Discovery BoxPsalms 63:4 
Context63:4 For this reason 1 I will praise you while I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands. 2
Psalms 81:6
Context81:6 It said: 3 “I removed the burden from his shoulder;
his hands were released from holding the basket. 4
Psalms 91:12
Context91:12 They will lift you up in their hands,
so you will not slip and fall on a stone. 5
Psalms 119:48
Context119:48 I will lift my hands to 6 your commands,
which I love,
and I will meditate on your statutes.
Psalms 119:73
Contextי (Yod)
119:73 Your hands made me and formed me. 7
Give me understanding so that I might learn 8 your commands.
Psalms 143:6
Context1 tn Or perhaps “then.”
2 sn I will lift up my hands. Lifting up one’s hands toward God was a gesture of prayer (see Ps 28:2; Lam 2:19) or respect (Ps 119:48).
3 tn The words “It said” are not included in the Hebrew text. They are supplied in the translation for clarification.
4 sn I removed the burden. The Lord speaks metaphorically of how he delivered his people from Egyptian bondage. The reference to a basket/burden probably alludes to the hard labor of the Israelites in Egypt, where they had to carry loads of bricks (see Exod 1:14).
5 tn Heb “so your foot will not strike a stone.”
6 tn Lifting the hands is often associated with prayer (Pss 28:2; 63:4; Lam 2:19). (1) Because praying to God’s law borders on the extreme, some prefer to emend the text to “I lift up my hands to you,” eliminating “your commands, which I love” as dittographic. In this view these words were accidentally repeated from the previous verse. (2) However, it is possible that the psalmist closely associates the law with God himself because he views the law as the expression of the divine will. (3) Another option is that “lifting the hands” does not refer to prayer here, but to the psalmist’s desire to receive and appropriate the law. (4) Still others understand this to be an action praising God’s commands (so NCV; cf. TEV, CEV, NLT).
7 tn Heb “made me and established me.” The two verbs also appear together in Deut 32:6, where God, compared to a father, is said to have “made and established” Israel.
8 tn The cohortative verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the preceding imperative.
9 tn The words “in prayer” are supplied in the translation to clarify that the psalmist is referring to a posture of prayer.
10 tn Heb “faint” or “weary.” See Ps 63:1.
11 tc Heb “my soul like a faint land for you.” A verb (perhaps “thirsts”) is implied (see Ps 63:1). The translation assumes an emendation of the preposition -כְּ (kÿ, “like”) to -בְּ (bÿ, “in,” see Ps 63:1; cf. NEB “athirst for thee in a thirsty land”). If the MT is retained, one might translate, “my soul thirsts for you, as a parched land does for water/rain” (cf. NIV, NRSV).
