PSALM 76
(For the Director [of Music], a song [to be accompanied] with stringed instruments: a Psalm belonging to Asaf)
1. Elohim is known in Yehudah;
His Name is great in Israel!
This may be a good summary of the two houses of Israel today, for His Name is more emphasized in the remnant Northern Kingdom, while the Southern seems to get many facts about Him straighter.
2. With His temporary dwelling in Shalem,
Tzion is also the place He feels at home.
Shalem: a more ancient name for Yerushalayim. (Gen. 14:8)
3. There He shattered the flaming [arrows] of the bow,
shield and sword and battle. Ponder [this].
Flaming arrows: the term can refer to any projectile (of which modern missiles are more flaming); bow can refer to any kind of launcher. Thus this is never out of date. (Missler) “Shield” actally means “defender” of any kind.
4. You are brilliantly illuminated--
more majestic than the fragmented mountains.
5. The valiant of heart have been despoiled! The have sunk drowsily into their sleep,
and the capable men have not found [the use of] their hands!
6. From the threat of You, O Elohim of Yaaqov,
Both charioteer and [those on] horseback have been [cast] into a deep sleep.
Deep sleep: possibly a euphemism for death itself.
7. You! Fearsome You are,
And who can remain standing in front of You in the time of Your anger?
8. You caused a judgment from heaven to be heard,
And the earth was in [astonished] awe and became silent.
9. When Elohim rose up to hold court,
[it was] for the liberation of all of earth’s afflicted. Ponder [this].
Ponder this: there is usually a musical interlude at this point to facilitate just that.
10. Because the heat of humanity’s [rage] will [end up] bringing You praise;
What is left of [their] wrath You will restrain.
What a comforting promise—that YHWH will use even men’s evil intent to His own purposes, as Yosef also recognized when looking back on all he had suffered from the vantage point of the final outcome. (Gen. 50:20)
11. [If you] make vows to YHWH your Elohim, then fulfill them,
And let all who are around Him bring gifts [of homage] to the One Who inspires awe!
12. He will make rulers short of breath;
He is terrifying to the kings of the earth!
Those who conspire against His people (Psalm 2:1-5) will be astonished when they see Him act.
PSALM 77
(For the Director [of Music], in the style of Y’duthun, belonging to Asaf)
Y’duthun: a trumpeter and choir director, contemporary of Asaf, whose descendants formed a permanent choir in the Temple (1 Chronicles 16:41-42) and who prophesied with musical accompaniment. (1 Chron. 25:1)
1. A psalm: “[With] my Voice to Elohim”:
[With] my voice I have cried out to Elohim [for help]
and He has inclined His ear to me!
This is in stark contrast to what he has been seeming to experience for a long time:
2. In the day of my distress I sought out my Master;
my hand was stretched out at night and I did not slack off. My soul refused to relent!
3. I remembered Elohim and groaned aloud;
I considered [complaining], but my spirit was overwhelmed [and ready to faint].
Ponder [this].
4. You held my eyelids [wide open];
I have been beaten down [so regularly] that I cannot speak.
5. I have been thinking intensely about [the] days of antiquity,
[the] years of bygone ages.
6. With my [whole] heart I remember the melody [I used to have] at night;
I think hard and my spirit inquires diligently:
7. Will my Master find me repulsive for ages [on end]
and never again be pleased [with me]?
8. Has His mercy permanently come to an end?
Has He ceased to speak for generation upon generation?
9. Has El forgotten [how] to show favor?
If in anger He has closed off His tender mercies… Just imagine [what that would mean]!
10. I said, “This has weakened me to the point of sickness—
Years of the Most High’s [heavy] right hand!
11. I must recall to mind the habitual dealings of Yah,
Because I can remember Your wonders from ancient times,
12. and I have been meditating on all the work You [used to do]
And have begun to [protest with] a declaration of Your [mighty] acts:
Protest: against the vein of thought that his mind is slipping into, a kind of despair he does not want to encourage, though he cannot yet see a way out of his predicament. Mighty acts: The one most often spoken of is detailed below.
13. O Elohim, Your way is [one of] holiness!
Who is as mighty as Elohim?
Holiness: or, unique, unparalleled, i.e., not to be judged as we would the actions that stem from a common human nature, whose motivations we can understand. Who…: Or, who is a god like [our] Elohim? He is alluding to Moshe’s song in Exodus 15:11.
14. You are the El who accomplishes marvelous [thing]s!
You have made Your power known to the [various] population groups.
15. You have redeemed Your people with a strong arm--
The sons of [both] Yaaqov and Yosef! Ponder [this].
When juxtaposed with Yosef (shorthand for the Northern Kingdom), the name Yaaqov often refers to Yehudah (the southern Kingdom, that is, the Jews). Indeed, at the time of the Exodus (described below), all of Israel brought Yosef’s bones along (Ex. 13:19), so he was particularly represented here.
16. [The] waters saw You, O Elohim! The waters saw You and writhed anxiously;
[The] deep abysses were disquieted [and trembled]!
As He was bringing His people toward the Red Sea, the Egyptians saw Him “looking” down at them from within the pillar of cloud and fire (Ex. 14:24) and were disconcerted, and it seems the sea itself had the same reaction!
17. The [thick] cloud-masses poured forth [floods of] water;
clouds of fine dust issued forth.
Even fragments of gravel kept moving about!
18. The voice of Your thunder was in the whirling [debris];
lightnings illumined the world!
The earth [itself] quivered and shook!
This was more than an ordinary earthquake or tornado; it was one of the world-scale catastrophes seen regularly in the days before 701 B.C.E., when the courses of the planets sometimes crossed over each other.
19. Your path was through the sea,
and Your passageway through the abundant waters.
Your footprints could not be distinguished.
Or, Your footsteps are not recognized, since they are now again underwater.
20. You led Your people like [a flock of ] sheep
By the hand of Moshe and Aharon!
Since this is one of the psalms (of Asaf) written as our guidebook for the latter days (per Steve Mathe), he is probably also hinting at the second and greater Exodus prophesied in Yirmeyahu (Jer.) 16:14-15.
PSALM 78
(A contemplation of Asaf)
1. Cup your ear, my people, to my instruction;
turn your ears toward the words of my mouth!
2. I will open my mouth in an allegory;
I will utter obscure riddles from ancient times
3. which we have heard and been familiar with,
which our parents have recounted for us.
4. We will not conceal them from their descendants--from a later generation,
passing down to them the praises of YHWH,
His forcefulness and His marvelous deeds, which He has done.
5. He established [both] evidence in Yaaqov and appointed instruction in Israel
which He gave to our fathers as orders so they would make it known to their children
6. in order that a later generation, children yet to be born,
So that when they arise they might pass them on to their own children,
7. so that they might put their confidence in Elohim
and not forget the acts of El, but preserve His commandments
8. and not be like their ancestors—a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation that did not fix its heart [in the right place], nor was its spirit faithful to El.
9. The descendants of Efrayim, being armed and carrying bows,
Turned back in the day of drawing near [to battle].
10. They did not guard the covenant of Elohim,
And refused to walk in His Instruction [Torah],
11. and they forgot His acts
and His marvelous doings, which they had been permitted to see.
12. Right in front of their fathers He had done marvels
In the land of Mitzrayim, the field of Tzoan:
Mitzrayim: that is, Egypt.
13. He split the sea and let them pass through [it]
and made the waters stand up like a mound!
14. He guided them with both a cloud by day
and all night by the light of a fire.
15. He split open rocks in the wilderness,
And gave them a drink like the ocean-depths for abundance!
16. He also brought flowing streams out of a cliff
and they ran down like rivers of water,
17. Yet they sinned against Him even more
to rebel against the Most High in the dry place.
18. They put El to the test in their hearts
by asking for food according to their appetites.
Their appetites: the kind they preferred, rather than accepting what He had lavishly provided for them.
19. They spoke against Elohim in their hearts, saying,
“Is El able to set a table in the wilderness?
20. “Sure, he struck a rock and waters gushed out and torrents flowed strongly;
Can He also provide bread or arrange for His people [to eat] meat?”
21. Therefore, when YHWH heard this, He was “over the top”,
And a fire was kindled against Yaaqov and [His] anger also rose up against Israel
22. because they did not trust in Elohim,
nor were they confident about His deliverance,
23. though He had appointed clouds from above
and had opened the doors of the skies
These clouds were of carbon and hydrogen (forming carbohydrates) rather than hydrogen and oxygen (which bring water):
24. and rained down manna upon them to eat;
He gave them the grain of heaven!
25. Men ate the bread of valiant [angels];
He sent them provision until they were satisfied.
Since this psalm is one of Asaf’s and is therefore part of the “marching orders” for the latter days, we should expect YHWH to provide something like manna again during our greater Exodus, and not worry or complain.
26. He started an east [wind blowing] in the skies,
and by His power He drove along a south [wind]
27. and rained meat on them like dust
and winged fowl like the sand of the seas.
This is referring to the quail that came twice for them. (Ex. 16:13; Num. 11:31)
28. He let them fall in the midst of His camp;
all around His dwelling-places.
29. So they ate until they were very full;
He gave them what they lusted for.
30. Their craving was not turned away,
[but] while their food was still in their mouths,
31. Elohim’s anger arose against them
and He killed the stoutest of them and brought down the choicest in Israel.
32. Despite all this, they sinned even more
and did not have faith in His [ability to do] deeds beyond their understanding,
“All of these things were written for our instruction.” (Romans 15:4; 1 Corinthians 10:11)
33. so He consumed their days with futility
And their years with calamity.
This is one of the worst punishments He could mete out—letting our whole lives be wasted without accomplishing anything.
34. When H killed them, then they consulted Him
and came back and diligently sought out El
35. and they remembered that Elohim was their Rock [of refuge]
and the Highest Elohim was their Redeemer.
36. Yet they deceived Him with their mouth
and lied to Him with their tongue,
37. because their heart was not right toward Him
nor were they faithful to His covenant.
38. Yet He, [full of] compassion, covered their crookedness and did not destroy [them],
And many times He turned away His anger and did not stir up all the heat [of] His [rage].
39. And He remembered that they were [mere] flesh,
a breath that goes away and does not return.
40. How often they embittered Him in the uninhabited land,
and grieved Him in the desert.
41. They both kept coming back and putting El to the test
and irritating the Holy One of Israel.
42. They did not remember His hand,
the day He ransomed them from the oppressor
43. when He put signs in place in Egypt,
and His wonders in the field of Tzoan
44. when He transformed their rivers into blood
and they could hardly drink from their streams.
45. He sent among them swarms, which devoured them,
and frogs, which rotted [on] them.
46. Then He gave their crops to the grasshopper
and their hard-earned produce to the swarm of locusts,
Grasshopper: or another species of locust.
47. He destroyed their vines with hail,
and their fig-bearing sycamore trees with free-[falling stones].
The last term is found in the Scriptures only once (other than as a proper name), and is often rendered “frost” or “sleet”, which would make sense with figs, but would not destroy whole trees, nor is there any mention of frost in the Exodus account, and it seems to be related to the word for “free” or “for nothing”; it is undoubtedly a poetic parallel synonym for the hailstones that were mixed with fire (Ex. 9:24), a kind never before seen in Egypt (9:18), big enough to break trees (9:25) and kill animals as well (v. 48), thus more likely some kind of meteoric stones larger than normal hail, though they were icy; Patten thinks they were the fragments of a former icy planet dragged along by Mars’ gravitation until it crossed earth’s orbit as it used to every 54 years until 701 B.C.E. when the poles repelled and threw both into their current orbits.
48. He also delivered up their animals to the hail
and their livestock to the thunderbolts.
Thunderbolts: another common feature of the scenario described in the note to v. 47. These were larger than mere lightning-bolts, and were frighteningly and irritatingly loud. (Ex. 9:28)
49. He sent upon them the fierce heat of His anger—
overflowing fury and indignation and distress--
by sending evil angels.
