18:3 I called 1 to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, 2
and I was delivered from my enemies.
22:22 I will declare your name to my countrymen! 3
In the middle of the assembly I will praise you!
22:26 Let the oppressed eat and be filled! 4
Let those who seek his help praise the Lord!
May you 5 live forever!
31:21 The Lord deserves praise 6
for he demonstrated his amazing faithfulness to me when I was besieged by enemies. 7
35:18 Then I will give you thanks in the great assembly; 8
I will praise you before a large crowd of people! 9
49:18 He pronounces this blessing on himself while he is alive:
“May men praise you, for you have done well!”
63:4 For this reason 10 I will praise you while I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands. 11
68:19 The Lord deserves praise! 12
Day after day 13 he carries our burden,
the God who delivers us. (Selah)
69:34 Let the heavens and the earth praise him,
along with the seas and everything that swims in them!
71:6 I have leaned on you since birth; 14
you pulled me 15 from my mother’s womb.
I praise you continually. 16
71:23 My lips will shout for joy! Yes, 17 I will sing your praises!
I will praise you when you rescue me! 18
72:19 His glorious name deserves praise 19 forevermore!
May his majestic splendor 20 fill the whole earth!
We agree! We agree! 21
74:21 Do not let the afflicted be turned back in shame!
Let the oppressed and poor praise your name! 22
76:10 Certainly 23 your angry judgment upon men will bring you praise; 24
you reveal your anger in full measure. 25
89:5 O Lord, the heavens 26 praise your amazing deeds,
as well as your faithfulness in the angelic assembly. 27
96:4 For the Lord is great and certainly worthy of praise;
he is more awesome than all gods. 28
99:9 Praise 29 the Lord our God!
Worship on his holy hill,
for the Lord our God is holy!
102:18 The account of his intervention 30 will be recorded for future generations;
people yet to be born will praise the Lord.
103:20 Praise the Lord, you angels of his,
you powerful warriors who carry out his decrees
and obey his orders! 31
103:21 Praise the Lord, all you warriors of his, 32
you servants of his who carry out his desires! 33
104:1 Praise the Lord, O my soul!
O Lord my God, you are magnificent. 35
You are robed in splendor and majesty.
106:1 Praise the Lord!
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
and his loyal love endures! 37
For the music director, a psalm of David.
109:1 O God whom I praise, do not ignore me! 39
112:1 Praise the Lord!
How blessed is the one 41 who obeys 42 the Lord,
who takes great delight in keeping his commands. 43
115:17 The dead do not praise the Lord,
nor do any of those who descend into the silence of death. 44
116:19 in the courts of the Lord’s temple,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord!
117:2 For his loyal love towers 45 over us,
and the Lord’s faithfulness endures.
Praise the Lord!
118:28 You are my 46 God and I will give you thanks!
You are my God and I will praise you!
135:3 Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good!
Sing praises to his name, for it is pleasant! 47
147:20 He has not done so with any other nation;
they are not aware of his regulations.
Praise the Lord!
148:5 Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for he gave the command and they came into existence.
1 tn In this song of thanksgiving, where the psalmist recalls how the Lord delivered him, the prefixed verbal form is best understood as a preterite indicating past tense, not an imperfect.
2 tn Heb “worthy of praise, I cried out [to] the
3 tn Or “brothers,” but here the term does not carry a literal familial sense. It refers to the psalmist’s fellow members of the Israelite covenant community (see v. 23).
4 sn Eat and be filled. In addition to praising the Lord, the psalmist also offers a thank offering to the Lord and invites others to share in a communal meal.
5 tn Heb “may your heart[s].”
6 tn Heb “blessed [be] the
7 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
8 sn The great assembly is also mentioned in Ps 22:25.
9 tn Heb “among numerous people.”
10 tn Or perhaps “then.”
11 sn I will lift up my hands. Lifting up one’s hands toward God was a gesture of prayer (see Ps 28:2; Lam 2:19) or respect (Ps 119:48).
