34:11 Come children! Listen to me!
I will teach you what it means to fear the Lord. 1
40:7 Then I say,
“Look! I come!
What is written in the scroll pertains to me. 2
46:8 Come! Witness the exploits 3 of the Lord,
who brings devastation to the earth! 4
66:5 Come and witness 5 God’s exploits! 6
His acts on behalf of people are awesome! 7
68:29 as you come out of your temple in Jerusalem! 8
Kings bring tribute to you.
68:31 They come with red cloth 9 from Egypt,
Ethiopia 10 voluntarily offers tribute 11 to God.
69:18 Come near me and redeem me! 12
Because of my enemies, rescue me!
75:6 For victory does not come from the east or west,
or from the wilderness. 13
80:2 In the sight of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh reveal 14 your power!
Come and deliver us! 15
91:10 No harm will overtake 16 you;
no illness 17 will come near your home. 18
102:27 But you remain; 19
your years do not come to an end.
A song of ascents. 21
121:1 I look up 22 toward the hills.
From where 23 does my help come?
144:5 O Lord, make the sky sink 24 and come down! 25
Touch the mountains and make them smolder! 26
146:10 The Lord rules forever,
your God, O Zion, throughout the generations to come! 27
Praise the Lord!
1 tn Heb “the fear of the
2 tn Heb “in the roll of the scroll it is written concerning me.” Apparently the psalmist refers to the law of God (see v. 8), which contains the commandments God desires him to obey. If this is a distinctly royal psalm, then the psalmist/king may be referring specifically to the regulations of kingship prescribed in Deut 17:14-20. See P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (WBC), 315.
3 sn In this context the Lord’s exploits are military in nature (see vv. 8b-9).
4 tn Heb “who sets desolations in the earth” (see Isa 13:9). The active participle describes God’s characteristic activity as a warrior.
5 tn Or “see.”
6 tn Or “acts” (see Ps 46:8).
7 tn Heb “awesome [is] an act toward the sons of man.” It is unclear how the prepositional phrase relates to what precedes. If collocated with “act,” it may mean “on behalf of” or “toward.” If taken with “awesome” (see 1 Chr 16:25; Pss 89:7; 96:4; Zeph 2:11), one might translate “his awesome acts are beyond human comprehension” or “his awesome acts are superior to anything men can do.”
8 tn Heb “Be strong, O God, [you] who have acted for us, from your temple in Jerusalem.”
map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
9 tn This noun, which occurs only here in the OT, apparently means “red cloth” or “bronze articles” (see HALOT 362 s.v. חַשְׁמַן; cf. NEB “tribute”). Traditionally the word has been taken to refer to “nobles” (see BDB 365 s.v. חַשְׁמַן; cf. NIV “envoys”). Another option would be to emend the text to הַשְׁמַנִּים (hashmannim, “the robust ones,” i.e., leaders).
10 tn Heb “Cush.”
11 tn Heb “causes its hands to run,” which must mean “quickly stretches out its hands” (to present tribute).
12 tn Heb “come near my life and redeem it.” The verb “redeem” casts the
13 tn Heb “for not from the east or from the west, and not from the wilderness of the mountains.” If one follows this reading the sentence is elliptical. One must supply “does help come,” or some comparable statement. However, it is possible to take הָרִים (harim) as a Hiphil infinitive from רוּם (rum), the same verb used in vv. 4-5 of “lifting up” a horn. In this case one may translate the form as “victory.” In this case the point is that victory does not come from alliances with other nations.
14 tn Heb “stir up”; “arouse.”
15 tn Heb “come for our deliverance.”
16 tn Or “confront.”
17 tn For this sense of the Hebrew term נגע see Ps 38:11.
18 tn Heb “your tent.”
19 tn Heb “you [are] he,” or “you [are] the one.” The statement may echo the
20 sn Psalm 121. The psalm affirms that the Lord protects his people Israel. Unless the psalmist addresses an observer (note the second person singular forms in vv. 3-8), it appears there are two or three speakers represented in the psalm, depending on how one takes v. 3. The translation assumes that speaker one talks in vv. 1-2, that speaker two responds to him with a prayer in v. 3 (this assumes the verbs are true jussives of prayer), and that speaker three responds with words of assurance in vv. 4-8. If the verbs in v. 3 are taken as a rhetorical use of the jussive, then there are two speakers. Verses 3-8 are speaker two’s response to the words of speaker one. See the note on the word “sleep” at the end of v. 3.
21 sn The precise significance of this title, which appears in Pss 120-134, is unclear. Perhaps worshipers recited these psalms when they ascended the road to Jerusalem to celebrate annual religious festivals. For a discussion of their background see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 219-21.
22 tn Heb “I lift my eyes.”
23 tn The Hebrew term מֵאַיִן (me’ayin) is interrogative, not relative, in function. Rather than directly stating that his source of help descends from the hills, the psalmist is asking, “From where does my help come?” Nevertheless, the first line does indicate that he is looking toward the hills for help, probably indicating that he is looking up toward the sky in anticipation of supernatural intervention. The psalmist assumes the dramatic role of one needing help. He answers his own question in v. 2.
24 tn The Hebrew verb נָטָה (natah) can carry the sense “to [cause to] bend; to [cause to] bow down.” For example, Gen 49:15 pictures Issachar as a donkey that “bends” its shoulder or back under a burden. Here the
25 tn Heb “so you might come down.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose after the preceding imperative. The same type of construction is utilized in v. 6.
26 tn Heb “so they might smolder.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose after the preceding imperative.
27 tn Heb “for a generation and a generation.”