Discovery BoxPsalms 27:10 
Context27:10 Even if my father and mother abandoned me, 1
the Lord would take me in. 2
Psalms 34:12
Context34:12 Do you want to really live? 3
Would you love to live a long, happy life? 4
Psalms 44:21
Context44:21 would not God discover it,
for he knows 5 one’s thoughts? 6
Psalms 66:18
Context66:18 If I had harbored sin in my heart, 7
the Lord would not have listened.
Psalms 76:8
Context76:8 From heaven you announced what their punishment would be. 8
The earth 9 was afraid and silent
Psalms 81:14
Context81:14 Then I would quickly subdue their enemies,
and attack 10 their adversaries.”
Psalms 106:26
Context106:26 So he made a solemn vow 11
that he would make them die 12 in the desert,
Psalms 119:92
Context119:92 If I had not found encouragement in your law, 13
I would have died in my sorrow. 14
Psalms 124:3
Context124:3 they would have swallowed us alive,
when their anger raged against us.
Psalms 139:19
Context139:19 If only 15 you would kill the wicked, O God!
Get away from me, you violent men! 16
Psalms 148:6
Context148:6 He established them so they would endure; 17
he issued a decree that will not be revoked. 18
1 tn Or “though my father and mother have abandoned me.”
2 tn Heb “gather me in”; or “receive me.”
3 tn Heb “Who is the man who desires life?” The rhetorical question is used to grab the audience’s attention. “Life” probably refers here to quality of life, not just physical existence or even duration of life. See the following line.
4 tn Heb “[Who] loves days to see good?”
5 tn The active participle describes what is characteristically true.
6 tn Heb “would not God search out this, for he knows the hidden things of [the] heart?” The expression “search out” is used metonymically here, referring to discovery, the intended effect of a search. The “heart” (i.e., mind) is here viewed as the seat of one’s thoughts. The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he would!” The point seems to be this: There is no way the Israelites who are the speakers in the psalm would reject God and turn to another god, for the omniscient God would easily discover such a sin.
7 tn Heb “sin if I had seen in my heart.”
8 tn Heb “a [legal] decision,” or “sentence.”
9 tn “The earth” stands here by metonymy for its inhabitants.
10 tn Heb “turn my hand against.” The idiom “turn the hand against” has the nuance of “strike with the hand, attack” (see Isa 1:25; Ezek 38:12; Amos 1:8; Zech 13:7).
11 tn Heb “and he lifted his hand to [or “concerning”] them.” The idiom “to lift a hand” here refers to swearing an oath. One would sometimes solemnly lift one’s hand when making such a vow (see Ezek 20:5-6, 15).
12 tn Heb “to cause them to fall.”
13 tn Heb “if your law had not been my delight.”
14 tn Or “my suffering.”
15 tn The Hebrew particle אִם (’im, “if”) and following prefixed verbal form here express a wish (see Pss 81:8; 95:7, as well as GKC 321 §109.b).
16 tn Heb “men of bloodshed.”
17 tn Or “forever and ever.”
18 tn Heb “and it will not pass away.”
