Discovery BoxPsalms 16:10 
Context16:10 You will not abandon me 1 to Sheol; 2
you will not allow your faithful follower 3 to see 4 the Pit. 5
Psalms 17:7
Context17:7 Accomplish awesome, faithful deeds, 6
you who powerfully deliver those who look to you for protection from their enemies. 7
Psalms 18:25
Context18:25 You prove to be loyal 8 to one who is faithful; 9
you prove to be trustworthy 10 to one who is innocent. 11
Psalms 18:50
Context18:50 He 12 gives his chosen king magnificent victories; 13
he is faithful 14 to his chosen ruler, 15
to David and his descendants 16 forever.” 17
Psalms 89:49
Context89:49 Where are your earlier faithful deeds, 18 O Lord, 19
the ones performed in accordance with your reliable oath to David? 20
Psalms 103:11
Context103:11 For as the skies are high above the earth,
so his loyal love towers 21 over his faithful followers. 22
Psalms 103:13
Context103:13 As a father has compassion on his children, 23
so the Lord has compassion on his faithful followers. 24
Psalms 119:75
Context119:75 I know, Lord, that your regulations 25 are just.
You disciplined me because of your faithful devotion to me. 26
Psalms 146:6
Context146:6 the one who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who remains forever faithful, 27
Psalms 147:11
Context147:11 The Lord takes delight in his faithful followers, 28
and in those who wait for his loyal love.
1 tn Or “my life.” The suffixed form of נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “being”) is often equivalent to a pronoun in poetic texts.
2 sn In ancient Israelite cosmology Sheol is the realm of the dead, viewed as being under the earth’s surface. See L. I. J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World, 165-76.
3 tn A “faithful follower” (חָסִיד [khasid], traditionally rendered “holy one”) is one who does what is right in God’s eyes and remains faithful to God (see Pss 4:3; 12:1; 18:25; 31:23; 37:28; 86:2; 97:10). The psalmist here refers to himself, as the parallel line (“You will not abandon me to Sheol”) indicates.
4 tn That is, “experience.” The psalmist is confident that the Lord will protect him in his present crisis (see v. 1) and prevent him from dying.
sn According to Peter, the words of Ps 16:8-11 are applicable to Jesus (Acts 2:25-29). Peter goes on to argue that David, being a prophet, foresaw future events and spoke of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead (Acts 2:30-33). Paul seems to concur with Peter in this understanding (see Acts 13:35-37). For a discussion of the NT application of these verses to Jesus’ resurrection, see R. B. Chisholm, Jr., “A Theology of the Psalms,” A Biblical Theology of the Old Testament, 292-95.
5 tn The Hebrew word שָׁחַת (shakhat, “pit”) is often used as a title for Sheol (see Pss 30:9; 49:9; 55:24; 103:4). Note the parallelism with the previous line.
6 tn Heb “Set apart faithful acts.”
7 tn Heb “[O] one who delivers those who seek shelter from the ones raising themselves up, by your right hand.” The Lord’s “right hand” here symbolizes his power to protect and deliver.
sn Those who look to you for protection from their enemies. “Seeking shelter” in the Lord is an idiom for seeking his protection. Seeking his protection presupposes and even demonstrates the subject’s loyalty to the Lord. In the psalms those who “take shelter” in the Lord are contrasted with the wicked and equated with those who love, fear and serve the Lord (Pss 5:11-12; 31:17-20; 34:21-22).
8 tn The imperfect verbal forms in vv. 25-29 draw attention to God’s characteristic actions. Based on his experience, the psalmist generalizes about God’s just dealings with people (vv. 25-27) and about the way in which God typically empowers him on the battlefield (vv. 28-29). The Hitpael stem is used in vv. 26-27 in a reflexive resultative (or causative) sense. God makes himself loyal, etc. in the sense that he conducts or reveals himself as such. On this use of the Hitpael stem, see GKC 149-50 §54.e.
9 tn Or “to a faithful follower.” A “faithful follower” (חָסִיד, khasid) is one who does what is right in God’s eyes and remains faithful to God (see Pss 4:3; 12:1; 16:10; 31:23; 37:28; 86:2; 97:10).
10 tn Or “innocent.”
11 tn Heb “a man of innocence.”
12 tn Or “the one who.”
13 tn Heb “magnifies the victories of his king.” “His king” refers to the psalmist, the Davidic king whom God has chosen to rule Israel.
14 tn Heb “[the one who] does loyalty.”
15 tn Heb “his anointed [one],” i.e., the psalmist/Davidic king. See Ps 2:2.
16 tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”
17 sn If David is the author of the psalm (see the superscription), then he here anticipates that God will continue to demonstrate loyalty to his descendants who succeed him. If the author is a later Davidic king, then he views the divine favor he has experienced as the outworking of God’s faithful promises to David his ancestor.
18 sn The Lord’s faithful deeds are also mentioned in Pss 17:7 and 25:6.
19 tc Many medieval Hebrew
20 tn Heb “[which] you swore on oath to David by your faithfulness.”
21 tn For this sense of the verb גָבַר (gavar), see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 17, 19.
22 tn Heb “those who fear him.”
23 tn Or “sons,” but the Hebrew term sometimes refers to children in general.
24 tn Heb “those who fear him.”
25 tn In this context (note the second line) the Hebrew term מִשְׁפָּטִים (mishpatim), which so often refers to the regulations of God’s law elsewhere in this psalm, may refer instead to his decisions or disciplinary judgment.
26 tn Heb “and [in] faithfulness you afflicted me.”
27 tn Heb “the one who guards faithfulness forever.”
28 tn Heb “those who fear him.”
