3:7 Rise up, 1 Lord!
Deliver me, my God!
Yes, 2 you will strike 3 all my enemies on the jaw;
you will break the teeth 4 of the wicked. 5
19:4 Yet its voice 6 echoes 7 throughout the earth;
its 8 words carry 9 to the distant horizon. 10
In the sky 11 he has pitched a tent for the sun. 12
22:14 My strength drains away like water; 13
all my bones are dislocated;
my heart 14 is like wax;
it melts away inside me.
25:5 Guide me into your truth 15 and teach me.
For you are the God who delivers me;
on you I rely all day long.
31:11 Because of all my enemies, people disdain me; 16
my neighbors are appalled by my suffering 17 –
those who know me are horrified by my condition; 18
those who see me in the street run away from me.
Written by David, when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, causing the king to send him away. 20
34:1 I will praise 21 the Lord at all times;
my mouth will continually praise him. 22
38:12 Those who seek my life try to entrap me; 23
those who want to harm me speak destructive words;
all day long they say deceitful things.
65:5 You answer our prayers by performing awesome acts of deliverance,
O God, our savior. 24
All the ends of the earth trust in you, 25
as well as those living across the wide seas. 26
71:15 I will tell about your justice,
and all day long proclaim your salvation, 27
though I cannot fathom its full extent. 28
73:28 But as for me, God’s presence is all I need. 29
I have made the sovereign Lord my shelter,
as 30 I declare all the things you have done.
80:12 Why did you break down its walls, 31
so that all who pass by pluck its fruit? 32
Book 4
(Psalms 90-106)
A prayer of Moses, the man of God.
90:1 O Lord, you have been our protector 34 through all generations!
90:14 Satisfy us in the morning 35 with your loyal love!
Then we will shout for joy and be happy 36 all our days!
102:8 All day long my enemies taunt me;
those who mock me use my name in their curses. 37
111:10 To obey the Lord is the fundamental principle for wise living; 38
all who carry out his precepts acquire good moral insight. 39
He will receive praise forever. 40
1 tn In v. 2 the psalmist describes his enemies as those who “confront” him (קָמִים [qamim], literally, “rise up against him”). Now, using the same verbal root (קוּם, qum) he asks the
2 tn Elsewhere in the psalms the particle כִּי (ki), when collocated with a perfect verbal form and subordinated to a preceding imperative directed to God, almost always has an explanatory or causal force (“for, because”) and introduces a motivating argument for why God should respond positively to the request (see Pss 5:10; 6:2; 12:1; 16:1; 41:4; 55:9; 56:1; 57:1; 60:2; 69:1; 74:20; 119:94; 123:3; 142:6; 143:8). (On three occasions the כִּי is recitative after a verb of perception [“see/know that,” see Pss 4:3; 25:19; 119:159]). If כִּי is taken as explanatory here, then the psalmist is arguing that God should deliver him now because that is what God characteristically does. However, such a motivating argument is not used in the passages cited above. The motivating argument usually focuses on the nature of the psalmist’s dilemma or the fact that he trusts in the Lord. For this reason it is unlikely that כִּי has its normal force here. Most scholars understand the particle כִּי as having an asseverative (emphasizing) function here (“indeed, yes”; NEB leaves the particle untranslated).
3 tn If the particle כִּי (ki) is taken as explanatory, then the perfect verbal forms in v. 7b would describe God’s characteristic behavior. However, as pointed out in the preceding note on the word “yes,” the particle probably has an asseverative force here. If so, the perfects may be taken as indicating rhetorically the psalmist’s certitude and confidence that God will intervene. The psalmist is so confident of God’s positive response to his prayer, he can describe God’s assault on his enemies as if it had already happened. Such confidence is consistent with the mood of the psalm, as expressed before (vv. 3-6) and after this (v. 8). Another option is to take the perfects as precative, expressing a wish or request (“Strike all my enemies on the jaw, break the teeth of the wicked”). See IBHS 494-95 §30.5.4c, d. However, not all grammarians are convinced that the perfect is used as a precative in biblical Hebrew.
4 sn The expression break the teeth may envision violent hand-to hand combat, though it is possible that the enemies are pictured here as a dangerous animal (see Job 29:17).
5 tn In the psalms the Hebrew term רְשָׁעִים (rÿsha’im, “wicked”) describes people who are proud, practical atheists (Ps 10:2, 4, 11) who hate God’s commands, commit sinful deeds, speak lies and slander (Ps 50:16-20), and cheat others (Ps 37:21). They oppose God and his people.
6 tc The MT reads, “their measuring line” (קוּם, qum). The noun קַו (qav, “measuring line”) makes no sense in this context. The reading קוֹלָם (qolam, “their voice”) which is supported by the LXX, is preferable.
7 tn Heb “goes out,” or “proceeds forth.”
