Discovery BoxPsalms 17:3 
Context17:3 You have scrutinized my inner motives; 1
you have examined me during the night. 2
You have carefully evaluated me, but you find no sin.
I am determined I will say nothing sinful. 3
Psalms 22:1
ContextFor the music director; according to the tune “Morning Doe;” 5 a psalm of David.
22:1 My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? 6
I groan in prayer, but help seems far away. 7
Psalms 30:5
Context30:5 For his anger lasts only a brief moment,
and his good favor restores one’s life. 8
One may experience sorrow during the night,
but joy arrives in the morning. 9
Psalms 39:5
Context39:5 Look, you make my days short-lived, 10
and my life span is nothing from your perspective. 11
Surely all people, even those who seem secure, are nothing but vapor. 12
Psalms 44:3
Context44:3 For they did not conquer 13 the land by their swords,
and they did not prevail by their strength, 14
but rather by your power, 15 strength 16 and good favor, 17
for you were partial to 18 them.
Psalms 73:28
Context73:28 But as for me, God’s presence is all I need. 19
I have made the sovereign Lord my shelter,
as 20 I declare all the things you have done.
Psalms 90:10
Context90:10 The days of our lives add up to seventy years, 21
or eighty, if one is especially strong. 22
But even one’s best years are marred by trouble and oppression. 23
1 tn Heb “you tested my heart.”
2 tn Heb “you visited [at] night.”
3 tc Heb “you tested me, you do not find, I plan, my mouth will not cross over.” The Hebrew verbal form זַמֹּתִי (zammotiy) is a Qal perfect, first person singular from the root זָמַם (zamam, “plan, plan evil”). Some emend the form to a suffixed form of the noun, זִמָּתִי (zimmatiy, “my plan/evil plan”), and take it as the object of the preceding verb “find.” However, the suffix seems odd, since the psalmist is denying that he has any wrong thoughts. If one takes the form with what precedes, it might make better sense to read זִמּוֹת (zimmot, “evil plans”). However, this emendation leaves an unclear connection with the next line. The present translation maintains the verbal form found in the MT and understands it in a neutral sense, “I have decided” (see Jer 4:28). The words “my mouth will not cross over” (i.e., “transgress, sin”) can then be taken as a noun clause functioning as the object of the verb.
4 sn Psalm 22. The psalmist cries out to the Lord for deliverance from his dangerous enemies, who have surrounded him and threaten his life. Confident that the Lord will intervene, he then vows to thank the Lord publicly for his help and anticipates a time when all people will recognize the Lord’s greatness and worship him.
5 tn Heb “according to the doe of the dawn.” Apparently this refers to a particular musical tune or style.
6 sn From the psalmist’s perspective it seems that God has abandoned him, for he fails to answer his cry for help (vv. 1b-2).
7 tn Heb “far from my deliverance [are] the words of my groaning.” The Hebrew noun שְׁאָגָה (shÿ’agah) and its related verb שָׁאַג (sha’ag) are sometimes used of a lion’s roar, but they can also describe human groaning (see Job 3:24 and Pss 32:3 and 38:8.
8 tn Heb “for [there is] a moment in his anger, [but] life in his favor.” Because of the parallelism with “moment,” some understand חַיִּים (khayyim) in a quantitative sense: “lifetime” (cf. NIV, NRSV). However, the immediate context, which emphasizes deliverance from death (see v. 3), suggests that חַיִּים has a qualitative sense: “physical life” or even “prosperous life” (cf. NEB “in his favour there is life”).
9 tn Heb “in the evening weeping comes to lodge, but at morning a shout of joy.” “Weeping” is personified here as a traveler who lodges with one temporarily.
10 tn Heb “Look, handbreadths you make my days.” The “handbreadth” (equivalent to the width of four fingers) was one of the smallest measures used by ancient Israelites. See P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (WBC), 309.
11 tn Heb “is like nothing before you.”
12 tn Heb “surely, all vapor [is] all mankind, standing firm.” Another option is to translate, “Surely, all mankind, though seemingly secure, is nothing but a vapor.”
13 tn Or “take possession of.”
14 tn Heb “and their arm did not save them.” The “arm” here symbolizes military strength.
15 tn Heb “your right hand.” The
16 tn Heb “your arm.”
17 tn Heb “light of your face.” The idiom “light of your face” probably refers to a smile (see Eccl 8:1), which in turn suggests favor and blessing (see Num 6:25; Pss 4:6; 31:16; 67:1; 80:3, 7, 19; 89:15; Dan 9:17).
18 tn Or “favorable toward.”
19 tn Heb “but as for me, the nearness of God for me [is] good.”
20 tn The infinitive construct with -לְ (lÿ) is understood here as indicating an attendant circumstance. Another option is to take it as indicating purpose (“so that I might declare”) or result (“with the result that I declare”).
21 tn Heb “the days of our years, in them [are] seventy years.”
22 tn Heb “or if [there is] strength, eighty years.”
23 tn Heb “and their pride [is] destruction and wickedness.” The Hebrew noun רֹהַב (rohav) occurs only here. BDB 923 s.v. assigns the meaning “pride,” deriving the noun from the verbal root רהב (“to act stormily [boisterously, arrogantly]”). Here the “pride” of one’s days (see v. 9) probably refers to one’s most productive years in the prime of life. The words translated “destruction and wickedness” are also paired in Ps 10:7. They also appear in proximity in Pss 7:14 and 55:10. The oppressive and abusive actions of evil men are probably in view (see Job 4:8; 5:6; 15:35; Isa 10:1; 59:4).
24 tn or “for.”
25 tn Heb “it passes quickly.” The subject of the verb is probably “their pride” (see the preceding line). The verb גּוּז (guz) means “to pass” here; it occurs only here and in Num 11:31.
26 sn We fly away. The psalmist compares life to a bird that quickly flies off (see Job 20:8).