Angels: or messengers. Velikovsky sees in the unpointed phrase the possibility of “shepherd-kings”, a description found elsewhere of the Hyksos, who invaded and took over Egypt, possibly at this time.
50. He leveled off a pathway for His anger;
He did not hold their souls back from death,
but closed off their lives to the plague.
51. Then He struck down every firstborn in Egypt,
The initial generative vigor in the tents of Kham,
Kham: the son of Noakh who was Mizrayim’s (Egypt’s) ancestor.
52. but He let His own people set forth like sheep,
and led them like a flock through the wilderness.
53. And He guided them to safety, so that they were no [longer] in dread,
But the sea covered their enemies [overwhelmingly],
54. and He brought them to His holy border,
those His right hand had acquired [He conducted to] this mountain.
55. He also drove out nations before them
and caused [them] to fall to them as an inheritance by measuring cord,
and let the tribes of Israel live in their tents.
56. Yet they put Him to the test and rebelled against Elohim Most High,
and did not guard what He gave them as evidence.
57. Rather, they slid backward and acted treacherously just like their parents
and reversed themselves like a slackened bow.
58. Then they kept provoking Him to anger with their cultic platforms
and moved Him o jealousy with their idols.
59. Elohim heard this and went “over the top”,
and intensely rejected Israel
Rejected: the phrase is structured in the same manner as choosing something—but in this case it is choosing against them.
60. and cast off the Dwelling Place that was for Him,
the tent where He had established [in which] to settle among humanity
61. and delivered His strength into captivity,
and the finery of which He had boasted into the hand of an oppressor.
62. He both delivered His people over to the sword
and overflowed with fury at His inheritance.
63. Fire consumed His choice young men,
And His young virgins were not raved about.
64. His priests fell by the sword
and His widows were not bewailing [them].
65. Then Adonai awoke as if from sleep,
Like a mighty hero shouts because [he is] overcome with wine,
66. and He beat His enemies back,
and made them a perpetual object of scorn.
67. But He rejected the tent of Yosef
and did not choose the tribe of Efrayim
Efrayim is where Shiloh, the long-time but temporary place of the Tabernacle, had been. The phrase “that was for Him” in verse 60 may be an alternate spelling of “Shilo”.
68. but did choose the tribe of Yehudah,
Mount Tzion, which He loved,
He moved His sanctuary permanently to Yerushalayim (the City of David), which is in Yehudah’s territory (though the Temple, when built, was just across the border into Binyamin’s territory north of Yerushalayim, but Binyamin remained part of the Kingdom of Yedhuah when the nation was divided:
69. and He built up His sanctuary like lofty heights,
like the earth, whose foundation [He has] laid until the Age.
70. Then He chose His servant Dawid,
And fetched him from the shelters [for] sheep.
71. He brought him from behind nursing [ewes]
to shepherd His people, Yaaqov, and Israel His heritage.
This parallels Moshe’s experience.
72. And shepherd them he did, according to the integrity of his heart
And led them with the [discerning] skill of the palms of his [hands].
This is the kind of ruler YHWH wanted for His people, not one like Sha’ul, whom the people demanded. Dawid is a foreshadowing of his anointed descendant, who will shepherd the nations (Psalm 2:9, disambiguated by Revelation 2:27) and rule in righteousness and mercy. (Yeshayahu 16:5)
PSALM 79
(A psalm of Asaf)
1. O Elohim, the Gentiles have entered into Your inheritance!
They have defiled Your holy Temple!
They have turned Yerushalayim into heaps of ruins!
2. They have given the dead bodies of Your servants
to the fowls of the skies as food,
the flesh of Your pious ones to the wild beasts of the earth!
Skies: or heavens; fowl and wild beasts are often an idiom for demonic spirits, if we read this on the metaphorical level as well.
3. They have shed their blood like water all around Yerushalayim,
And there is no one to bury [them]!
4. We have become an object of scorn to our neighbors,
[fuel for] mockery and ridicule to those all around us.
The heartless nations around us will only taunt and not sympathize.
5. Until what, O YHWH? Will You be angry until the end of time?
Will Your jealousy burn like fire?
6. Pour out Your wrath on the nations who do not know You,
and on the dominions that do not call on Your Name!
Instead of on us, Your own people, that is.
7. Because they have devoured Yaaqov,
And devastated his pleasant abode!
8. Don’t remember our initial perversions against us;
Quickly bring forward Your compassions toward us, because we have been brought very low!
9. Help us, O Elohim of our deliverance, in regard to the matter of the importance of Your Name!
Both rescue us and provide a covering over our errors, for Your Name’s sake!
In regard to the matter: literally, upon the word.
10. Why should the nations say, “Where did their Elohim go?”
Let there be known among the nations, in our sight,
the avenging of the blood of Your servants which has been shed!
11. Let the groaning of Your prisoners come before You;
according to the magnificence of Your arm, keep alive the sons appointed for death!
In every age there have been servants of His unjustly held captive by those who simply do not want His truth to be known publicly.
12. And return sevenfold into the bosom of our neighbors
the reproach with which they taunted You, O Adonai,
13. and we, Your people and the sheep of Your pasture,
will keep giving thanks to You forever,
And generation upon generation will recount Your praise [to the next after it]!
PSALM 80
(For the Director [of Music], to [the tune of] “Six-Petalled Flowers”.
A testimony of Asaf; a psalm)
Six-petalled: often translated “rose of Sharon”, this is a misnomer, because though it grows on the Sharon Plain, it is not a rose. Based on the word for “six”, various possibilities include a daffodil, lily, or narcissus.
1. O Shepherd of Israel, cup Your ear! You Who lead Yosef like a flock;
You Who sit [between] the kh’ruvim, send out rays [of light]!
Kh’ruvim: a class of guardian angels associated with YHWH’s throne or other holy places (like Eden). This is a specific reference to His “seat” atop the Ark of the Covenant.
2. In the presence of Efrayim and Binyamin and M’nasheh,
stir up Your valor and come to our rescue!
These are all the tribes of Yosef (v. 1) and may have a special connection with the latter-day return of these particular tribes; Efrayim led the tribes that were still known as Israel (v. 1) after the nation was divided.
3. O Elohim, bring us back!
Let Your face brighten up, and we will be delivered.
Let Your face brighten up: a direct quote, put into the second person, of the blessing Aharon placed on all Israel when we were all still united. (Numbers 6:24-25)
4. O YHWH, Elohim of Armies,
how long will Your [nostrils breathe out] smoke against the prayers of Your people?
5. You have fed them bread [salted with] tears,
and made them drink three times as many tears!
6. You have set us at odds with our neighbors,
And our enemies deride [us] to one another.
This may be referring to the animosity between Yehudah and Yosef before the North seceded.
7. O Elohim of Armies, bring us back!
Let Your face brighten up, and we will be delivered.
8. You have plucked up a vine out of Mitzrayim,
and driven away the nations that had planted it.
Mitzrayim: Egypt.
9. You cleared away [space] for it and caused it to root itself deeply,
and it has filled the Land!
10. Mountains were covered with its shade,
And its boughs [overshadowed] the mighty cedars!
Cedars: the largest trees in the region, specifically in Levanon, which at that time (prior to a climatic and probably polar shift) grew to be as large as Redwoods or Sequoias.
11. It sent out what is to be harvested from it as far as the sea,
and its young shoots to the [great] River.
This is an allusion to Yaaqov’s deathbed prophecy about Yosef, that his branches would spill over a wall. (Gen. 49:22) But this account far exceeds that!
12. Why have You broken down its protective fences,
so that all who pass by [on the] road pluck [its fruit]?
13. The [wild] boar of the forest tears it off,
And the moving creature of the field devours it [like pasture].
14. O Elohim of Armies, we beg You to come back!
Pay attention from the heavens, and notice and take care of this vine,
15. as well as the stock which Your right hand planted
and, additionally, the branch that You strengthened for Yourself!
16. It has been burned with fire and cut down;
with a disapproving look [from] Your face, they [wither] away and die.
Disapproving: or threatening, reproving.
17. Let Your hand be on the man of Your right hand,
Upon the Son of Adam whom You have made strong for Yourself,
This sounds like a reference to the Messiah. (Compare Dani’el 7:13.)
18. and we will not back away from You;
Revive us, and we will call on Your Name.
Revive: or keep us alive, let us keep living.
19. O YHWH, Elohim of Armies, restore us!
Let Your face brighten up, and we will be delivered!
This repeated theme seems like a clear call from the lost tribes of Israel to be brought back into covenant with the One we left.
PSALM 81
(For the Director [of Music], to the tune of “The Girl from Gath”; belonging to Asaf)
This psalm is one of those providing the instructions about how the worship in the Temple is to be carried out:
1 Sing aloud unto YHWH our strength:
make a joyful noise unto the Elohim of Yaaqov.
2 Take [up] a psalm, and bring here the tambourine,
and the pleasant harp with the psaltery.
Tambourine: or any percussion instrument. Harp: literally, a stringed instrument that “twangs”, so it could include a banjo or guitar in modern times. Psaltery: or lyre; a small, ten-stringed harp. An extra-biblical Jewish prophecy said that those who see these harps begin to again be used will live to see the days of Messiah. They have begun being made again in the Land of Israel in recent days by people who were not aware of this prophecy at the time they began.
3. Give a blast with the shofar on the new moon,
at the time appointed, on our feast day.
Feast day: the Hebrew word is based on the word for "circle", since on them we dance in a circle. The festivals are also a repeating "cycle" that brings us back to their themes year after year so we can learn more, but this is not a vicious cycle. It spirals higher with each round, bringing us closer to our goal.
4. For this is a statute for Israel,
and a law of the Elohim of Yaaqov.
5. This he ordained in Yosef as a testimony, when he went out into the land of Egypt, where I heard a language I did not understand.
In Yosef: or possibly, another or again. Like Yosef our ancestor, the house of Efrayim was scattered throughout the whole world, among foreign peoples. What he learned there were things unfamiliar to Yosef. Egypt is often a picture of the church that mixed YHWH's truth with paganism. Here alone is Yosef spelled “Yehosef”, with an added “heh”, suggesting YHWH’s name being put within his own, alluding to the “Messiah ben Yosef”, who would later come in the name of YHWH. Yeshua said the Psalms, too, spoke of him. (Luke 24:44ff) Tradition (per R. Levi ben Gershon on tractate Sukkah 52a) says Yosef was released from prison and elevated to second-in-command on Yom T’ruah ((the only feast that falls on the new moon, see verse 3), foreshadowing Yeshua’s immersion and subsequent recognition as king of Israel, reporting only to the Father, at this same time of year. Yosef also means “he will repeat” or “add a second instance” of something. This may be what made the ancient sages think there would be two Messiahs, one of them called the “son of Yosef”, who would die, and one, the Son of David, the conquering king and emperor. But the “adding another instance” motif answers this quandary, telling us that one Messiah can fill both roles, for Yom T’ruah is also associated with the resurrection of the dead, of which Messiah was the firstfruits.(Ben Mordechai)
6. “I removed his shoulder from the burden:
his hands were delivered from the pots.
7. “You called in trouble, and I delivered you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah.
Ponder this. [musical interlude]
Waters of Meribah: The story is in Exodus 17.
8 “Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto you: O Israel, if you will hearken unto me;
9. “There will be no foreign elohim among you; nor will you worship any foreign elohim.
10 “I am YHWH your Elohim, which brought you out of the land of Egypt: open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
He wants to feed us with the heritage of Yaaqov (cf. v. 1).
11 “But my people would not listen to my voice;
and Israel would have none of me.
12 “So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust:
and they walked in their own counsels.
13 “Oh that my people would have obeyed me,
and that Israel would have walked in my ways!
Yet Israel (the Northern Kingdom) mixed itself with the nations. (Hoshea 7:8)
14 “I would have subdued their enemies quickly,
and turned my hand against their adversaries.
