Discovery BoxPsalms 39:5 
Context39:5 Look, you make my days short-lived, 1
and my life span is nothing from your perspective. 2
Surely all people, even those who seem secure, are nothing but vapor. 3
Psalms 48:2
Context48:2 It is lofty and pleasing to look at, 4
a source of joy to the whole earth. 5
Mount Zion resembles the peaks of Zaphon; 6
it is the city of the great king.
Psalms 131:1
ContextA song of ascents, 8 by David.
131:1 O Lord, my heart is not proud,
nor do I have a haughty look. 9
I do not have great aspirations,
or concern myself with things that are beyond me. 10
1 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.
2 tn Heb “is like nothing before you.”
3 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.”
4 tn Heb “beautiful of height.” The Hebrew term נוֹף (nof, “height”) is a genitive of specification after the qualitative noun “beautiful.” The idea seems to be that Mount Zion, because of its lofty appearance, is pleasing to the sight.
5 sn A source of joy to the whole earth. The language is hyperbolic. Zion, as the dwelling place of the universal king, is pictured as the world’s capital. The prophets anticipated this idealized picture becoming a reality in the eschaton (see Isa 2:1-4).
6 tn Heb “Mount Zion, the peaks of Zaphon.” Like all the preceding phrases in v. 2, both phrases are appositional to “city of our God, his holy hill” in v. 1, suggesting an identification in the poet’s mind between Mount Zion and Zaphon. “Zaphon” usually refers to the “north” in a general sense (see Pss 89:12; 107:3), but here, where it is collocated with “peaks,” it refers specifically to Mount Zaphon, located in the vicinity of ancient Ugarit and viewed as the mountain where the gods assembled (see Isa 14:13). By alluding to West Semitic mythology in this way, the psalm affirms that Mount Zion is the real divine mountain, for it is here that the
7 sn Psalm 131. The psalmist affirms his humble dependence on the Lord and urges Israel to place its trust in God.
8 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.
9 tn Heb “and my eyes are not lifted up.”
10 tn Heb “I do not walk in great things, and in things too marvelous for me.”
