5:7 But as for me, 1 because of your great faithfulness I will enter your house; 2
I will bow down toward your holy temple as I worship you. 3
11:4 The Lord is in his holy temple; 4
the Lord’s throne is in heaven. 5
His eyes 6 watch; 7
his eyes 8 examine 9 all people. 10
28:2 Hear my plea for mercy when I cry out to you for help,
when I lift my hands 11 toward your holy temple! 12
29:9 The Lord’s shout bends 13 the large trees 14
and strips 15 the leaves from the forests. 16
Everyone in his temple says, “Majestic!” 17
A psalm of Asaph.
79:1 O God, foreigners 19 have invaded your chosen land; 20
they have polluted your holy temple
and turned Jerusalem 21 into a heap of ruins.
84:2 I desperately want to be 22
in the courts of the Lord’s temple. 23
My heart and my entire being 24 shout for joy
to the living God.
84:5 How blessed are those who 25 find their strength in you,
and long to travel the roads that lead to your temple! 26
118:19 Open for me the gates of the just king’s temple! 27
I will enter through them and give thanks to the Lord.
118:26 May the one who comes in the name of the Lord 28 be blessed!
We will pronounce blessings on you 29 in the Lord’s temple. 30
A song of ascents, 32 by David.
122:1 I was glad because 33 they said to me,
“We will go to the Lord’s temple.”
A song of ascents. 35
134:1 Attention! 36 Praise the Lord,
all you servants of the Lord,
who serve 37 in the Lord’s temple during the night.
1 sn But as for me. By placing the first person pronoun at the beginning of the verse, the psalmist highlights the contrast between the evildoers’ actions and destiny, outlined in the preceding verses, with his own.
2 sn I will enter your house. The psalmist is confident that God will accept him into his presence, in contrast to the evildoers (see v. 5).
3 tn Heb “in fear [of] you.” The Hebrew noun יִרְאָה (yir’ah, “fear”), when used of fearing God, is sometimes used metonymically for what it ideally produces: “worship, reverence, piety.”
4 tn Because of the royal imagery involved here, one could translate “lofty palace.” The
5 sn The
6 sn His eyes. The anthropomorphic language draws attention to God’s awareness of and interest in the situation on earth. Though the enemies are hidden by the darkness (v. 2), the Lord sees all.
7 tn The two Hebrew imperfect verbal forms in this verse describe the
8 tn Heb “eyelids.”
9 tn For other uses of the verb in this sense, see Job 7:18; Pss 7:9; 26:2; 139:23.
10 tn Heb “test the sons of men.”
11 sn I lift my hands. Lifting one’s hands toward God was a gesture of prayer.
12 tn The Hebrew term דְּבִיר (dÿvir, “temple”) actually refers to the most holy place within the sanctuary.
13 tn The Hebrew imperfect verbal form is descriptive in function; the psalmist depicts the action as underway.
14 tc Heb “the deer.” Preserving this reading, some translate the preceding verb, “causes [the deer] to give premature birth” (cf. NEB, NASB). But the Polel of חוּל/חִיל (khul/khil) means “give birth,” not “cause to give birth,” and the statement “the
15 tn The verb is used in Joel 1:7 of locusts stripping the leaves from a tree. The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive here carries the descriptive function of the preceding imperfect. See GKC 329 §111.t.
16 tn The usual form of the plural of יַעַר (ya’ar, “forest”) is יְעָרִים (yÿ’arim). For this reason some propose an emendation to יְעָלוֹת (yÿ’alot, “female mountain goats”) which would fit nicely in the parallelism with “deer” (cf. NEB “brings kids early to birth”). In this case one would have to understand the verb חָשַׂף (khasaf) to mean “cause premature birth,” an otherwise unattested homonym of the more common חָשַׂף (“strip bare”).
sn The Lord’s thunderous shout is accompanied by high winds which damage the trees of the forest.
17 tn Heb “In his temple, all of it says, ‘Glory.’”
18 sn Psalm 79. The author laments how the invading nations have destroyed the temple and city of Jerusalem. He asks God to forgive his people and to pour out his vengeance on those who have mistreated them.
19 tn Or “nations.”
20 tn Heb “have come into your inheritance.”
21 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
22 tn Heb “my soul longs, it even pines for.”
23 tn Heb “the courts of the
24 tn Heb “my flesh,” which stands for his whole person and being.
25 tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man.” Hebrew literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The principle stated here was certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender or age. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender and age specific “man” with the plural “those.” The individual referred to in v. 5a is representative of followers of God, as the use of plural forms in vv. 5b-7 indicates.
26 tn Heb “roads [are] in their heart[s].” The roads are here those that lead to Zion (see v. 7).
27 tn Heb “the gates of justice.” The gates of the
28 sn The people refer here to the psalmist, who enters the
29 tn The pronominal suffix is second masculine plural, but the final mem (ם) is probably dittographic (note the mem [מ] at the beginning of the following form) or enclitic, in which case the suffix may be taken as second masculine singular, referring to the psalmist.
30 tn Heb “from the house of the
31 sn Psalm 122. The psalmist expresses his love for Jerusalem and promises to pray for the city’s security.
32 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.
33 tn Heb “in the ones saying to me.” After the verb שָׂמַח (samakh), the preposition בְּ (bet) usually introduces the reason for joy.
34 sn Psalm 134. The psalmist calls on the temple servants to praise God (vv. 1-2). They in turn pronounce a blessing on the psalmist (v. 3).
35 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.
36 tn Heb “Look!”
37 tn Heb “stand.”