56:13 when you deliver 1 my life from death.
You keep my feet from stumbling, 2
so that I might serve 3 God as I enjoy life. 4
A song of ascents. 6
134:1 Attention! 7 Praise the Lord,
all you servants of the Lord,
who serve 8 in the Lord’s temple during the night.
1 tn The perfect verbal form is probably future perfect; the psalmist promises to make good on his vows once God has delivered him (see Pss 13:5; 52:9). (2) Another option is to understand the final two verses as being added later, after the
2 tn Heb “are not my feet [kept] from stumbling?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course they are!” The question has been translated as an affirmation for the sake of clarification of meaning.
3 tn Heb “walk before.” For a helpful discussion of the background and meaning of this Hebrew idiom, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 254; cf. the same idiom in 2 Kgs 20:3; Isa 38:3.
4 tn Heb “in the light of life.” The phrase is used here and in Job 33:30.
5 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).
6 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.
7 tn Heb “Look!”
8 tn Heb “stand.”