Psalms 40:3

40:3 He gave me reason to sing a new song, 1 

praising our God. 2 

May many see what God has done,

so that they might swear allegiance to him and trust in the Lord! 3 

Psalms 50:1

Psalm 50 4 

A psalm by Asaph.

50:1 El, God, the Lord 5  speaks,

and summons the earth to come from the east and west. 6 

Psalms 63:11

63:11 But the king 7  will rejoice in God;

everyone who takes oaths in his name 8  will boast,

for the mouths of those who speak lies will be shut up. 9 

Psalms 70:1

Psalm 70 10 

For the music director; by David; written to get God’s attention. 11 

70:1 O God, please be willing to rescue me! 12 

O Lord, hurry and help me! 13 

Psalms 100:3

100:3 Acknowledge that the Lord is God!

He made us and we belong to him; 14 

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

1 sn A new song was appropriate because the Lord had intervened in the psalmist’s experience in a fresh and exciting way.

2 tn Heb “and he placed in my mouth a new song, praise to our God.”

3 tn Heb “may many see and fear and trust in the Lord.” The translation assumes that the initial prefixed verbal form is a jussive (“may many see”), rather than an imperfect (“many will see”). The following prefixed verbal forms with vav (ו) conjunctive are taken as indicating purpose or result (“so that they might swear allegiance…and trust”) after the introductory jussive.

4 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.

5 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 Lord”). There is an obvious allusion here to Josh 22:22, the only other passage where these three names appear in succession. In that passage the Reubenites, Gadites, and half-tribe of Manasseh declare, “El, God, the Lord! El, God, the Lord! He knows the truth! Israel must also know! If we have rebelled or disobeyed the Lord, don’t spare us today!” In that context the other tribes had accused the trans-Jordanian tribes of breaking God’s covenant by worshiping idols. The trans-Jordanian tribes appealed to “El, God, the Lord” as their witness that they were innocent of the charges brought against them. Ironically here in Ps 50 “El, God, the Lord” accuses his sinful covenant people of violating the covenant and warns that he will not spare them if they persist in their rebellion.

6 tn Heb “and calls [the] earth from the sunrise to its going.”

7 sn The psalmist probably refers to himself in the third person here.

8 tn Heb “who swears [an oath] by him.”

9 tn The Niphal of this verb occurs only here and in Gen 8:2, where it is used of God “stopping” or “damming up” the great deep as he brought the flood to an end.

10 sn Psalm 70. This psalm is almost identical to Ps 40:13-17. The psalmist asks for God’s help and for divine retribution against his enemies.

11 tn Heb “to cause to remember.” The same form, a Hiphil infinitive of זָכַר (zakhar, “remember”), also appears in the superscription of Ps 38. Some understand this in the sense of “for the memorial offering,” but it may carry the idea of bringing one’s plight to God’s attention (see P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 303).

12 tn Heb “O God, to rescue me.” A main verb is obviously missing. The verb רָצָה (ratsah, “be willing”) should be supplied (see Ps 40:13). Ps 40:13 uses the divine name “Lord” rather than “God.”

13 tn Heb “hurry to my help.” See Pss 22:19; 38:22.

14 tn The present translation (like most modern translations) follows the Qere (marginal reading), which reads literally, “and to him [are] we.” The Kethib (consonantal text) has “and not we.” The suffixed preposition לו (“to him”) was confused aurally with the negative particle לא because the two sound identical.