12 tn Heb “blessed [be] the Lord.”
13 tn It is possible to take this phrase with what precedes (“The Lord deserves praise day after day”) rather than with what follows.
14 tn Heb “from the womb.”
15 tc The form in the MT is derived from גָזָה (gazah, “to cut off”), perhaps picturing God as the one who severed the psalmist’s umbilical cord. Many interpreters and translators prefer to emend the text to גֹחִי (gokhiy), from גוּח (gukh) or גִיח, (gikh, “pull out”; see Ps 22:9; cf. the present translation) or to עוּזִּי (’uzziy, “my strength”; cf. NEB “my protector since I left my mother’s womb”).
16 tn Heb “in you [is] my praise continually.”
17 tn Or “when.” The translation assumes that כִּי (ki) has an emphasizing (asseverative) function here.
18 tn Heb “and my life [or “soul”] which you will have redeemed.” The perfect verbal form functions here as a future perfect. The psalmist anticipates praising God, for God will have rescued him by that time.
19 tn Heb “[be] blessed.”
20 tn Or “glory.”
21 tn Heb “surely and surely” (אָמֵן וְאָמֵן [’amen vÿ’amen], i.e., “Amen and amen”). This is probably a congregational response of agreement to the immediately preceding statement about the propriety of praising God.
22 sn Let the oppressed and poor praise your name! The statement is metonymic. The point is this: May the oppressed be delivered from their enemies! Then they will have ample reason to praise God’s name.
23 tn Or “for.”
24 tn Heb “the anger of men will praise you.” This could mean that men’s anger (subjective genitive), when punished by God, will bring him praise, but this interpretation does not harmonize well with the next line. The translation assumes that God’s anger is in view here (see v. 7) and that “men” is an objective genitive. God’s angry judgment against men brings him praise because it reveals his power and majesty (see vv. 1-4).
25 tn Heb “the rest of anger you put on.” The meaning of the statement is not entirely clear. Perhaps the idea is that God, as he prepares for battle, girds himself with every last ounce of his anger, as if it were a weapon.
26 tn As the following context makes clear, the personified “heavens” here stand by metonymy for the angelic beings that surround God’s heavenly throne.
27 tn Heb “in the assembly of the holy ones.” The phrase “holy ones” sometimes refers to God’s people (Ps 34:9) or to their priestly leaders (2 Chr 35:3), but here it refers to God’s heavenly assembly and the angels that surround his throne (see vv. 6-7).
28 tn Or perhaps “and feared by all gods.” See Ps 89:7.
29 tn Or “exalt.”
30 tn The Hebrew text has simply “this,” referring to the anticipated divine intervention on behalf of Zion (vv. 13, 16-17). The referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.
31 tn Heb “[you] mighty ones of strength, doers of his word, by listening to the voice of his word.”
32 tn Heb “all his hosts.”
33 tn Heb “his attendants, doers of his desire.”
34 sn Psalm 104. The psalmist praises God as the ruler of the world who sustains all life.
35 tn Heb “very great.”
36 sn Psalm 106. The psalmist recalls Israel’s long history of rebellion against God, despite his mighty saving deeds on their behalf.
37 tn Heb “for forever [is] his loyal love.”
38 sn Psalm 109. Appealing to God’s justice, the psalmist asks God to vindicate him and to bring severe judgment down upon his enemies.
39 tn Heb “do not be deaf.”
40 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.
41 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.
42 tn Heb “fears.”
43 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.
44 tn Heb “silence,” a metonymy here for death (see Ps 94:17).
45 tn For this sense of the Hebrew verb גָּבַר (gavar), see Ps 103:11 and L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 17, 19.
46 sn You are my God. The psalmist speaks again (see v. 21), responding to the words of the worshipers (vv. 22-27).
47 tn Heb “for [it is] pleasant.” The translation assumes that it is the