32:3 When I refused to confess my sin, 1
my whole body wasted away, 2
while I groaned in pain all day long.
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 3 I will praise you while I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands. 4
80:4 O Lord God, invincible warrior! 5
How long will you remain angry at your people while they pray to you? 6
82:5 They 7 neither know nor understand.
They stumble 8 around in the dark,
while all the foundations of the earth crumble. 9
1 tn Heb “when I was silent.”
2 tn Heb “my bones became brittle.” The psalmist pictures himself as aging and growing physically weak. Trying to cover up his sin brought severe physical consequences.
3 tn Or perhaps “then.”
4 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).
5 tn Heb “
6 tn Heb “How long will you remain angry during the prayer of your people.” Some take the preposition -בְּ (bet) in an adversative sense here (“at/against the prayer of your people”), but the temporal sense is preferable. The psalmist expects persistent prayer to pacify God.
7 sn Having addressed the defendants, God now speaks to those who are observing the trial, referring to the gods in the third person.
8 tn Heb “walk.” The Hitpael stem indicates iterative action, picturing these ignorant “judges” as stumbling around in the darkness.
9 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).