15 “The haters of YHWH would have submitted themselves unto him:
but their time would have lasted for ever.”
Or, their adversaries, the haters of YHWH, who feign obedience to Him; but [Israel's] season would be the [messianic] Age.
16 He would have fed them also with the finest of the wheat:
and with honey out of the rock would I have satisfied you.
This is the promise in Deuteronomy 32:13, which is the Torah portion read during the week of Yom Kippur and Sukkoth. Finest of the wheat: this correlates with the last of the first group of festivals in the spring, Shavuoth, when the wheat harvest begins and the finest is brought to the Temple to be given to the priests and Levites. But those who bring it share the feast with them, and have fellowship with YHWH there at the place He has chosen for His Name.
PSALM 82
(A psalm of Asaf)
1. Elohim takes His stand in the congregation of El;
In the innermost circle of the mighty ones, He governs as the [ultimate] judge:
2. “Until when will you make unjust rulings,
And lift up the faces of the wicked?
Ponder [this].
Lift up the faces: an idiom for showing partiality.
3. “Vindicate the poor and fatherless;
Do justice on behalf of the downtrodden and needy!
4. “Deliver the weak and oppressed [to safety];
Rescue them out of the hand of the wicked!”
5. They are not skillful at recognizing; they do not [know how to] make distinctions.
They walk around in dark places; all the foundations of the Land are unstable!
Unstable: shaken, tottering, about to slip and fall down, easily dislodged or overthrown. When society begins to take bribes or give advantages to an untried party in court, there is no end to what corruption could gain a foothold; it is a slippery slope from there.
6. I declared, “You are gods, children of the Most High all of you!
Gods: Heb., elohim, specifically judges or might ones, but having great power over other people because of this.
7. “Nevertheless you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes!”
They think their position puts them out of reach of being called on the carpet, but the highest Elohim (v. 1) will hold them all accountable; they are not as immortal as they think.
8. Rise up, O Elohim, [and] judge the earth!
You shall acquire all the nations as [Your] possession!
Possession: or inheritance. Psalm 2 says YHWH will, in turn, give all the nations to the Messiah as an inheritance if he asks for them, knowing he will judge them rightly. (9:8)
PSALM 83
(A Song; a Psalm of Asaf)
1. O Elohim, do not keep Yourself quiet;
do not be silent and do not remain still, O El!
2. Because, look! Your enemies are in an uproar;
Those who hate You have gained the advantage!
An uproar: loud and clamoring for attention, while it appears YHWH is not doing anything about it.
3. They have craftily conspired against Your people;
And taken counsel to devise a plan against those You have treasured up [and hidden away]!
Hidden away: possibly in the wilderness refuge He promised to let us shelter in while He brings His wrath on the wicked. (Yeshayahu/Isa. 26:20)
4. They have said, “Come, let us keep them from being a nation;
and let the name of Israel be remembered no more!”
Keep them: hide then, cut them off, block their way. This could apply to Hitler’s genocide or the 1948 war to keep Yehudah from forming the modern nation of Israel by pushing it into the sea, but also may have an application in the context mentioned above, when the whole world is in the position to “cancel” Israel’s nationhood because they will not comply with its wishes.
5. Because they have made plans together with a unified purpose;
Against You they are forming an alliance:
6. the tents of Edom and the Yishma’elites,
Moav and the nomads,
Nomads: Bedouins, wanderers, or possibly a proper name, the Hagrites.
7. G’val and ‘Ammon and ‘Amaleq,
Filistia with the inhabitants of Tzur.
Tzur: or Tyre.
8. Even Assyria has joined in with them;
They have armed the sons of Lot.
Ponder [this].
These ancient nations inhabited what are now the territories of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, and parts of Turkey and Iraq; the Yishma’elites are the Arabs in general. So this seems to fit with an event like the Six-Day War in 1967 or the Yom Kippur War in 1973, where they all gang up to converge on Israel. The scenario may be repeated.
9. Deal with them as [You did with] Midyan, as [with] Sis’ra’,
As [with] Yavin at the Qishon River,
10. who were annihilated at ‘Eyn D’or
[and] became decomposing organic matter, turning into soil.
11. Make their volunteer [soldier]s like ‘Orev and like Z’ev,
Ad all their anointed princes like Z’vakh and Tzalmunna,
‘Orev and Z’ev were two Midyanite princes killed in the war with Gid’on. (Judges 7:25) Z’vakh and Tzalmunna were their kings. (Judges 8:5)
12. who said, “Let us seize possession of Elohim’s pleasant pastures for ourselves!”
13. My Elohim, make them like the whirling dust,
Like chaff before the wind!
14. As a fire burns up a forest,
and as a flame sets mountains ablaze,
Sets ablaze: or scorches; literally, licks up.
15. in the same way, chase them down with Your raging storm,
And hurry them away with Your rushing wind!
Hurry: or terrify, disquiet, alarm.
16. Fill their faces with disgrace,
so that they may seek Your Name, O YHWH!
Seek: or try to find, request. This is the real goal, the best outcome: not that they be destroyed, but that their pride may be humbled and they become valuable, helpful human beings for the first time. He says, “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that [he] may turn from his way and live.” (Y’hezq’El/Ezek. 33:11)
17. Let them be continually put to shame and disturbed,
Until they are embarrassed and disappear,
Disappear: or get lost—i.e., shrink away and vanish from here and bother us no more.
18. so that they may acknowledge that You, Whose Name is YHWH,
Alone are the Most High over all the earth!
Acknowledge: or simply, come to know. He is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Kefa/Peter 3:9)
PSALM 84
(For the Director [of Music], on The Githith; a psalm of the sons of Qorakh)
The Githith: literally, the woman from Gath. This may be the name of a popular tune of that day; others think it was a musical instrument invented and/or manufactured in Gath, the Philistine city from which the giant Golyath came. Sons of Qorakh: It is a marvel of YHWH’s mercy and restoration that these children of a rebel did not perish with him (Num. 26:11), having not shared his attitude or philosophy, and later became worship leaders in the Temple. They were, after all, Levites from the family of Q’hath, Moshe and Aharon’s own sub-tribe. (Ex. 6:21-24)
1. How well-loved are Your dwelling-places,
O YHWH, [Master] of Armies!
2. My soul has longed and even pined away for YHWH’s courtyards!
My heart and my flesh give a ringing shout to the living El!
3. Even a sparrow has found a home,
a swallow a nest for herself, where she may put her young—
Your altars, O YHWH, [Master] of Armies, my King and my Elohim!
4. How blessed are those who inhabit Your house!
Still more will they keep on raving about You!
Ponder [this].
Blessed: from a word meaning “to advance”.
5. How blessed is the human being whose stabilizing strength is in You,
[whose] highways are in his heart!
Highways: the routes he follows on pilgrimage to YHWH’s Temple in Yerushalayim.
6. As they pass through the Valley of Weeping, they turn it into a spring [of water];
the [early] rain also envelops it with pools!
7. They go from strength to strength;
[each one] appears before YHWH in Tzion.
Strength: There are many Hebrew words for strength, but this one in particular means “capability”, often (but not always) with a military nuance. Appears before: literally, becomes visible to; i.e., presents himself.
8. O YHWH, Elohim of Armies, hear my prayer!
Extend Your ear, O Elohim of Yaaqov!
Ponder [this].
9. Our Defender—look, O Elohim!
And pay attention to the presence of Your anointed one.
10. Because [a single] day in Your courts is better than a thousand [anywhere else].
I have chosen to be a doorkeeper in the House of my Elohim
rather than to heap up [wealth] in the tents of wickedness,
11. because YHWH Elohim is a shining [battlement] and a shield.
YHWH will provide favor and dignity;
no good [thing] will He hold back from those who walk in integrity.
12. YHWH, [Master] of Armies,
blessed is the human being who puts his trust in You!
PSALM 85
(For the Director [of Music]; a psalm belonging to the descendants of Qorakh)
1. O YHWH, You have shown favor to Your Land;
You have returned the exiles of Yaaqov.
2. You have carried [away] the iniquity of Your people;
You have covered up all their sin.
Ponder [this]!
Carried: not forgiven in a vacuum, as some translations render it, but borne—by YHWH’s own representative who took it on himself, so that YHWH could justly dismiss it.
3. You have [gathered up and] removed all of Your [overflowing] fury;
You have turned back from the heat of Your exasperation.
4. Bring us back, O Elohim of our salvation,
and cast off Your anger with us.
Anger: or provocation. If He restores us, He will remove the need to be upset with us.
5. Will You be angry at us forever?
Will You prolong Your exasperation for generation upon generation?
6. Won’t You come back and revive us,
so that Your people may be glad about You?
Revive: literally, make us alive.
7. Let us see Your kindness,
and bestow on us Your deliverance!
8. I want to hear what the El—YHWH—will say, because He may promise peace to His people
and to His pious ones, but they must not turn back to foolishness!
9. His deliverance is certainly close to those who take Him seriously,
so that His honor may settle into our land.
10. Lovingkindness and truth have met one another;
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other!
This is especially true in Yeshua, who made it possible for YHWH to both justly deal with our wrongdoing and also show us mercy in a way that does not leave it unpunished.
11. Truth will sprout forth from the earth,
and righteousness will [lean out and] look down from the heavens.
12. YHWH will also give us [what is] good,
and our land will provide its produce.
13. Righteousness will go before Him.
and His footsteps will set a path in place [for us].
PSALM 86
(A prayer of David)
1. Stretch out Your ear, O YHWH! Answer me,
because I am afflicted and needy!
2. Guard my life, because I am devout.
You are my Elohim; save Your servant, who puts his trust in You!
3. Show me favor, my Lord,
because to You I call out all day [long].
4. Make the soul of Your servant glad,
because to You, O Lord, will I lift up my soul,
5. because You, Adonai, are agreeable and forgiving
and abounding in kindness to all who call on You.
6. Give ear to my prayer, O YHWH,
and be attentive to the sound of my pleas for favor!
7. In the day of my distress, I will call on You
because You will answer me.
8. There is none like You among the gods, O Adonai,
and there is nothing like Your achievements.
Yes, there are other divine beings called elohim, but no other YHWH.
9. All the nations that You have made
will come and bow down before You, O Adonai,
and they will give [weighty] honor to Your name
10. because You are great and You do things that are beyond [our power];
You alone are Elohim.
In contrast with verse 8, which acknowledges that there are other superhuman beings, in another sense there is only one Elohim, because He so outshines any of the lesser “deities” that they pale beside Him as if powerless in comparison. Any power and authority they have has been given or at least allowed by Him; they never have the final word.
11. Teach me Your way, O YHWH; I will walk in Your [reliable] truth!
Unite my heart to stand in awe of Your Name.
So often our hearts are divided between many interests and attitudes (and even other objects of worship, as seen above), but He can reverse that if we allow Him to train us about what is most real from His perspective.
12. I will thank You, O Adonai my Elohim, with all my heart;
I will give [the most] weight to Your name forevermore
13. because Your kindness toward me is immense;
You have snatched my life out of the lowest part of the underworld!
The underworld: Heb., She’ol, which usually connotes the grave, but literally means “the place that is inquired about”, since we do not enter it, except metaphorically as here, until the time we cannot come back to tell about it.
14. O Elohim, the arrogant have risen up against me
and a mob of ruthless men are seeking my life
and they have not set You in their purview.
Arrogant: or presumptuous, proud, insolent. Purview: within their sights, and He is not conspicuous to them; they do not take YHWH into account when making their plan and purposes.
15. But You, Adonai, are a compassionate and considerate El,
Slow to anger and abounding in kindness and faithfulness.
Slow to anger: literally, of lengthened nostrils—giving His wrath plenty of distance to cool off!
16. Turn to me and show me consideration; bestow strength on your servant
and save the son of Your maidservant!
