2:2 The kings of the earth 1 form a united front; 2
the rulers collaborate 3
against the Lord and his anointed king. 4
18:7 The earth heaved and shook; 5
the roots of the mountains 6 trembled; 7
they heaved because he was angry.
22:27 Let all the people of the earth acknowledge the Lord and turn to him! 8
Let all the nations 9 worship you! 10
33:8 Let the whole earth fear 11 the Lord!
Let all who live in the world stand in awe of him!
47:2 For the sovereign Lord 12 is awe-inspiring; 13
he is the great king who rules the whole earth! 14
A psalm by Asaph.
50:1 El, God, the Lord 16 speaks,
and summons the earth to come from the east and west. 17
50:4 He summons the heavens above,
as well as the earth, so that he might judge his people. 18
60:2 You made the earth quake; you split it open. 19
Repair its breaches, for it is ready to fall. 20
66:4 All the earth worships 21 you
and sings praises to you!
They sing praises to your name!” (Selah)
67:2 Then those living on earth will know what you are like;
all nations will know how you deliver your people. 22
67:4 Let foreigners 23 rejoice and celebrate!
For you execute justice among the nations,
and govern the people living on earth. 24 (Selah)
67:7 May God bless us! 25
Then all the ends of the earth will give him the honor he deserves. 26
69:34 Let the heavens and the earth praise him,
along with the seas and everything that swims in them!
72:8 May he rule 27 from sea to sea, 28
and from the Euphrates River 29 to the ends of the earth!
72:19 His glorious name deserves praise 30 forevermore!
May his majestic splendor 31 fill the whole earth!
We agree! We agree! 32
74:17 You set up all the boundaries 33 of the earth;
you created the cycle of summer and winter. 34
74:20 Remember your covenant promises, 35
for the dark regions of the earth are full of places where violence rules. 36
77:18 Your thunderous voice was heard in the wind;
the lightning bolts lit up the world;
the earth trembled and shook. 37
78:69 He made his sanctuary as enduring as the heavens above; 38
as secure as the earth, which he established permanently. 39
82:5 They 40 neither know nor understand.
They stumble 41 around in the dark,
while all the foundations of the earth crumble. 42
83:18 Then they will know 43 that you alone are the Lord, 44
the sovereign king 45 over all the earth.
89:11 The heavens belong to you, as does the earth.
You made the world and all it contains. 46
89:27 I will appoint him to be my firstborn son, 47
the most exalted of the earth’s kings.
96:11 Let the sky rejoice, and the earth be happy!
Let the sea and everything in it shout!
97:9 For you, O Lord, are the sovereign king 48 over the whole earth;
you are elevated high above all gods.
98:4 Shout out praises to the Lord, all the earth!
Break out in a joyful shout and sing!
102:15 The nations will respect the reputation of the Lord, 49
and all the kings of the earth will respect 50 his splendor,
102:19 For he will look down from his sanctuary above; 51
from heaven the Lord will look toward earth, 52
103:11 For as the skies are high above the earth,
so his loyal love towers 53 over his faithful followers. 54
104:32 He looks down on the earth and it shakes;
he touches the mountains and they start to smolder.
104:35 May sinners disappear 55 from the earth,
and the wicked vanish!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
Praise the Lord!
109:15 May the Lord be constantly aware of them, 56
and cut off the memory of his children 57 from the earth!
135:6 He does whatever he pleases
in heaven and on earth,
in the seas and all the ocean depths.
138:4 Let all the kings of the earth give thanks 58 to you, O Lord,
when they hear the words you speak. 59
140:11 A slanderer 60 will not endure on 61 the earth;
calamity will hunt down a violent man and strike him down. 62
146:6 the one who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who remains forever faithful, 63
147:8 He covers 64 the sky with clouds,
provides the earth with rain,
and causes grass to grow on the hillsides. 65
1 sn The expression kings of the earth refers somewhat hyperbolically to the kings who had been conquered by and were subject to the Davidic king.
2 tn Or “take their stand.” The Hebrew imperfect verbal form describes their action as underway.