8 tn Heb “their” (see the note on the word “its” in v. 3).
9 tn The verb is supplied in the translation. The Hebrew text has no verb; יָצָא (yatsa’, “goes out”) is understood by ellipsis.
10 tn Heb “to the end of the world.”
11 tn Heb “in them” (i.e., the heavens).
12 sn He has pitched a tent for the sun. The personified sun emerges from this “tent” in order to make its daytime journey across the sky. So the “tent” must refer metaphorically to the place where the sun goes to rest during the night.
13 tn Heb “like water I am poured out.”
14 sn The heart is viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s strength and courage.
15 sn The
16 tn Heb “because of all my enemies I am a reproach.”
17 tc Heb “and to my neighbors, exceedingly.” If the MT is retained, then these words probably go with what precedes. However the syntactical awkwardness of the text suggests it is textually corrupt. P. C. Craigie (Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 258) suggests that the initial mem (מ) on מְאֹד (me’od, “exceedingly”) be understood as an enclitic mem (ם) which was originally suffixed to the preceding form and then later misinterpreted. The resulting form אֵד (’ed) can then be taken as a defectively written form of אֵיד (’ed, “calamity”). If one follows this emendation, then the text reads literally, “and to my neighbors [I am one who experiences] calamity.” The noun פַחַד (fakhad, “[object of] horror”) occurs in the next line; אֵיד and פַחַד appear in parallelism elsewhere (see Prov 1:26-27).
18 tn Heb “and [an object of ] horror to those known by me.”
19 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.
20 tn Heb “By David, when he changed his sense before Abimelech and he drove him away and he went.”
sn Pretended to be insane. The psalm heading appears to refer to the account in 1 Sam 21:10-15 which tells how David, fearful that King Achish of Gath might kill him, pretended to be insane in hopes that the king would simply send him away. The psalm heading names the king Abimelech, not Achish, suggesting that the tradition is confused on this point. However, perhaps “Abimelech” was a royal title, rather than a proper name. See P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (WBC), 278.
21 tn Heb “bless.”
22 tn Heb “continually [will] his praise [be] in my mouth.”
23 tn Heb “lay snares.”
24 tn Heb “[with] awesome acts in deliverance you answer us, O God of our salvation.”
25 tn Heb “a source of confidence [for] all the ends of the earth.”
sn All the ends of the earth trust in you. This idealistic portrayal of universal worship is typical hymnic hyperbole, though it does anticipate eschatological reality.
26 tc Heb “and [the] distant sea.” The plural adjective is problematic after the singular form “sea.” One could emend יָם (yam, “sea”) to יָמִים (yamim, “seas”), or emend the plural form רְחֹקִים (rÿkhoqim, “far”) to the singular רָחֹק (rakhoq). In this case the final mem (ם) could be treated as dittographic; note the mem on the beginning of the first word in v. 6.
27 tn Heb “my mouth declares your vindication, all the day your deliverance.”
28 tn Heb “though I do not know [the] numbers,” that is, the tally of God’s just and saving acts. HALOT 768 s.v. סְפֹרוֹת understands the plural noun to mean “the art of writing.”
29 tn Heb “but as for me, the nearness of God for me [is] good.”
30 tn The infinitive construct with -לְ (lÿ) is understood here as indicating an attendant circumstance. Another option is to take it as indicating purpose (“so that I might declare”) or result (“with the result that I declare”).
31 sn The protective walls of the metaphorical vineyard are in view here (see Isa 5:5).
32 tn Heb “pluck it.”
33 sn Psalm 90. In this communal lament the worship leader affirms that the eternal God and creator of the world has always been Israel’s protector. But God also causes men, who are as transient as grass, to die, and in his fierce anger he decimates his covenant community, whose brief lives are filled with suffering and end in weakness. The community asks for wisdom, the restoration of God’s favor, a fresh revelation of his power, and his blessing upon their labors.
34 tn Or “place of safety.” See Ps 71:3.
35 sn Morning is used metaphorically for a time of renewed joy after affliction (see Pss 30:5; 46:5; 49:14; 59:16; 143:8).
36 tn After the imperative (see the preceding line) the cohortatives with the prefixed conjunction indicate purpose/result.
37 tn Heb “by me they swear.” When the psalmist’s enemies call judgment down on others, they hold the psalmist up as a prime example of what they desire their enemies to become.
38 tn Heb “the beginning of wisdom [is] the fear of the
39 tn Heb “good sense [is] to all who do them.” The third masculine plural pronominal suffix must refer back to the “precepts” mentioned in v. 7. In the translation the referent has been specified for clarity. The phrase שֵׂכֶל טוֹב (shekhel tov) also occurs in Prov 3:4; 13:15 and 2 Chr 30:22.
40 tn Heb “his praise stands forever.”