17. Effect a distinguishing sign for my benefit,
so that those who hate me may see it and be put to shame,
because You, O YHWH, have helped me and brought me consolation.
Consolation: or comfort.
PSALM 87
(A psalm of the descendants of Qorakh; a song)
1. His foundation is on the holy mountains.
His: apparently referring to YHWH, as both Tzion and “city” are feminine words in Hebrew. Holy mountains: Tzion and Moryah.
2. YHWH loves the gates of Tzion
More than all the dwelling-places of Yaaqov.
3. Things made honorable are declared in regard to You,
O city of Elohim!
Ponder [this].
4. I will make mention of Rahav and Bavel to those who know me:
“Look, Filistia and Tzur, along with Kush! This one was born there.”
Rahav: “the broad place”, an idiom for Egypt (Strong’s Concordance), which ironically means, “The two narrow places”! More logically, I can also mean, “the arrogant boaster”. Tzur”: a.k.a., Tyre. Kush: a son of Kham, most often but not always referring to Kushites who settled in Ethiopia.
5. But of Tzion it will be said, “[One] man and [another] man, born in her!”
And, “He will establish her [as] the highest.”
6. When He registers [the] peoples, YHWH will record,
“This one was born there.”
Ponder [this].
7. Both singers [and] instrumentalists: “All my sources are in you!”
Singers and instrumentalists: This may be a musical notation as to whom is to perform this part of the song, as opposed to one or the other.
PSALM 88
(A song, a psalm belonging to the descendants of Qorakh, for the Director [of Music], set to “Makhalath for the Afflicted”; a contemplative poem of Heymawn the Ezrakhite)
1. O YHWH, Elohim of my deliverance,
I have cried out to You [by] day, right in front of You by night!
2. Let my prayer come before You;
Incline Your ear to my outcry,
3. because my soul has had its fill of troubles,
and my soul is about to reach the underworld!
4. I am counted with those who are going down to a pit;
I have become like a hero who no [longer] has strength!
5. Adrift among the dead, like those pierced who lie in a grave,
whom You no longer remember, and they are cut loose from Your hand.
Adrift: literally, free—i.e., untethered.
6. You have put me in the very lowest pit,
in dark places in the depths [of the sea]!
7. Your hot displeasure leans heavily upon me,
and You have pressed me down with Your waves.
Ponder [this]!
8. You have sent the [people] I know far away from me;
you have made me disgusting to them.
I am restrained and I can’t get out!
9. My eye is tired because of my affliction; I have called out to You, O YHWH!
Every day I have spread out the palms of my hands to You.
10. Will You work wonders for the dead,
as if the ghosts of the dead would rise up and thank You?
Ponder [this].
11. Will Your lovingkindness be recounted in the grave?
Your faithfulness in the place of great annihilation?
Place of great annihilation (or loss, destruction): Heb., Abaddon (also referred to in Rev. 9:11).
12. Can Your miracles be recognized in the darkness,
or Your righteous [deeds be known] in the land of forgetting?
13. But to You, O YHWH, I have [cried out] for deliverance,
and in the morning my prayer comes before You.
14. Why, O YHWH, do You push my soul aside [like something that stinks]?
Are You hiding Your face from me?
15. Afflicted I [am], [having been] about to perish since [my] youth.
I have borne Your terrors; I am perplexed!
16. The worst of Your anger has passed onto me;
alarms that You [have caused] have put an end to me!
This could very well be a Messianic prophecy paralleling Psalm 22.
17. They have surrounded me like water all day long;
they have encompassed me as one [man].
18. You have distanced from me [both] loved one and fellow,
And [put] my acquaintances [in] a dark place!
PSALM 89
(A contemplative poem of Eythan the Ezrakhite)
Eythan: one to whose wisdom King Shlomoh’s was compared as surpassing it yet still great. (1 Kings 4:31)
1. I will sing of the kindnesses of YHWH forever,
and with my mouth [I will] make Your faithfulness known from generation to generation,
2. because I have long said, “Lovingkindness will be [re]built in the heavens;
You will establish Your faithfulness in them!”
Rebuilt: after the rebellion of haSatan (Yeshayahu 14:14)?
3. “I have ratified a covenant with My chosen;
I have sworn an oath to My servant David:
4. “I will [firmly] establish Your seed forever,
and [continue to] build up Your throne for generation [after] generation.”
Ponder [this].
5. So the heavens will confess Your marvels, O YHWH,
and Your faithfulness, of course, [be praised] in the assembly of the holy ones,
6. because who on the clouds can be set beside YHWH [as His equal]?
And who among the sons of the gods can be compared to YHWH?
7. El is to be regarded with respect in the secret councils of the holy ones,
[as] great and awe-inspiring above all those around Him!
8. O YHWH, Elohim of Armies, who is like You?
And Your faithfulness surrounds You, O treasured Yah!
9. You rule [over] the raging of the sea,
and when its waves rise up, You calm them down!
One cannot help but think of how YHWH’s visible representative (Yoch. 1:18) stilled the storm. (Markos 4:39)
10. You have crushed Rahav like one who is mortally pierced;
with the arm of Your might, You have scattered Your enemies.
Rahav: the “broad”, arrogant one, often symbolic of Egypt.
11. Yours are the heavens; of course, earth is Yours—the world and all that fills it;
You have laid their foundation.
12. The north and the south—You have created them;
Tavor and Hermon shout for joy in Your name.
Tavor and Hermon are the most prominent mountains in Israel.
13. You have an arm with heroic strength!
Your hand prevails; Your right hand is lifted high.
14. Righteousness and justice are the [immovable] foundation of Your throne;
lovingkindness and truth go before Your face.
15. Blessed are the people who recognize the [awakening] blast;
they will walk in the light of Your face, O YHWH!
This may refer to the last trump (1 Cor. 15:52) on Yom T’ruah (as the word for blast is the same), which would transport them directly into the Kingdom.
16. They will rejoice in Your name all day long,
and by Your righteousness they will be lifted high
17. because You are the splendor of their strength;
and by Your favorable acceptance our horn will be raised up high
Horn: as with an animal whose horns give it more strength; raising it up is symbolic of triumph and victory, with the consequent prosperity that results.
18. because our defense belongs to YHWH
and to the Holy One of Israel, our King!
Our king: seems to be in addition to YHWH, so it may be referring specifically to His messiah.
19. Then You spoke in a vision to Your devout one and said,
“I have furnished against a heroic [warrior]
and raised up a vigorous young man from among the people.
Heroic warrior: Golyath.
20. “I have found My servant, David,
and have anointed him with My holy oil--
21. “with whom My hand shall be established;
My arm will certainly embolden him.
22. “An enemy will not delay him,
nor the son of evil afflict him.
23. “I will beat down his oppressors before his face,
and strike down those who hate him.
24. “But My faithfulness and My kindness will be with him,
And in My name will his horn be raised high.
25. “I will also extend his hand over the sea
and his right hand over the rivers.
26. “He will call out to Me, ‘You are My Father,
my El, and the Rock of m salvation!’
“Son of Elohim” is a title of the king in the line of David who sits on Israel’s throne. (cf. Psalm 2)
27. “Not only that; I’ll make him My firstborn—
highest of the kings of earth!
Literally, “Most high to the kings of earth”. Yeshua, the quintessential seed of David (v. 29), is called “the firstborn” in Luke 2:7; Rom. 8:29; Col. 1:15, 18; and Heb. 12:23.
28. “Forever I will guard My kindness to him,
and My covenant will be established for him.
29. “For perpetuity I will establish his seed
and [make] his throne [endure] like the days of [the] heavens.
30. “If his sons forsake My instruction
and do not walk in My legal procedures--
31. “if they desecrate My prescribed customs
and do not guard My commandments,
32. “I will attend to their transgression with the rod.
and their crookedness with blows,
33. “but My lovingkindness I will not utterly withdraw from him
nor allow My faithfulness to fail.
34. “I will not violate My covenant
or alter what has come forth from My lips.
35. “Once [and for all] I have sworn in My holiness,
‘If I should ever prove to be a liar to David…’
36. “His seed will exist into the Age,
and his throne [be] before Me like the sun!
37. “Like the moon—the faithful witness in the clouds--
will he be established.”
Ponder [this].
38. Yet You have cast off and rejected [him]
and let Yourself pass by Your anointed one!
This may be what Eythan felt when Shlomo’s son, only the third generation from David, lost the majority of the Kingdom. It would also be how Yeshua felt when apparently abandoned to a cross. (Psalm 22)
39. You have abandoned the covenant of Your servant
and let his crown [fall] to the earth, desecrated!
40. You have breached all his walls;
You have brought all his strongholds to ruin!
It would especially seem this way to the generation of Y’hoyaqim (Yirmeyahu 36:30) and afterward, but YHWH had a roundabout way of restoring His covenant and keeping His promises even when David’s sons failed.
41. All who pass by on the road have plundered him;
he has become an object of scorn to his neighbors.
42. You have lifted up the right hand of his adversaries
and made all of his enemies celebrate!
43. You have even turned back the hardness of his sword
and not allowed him to stand in battle.
44. You have put an end to his lustre
and cast his throne down to the ground!
Lustre: or clarity, purity.
45. You have cut short the days of his youthful vigor;
You have enwrapped him with shame.
Ponder [this].
46. Until when, O YHWH? Will You conceal Yourself until the very end?
Will Your indignation burn just like fire?
47. Remind me how short a lifespan is.
For what futile [purpose] have You created all the sons of Adam?
Eythan too had probably heard Shlomoh’s words in the book of Qoheleth about how futile life seems.
48. Who is the heroic warrior who can go on living and not see death?
Can he make his soul escape from the hand of She’ol?
Ponder [this].
49. Where are Your earlier kindnesses, O Adonai,
By which You promised to be faithful to Your servant David?
50. Remember, Adonai, the disgraced state of Your servants,
how I bear in my bosom [the reproach of] all the many peoples
51. with which Your enemies, O YHWH, have taunted—
with which they have jeopardized the footsteps of Your anointed one!
52. May YHWH be blessed forevermore!
Amen and amen!
He is confident that YHWH still holds out hope to His people.
PSALM 90
A Prayer of Moshe, the man of YHWH.
1. My Master, You have been a dwelling-place for us through generation [after] generation.
2. Before mountains were brought forth or the world was even started up, let alone habitable--from the hidden [past] to the hidden [days to come], You are El.
3. Turn mortal humanity back into dust and say, “Return, O children of Adam!”
Into dust: being crushed, thus figuratively, to humility and contrition. (Strong) I.e., bring the proud to recognize that their accomplishments are really fragile and only permanent when He allows them to remain, because while we bear the image of Adam rather than the image of Elohim as we were meant to (compare Gen. 1:26 with Gen. 5:3), we are not what we are supposed to be, but we can be so distracted with the giddiness of the truly petty things we have built that we fail to recognize our plight until YHWH knocks the supports out from under us.
4. Because a thousand years in Your eyes are like a day—yesterday, because it is over—or like a [mere] watch in the night.
A day: from this the ancients derived the teaching that the present age would last six “days” (6,000 years) and be followed by a Sabbath of another thousand, when the earth would be at rest. Watch in the night--three hours in length, then one guard is relieved by a successor. He is emphasizing how quickly time “goes by” for someone as grand and ancient as YHWH. How short are our lives in comparison—his very point. (v. 12)
5. You sweep them away like a flood! They have become like sleep in the morning, like grass that springs up [quickly]:
Like a flood: i.e., they rush on by. Sleep in the morning: i.e., “Where did the time go?” There was not enough of it.
6. In the morning it glistens [with dew] and sprouts [and flourishes] to the evening, [when] it is cut down and dried.
7. Because we have been brought to an end by Your anger, and we are terrified by the heat [of] Your [fury]!
8. You have set our crookednesses down [right] in front of You, [and placed] our secrets into the light of Your face,
There is no way we can hide them anymore.
9. because all of our days have turned away when Your rage overflowed; we use up our years like a mournful sigh.
