57:8 Awake, my soul! 1
Awake, O stringed instrument and harp!
I will wake up at dawn! 2
62:5 Patiently wait for God alone, my soul! 3
For he is the one who gives me confidence. 4
63:5 As if with choice meat 5 you satisfy my soul. 6
My mouth joyfully praises you, 7
103:2 Praise the Lord, O my soul!
Do not forget all his kind deeds! 8
116:7 Rest once more, my soul, 9
for the Lord has vindicated you. 10
1 tn Heb “glory,” but that makes little sense in the context. Some view כָּבוֹד (kavod, “glory”) here as a metonymy for man’s inner being (see BDB 459 s.v. II כָּבוֹד 5), but it is preferable to emend the form to כְּבֵדִי (kÿvediy, “my liver”). Like the heart, the liver is viewed as the seat of one’s emotions. See also Pss 16:9; 30:12; 108:1, as well as H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 64, and M. Dahood, Psalms (AB), 1:90. For an Ugaritic example of the heart/liver as the source of joy, see G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 47-48: “her [Anat’s] liver swelled with laughter, her heart was filled with joy, the liver of Anat with triumph.”
2 tn BDB 1007 s.v. שַׁחַר takes “dawn” as an adverbial accusative, though others understand it as a personified direct object. “Dawn” is used metaphorically for the time of deliverance and vindication the psalmist anticipates. When salvation “dawns,” the psalmist will “wake up” in praise.
3 tn Heb “only for God be silent, my soul.” The wording is similar to that of v. 1a. Here an imperatival form, דּוֹמִּי (dommiy, “be silent”), appears instead of the noun דּוּמִיָּה (dumiyyah, “silence”). The psalmist is encouraging himself to maintain his trust in God.
4 tn Heb “for from him [is] my hope.”
5 tn Heb “like fat and fatness.”
6 tn Or “me.”
7 tn Heb “and [with] lips of joy my mouth praises.”
8 tn Or “his benefits” (see 2 Chr 32:25, where the noun is also used of kind deeds performed by the
9 tn Heb “return, my soul, to your place of rest.”
10 tn The Hebrew idiom גָּמַל עַל (gamal ’al) means “to repay,” here in a positive sense (cf. Ps 13:5).