3 tn Or “conspire together.” The verbal form is a Niphal from יָסַד (yasad). BDB 413-14 s.v. יָסַד defines the verb as “establish, found,” but HALOT 417 s.v. II יסד proposes a homonym meaning “get together, conspire” (an alternate form of סוּד, sud).
4 tn Heb “and against his anointed one.” The Davidic king is the referent (see vv. 6-7).
5 sn The earth heaved and shook. The imagery pictures an earthquake in which the earth’s surface rises and falls. The earthquake motif is common in OT theophanies of God as warrior and in ancient Near Eastern literary descriptions of warring gods and kings. See R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 160-62.
6 tn 2 Sam 22:8 has “heavens” which forms a merism with “earth” in the preceding line. The “foundations of the heavens” would be the mountains. However, the reading “foundations of the mountains” has a parallel in Deut 32:22.
7 tn In this poetic narrative context the prefixed verbal form is best understood as a preterite indicating past tense, not an imperfect. Note the three prefixed verbal forms with vav (ו) consecutive in the verse.
8 tn Heb “may all the ends of the earth remember and turn to the
9 tn Heb “families of the nations.”
10 tn Heb “before you.”
11 tn In this context “fear” probably means “to demonstrate respect for the
12 tn Heb “the
13 tn Or “awesome.” The Niphal participle נוֹרָא (nora’), when used of God in the psalms, focuses on the effect that his royal splendor and powerful deeds have on those witnessing his acts (Pss 66:3, 5; 68:35; 76:7, 12; 89:7; 96:4; 99:3; 111:9). Here it refers to his capacity to fill his defeated foes with terror and his people with fearful respect.
14 tn Heb “a great king over all the earth.”
15 sn Psalm 50. This psalm takes the form of a covenant lawsuit in which the Lord comes to confront his people in a formal manner (as in Isa 1:2-20). The Lord emphasizes that he places priority on obedience and genuine worship, not empty ritual.
16 sn Israel’s God is here identified with three names: El (אֵל [’el], or “God”), Elohim (אֱלֹהִים [’elohim], or “God”), and Yahweh (יְהוָה [yÿhvah] or “the
17 tn Heb “and calls [the] earth from the sunrise to its going.”
18 tn Or perhaps “to testify against his people.”
sn The personified heavens and earth (see v. 1 as well) are summoned to God’s courtroom as witnesses against God’s covenant people (see Isa 1:2). Long before this Moses warned the people that the heavens and earth would be watching their actions (see Deut 4:26; 30:19; 31:28; 32:1).
19 tn The verb פָּצַם (patsam, “split open”) occurs only here in the OT. An Arabic cognate means “crack,” and an Aramaic cognate is used in Tg. Jer 22:14 with the meaning “break open, frame.” See BDB 822 s.v. and Jastrow 1205 s.v. פְּצַם.
sn You made the earth quake; you split it open. The psalmist uses the imagery of an earthquake to describe the nation’s defeat.
20 sn It is ready to fall. The earth is compared to a wall that has been broken by the force of the earthquake (note the preceding line) and is ready to collapse.
21 tn Or “bows down to.” The prefixed verbal forms in v. 4 are taken (1) as imperfects expressing what is typical. Another option (2) is to interpret them as anticipatory (“all the earth will worship you”) or (3) take them as jussives, expressing a prayer or wish (“may all the earth worship you”).
22 tn Heb “to know in the earth your way, among all nations your deliverance.” The infinitive with -לְ (lamed) expresses purpose/result. When God demonstrates his favor to his people, all nations will recognize his character as a God who delivers. The Hebrew term דֶּרֶךְ (derekh, “way”) refers here to God’s characteristic behavior, more specifically, to the way he typically saves his people.
23 tn Or “peoples.”
24 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”).
25 tn The prefixed verb forms in vv. 6b-7a are understood as jussives.
26 tn Heb “will fear him.” After the jussive of the preceding line, the prefixed verbal form with prefixed vav (ו) conjunctive is understood as indicating purpose/result. (Note how v. 3 anticipates the universal impact of God showing his people blessing.) Another option is to take the verb as a jussive and translate, “Let all the ends of the earth fear him.”
27 tn The prefixed verbal form is a (shortened) jussive form, indicating this is a prayer of blessing.
