Discovery BoxPsalms 18:43 
Context18:43 You rescue me from a hostile army; 1
you make me 2 a leader of nations;
people over whom I had no authority are now my subjects. 3
Psalms 35:14
Context35:14 I mourned for them as I would for a friend or my brother. 4
I bowed down 5 in sorrow as if I were mourning for my mother. 6
Psalms 84:10
Context84:10 Certainly 7 spending just one day in your temple courts is better
than spending a thousand elsewhere. 8
I would rather stand at the entrance 9 to the temple of my God
than live 10 in the tents of the wicked.
1 tn Heb “from the strivings of a people.” In this context the Hebrew term רִיב (riv, “striving”) probably has a militaristic sense (as in Judg 12:2; Isa 41:11), and עָם (’am, “people”) probably refers more specifically to an army (for other examples, see the verses listed in BDB 766 s.v. I עַם, עָם 2.d). Some understand the phrase as referring to attacks by the psalmist’s own countrymen, the “nation” being Israel. However, foreign enemies appear to be in view; note the reference to “nations” in the following line.
2 tn 2 Sam 22:44 reads, “you keep me.”
3 tn Heb “a people whom I did not know serve me.” In this context “know” (יָדַע, yada’) probably refers to formal recognition by treaty. People who were once not under the psalmist’s authority now willingly submit to his rulership to avoid being conquered militarily (see vv. 44-45). The language may recall the events recorded in 2 Sam 8:9-10 and 10:19.
4 tn Heb “like a friend, like a brother to me I walked about.”
5 sn I bowed down. Bowing down was a posture for mourning. See Ps 38:6.
6 tn Heb “like mourning for a mother [in] sorrow I bowed down.”
7 tn Or “for.”
8 tn Heb “better is a day in your courts than a thousand [spent elsewhere].”
9 tn Heb “I choose being at the entrance of the house of my God over living in the tents of the wicked.” The verb סָפַף (safaf) appears only here in the OT; it is derived from the noun סַף (saf, “threshold”). Traditionally some have interpreted this as a reference to being a doorkeeper at the temple, though some understand it to mean “lie as a beggar at the entrance to the temple” (see HALOT 765 s.v. ספף).
10 tn The verb דּוּר (dur, “to live”) occurs only here in the OT.