Mournful sigh: exhausting all of our breath.
10. The days of our lives--in them [are] seventy years; if we are really strong, eighty years! But the whole extent of them is laborious and troublesome, and so soon they are cut short, and away we fly!
Lives: literally, years. Did Moshe write this when he was still less than 80 years old, thinking his life was over before the burning bush “rekindled his flame”? Laborious and troublesome: The book of Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes) develops this thought with many examples.
11. Who knows the power of Your nostrils, and [our] fear of You is proportionate with Your fury.
12. So make known to us [how] to take inventory of our days, so that we may be brought a heart of wisdom.
Take inventory: count out one by one, pick up and inspect, identify and isolate, look at in the context of the larger picture and apportion out versus simply numbering (David Ison), examine, allocate (Ex. 29:26), so as to make the best use of them while we still have strength. (Compare Qoheleth 12:1ff)
13. Restore, O YHWH! How long? And be moved to have compassion on Your servants!
Restore: literally, bring back or turn back. In Yoel 2:25, YHWH promises to restore even the years that swarming, devouring insects have robbed us of, since He had sent them on us to turn us back to Him.
14. Satisfy us [early] in the morning with Your kindness, and we will shout for joy and be glad all of our days!
And we will: or, so that we may…
15. Make us glad commensurate with the number of days You have afflicted us, and the years when we have seen trouble.
Afflicted: or humbled.
16. Let your work appear to Your servants, and Your importance to their children.
17. May the pleasantness of Adonai our Elohim be upon us;
establish on our behalf the works of our hands.
Indeed, establish the works of our hands!
Establish: or make firm, for if He does not make our accomplishments last, no one else can.
PSALM 91
1. The one who resides in the sheltered hiding-place of the Most High will lodge himself in the shade of the Almighty.
Shade: or shadow, emphasizing that it is dark enough to conceal where he is staying. This may refer to being back under His protective cloud as when it hid Israel from the Egyptian army at night.
2. To YHWH I will say, “My Refuge and my Fortress! My Elohim!” On Him I will rely [for my security],
3. because He will pull you up out of the trapper’s snare, from the abysmal pestilence.
Snare: a rope-mesh designed to entangle animals or birds. Abysmal pestilence: or calamitous plague.
4. He will hedge you in with His pinions, and under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield and bulwark.
Bulwark: or buckler, a different type of shield, which surrounds a soldier more completely; the emphasis in either case is on His shielding us from all sides.
5. You will not be afraid of what causes [others] panic at night [or] of the arrow that flies by day,
6. of the pestilence that spreads steadily through the gloom, of the stinging destruction that devastates at noon.
7. A thousand may fall from right beside you, ten thousand near your right hand, [but] it will not approach you.
YHWH is in control of His wasting judgments, selecting specifically who will or will not be hit by things that would otherwise seem juggernauts.
8. Only with your eyes will you gaze on [it] and watch the payback of the wicked.
Again, YHWH specifically targets those who have already proven incorrigible, and we will be able to take note of His reasons for who is felled by His judgments.
9. Because you have made YHWH, [who is] my Refuge--the Most High—your place of retreat,
10. no trouble will encounter you, nor will any scarring plague strike near your tent,
Tent: this suggests that Israel will be camping together in the wilderness again while YHWH’s wrath comes on the nations that have gone too far in their rejection of His ways.
11. because He will give His messengers orders concerning you, to guard you in all of your travels.
Travels: In the second and greater Exodus (Yirmeyahu 23:7), as we are gathered from all nations, we will have to pass between many dangers, but He will make a path for us even through the seas again if need be.
12. They will lift you up upon the palms of their hands lest you strike your foot against a stone.
13. You will tread on the fierce [lion] and on the venomous snake; you will trample the young lion and the crocodile!
14. “Because he has taken delight in Me, I will rescue him; because he has acknowledged My name, I will set him securely on high.
15. “When he calls on Me, I will answer him; in dire straits I will equip him and make him weighty;
Equip: or arm, fortify, rejuvenate, brace, or invigorate. Weighty: important, authoritative, or honorable: i.e., if challenged, he will have clout or commanding demeanor enough to intimidate those who threaten.
16. with length of days I will satisfy him, and let him see My deliverance.
PSALM 92
(A Psalm; A song for the Sabbath Day)
1. It is good to thank YHWH,
to make music to Your Name, O Most High,
2. to proclaim Your lovingkindess in the morning, Your faithfulness by night
3. on a ten-stringed instrument—on a harp, resounding on a lyre,
4. because You, O YHWH have made me glad by Your deeds;
I will sing for joy at the works of Your hands!
5. O YHWH, how great are Your works, and Your thoughts are very deep!
6. A brutish man cannot discern this, nor can a fool understand it.
7. When the wicked spring up like weeds and the perpetrators of injustice sparkle,
it is so that they can be annihilated forever.
8. But You, O YHWH, are elevated into the age[s]!
9. Because, look at Your enemies, O YHWH!
Look! Your enemies will vanish; all the perpetrators of injustice will be scattered,
10. but You will raise up my horn like [that of] a wild ox;
I will be smeared with luxuriant oil!
11. My eye will look down on those who watched me [to entrap me],
and my ears will hear of the injury of those who rose up against me.
12. The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, and grow like a cedar of Levanon.
13. Those transplanted into the House of YHWH will flourish in the courts of our Elohim.
14. They will still bear fruit in old age; they will be full of sap and luxuriant
Full of sap: or, vigorous.
15. to demonstrate that YHWH is upright; [He is] my Rock [in whom] there is no deviation from justice.
PSALM 93
[Liturgy for the Inauguration of the Sabbath]
1. YHWH [has begun to] reign! He is clothed—YHWH is clothed--with a majestic [column of rising smoke]! He has equipped himself with boldness! Furthermore, the inhabited world is established; it can hardly be moved.
Begun to reign: The Sabbath is a foreshadowing of the seventh millennium of human history, when YHWH (through His anointed one) will have undisputed rule “on earth, as it is in heaven”. (cf. Mat. 6:10)
2. Since that time Your throne has been [firmly] established; You are from an age immemorial!
3. The rivers have lifted up, O YHWH—the rivers have lifted up their voice; the rivers are [still] lifting up their pounding waves!
4. They are more magnificent than the sound of many waters! YHWH on high is more magnificent than the sea’s breakers!
5. Your [legal] testimonies have been verified [and confirmed] as intensely reliable for Your household; putting YHWH in a separate category is fitting unto the length of days!
Length of days: i.e., as long as the world lasts (v. 1). Only at the end of that age will the earth be destroyed, but YHWH’s reign will recover from the one massive assault on it at that time, and continue into the world to come. (Rev. 20:1-10; 21:1-5)
PSALM 94
1. O El of avengings! O YHWH, El [to Whom] vengeance [belongs], shine forth!
2. Be aroused, O Judge of the earth; bring well-deserved recompense back upon the proud!
Judge of the earth: a title by which Avraham knew YHWH when such judgment was warranted in S’dom and its environs. (Gen. 18:25) The proud: literally, those who have overgrown (what they should be).
3. How long will the wicked, O YHWH—until when will the wicked keep celebrating [their triumph]?
This is a question asked over and over throughout history, and the Sabbath (for which this psalm is a liturgy) is a rehearsal of the time when this time will expire at last.
4. They boil over and give voice to [their] arrogance; all the perpetrators of trouble boast about themselves.
Boil over: bubble up and belch forth. Arrogance: or insolence, immodesty, taking undeserved liberties beyond their rights.
5. They are crushing Your people, O YHWH, and oppressing Your heritage!
6. They are killing the widow and the sojourner, and murdering the orphans!
7. And they say “Yah won’t notice [it], nor will the Elohim of Yaaqov be able to tell!”
8. Pay attention, you among the people who are smoldering! When will you get it?
Smoldering: or kindled, about to burn up. Can’t you tell you are on fire and about to be consumed?
9. The One who put the ear in place, can’t He hear? Is it possible that the One who formed the eye cannot notice?
10. The One who corrects nations—the One who teaches knowledge to humanity— won’t He rebuke?
11. YHWH knows the plottings of human beings, that they are futile.
Plottings: or devisings, cunningly-invented ideas.
12. Blessed is the valiant man whom You discipline, O Yah, and prod with Your instruction
13. to give him respite from the days of trouble, until the hole is dug to [trap] the wicked!
14. Because YHWH will not cast off His people, nor will He abandon His heritage,
15. because judgment will come back to the point of righteousness, and all the upright of heart will follow after it.
16. Who will rise up for me [to do battle] with evildoers? Who will take his stand for me against perpetrators of trouble?
17. If YHWH had not been a help to me, it would not have taken long for my soul to settle into silence!
18. If I had said, “My foot has become dislodged!”, Your kindness, O YHWH, would have sustained me!
19. When my anxious thoughts multiply within my innermost [heart], Your consolations delight my soul!
Anxious: disquieting, disturbing.
20. Shall the throne of calamitous greed, whose custom is to fashion mischief, be allied with You?
21. They gang up against the life of the righteous, and condemn the blood of the innocent [as if he was guilty].
22. But Elohim has been a refuge for me, and my Elohim [has served as] my sheltering rock
23. and has turned their own troublemaking back on themselves, and put an end to them in their own wickedness. YHWH our Elohim will put an end to them!
PSALM 95
[Liturgy for the Inauguration of the Sabbath]
1. O come, let us sing for joy to YHWH; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our deliverance!
2. Let us meet before His face with thankfulness; let us shout aloud to Him with music!
3. Because YHWH is a great El, and a great King above all the elohim,
4. in Whose hand are the unexplored places of the earth; the lofty mountain[top]s are His also.
5. To Whom the sea belongs, since He made it, and His hand formed the dry land.
6. O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before YHWH our Maker,
7. because He is our Elohim, and we are the people for whom He provides pasture—that is, the flock of His hand. Today, if you should hear His voice,
8. do not harden your hearts like the conflict in the day of testing in the wilderness,
9. where your ancestors tested Me and proved me, and they also saw what I did.
10. For forty years I felt a loathing for this generation, so that I came to say, “Look! They are a people that are wandering away in their heart, and they have not understood My ways”,
11. [to] whom I swore in My anger, “If they [ever] enter into My resting place…”
PSALM 96
[Sung at the beginning of the Sabbath, a picture of the Kingdom when all the earth will be at rest.]
1. Sing to YHWH a new song! Sing to YHWH, all the earth!
2. Sing to YHWH; bless His Name; spread the good news of His deliverance from day to day!
3. Recount His weightiness among the nations, His wonders among all the peoples,
4. because YHWH is great, and very much to be raved about; He is awesome—above all elohim,
5. because all the elohim of the peoples are powerless, while YHWH made [the] skies!
6. Splendor and majesty are in His presence; power and beauty are in His sanctuary.
7. Bring to YHWH, O families of the peoples…bring YHWH honor--and loudly!
8. Bring YHWH the honor [due to] His Name; lift up a tribute and come into His courts!
9. Worship YHWH with the adornment of holiness; whirl because of His presence, all the earth!
Adornment of holiness: more valuable to Him than any other kind of ornament or decoration. Whirl: or dance; could also be read as “writhe in fear from His face”, though if that were the case one would expect more of a reverential silence to be the idea expressed in this context.
10. Say among the nations, “YHWH has [begun to] reign! Furthermore, the inhabited world is established; it can hardly be moved. He is judging the peoples with equity!
This echoes 93:1. Only when the Messiah takes his throne, representing YHWH in the visible realm, can complete stability and true fairness of judgment come about for the world of men.
