¹ sn Take shelter. “Taking 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).

² tn The prefixed verbal form is a jussive of wish or prayer. The psalmist calls on God to reward his faithful followers.

³ tn Or perhaps more hyperbolically, “forever.”

⁴ tn As in the preceding line, the prefixed verbal form is a jussive of wish or prayer.

⁵ tn Heb “put a cover over them.” The verb form is a Hiphil imperfect from סָכַךְ (sakhakh, “cover, shut off”). The imperfect expresses the psalmist’s wish or request.

⁶ tn Heb “the lovers of your name.” The phrase refers to those who are loyal to the Lord. See Pss 69:36; 119:132; Isa 56:6.

⁷ tn The vav (ו) with prefixed verbal form following the volitional “shelter them” indicates purpose or result (“so that those…may rejoice).

⁸ tn Or “so that I might.”

⁹ tn Heb “all your praise.” “Praise” stands by metonymy for the mighty acts that prompt it.

¹⁰ sn Daughter Zion is an idiomatic title for Jerusalem. It appears frequently in the prophets, but only here in the psalms.

¹¹ tn Heb “in your deliverance.”

¹² sn The deliverance of Israel. This refers metonymically to God, the one who lives in Zion and provides deliverance for Israel.

¹³ tn Heb “turns with a turning [toward] his people.” The Hebrew term שְׁבוּת (shÿvut) is apparently a cognate accusative of שׁוּב (shuv).

¹⁴ tn The verb form is jussive.

¹⁵ tn Because the parallel verb is jussive, this verb, which is ambiguous in form, should be taken as a jussive as well.

¹⁶ sn Your victory. Here the king is addressed (see v. 1).

¹⁷ tc The Hebrew verb דָּגַל (dagal) occurs only here in the Qal. If accepted as original, it may carry the nuance “raise a banner,” but it is preferable to emend the form to נגיל (“we will rejoice”) which provides better parallelism with “shout for joy” and fits well with the prepositional phrase “in the name of our God” (see Ps 89:16).

¹⁸ tn Heb “you know the distresses of my life.”

¹⁹ tn The prefixed verbal forms in v. 27a are understood as jussives (see vv. 24b-26).

²⁰ tn The prefixed verbal form is taken as a jussive, “may the Lord be magnified [in praise].” Another option is to take the verb as an imperfect, “the Lord is great.”

²¹ tn Heb “the one who desires the peace of his servant.”

²² tn Heb “those who love,” which stands metonymically for its cause, the experience of being delivered by the Lord.

²³ tn The three prefixed verbal forms prior to the quotation are understood as jussives. The psalmist balances out his imprecation against his enemies with a prayer of blessing upon the godly.

²⁴ tn The prefixed verbal form is taken as a jussive, “may the Lord be magnified [in praise].” Another option is to take the verb as an imperfect, “the Lord is great” (cf. NRSV). See Ps 35:27.

²⁵ tn This refers metonymically to God, the one who lives in Zion and provides deliverance for Israel.

²⁶ tn Heb “turns with a turning [toward] his people.” The Hebrew term שְׁבוּת (shÿvut) is apparently a cognate accusative of שׁוּב (shuv).

²⁷ tn The verb form is jussive.

²⁸ tn Because the parallel verb is jussive, this verb, which is ambiguous in form, should be taken as a jussive as well.

²⁹ tn The singular is representative here, as is the singular from “wicked” in the next line.

³⁰ sn The psalmist probably refers to himself in the third person here.

³¹ tn Heb “who swears [an oath] by him.”

³² tn The Niphal of this verb occurs only here and in Gen 8:2, where it is used of God “stopping” or “damming up” the great deep as he brought the flood to an end.

³³ tn Traditionally the Hebrew term עֲרָבוֹת (’aravot) is taken as “steppe-lands” (often rendered “deserts”), but here the form is probably a homonym meaning “clouds.” Verse 33, which depicts God as the one who “rides on the sky” strongly favors this (see as well Deut 33:26), as does the reference in v. 9 to God as the source of rain. The term עֲרָבָה (’aravah, “cloud”) is cognate with Akkadian urpatu/erpetu and with Ugaritic ’rpt. The phrase rkb ’rpt (“one who rides on the clouds”) appears in Ugaritic mythological texts as an epithet of the storm god Baal. The nonphonemic interchange of the bilabial consonants b and p is attested elsewhere in roots common to Hebrew and Ugaritic, though the phenomenon is relatively rare.

³⁴ tc Heb “in the Lord his name.” If the MT is retained, the preposition -בְ (bet) is introducing the predicate (the so-called bet of identity), “the Lord is his name.” However, some prefer to emend the text to כִּי יָהּ שְׁמוֹ (ki yah shÿmo, “for Yah is his name”). This emendation, reflected in the present translation, assumes a confusion of bet (ב) and kaf (כ) and haplography of yod (י).

³⁵ tn Heb “those who love,” which stands metonymically for its cause, the experience of being delivered by God.

³⁶ tn The three prefixed verbal forms prior to the quotation are understood as jussives. The psalmist balances out his imprecation against his enemies with a prayer of blessing on the godly.

³⁷ tn Ps 40:16 uses the divine name “Lord” here instead of “God.”

³⁸ tn The prefixed verbal form is taken as a jussive, “may the Lord be magnified [in praise].” Another option is to take the verb as an imperfect, “the Lord is great.” See Ps 35:27.

³⁹ tn Heb “good.”

⁴⁰ tn Heb “in order that [I may] rejoice with the rejoicing of your nation.”

⁴¹ tn Heb “with your inheritance.”