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
6:6 I am exhausted as I groan;
all night long I drench my bed in tears; 4
my tears saturate the cushion beneath me. 5
17:15 As for me, because I am innocent I will see your face; 6
when I awake you will reveal yourself to me. 7
27:13 Where would I be if I did not believe I would experience
the Lord’s favor in the land of the living? 8
31:22 I jumped to conclusions and said, 9
“I am cut off from your presence!” 10
But you heard my plea for mercy when I cried out to you for help.
32:8 I will instruct and teach you 11 about how you should live. 12
I will advise you as I look you in the eye. 13
37:25 I was once young, now I am old.
I have never seen a godly man abandoned,
or his children 14 forced to search for food. 15
42:2 I thirst 16 for God,
for the living God.
I say, 17 “When will I be able to go and appear in God’s presence?” 18
42:6 I am depressed, 19
so I will pray to you while I am trapped here in the region of the upper Jordan, 20
from Hermon, 21 from Mount Mizar. 22
46:10 He says, 23 “Stop your striving and recognize 24 that I am God!
I will be exalted 25 over 26 the nations! I will be exalted over 27 the earth!”
50:21 When you did these things, I was silent, 28
so you thought I was exactly like you. 29
But now I will condemn 30 you
and state my case against you! 31
56:4 In God – I boast in his promise 32 –
in God I trust, I am not afraid.
What can mere men 33 do to me? 34
56:12 I am obligated to fulfill the vows I made to you, O God; 35
I will give you the thank-offerings you deserve, 36
60:6 God has spoken in his sanctuary: 37
“I will triumph! I will parcel out Shechem;
the Valley of Succoth I will measure off. 38
77:2 In my time of trouble I sought 39 the Lord.
I kept my hand raised in prayer throughout the night. 40
I 41 refused to be comforted.
81:7 In your distress you called out and I rescued you.
I answered you from a dark thundercloud. 42
I tested you at the waters of Meribah. 43 (Selah)
91:15 When he calls out to me, I will answer him.
I will be with him when he is in trouble;
I will rescue him and bring him honor.
108:7 God has spoken in his sanctuary: 44
“I will triumph! I will parcel out Shechem,
the valley of Succoth I will measure off. 45
131:2 Indeed 46 I am composed and quiet, 47
like a young child carried by its mother; 48
I am content like the young child I carry. 49
139:3 You carefully observe me when I travel or when I lie down to rest; 50
you are aware of everything I do. 51
139:18 If I tried to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
Even if I finished counting them,
I would still have to contend with you. 52
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 Heb “I cause to swim through all the night my bed.”
5 tn Heb “with my tears my bed I flood/melt.”
6 tn Heb “I, in innocence, I will see your face.” To “see” God’s “face” means to have access to his presence and to experience his favor (see Ps 11:7; see also Job 33:26 [where רָאָה (ra’ah), not חָזַה (khazah), is used]). Here, however, the psalmist may be anticipating a mystical experience. See the following note on the word “me.”
7 tn Heb “I will be satisfied, when I awake, [with] your form.” The noun תְּמוּנָה (tÿmunah) normally carries the nuance “likeness” or “form.” In Job 4:16 it refers to a ghostlike spiritual entity (see v. 15) that revealed itself to Eliphaz during the night. The psalmist may anticipate a mystical encounter with God in which he expects to see a manifestation of God’s presence (i.e., a theophany), perhaps in conjunction with an oracle of deliverance. During the quiet darkness of the night, God examines the psalmist’s inner motives and finds them to be pure (see v. 3). The psalmist is confident that when he awakens, perhaps sometime during the night or in the morning, he will be visited by God and assured of vindication.
sn When I awake you will reveal yourself to me. Some see in this verse an allusion to resurrection. According to this view, when the psalmist awakens from the sleep of death, he will see God. It is unlikely that the psalmist had such a highly developed personal eschatology. As noted above, it is more likely that he is anticipating a divine visitation and mystical encounter as a prelude to his deliverance from his enemies.
8 tn In the Hebrew text the sentence is incomplete: “If I had not believed [I would] see the goodness of the
9 tn Heb “and I, I said in my haste.”
10 tn Heb “from before your eyes.”
11 tn The second person pronominal forms in this verse are singular. The psalmist addresses each member of his audience individually (see also the note on the word “eye” in the next line). A less likely option (but one which is commonly understood) is that the
12 tn Heb “I will instruct you and I will teach you in the way [in] which you should walk.”
13 tn Heb “I will advise, upon you my eye,” that is, “I will offer advice [with] my eye upon you.” In 2 Chr 20:12 the statement “our eye is upon you” means that the speakers are looking to the
14 tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”
15 tn Heb “or his offspring searching for food.” The expression “search for food” also appears in Lam 1:11, where Jerusalem’s refugees are forced to search for food and to trade their valuable possessions for something to eat.
16 tn Or “my soul thirsts.”
17 tn The words “I say” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons and for clarification.
18 tn Heb “When will I go and appear [to] the face of God?” Some emend the Niphal verbal form אֵרָאֶה (’era’eh, “I will appear”) to a Qal אֶרְאֶה (’er’eh, “I will see”; see Gen 33:10), but the Niphal can be retained if one understands ellipsis of אֶת (’et) before “face” (see Exod 34:24; Deut 31:11).
19 tn Heb “my God, upon me my soul bows down.” As noted earlier, “my God” belongs with the end of v. 6.
20 tn Heb “therefore I will remember you from the land of Jordan.” “Remember” is here used metonymically for prayer (see vv. 8-9). As the next line indicates, the region of the upper Jordan, where the river originates, is in view.
