78:54 He brought them to the border of his holy land,
to this mountainous land 1 which his right hand 2 acquired.
78:69 He made his sanctuary as enduring as the heavens above; 3
as secure as the earth, which he established permanently. 4
104:16 The trees of the Lord 5 receive all the rain they need, 6
the cedars of Lebanon which he planted,
104:20 You make it dark and night comes, 7
during which all the beasts of the forest prowl around.
104:25 Over here is the deep, wide sea, 8
which teems with innumerable swimming creatures, 9
living things both small and large.
107:4 They wandered through the wilderness on a desert road;
they found no city in which to live.
107:7 He led them on a level road, 10
that they might find a city in which to live.
119:48 I will lift my hands to 11 your commands,
which I love,
and I will meditate on your statutes.
129:6 May they be like the grass on the rooftops
which withers before one can even pull it up, 12
129:7 which cannot fill the reaper’s hand,
or the lap of the one who gathers the grain!
150:1 Praise the Lord!
Praise God in his sanctuary!
Praise him in the sky, which testifies to his strength! 14
1 tn Heb “this mountain.” The whole land of Canaan seems to be referred to here. In Exod 15:17 the promised land is called the “mountain of your [i.e., God’s] inheritance.”
2 tn The “right hand” here symbolizes God’s military strength (see v. 55).
3 tc Heb “and he built like the exalting [ones] his sanctuary.” The phrase כְּמוֹ־רָמִים (kÿmo-ramim, “like the exalting [ones]”) is a poetic form of the comparative preposition followed by a participial form of the verb רוּם (rum, “be exalted”). The text should be emended to כִּמְרֹמִים (kimromim, “like the [heavenly] heights”). See Ps 148:1, where “heights” refers to the heavens above.
4 tn Heb “like the earth, [which] he established permanently.” The feminine singular suffix on the Hebrew verb יָסַד (yasad, “to establish”) refers to the grammatically feminine noun “earth.”
5 sn The trees of the
6 tn Heb “are satisfied,” which means here that they receive abundant rain (see v. 13).
7 tn Heb “you make darkness, so that it might be night.”
8 tn Heb “this [is] the sea, great and broad of hands [i.e., “sides” or “shores”].”
9 tn Heb “where [there are] swimming things, and without number.”
10 sn A level road. See Jer 31:9.
11 tn Lifting the hands is often associated with prayer (Pss 28:2; 63:4; Lam 2:19). (1) Because praying to God’s law borders on the extreme, some prefer to emend the text to “I lift up my hands to you,” eliminating “your commands, which I love” as dittographic. In this view these words were accidentally repeated from the previous verse. (2) However, it is possible that the psalmist closely associates the law with God himself because he views the law as the expression of the divine will. (3) Another option is that “lifting the hands” does not refer to prayer here, but to the psalmist’s desire to receive and appropriate the law. (4) Still others understand this to be an action praising God’s commands (so NCV; cf. TEV, CEV, NLT).
12 tn The Hebrew verb שָׁלַף (shalaf) normally means “to draw [a sword]” or “to pull.” BDB 1025 s.v. suggests the meaning “to shoot up” here, but it is more likely that the verb here means “to pluck; to pull up,” a nuance attested for this word in later Hebrew and Aramaic (see Jastrow 1587 s.v. שָׁלַף).
13 sn Psalm 150. The Psalter concludes with a resounding call for praise from everything that has breath.
14 tn Heb “the sky of his strength.”