11. Let the heavens be joyful and let the earth be glad; let the sea thunder, along with all that fills it!
Be joyful: or, express joy. Now the joy can be unmitigated by any other factor, for when the Kingdom comes, even haSatan will be bound and unable to influence mankind. (Rev. 20:2-3)
12. Let the field and everything that is in it be jubilant; then all the trees of the forest will resound with joy
Crops will again be restored to Eden-like conditions, spreading to the wild, uncultivated lands as well, for “all creation waits with eager longing for the sons of Elohim to be revealed.” (Rom. 8:19) When true, restored human beings are unveiled again, the world we were meant to guard and govern will fall willingly and gladly back into line and function as it was always meant to. That is what the Sabbath foreshadows!
13. in YHWH’s presence, because He is coming! Because He is coming to govern the earth! He will govern the world the right way, and the peoples with stability!
YHWH will be Emperor over the whole world, represented by His anointed, called the “King of kings”—an ancient description of an emperor—that is, a king who rules over other kings. Stability: firmness, but related to “truth” and “faithfulness” in its etymology. He will finally be one ruler we can rely on, who keeps his promises!
PSALM 97
[Traditionally used for the Inauguration of the Sabbath]
1. YHWH has begun His reign; let the earth rejoice!
Let the many desired havens [in every region] be glad!
Desired havens: a term denoting far-off coastlands but which offer safety for those that arrive there after the rigors of travel. As the welcome port of call where we can finally rest after the days of danger and toil, the Sabbath is a foreshadowing of that reign, and gives us joy in the certainty of “that blessed hope”. By this time these nations have all been recipients of the good news of the Kingdom (Mat. 24:14) and are relieved and celebratory that what they have all always longed for in their deepest hearts has finally come to be a reality.
2. Clouds and thick darkness surround Him;
righteousness and justice are the [immovable] foundation of His throne.
The latter phrase is nearly identical to 89:14, so the two psalms should be taken as components of one idea. Though His ways are shrouded with mystery from our perspective, there is no sleight of hand or underhanded way about His rulings and choices; He does what is verifiably best for all with complete integrity.
3. A fire goes ahead of Him
and burns up His adversaries all around.
He gives ample warning, but tolerates no nonsense in those who would try to impede Him.
4. The flashes of His lightning illuminate the [habitable] world;
the earth sees and trembles.
Trembles: the term can encompass many reasons for trembling—fear, excitement, the tension of eager longing.
5. The mountains melt away like wax at the presence of YHWH—
from the face of the Lord of all the earth.
And He shares this kind of triumph with those who work alongside Him. (Zkh. 4:7)
6. The skies make it evident that He is [the One in the] right;
and all the peoples see that He [is the One who carries the most] weight.
They (under the spiritual princes He set over them [see note on v. 7], many of which rebelled along with the men they were designed to keep in check) have been fighting this truth, which they dread, for 6 “days” (6 millennia, per Psalm 90), hoping against hope that they can unseat Him and get away with their unruly ways, but when the Sabbath comes, they are set straight; blessed are those (including those spiritual rulers) who concur and wisely lay down their weapons:
7. Let all those who serve images—who make their boast in worthless things--
be put to shame;
Prostrate yourselves before Him, all [you] elohim!
Images: carved or engraved, as in idols, but other types of image are more commonly idolized today. Their boast: the form of the word implies glorifying themselves. Elohim: a broad term for those who are above common men--everything from human judges to angelic beings to the “gods” under YHWH that He set over the nations to limit men’s lawlessness (Dan. 10:12, 20) until a better ruler—His anointed--would come.
8. Tzion hears and is glad;
The daughters of Yehudah also rejoice on account of Your just rulings, O YHWH,
Tzion: the capital of YHWH’s new worldwide Kingdom under His visible representative, Messiah. (Yochanan/John 1:18) Yehudah: the tribe already living in and around His holy city. Now at last there is security for the nation that, even back in its own homeland, never felt safe as long as others ruled the nations.
9. because You, O YHWH, are the highest above the whole earth;
You have ascended far above all [other] elohim!
No longer will they be allowed to pursue their own agendas; they will be held accountable and subject to the Truth.
10. [You] who love YHWH, hate evil!
He preserves the lives of His devout ones,
rescuing them out of the hand of the wicked ones.
Hate in itself is not a bad thing as long as it is directed at what is truly reprehensible, and Torah defines what that is. The Master of all the earth will now accurately teach the nations what to hate and what not to hate.
11. Light is sown for the righteous,
and gladness for the upright of heart.
Upright: or straight, level, unbent in any sense. What is sown may take a long time to grow to fruition, but for those who patiently await it and keep from letting themselves be twisted out of shape by the vicissitudes of the present age, it is sure to blossom when all is finally ready.
12. Rejoice in YHWH, [You who are] righteous,
and give thanks on remembering His sacredness!
Sacredness: holiness, separateness from all that is evil. Many have been saying, “Is nothing sacred anymore?” But if we recall that the day of setting-straight is coming, anticipated in the Sabbath, we can endure the seeming ascendancy of things that have no place in His ideal realm in the knowledge that they will not last, but rest will finally come to the world. (Psalm 27:13-14; 73:2-19)
PSALM 98
(A Psalm)
[Liturgy for the Inauguration of the Sabbath]
1. Sing to YHWH a new song, because He has done extraordinary things!
His right hand and His holy arm have gained the victory for Him.
New: or renewed. Right hand and arm: two descriptions Isaiah uses of the Messiah. (52:10; 53:1; 62:8) Holy: or, unique, one-of-a-kind.
2. YHWH has made His deliverance known;
for the eyes of the nations, He has revealed His righteousness.
Or, He has uncovered the fact that He is in the right to the eyes of the nations.
3. He has remembered His kindness and faithfulness to the House of Israel;
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our Elohim!
Salvation: Heb., yeshuah.
4. Raise a shout to YHWH, all the earth!
Burst out with joy and give a ringing cry, with musical instruments as well!
5. Make music to YHWH on the harp—
With the harp and the sound of a melody!
6. With trumpets and the sound of a shofar,
Raise a [joyful] shout to YHWH, the King!
Shofar: a trumpet made from the horn of a ram or animal from the antelope family.
7. Let the sea and all that fills it thunder,
The [inhabited] world and all those who dwell in it!
8. The rivers will clap their hands;
together [with] the mountains they will be overcome with joy
9. in the presence of YHWH, because He is coming to judge the earth!
He will govern the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity!
Judge…govern: two meanings of the same word in Hebrew. Other shades of meaning it carries are to show discernment in deciding a controversy in court, make a ruling, whether condemnatory or vindicatory. Equity: being level, even (handed), straight, or upright, but the word is in the plural form here, so there will be many facets of this equity.
PSALM 99
[Liturgy for the Inauguration of the Sabbath]
1. YHWH has begun to [and continues to] reign; peoples are trembling!
He dwells [between the] kh’ruvim; the earth is in suspense!
In suspense: or, shaking because it is dangling. The Sabbath is a foreshadowing of the 7th millennium, when YHWH’s Kingdom becomes overt in the physical world via His Messiah taking a visible throne. Between the kh’ruvim: atop the Ark of the Covenant. Alt., He inhabits the kh’ruvim—i.e., the Holy of Holies, the front of which is a curtain with kh’ruvim embroidered on it.
2. YHWH is in Tzion—great and lofty!
He is above all the peoples.
Lofty: Tzion, the original part of Yerushalayim (1 Chron. 11:15), sits on a hill surrounded by deep valleys on three sides, and the Temple Mount (the part of the hill to its north) is higher still.
3. They will confess Your great and awesome name:
“He is one of a kind!”
One of a kind: one of the meanings of “holy”—unique, extra-special, in a class of His own.
4. The strength of [the] King also loves justice.
You have firmly established [the various kinds of] equity;
You [Yourself] have accomplished righteousness and justice in Yaaqov!
Also: though some might think “might makes right” in isolation, He only uses His strength with integrity. He is all-powerful, but He is good. Equity: see note on 98:9.
5. Lift up YHWH our Elohim, and bow down at His footstool!
He is in a class of His own!
6. Moshe and Aharon were among His officiators,
And Shmu’el was among those who call on His name;
when they called on YHWH, He answered them.
7. In the column of cloud He spoke to them.
They guarded His testimonies and the prescribed ordinance [that] He gave to them.
8. YHWH our Elohim, You responded to them!
You became for them an El of forgiveness, though You did punish their abusive deeds.
9. Lift up YHWH our Elohim, and bow down toward His very special hill,
Because YHWH our Elohim is in a category all His own!
Bow toward: King Shlomoh asked YHWH to bring a special blessing on those who would pray in the direction of His Temple (1 Kings 8:38, 42), which was on that hill.
PSALM 100
(A psalm for thanksgiving)
1. Shout for joy to YHWH, all the earth!
2. Serve YHWH with gladness;
Come before His presence with a ringing cry of triumph!
3. Recognize that YHWH is Elohim.
It is He who has made us; we are not.
[We are] His people, and the sheep of His pasture.
We are not: i.e., not the ones who made ourselves; alt. reading, we are His (with a different spelling, lo’ vs. lo, the latter dropping a letter), but the following phrase captures that thought well enough, so to give an additional information, we go with the traditional reading.
4. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, [into] His courts with praise!
Be thankful to Him; bless His name,
5. because YHWH is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting,
and His faithfulness [endures] as long as generation upon generation!
PSALM 101
(A psalm of David)
1. I will sing of kindness and justice;
to You I will make music, O YHWH!
2. I will [walk with] consideration on the path of integrity;
when will You come to me?
I will guide my steps with integrity [even] inside my house!
3. I will not put a worthless thing in front of my eyes.
I have come to hate the workmanship of those who swerve [off the path];
it will not cling to me.
Worthless: or unprofitable; literally, something that does not raise oneself higher.
4. A perverted heart will be removed from [within] me;
I will not become familiar with evil.
5. I will silence anyone who uses his tongue [to slander] his neighbor secretly;
I cannot [endure] him [who has] haughty eyes and an arrogant heart!
Though a king does not have to make “campaign promises”, David is vowing to YHWH to do all these things.
6. My eyes are on the faithful of the land so that they may remain with me;
whoever walks on the path of integrity is the one [who will be] my attendant.
7. One who acts deceitfully will not remain within my household;
he who tells lies will not continue in front of my eyes.
8. Early on I will put an end to all the wicked of the land,
to cut off all troublemakers from the city of YHWH.
Early on: Much like present-day politicians’ promises about “day one” of their terms. City of YHWH: his capital, Yerushalayim.
PSALM 102
(A prayer for the afflicted
when he is overwhelmed and pours out his concern before YHWH)
Overwhelmed: the Hebrew term means both being covered and feeble or fainting.
1. O YHWH, hear my prayer
and let my cry for help come before You!
2. Don’t hide Your face from me in the day I have distress!
Extend Your ear to me on the day I call; answer me quickly,
3. because my day are wasted away by smoke,
and my bones are charred like a hearth.
4. My heart is stricken like grass and dried up,
because I have forgotten to eat my bread!
5. Because of the sound of my groaning,
my bones stick to my muscles!
Muscles: or flesh.
6. I resemble a pelican of the wilderness;
I have become like an owl among [the] ruins!
7. I like awake, [sleepless],
And am becoming like a lone sparrow [isolated] on a roof.
8. All day long my enemies taunt me;
those who boast like madmen swear an oath against me
Swear an oath: or cursed me.
9. because I have eaten ashes like bread,
and my drink is mixed with tears
10. in the face of Your indignation and Your splintering wrath,
because You have picked me up and thrown me away!
11. My days are like a shadow that lengthens,
and I am withering away like grass.
12. But You, O YHWH, will remain forever,
and Your memory to generation [after] generation.
13. You will arise; You will have compassion on Tziyon,
because the time for her favor—because the appointed time has come!
14. Because You have taken pleasure in Your servants;
You will show favor to her stones and [even] to her dust!
15. Gentiles will revere the name of YHWH,
and all the kings of the earth [will know of] Your [reputation as] weighty,
16. because YHWH will build up Tziyon;
He will be seen in all His weightiness!
17. He will turn His face toward the destitute
and not regard their prayer as worthless.
