9:19 Rise up, Lord! 1
Don’t let men be defiant! 2
May the nations be judged in your presence!
25:20 Protect me 3 and deliver me!
Please do not let me be humiliated,
for I have taken shelter in you!
51:12 Let me again experience the joy of your deliverance!
Sustain me by giving me the desire to obey! 4
56:7 Because they are bent on violence, do not let them escape! 5
In your anger 6 bring down the nations, 7 O God!
66:6 He turned the sea into dry land; 8
they passed through the river on foot. 9
Let us rejoice in him there! 10
67:4 Let foreigners 11 rejoice and celebrate!
For you execute justice among the nations,
and govern the people living on earth. 12 (Selah)
69:34 Let the heavens and the earth praise him,
along with the seas and everything that swims in them!
98:7 Let the sea and everything in it shout,
along with the world and those who live in it!
107:2 Let those delivered by the Lord speak out, 13
those whom he delivered 14 from the power 15 of the enemy,
A song of ascents, 17 by David.
124:1 “If the Lord had not been on our side” –
let Israel say this! –
138:4 Let all the kings of the earth give thanks 18 to you, O Lord,
when they hear the words you speak. 19
138:5 Let them sing about the Lord’s deeds, 20
for the Lord’s splendor is magnificent. 21
148:5 Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for he gave the command and they came into existence.
1 sn Rise up,
2 tn Or “prevail.”
3 tn Or “my life.”
4 tn Heb “and [with] a willing spirit sustain me.” The psalmist asks that God make him the kind of person who willingly obeys the divine commandments. The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.
5 tc Heb “because of wickedness, deliverance to them.” As it stands, the MT makes no sense. The negative particle אַיִן (’ayin, “there is not,” which is due to dittography of the immediately preceding אָוֶן, ’aven, “wickedness”), should probably be added before “deliverance” (see BHS, note a). The presence of an imperative in the next line (note “bring down”) suggests that this line should be translated as a prayer as well, “may there not be deliverance to them.”
6 tn Heb “in anger.” The pronoun “your” is supplied in the translation for clarification.
7 tn Or perhaps “people” in a general sense.
8 sn He turned the sea into dry land. The psalmist alludes to Israel’s crossing the Red Sea (Exod 14:21).
9 tn Because of the reference to “the river,” some understand this as an allusion to Israel’s crossing the Jordan River. However, the Hebrew term נָהָר (nahad) does not always refer to a “river” in the technical sense; it can be used of sea currents (see Jonah 2:4). So this line may also refer to the Red Sea crossing (cf. NEB).
10 tn The adverb שָׁם (sham, “there”) is used here, as often in poetic texts, to point “to a spot in which a scene is localized vividly in the imagination” (BDB 1027 s.v.).
11 tn Or “peoples.”
12 tn Heb “for you judge nations fairly, and [as for the] peoples in the earth, you lead them.” The imperfects are translated with the present tense because the statement is understood as a generalization about God’s providential control of the world. Another option is to understand the statement as anticipating God’s future rule (“for you will rule…and govern”).
13 tn Or “let the redeemed of the
14 tn Or “redeemed.”
15 tn Heb “hand.”
16 sn Psalm 124. Israel acknowledges that the Lord delivered them from certain disaster.
17 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.
18 tn The prefixed verbal forms here and in the following verse are understood as jussives, for the psalmist appears to be calling upon the kings to praise God. Another option is to take them as imperfects and translate, “the kings of the earth will give thanks…and will sing.” In this case the psalmist anticipates a universal response to his thanksgiving song.
19 tn Heb “the words of your mouth.”
20 tn Heb “ways.”
21 tn Heb “great.”