102:14 Indeed, 1 your servants take delight in her stones,
and feel compassion for 2 the dust of her ruins. 3
112:1 Praise the Lord!
How blessed is the one 5 who obeys 6 the Lord,
who takes great delight in keeping his commands. 7
147:11 The Lord takes delight in his faithful followers, 8
and in those who wait for his loyal love.
1 tn Or “for.”
2 tn The Poel of חָנַן (khanan) occurs only here and in Prov 14:21, where it refers to having compassion on the poor.
3 tn Heb “her dust,” probably referring to the dust of the city’s rubble.
4 sn Psalm 112. This wisdom psalm lists some of the benefits of living a godly life. The psalm is an acrostic. After the introductory call to praise, every poetic line (twenty-two in all) begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
5 tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man.” Hebrew wisdom literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The individual is representative of a larger group, called the “godly” in vv. 3-4. The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender specific “man” with the more neutral “one.” The generic masculine pronoun is used in the following verses.
6 tn Heb “fears.”
7 tn Heb “in his commands he delights very much.” The words “in keeping” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Taking delight in the law is metonymic here for obeying God’s moral will. See Ps 1:2.
8 tn Heb “those who fear him.”