Regard as worthless: or despise, hold in contempt, possibly belittle.
18. This will be written for [the] final generation,
and a people still to be created will rave about Yah
19. because He leaned out and looked down
from the elevation [where] He [was] set apart;
from the heavens YHWH paid attention to earth
Paid attention to: or showed regard for, looked in the direction of.
20. to listen to the sighing of the captive,
to set free those appointed to die,
Captive: or prisoner. Set free: or release; literally, open up. Appointed to die: literally, sons of death.
21. to recount in Tziyon the Name of YHWH,
and in Yerushalayim, the praise His [virtues demand]
Recount: declare again or (because the word relates to numbering) retell, as it has been virtually unknown there for centuries, having been hidden away from outward usage by the overdone attempt to keep it from abuse.
22. when peoples are gathered together in unity
and sovereign dominions [assemble] to serve YHWH!
These are characteristics of His Kingdom, which is present now but will come in its fullness soon.
23. He has reduced my strength by the [sheer] distance;
He has cut short the days of my [life].
24. I said, “My El, don’t take me up at the midpoint of my days!”
Your years [last] throughout a heap of generations!
25. Before them You laid the foundation of the earth,
and the heavens are the works of Your hands.
26. They will vanish, but You will [still] endure.
They will all wear out like a garment;
like clothing You will change them, and they will be changed.
They: both the earth and the heavens. Be changed: or, pass away, but also includes sprouting anew, i.e., being renewed.
27. But You are He,
And Your years will never come to an end!
You are He: or, You are It! A traditional Sabbath liturgy , based on this verse, uses the same phrase, saying, “It was You before the world was created; it is You in this world and it is You in the world to come… You are the first and the last, and there is no Elohim but You.”
28. The children of Your servants will settle in [to remain]
and their offspring will be established before Your presence.
I.e., not only will You maintain stability for those who love You; You are the same One all of their generations will continue to worship.
PSALM 103
(Belonging to David)
1. My soul, bend the knee to YHWH,
and all that is within me, [bless] His one-of-a-kind Name!
2. My soul, bend the knee to YHWH,
And don’t forget any of His beneficial dealings:
3. [He is the One] Who pardons all of your twisted [ways],
Who heals all of your diseases,
4. Who redeems your life from destruction,
Who surrounds you [like a crown] with lovingkindness and tender mercies,
5. Who fills you to satisfaction with good [things] that please you,
[and] your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Just how is an eagle’s youth renewed? “When [an eagle] reaches the age of 40, he has to make a very difficult decision, because his nails have become long and no longer so flexible and cannot easily grab the prey. Also the long and sharp beak became very curved so that it could not pierce its prey, while the wings became heavy because the feathers became very thick and attached to the breast, so that it is difficult for the eagle to fly. Then the eagle has two options left: either die or undergo a painful 150-day replacement process [that] requires the eagle to fly to the top of a mountain and stay there for that time. There the eagle hits its beak against the rock until it breaks its beak. Then he waits for his new beak to grow, then pulls his claws with his beak. When his new claws grow out, he plucks his old feathers. After five months, the eagle recovers and can live another 40 years.” (Hieromonk Dostej of Hilandar)
6. YHWH appoints [the] right outcomes
and just legal rulings for all who are oppressed.
7. He made His ways known to Moshe,
His deeds to the sons of Israel.
While Israel saw His outward actions, this may mean Moshe was shown their inner workings and the principles behind them.
8. YHWH is compassionate and shows favor,
Slow to anger and abounding in kindness.
Slow to anger: literally, long-nostriled! Think of a snorting bull or, better, a fire-breathing dragon, because the “heat of His anger” is often spoken of in the same context. With long nostrils, there is plenty of time for wrath to “cool off” before it comes out into the open where it can actually have an effect.
9. He will not keep bringing complaints perpetually,
or retain [His anger] forever.
10. He has not dealt with us as [extensively as] our errors [deserve],
or brought recompense on us commensurate with our crookednesses,
11. because as high as the heavens are above the earth,
So prevalent is His mercy toward those who treat Him with reverential awe.
12. As far as the east is from the west,
so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
East…west: literally, places of the sunrise and sunset. If one travels as far north as he can go, he will eventually begin heading south again, but this is not true of east and west. If one goes east, he never stops traveling eastward, leaving the west farther and farther behind. (Sherry Vallette)
13. As a father has compassion on children,
this is how YHWH has compassion on those who fear Him,
14. because He is mindful of how we are formed;
He remembers that we are [but] dust:
15. [as for] mortal [man], his days are like grass;
like a wildflower, that is how he flourishes:
16. because when the wind passes over it, it is no longer there,
and the place [where] it [was] no longer notices [that] it [had been there].
17. But YHWH’s mercy on those who respect Him [endures] from age to age,
and He [continues] to do right to [their] children’s children--
18. [that is,] to those who guard His covenant
and who remember to carry out the things He has put them in charge of.
19. YHWH has established His throne in the heavens,
and His kingdom has dominion over everything!
20. Bend the knee to YHWH, You His messengers—mighty heroes who carry out His word,
paying close attention to the tone of what He says.
Tone: not just the prosaic words, but the underlying mood and intent behind them in each case.
21. Bend the knee to YHWH, all His armies—
[you] ministers of His who carry out His will.
His will: or, what pleases Him.
22. Bend the knee to YHWH, all [You] His works in all places where He rules!
Bend the knee to YHWH, O my soul!
Though king, David knows he is frail too and has to exhort himself as much as all his subjects.
PSALM 104
[Liturgy for Sabbath afternoons between Simchat Torah and Passover
and for the New Moon]
1. Bend the knee to YHWH, my soul!
O, YHWH, my Elohim, You have done such great things!
You are clothed with splendor and majesty,
2. enveloping Yourself with light as with a garment,
spreading out the skies like a curtain!
3. [He is the One] who makes the beams of His roof-chambers touch the waters,
Who makes the clouds His chariot; Who walks on the wings of the wind!
Roof-chambers: small rooms commonly built on the flat housetops, sometimes as guest rooms, sometimes as a shady resting place on a hot day.
4. Who makes winds His messenger,
His ministers a blazing fire.
Winds: or spirits.
5. Who founded the earth on a fixed place, so that it will never, ever be moved.
6. The depth [of the sea]—You covered it as [with] a garment;
waters rose up over mountains!
This may have been at the Noakhian flood or one of the other planetary-scale catastrophes that caused tides and tidal waves unlike any we have seen in our relatively-calm era.
7. From Your rebuke, they fled;
from the sound of Your thundering, they hurried away, terrified!
8. Mountains rose up, valleys [cleaved and] sank down
to the stopping-point You had appointed for them.
9. You have set a boundary that they may not cross over,
Nor may they come back to cover the earth,
After mentioning other things going on during the Deluge, the author returns to describing the water from verses 6-7.
10. He releases springs in river-channels;
they meander between mountains.
11. They water every living [animal] of His [in] my fields;
[even] wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12. On them birds of the heavens settle down;
from between [the] branches they employ [their] voice.
13. He waters mountains from His upper stories;
from the fruit of what You have made, the earth is filled to satisfaction!
14. He causes the grass to sprout up for the beasts,
and vegetation for the service of mankind,
to bring forth food from the earth
The last phrase has become well-known through the “haMotzi” blessing over bread.
15. and wine that makes the heart of a mortal glad,
to make faces shine from oil,
and bread which sustains the heart of a mortal.
16. The trees of YHWH are filled to satisfaction—
the cedars of Levanon, which He planted,
In the days prior to the polar shift (which occurred between the first and second Temples), Israel was indeed a “land flowing with milk and honey”, more lush, with the climate of northern California rather than southern California like today, and the cedars just north of Israel grew as large as the California redwoods and sequoias.
17. where the small birds make their nests,
the stork [makes] her home in the cypress trees.
18. The high mountains are for the wild goats;
cliffs are refuge for the rock badgers.
19. He made the moon for appointed times;
the sun knows [when] it [is supposed to] set.
Moon for appointed times: This counters the claim by proponents of the Essene calendar that the phases of the moon should be disregarded in setting the calendar because “months” are not mentioned as one of the things the sun, moon, and stars were created to mark in Genesis 1:14, and because the word commonly translated “new moon” technically only means “renewing” and does not include the word for the moon itself. But here the word for the moon is linked with the same term for “appointed times” used in that verse. This psalm is indeed read as part of the new moon liturgy.
20. You cause darkness, and it is night;
in it, all the beasts of the forest creep about.
21. The young lions roar [for prey] to tear
and to demand their food from El.
22. [When] the sun rises, they gather together
and stretch out in their lairs.
23. A human goes out to his work
and to his [labor of] service until evening.
24. How many are Your works, O YHWH! With wisdom You have made them all;
the earth is filled [with] Your possessions!
25. Here is the sea! Huge, with a wide-open pair of hands;
Innumerable teeming things are there—living things small as well as large.
26. There ships can move,
[along with] Livyathan, that You have fashioned to play there.
The term for “play” or “sport” sometimes has a mocking connotation, as with how Yishma’el treated Yitzhaq. (Gen. 21:9) A sea-serpent could certainly take that attitude toward the seamen who dare to enter its domain! It is not without reason that ancient maps warned “Here be dragons” in certain areas of the sea.
27. All of these wait in hope for You
to provide their food at its proper time.
28. [What] You give them, they gather in;
[When] You open Your hand, they are filled to satisfaction with good [things].
29. [If] You hide Your face, they are alarmed;
[when] You take away their breath, they expire and return to their dust.
Their dust: the particular atoms that each is made of, so they can be recombined to form something new:
30. You send out Your breath; they are transformed,
and You renew the surface of the ground.
31. May there be honor of YHWH forever!
May YHWH be glad about the things He has made!
32. When He turns His attention to the earth, it trembles;
He [merely] touches the mountains, and they smoke!
33. I will sing to YHWH while I am alive;
I will make music to my Elohim as long as there is still a me!
34. My musings about Him are sweetly pleasing;
[as for me], I will be glad in YHWH!
35. May the sinful ones be consumed away from the earth,
and may there be no more of the wicked!
Bend the knee to YHWH, my soul!
Rave about YHWH, [all of you]!
PSALM 105
1. Give thanks to YHWH; call on His name!
Make His deeds known among the peoples!
2. Sing to Him! Make music to Him!
Contemplate His acts which surpass [what we are able to do].
3. Make your boast in His one-of-a-kind reputation;
let the heart of those who seek after YHWH be glad!
4. Investigate YHWH and just how powerful He is;
always seek [to find] His face!
5. Remember His extraordinary actions, [the things] that He has accomplished--
His marvelous signs and the [legal] rulings [that have come out] of His mouth.
6. Seed of Avraham, His servant;
Children of Yaaqov, the ones He has chosen,
7. He is YHWH, our Elohim!
His right rulings are in the whole earth!
8. He remembers His covenant forever—
the things which He commanded for a thousand generations--
9. [the covenant] which He cut with Avraham,
and the oath He made to Yis’haq
This alternate spelling of Yitz’haq appears in the actual Hebrew text.
10. and confirmed it to Yaaqov as a prescribed ordinance,
to Israel as an everlasting pact
11. saying, “To you I will give the land of Kanaan
[as] the measured-off portion of your inheritance
12. while they were [still] measurable in number—as only a few—
and temporary visitors therein,
13. and while they traveled from nation to nation,
from one kingdom to another.
14. He permitted no human being to oppress them;
He rebuked kings in regard to them:
For example, He warned Pharaoh and two Philistine kings to keep their hands off the patriarchs’ wives on penalty of death. (Gen. 12:17; 20:3; 26:11)
15. “Do not touch My anointed ones,
and do My prophets no harm!”
16. And He called for a famine over the land;
all supply of bread He destroyed.
Supply: literally, “staff” as in a rod or branch; from this we get the adage that “bread is the staff of life”.
