour out one’s heart” means to offer up to God intense, emotional lamentation and petitionary prayers (see Lam 2:19).