28 sn From sea to sea. This may mean from the Mediterranean Sea in the west to the Dead Sea in the east. See Amos 8:12. The language of this and the following line also appears in Zech 9:10.
29 tn Heb “the river,” a reference to the Euphrates.
30 tn Heb “[be] blessed.”
31 tn Or “glory.”
32 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.
33 tn This would appear to refer to geographical boundaries, such as mountains, rivers, and seacoasts. However, since the day-night cycle has just been mentioned (v. 16) and the next line speaks of the seasons, it is possible that “boundaries” here refers to the divisions of the seasons. See C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs, Psalms (ICC), 2:156.
34 tn Heb “summer and winter, you, you formed them.”
35 tc Heb “look at the covenant.” The LXX reads “your covenant,” which seems to assume a second person pronominal suffix. The suffix may have been accidentally omitted by haplography. Note that the following word (כִּי) begins with kaf (כ).
36 tn Heb “for the dark places of the earth are full of dwelling places of violence.” The “dark regions” are probably the lands where the people have been exiled (see C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs, Psalms [ICC], 2:157). In some contexts “dark regions” refers to Sheol (Ps 88:6) or to hiding places likened to Sheol (Ps 143:3; Lam 3:6).
37 tn The prefixed verbal form may be taken as a preterite or as an imperfect with past progressive force.
sn Verses 16-18 depict the
38 tc Heb “and he built like the exalting [ones] his sanctuary.” The phrase כְּמוֹ־רָמִים (kÿmo-ramim, “like the exalting [ones]”) is a poetic form of the comparative preposition followed by a participial form of the verb רוּם (rum, “be exalted”). The text should be emended to כִּמְרֹמִים (kimromim, “like the [heavenly] heights”). See Ps 148:1, where “heights” refers to the heavens above.
39 tn Heb “like the earth, [which] he established permanently.” The feminine singular suffix on the Hebrew verb יָסַד (yasad, “to establish”) refers to the grammatically feminine noun “earth.”
40 sn Having addressed the defendants, God now speaks to those who are observing the trial, referring to the gods in the third person.
41 tn Heb “walk.” The Hitpael stem indicates iterative action, picturing these ignorant “judges” as stumbling around in the darkness.
42 sn These gods, though responsible for justice, neglect their duty. Their self-imposed ignorance (which the psalmist compares to stumbling around in the dark) results in widespread injustice, which threatens the social order of the world (the meaning of the phrase all the foundations of the earth crumble).
43 tn After the preceding jussives (v. 17), the prefixed verbal form with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose (“so that they may know”) or result.
44 tn Heb “that you, your name [is] the
45 tn Traditionally “the Most High.”
46 tn Heb “the world and its fullness, you established them.”
47 sn The firstborn son typically had special status and received special privileges.
48 tn Traditionally “Most High.”
49 tn Heb “will fear the name of the
50 tn The verb “will fear” is understood by ellipsis in the second line (see the preceding line).
51 tn Heb “from the height of his sanctuary.”
52 tn The perfect verbal forms in v. 19 are functioning as future perfects, indicating future actions that will precede the future developments described in v. 18.
53 tn For this sense of the verb גָבַר (gavar), see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 17, 19.
54 tn Heb “those who fear him.”
55 tn Or “be destroyed.”
56 tn Heb “may they [that is, the sins mentioned in v. 14] be before the
57 tn Heb “their memory.” The plural pronominal suffix probably refers back to the children mentioned in v. 13, and for clarity this has been specified in the translation.
58 tn The prefixed verbal forms here and in the following verse are understood as jussives, for the psalmist appears to be calling upon the kings to praise God. Another option is to take them as imperfects and translate, “the kings of the earth will give thanks…and will sing.” In this case the psalmist anticipates a universal response to his thanksgiving song.
59 tn Heb “the words of your mouth.”
60 tn Heb “a man of a tongue.”
61 tn Heb “be established in.”
62 tn Heb “for blows.” The Hebrew noun מַדְחֵפֹה (madkhefoh, “blow”) occurs only here in the OT.
63 tn Heb “the one who guards faithfulness forever.”
64 tn Heb “the one who covers.”
65 tn Heb “hills.”