Discovery BoxPsalms 71:15-18 
Context71:15 I will tell about your justice,
and all day long proclaim your salvation, 1
though I cannot fathom its full extent. 2
71:16 I will come and tell about 3 the mighty acts of the sovereign Lord.
I will proclaim your justice – yours alone.
71:17 O God, you have taught me since I was young,
and I am still declaring 4 your amazing deeds.
71:18 Even when I am old and gray, 5
O God, do not abandon me,
until I tell the next generation about your strength,
and those coming after me about your power. 6
Psalms 71:23-24
Context71:23 My lips will shout for joy! Yes, 7 I will sing your praises!
I will praise you when you rescue me! 8
71:24 All day long my tongue will also tell about your justice,
for those who want to harm me 9 will be embarrassed and ashamed. 10
1 tn Heb “my mouth declares your vindication, all the day your deliverance.”
2 tn Heb “though I do not know [the] numbers,” that is, the tally of God’s just and saving acts. HALOT 768 s.v. סְפֹרוֹת understands the plural noun to mean “the art of writing.”
3 tn Heb “I will come with.”
4 tn Heb “and until now I am declaring.”
5 tn Heb “and even unto old age and gray hair.”
6 tn Heb “until I declare your arm to a generation, to everyone who comes your power.” God’s “arm” here is an anthropomorphism that symbolizes his great strength.
7 tn Or “when.” The translation assumes that כִּי (ki) has an emphasizing (asseverative) function here.
8 tn Heb “and my life [or “soul”] which you will have redeemed.” The perfect verbal form functions here as a future perfect. The psalmist anticipates praising God, for God will have rescued him by that time.
9 tn Heb “those who seek my harm.”
10 tn Heb “will have become embarrassed and ashamed.” The perfect verbal forms function here as future perfects, indicating future actions which will precede chronologically the action expressed by the main verb in the preceding line.