21 tc Heb “Hermons.” The plural form of the name occurs only here in the OT. Some suggest the plural refers to multiple mountain peaks (cf. NASB) or simply retain the plural in the translation (cf. NEB), but the final mem (ם) is probably dittographic (note that the next form in the text begins with the letter mem) or enclitic. At a later time it was misinterpreted as a plural marker and vocalized accordingly.
22 tn The Hebrew term מִצְעָר (mits’ar) is probably a proper name (“Mizar”), designating a particular mountain in the Hermon region. The name appears only here in the OT.
23 tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
24 tn Heb “do nothing/be quiet (see 1 Sam 15:16) and know.” This statement may be addressed to the hostile nations, indicating they should cease their efforts to destroy God’s people, or to Judah, indicating they should rest secure in God’s protection. Since the psalm is an expression of Judah’s trust and confidence, it is more likely that the words are directed to the nations, who are actively promoting chaos and are in need of a rebuke.
25 tn Elsewhere in the psalms the verb רוּם (rum, “be exalted”) when used of God, refers to his exalted position as king (Pss 18:46; 99:2; 113:4; 138:6) and/or his self-revelation as king through his mighty deeds of deliverance (Pss 21:13; 57:5, 11).
26 tn Or “among.”
27 tn Or “in.”
28 tn Heb “these things you did and I was silent.” Some interpret the second clause (“and I was silent”) as a rhetorical question expecting a negative answer, “[When you do these things], should I keep silent?” (cf. NEB). See GKC 335 §112.cc.
sn The Lord was silent in the sense that he delayed punishment. Of course, God’s patience toward sinners eventually runs out. The divine “silence” is only temporary (see v. 3, where the psalmist, having described God’s arrival, observes that “he is not silent”).
29 tn The Hebrew infinitive construct (הֱיוֹת, heyot) appears to function like the infinitive absolute here, adding emphasis to the following finite verbal form (אֶהְיֶה, ’ehyeh). See GKC 339-40 §113.a. Some prefer to emend הֱיוֹת (heyot) to the infinitive absolute form הָיוֹ (hayo).
30 tn Or “rebuke” (see v. 8).
31 tn Heb “and I will set in order [my case against you] to your eyes.” The cohortative form expresses the
32 tn Heb “in God I boast, his word.” The syntax in the Hebrew text is difficult. (1) The line could be translated, “in God I boast, [in] his word.” Such a translation assumes that the prepositional phrase “in God” goes with the following verb “I boast” (see Ps 44:8) and that “his word” is appositional to “in God” and more specifically identifies the basis for the psalmist’s confidence. God’s “word” is here understood as an assuring promise of protection. Another option (2) is to translate, “in God I will boast [with] a word.” In this case, the “word” is a song of praise. (In this view the pronominal suffix “his” must be omitted as in v. 10.) The present translation reflects yet another option (3): In this case “I praise his word” is a parenthetical statement, with “his word” being the object of the verb. The sentence begun with the prepositional phrase “in God” is then completed in the next line, with the prepositional phrase being repeated after the parenthesis.
33 tn Heb “flesh,” which refers by metonymy to human beings (see v. 11, where “man” is used in this same question), envisioned here as mortal and powerless before God.
34 tn The rhetorical question assumes the answer, “Nothing!” The imperfect is used in a modal sense here, indicating capability or potential.
35 tn Heb “upon me, O God, [are] your vows.”
36 tn Heb “I will repay thank-offerings to you.”
37 tn Heb “in his holy place.”
38 sn Shechem stands for the territory west of the Jordan, the Valley of Succoth for the region east of the Jordan.
39 tn Here the psalmist refers back to the very recent past, when he began to pray for divine help.
40 tn Heb “my hand [at] night was extended and was not growing numb.” The verb נָגַר (nagar), which can mean “flow” in certain contexts, here has the nuance “be extended.” The imperfect form (תָפוּג, tafug, “to be numb”) is used here to describe continuous action in the past.
41 tn Or “my soul.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) with a pronominal suffix is often equivalent to a pronoun, especially in poetry (see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 4.a).
42 tn Heb “I answered you in the hidden place of thunder.” This may allude to God’s self-revelation at Mount Sinai, where he appeared in a dark cloud accompanied by thunder (see Exod 19:16).
43 sn The name Meribah means “strife.” Two separate but similar incidents at the place called Meribah are recorded in the Pentateuch (Exod 17:1-7; Num 20:1-13). In both cases the Israelites complained about lack of water and the Lord miraculously provided for them.
44 tn Heb “in his holy place.”
45 sn Shechem stands for the territory west of the Jordan River; the valley of Succoth represents the region east of the Jordan.
46 tn Or “but.”
47 tn Heb “I make level and make quiet my soul.”
48 tn Heb “like a weaned [one] upon his mother.”
49 tn Heb “like the weaned [one] upon me, my soul.”
50 tn Heb “my traveling and my lying down you measure.” The verb זָרָה (zarah, “to measure”) is probably here a denominative from זָרָת (zarat, “a span; a measure”), though some derive it from זָרָה (zarat, “to winnow; to sift”; see BDB 279-80 s.v. זָרָה).
51 tn Heb “all my ways.”
52 tc Heb “I awake and I [am] still with you.” A reference to the psalmist awaking from sleep makes little, if any, sense contextually. For this reason some propose an emendation to הֲקִצּוֹתִי (haqitsoti), a Hiphil perfect form from an otherwise unattested verb קָצַץ (qatsats) understood as a denominative of קֵץ (qets, “end”). See L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 252-53.