5:11 But may all who take shelter 1 in you be happy! 2
May they continually 3 shout for joy! 4
Shelter them 5 so that those who are loyal to you 6 may rejoice! 7
18:30 The one true God acts in a faithful manner; 8
the Lord’s promise 9 is reliable; 10
he is a shield to all who take shelter 11 in him.
31:19 How great is your favor, 12
which you store up for your loyal followers! 13
In plain sight of everyone you bestow it on those who take shelter 14 in you. 15
59:4 Though I have done nothing wrong, 16 they are anxious to attack. 17
Spring into action and help me! Take notice of me! 18
70:2 May those who are trying to take my life
be embarrassed and ashamed! 19
May those who want to harm me
be turned back and ashamed! 20
73:12 Take a good look! This is what the wicked are like, 21
those who always have it so easy and get richer and richer. 22
89:50 Take note, O Lord, 23 of the way your servants are taunted, 24
and of how I must bear so many insults from people! 25
102:24 I say, “O my God, please do not take me away in the middle of my life! 26
You endure through all generations. 27
104:29 When you ignore them, they panic. 28
When you take away their life’s breath, they die
and return to dust.
107:43 Whoever is wise, let him take note of these things!
Let them consider the Lord’s acts of loyal love!
144:2 who loves me 29 and is my stronghold,
my refuge 30 and my deliverer,
my shield and the one in whom I take shelter,
who makes nations submit to me. 31
1 sn Take shelter. “Taking shelter” in the Lord is an idiom for seeking his protection. Seeking his protection presupposes and even demonstrates the subject’s loyalty to the Lord. In the psalms those who “take shelter” in the Lord are contrasted with the wicked and equated with those who love, fear and serve the Lord (Pss 5:11-12; 31:17-20; 34:21-22).
2 tn The prefixed verbal form is a jussive of wish or prayer. The psalmist calls on God to reward his faithful followers.
3 tn Or perhaps more hyperbolically, “forever.”
4 tn As in the preceding line, the prefixed verbal form is a jussive of wish or prayer.
5 tn Heb “put a cover over them.” The verb form is a Hiphil imperfect from סָכַךְ (sakhakh, “cover, shut off”). The imperfect expresses the psalmist’s wish or request.
6 tn Heb “the lovers of your name.” The phrase refers to those who are loyal to the Lord. See Pss 69:36; 119:132; Isa 56:6.
7 tn The vav (ו) with prefixed verbal form following the volitional “shelter them” indicates purpose or result (“so that those…may rejoice).
8 tn Heb “[As for] the God, his way is blameless.” The term הָאֵל (ha’el, “the God”) stands as a nominative (or genitive) absolute in apposition to the resumptive pronominal suffix on “way.” The prefixed article emphasizes his distinctiveness as the one true God (cf. Deut 33:26). God’s “way” in this context refers to his protective and salvific acts in fulfillment of his promise (see also Deut 32:4; Pss 67:2; 77:13 [note vv. 11-12, 14]; 103:7; 138:5; 145:17).
9 sn The
10 tn Heb “the word of the
11 sn Take shelter. See the note on the word “shelter” in v. 2.
12 tn Or “How abundant are your blessings!”
13 tn Heb “for those who fear you.”
14 tn “Taking shelter” in the
15 tn Heb “you work [your favor] for the ones seeking shelter in you before the sons of men.”
16 tn Heb “without sin.”
17 tn Heb “they run and they are determined.”
18 tn Heb “arise to meet me and see.” The Hebrew verb קָרָא (qara’, “to meet; to encounter”) here carries the nuance of “to help.”
19 tn Heb “may they be embarrassed and ashamed, the ones seeking my life.” Ps 40:14 has “together” after “ashamed,” and “to snatch it away” after “my life.”
20 tn The four prefixed verbal forms in this verse are understood as jussives. The psalmist is calling judgment down on his enemies.
sn See Ps 35:4 for a similar prayer.
21 tn Heb “Look, these [are] the wicked.”
22 tn Heb “the ones who are always at ease [who] increase wealth.”
23 tc Many medieval Hebrew
24 tn Heb “remember, O Lord, the taunt against your servants.” Many medieval Hebrew
25 tn Heb “my lifting up in my arms [or “against my chest”] all of the many, peoples.” The term רַבִּים (rabbim, “many”) makes no apparent sense here. For this reason some emend the text to רִבֵי (rivey, “attacks by”), a defectively written plural construct form of רִיב (riv, “dispute; quarrel”).
26 tn Heb “do not lift me up in the middle of my days.”
27 tn Heb “in a generation of generations [are] your years.”
28 tn Heb “you hide your face, they are terrified.”
29 tn Heb “my loyal love,” which is probably an abbreviated form of “the God of my loyal love” (see Ps 59:10, 17).
30 tn Or “my elevated place.”
31 tn Heb “the one who subdues nations beneath me.”