3:2 Many say about me,
“God will not deliver him.” 1 (Selah) 2
18:36 You widen my path; 3
my feet 4 do not slip.
105:28 He made it dark; 5
they did not disobey his orders. 6
119:8 I will keep your statutes.
Do not completely abandon me! 7
121:4 Look! Israel’s protector 8
does not sleep or slumber!
1 tn Heb “there is no deliverance for him in God.”
2 sn The function of the Hebrew term סֶלָה (selah), transliterated here “Selah,” is uncertain. It may be a musical direction of some kind.
3 tn Heb “you make wide my step under me.” “Step” probably refers metonymically to the path upon which the psalmist walks. Another option is to translate, “you widen my stride.” This would suggest that God gives the psalmist the capacity to run quickly.
4 tn Heb “lower legs.” On the meaning of the Hebrew noun, which occurs only here, see H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena (SBLDS), 112. A cognate Akkadian noun means “lower leg.”
5 tn Heb “he sent darkness and made it dark.”
sn He made it dark. The psalmist begins with the ninth plague (see Exod 10:21-29).
6 tn Heb “they did not rebel against his words.” Apparently this refers to Moses and Aaron, who obediently carried out God’s orders.
7 tn Heb “do not abandon me to excess.” For other uses of the phrase עַד מְאֹד (’ad mÿ’od, “to excess”), see Ps 38:6, 8.
8 tn Heb “the one who guards Israel.”