17. He sent a man ahead of them,
[when] Yosef was sold as a slave.
18. They afflicted his feet with fetters;
his soul entered [there bond with] iron
19. until the [right] time came,
His word—the utterance of YHWH—had tested [and refined] him.
20. The king sent and had him unbound;
the ruler of peoples set him free.
21. He made him master of his household
and ruler over all he had acquired,
Master: or lord (Heb., adon), as a clear prototype of the Messiah.
22. to imprison his princes as he wished,
and to teach his elders wisdom.
23. Then Israel came into Egypt,
and Yaaqov sojourned in the land of Kham.
Kham: Noakh’s son the ancestor of Mitzrayim (from which all Egypt descended).
24. And He made his people extremely fruitful
and made them vastly more numerous than their oppressors.
25. He turned their heart to hate His people,
to deal craftily with His servants.
26. He sent [them] Moshe His servant
and Aharon, whom He had chosen.
27. They established words among them,
signs and wonders in the land of Kham.
28. He sent forth darkness and it became dark,
so they could not rebel against His word.
29. He transformed their waters into blood
and put their fish to death.
30. Their land teemed with frogs,
[even] in their royal chambers!
31. He spoke and there came swarms [of insects]
and lice within all their territory.
32. He designated hail for their rain,
fire—[yes], a flame—on their land,
33. and it struck their vines and fig trees,
and broke apart the trees of their territory.
34. He spoke and there came locusts
and caterpillars—which could not be counted--
35. and they devoured all the greenery in their land
and consumed the fruit of their ground.
36. Then He struck down all the firstborn of their land,
the beginning of all their [procreative] vigor,
37. and He brought them out with silver ad gold;
none among his tribes was weak.
38. Egypt was glad for their departure,
for dread of them had fallen upon them.
39. He spread out a cloud as a covering,
and fire to give light [at] night.
40. [The people] asked, and He brought quail,
and [the] bread of heaven made them full to satisfaction.
41. He opened a rock, and water flowed out;
a river ran through dry places,
42. because He remembered His holy promise
to Avraham His servant,
43. and He brought His people out in joy,
The ones He had chosen, with ringing cries [of gladness].
44. Then He gave to them the lands of Gentiles,
and they became heirs to what the peoples had worked so hard [to build]
45. in order that they might guard His prescribed ordinances
and watch over His instructions.
Rave about Yah!
PSALM 106
1. Rave about Yah!
Give thanks to YHWH, because [He is] good;
His lovingkindness [endures] forever!
He is good: or, it is good (to give thanks to Him).
2. Who can communicate the mighty [act]s of YHWH?
[Who] can make all of His renown be heard?
3. Blessed are those who protect justice,
[and] he who does what is right at all times.
4. Remember me, O YHWH, along with the acceptance of Your people;
pay attention to me with Your deliverance
Acceptance of: or goodwill toward.
5. [so I] can see the benefit of those You have chosen,
[so I] can be glad when Your nation is glad,
[so I] can bring my praise along with those You have inherited!
6. We have erred along with our ancestors!
we have acted perversely! We have done wickedly!
7. Our ancestors in Egypt did not have insight into Your wonders;
they did not remember how abundant Your kindnesses were,
but fomented a rebellion around the sea—by the Red Sea.
8. Yet He saved them for the sake of His reputation
to make His heroic power known.
9. When He rebuked the Red Sea, it dried up
And He allowed them to walk through the depths [of the sea]
as [if it were] the uninhabited land.
Rebuked: “scolded” it for standing in their way, much as Yeshua did to the wind and waves that were frightening his disciples.
10. Thus He liberated them from the hand of those who hated them
and ransomed them from the hand of an enemy!
11. Then the waters covered those who had been causing them distress;
not one of them was left!
12. Then they trusted in his words;
they sang His praise!
13. They were quick to forget His deeds;
they did not wait for His advice.
14. Rather, they greedily lusted [after what they craved] in the wilderness,
and put Him to the test in the desert.
15. He gave them what they asked for,
but sent leanness into their souls.
This is a verse everyone should memorize before we urge YHWH to do things our way. “Be careful what you ask for; you just might get it!”
16. They were also envious of Moshe in the camp—
of Aharon, whom YHWH set apart.
17. Earth opened up and swallowed Dathan
and put a covering over the faction of Aviram.
18. A fire was kindled among their gathering
and a flame burned up the wicked ones.
19. They made a calf at Horev
and prostrated themselves to the cast metal image.
20. They altered the One they honored
into the image of an ox that eats grass!
Altered: or exchanged for, but they actually called this idol “YHWH” (Ex. 32:5), so essentially they were diminishing Him who is limitless in their estimation into something finite and rather small in comparison.
21. They forgot El their deliverer
who had been doing great things in Mitzrayim--
Mitzrayim: that is, Egypt.
22. extraordinary deeds in the land of Kham,
Awe-inspiring things over the Red Sea!
23. So He threatened to annihilate them [and would have]
if Moshe His chosen one had not stood in the gap to turn back His anger from destroying them!
24. Moreover, they refused the desirable Land;
they did not trust what He said,
25. but complained within their tents
and did not heed the voice of YHWH.
26. So He raised His hand against them
to let them fall in the uninhabited land,
27. and to cause their descendants to fall among the nations,
and to scatter them [out] among the territories.
Scatter: but more properly “sow” them as seed, because they would grow and be fruitful there once they remembered Him and repented while still in those places. (Deut. 30:1)
28. Then they attached themselves to Baal-Peor
and ate what was slaughtered to the dead.
Baal-Peor: “Lord of the orifice”, probably an allusion to the sexual rituals of which offerings to it consisted. Slaughtered: i.e., as sacrificial offerings. This was definitely “meat offered to idols” and repulsive to YHWH.
29. When they provoked Him to anger by their practices
a plague broke out among them.
30. Then Pin’has rose up and intervened
and the plague was restrained.
31. And it was counted to him as righteousness
for generation upon generation until the Age.
32. When they made Him furious in regard to the waters of Merivah,
it went badly for Moshe on account of them,
Went badly: or, caused trouble. It cost him the entry into the Promised Land because in his anger at them for this incident, he acted hastily and did not do exactly what YHWH had said. (Deut. 1:37)
33. Because when they rebelled against his spirit,
He spoke rashly with his lips.
34. They did not annihilate the peoples
whom YHWH told them [to].
35. Rather, they exchanged pledges with [those] nations
and learned their [way]s [of] doing [things].
I.e., they made treaties and allowed them to live, when YHWH wanted their corrupted lineages to end.
36. Then they began to serve their idols,
which became a snare for them.
This is the very progression YHWH warned them against. (Ex. 23:33; Deut. 7:16)
37. They even sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons,
Sacrificed: literally, slaughtered. Demons: Heb., shedim; it is commonly thought that demons only appear in the New Testament, but this is not the case. Molekh was the prominent one worshipped in this way.
38. and shed innocent blood—the blood of their sons and daughters,
whom they sacrificed to the dols of Kanaan, and the Land was polluted with blood.
Polluted: or profaned, corrupted.
39. Thus they were defiled by their own doings,
and prostituted themselves through their practices.
40. So YHWH’s anger was heated up against His people,
and He even abhorred His own inheritance.
41. So He gave them into the hands of Gentiles
and those who hated them had dominion over them.
42. When their enemies put pressure on them,
they were subdued under their hand.
Paraphrased, their enemies squeezed them into subjection.
43. Many times He rescued them,
but they rebelled through their scheming and were brought low through their crookedness.
Brought low: or humiliated; from the word for a deep valley or the lowest-lying ground.
44. Yet He looked [with consideration] on their distress,
when He heard their pleading shrieks,
45. and He remembered His covenant for their [sakes]
and was moved to relent in accord with the multitude of His mercies
46. and He allowed them to be treated compassionately by all their captors.
47. Save us, O YHWH, our Elohim, and regather us from [among] the Gentiles
to bring thanks to Your one-of-a-kind reputation
and let You be soothed by [our] singing Your praises.
48. Blessed be YHWH, he Elohim of Israel,
from the indistinguishable [past and far] into the unforeseeable [perpetuity].
and let the whole populace say, “Amen!”
Rave about Yah!
The second phrase is literally “from the (hidden) age to the (hidden) age”.
PSALM 107
1. Give thanks to YHWH, because [He is] good;
His lovingkindness [lasts] forever.
2. Let the ones YHWH [has] redeemed say [this]—
those whom He has redeemed from the hand of an oppressor
3. and gathered out of the lands--
from the sunrise and from the sunset, from the north--and from the sea.
4. They wandered about in the wilderness; in a desert they trod.
They found no city to dwell in.
5. Hungry and thirsty,
Their soul grew faint within them.
6. They cried out to YHWH [for help] amid [what were] dire straits for them;
He rescued them from the things that were distressing them,
7. and He led them forth by a straight [and level] path
so [they could] walk to a habitable city.
8. [People] should thank YHWH for His pity
and His marvelous deeds on behalf of the children of Adam,
9. because He satisfies the longing soul
and He fills the famished soul with [what is] good.
10. [They] inhabited darkness and the shadow of death—
prisoners of affliction and iron—
Iron: behind bars or in shackles with chains (v. 14), where death s a constant threat hovering over them.
11. because they rebelled against the words of El
and rejected the [wise] advice of the Most High.
12. So He humbled their heart with hard labor;
they [feebly] staggered [and tottered] with no one to help.
13. So they cried out to YHWH [for help] amid [what were] dire straits for them;
He rescued them from the things that were distressing them,
14. He brought the out from darkness and the shadow of death,
and broke off their shackles.
15. [People] should thank YHWH for His pity
and His marvelous deeds on behalf of the children of Adam,
16. because He has shattered the bronze doors
and chopped in two the bars of iron!
Bars of iron: which held gates more firmly shut in ancient cities and buildings.
17. [They became] fools due to the direction their transgression [took them],
and they were afflicted because of their crooked [way]s.
18. Their soul detested all [kinds of] food,
and they had come so far as to be touching the gates of death!
19. Then they cried out to YHWH [for help] amid [what were] dire straits for them;
He rescued them from the things that were distressing them.
20. He sends out His word and heals them
and lets them escape what causes them to bend down.
Bend down: over bend over, i.e., under a load.
21. [People] should thank YHWH for His pity
and His marvelous deeds on behalf of the children of Adam!
22. They should also slaughter thanks offerings
and recount His works with cries that ring out!
23. Those who go down to the sea in ship,
Who do business on great waters--
Business: the word for the kind of work forbidden on the Sabbath.
24. they see the works of YHWH
and His extraordinary marvels in the deep!
25. Because He speaks, and causes a wind to arise—
a storm that lifts up its waves:
26. they go up to the skies; they come [back] down to the depths.
Their soul melts away in [such] trouble!
27. They reel about and stagger like a drunkard,
And reach the full limit of their skills.
Literally, their wits are swallowed up.
28. When they cry out to YHWH [for help] amid [what are] dire straits for them;
He brings them out of the things that are distressing them.
This has been repeated in verses 6, 13, and 19, but here it is in the present (imperfect) tense instead of past.
29. He arranges for the storm to calm down
So that its billows are silenced.
We cannot help but be reminded of how the one who physically manifested what YHWH is like (Yoch. 1:18) stilled the wind and waves when his students were on the sea in ships. (v. 23; Mark 4:36-39)
30. Then they are glad because they are quiet,
and He guides them into their desired haven.
Compare Yochanan 6:16-21.
31. [People] should thank YHWH for His pity
and His marvelous deeds on behalf of the children of Adam!
32. Let them both lift Him high in the gathering of the people,
and rave about Him in the assembly of the elders!
33. He turns rivers into a wilderness
and water-sources into very thirsty [ground],
34. fruitful land into salty,
due to the evilness of those who live in it.
35. He turns a wilderness into ponds of water
and drought-ridden land into springs of water
36. and lets the starving dwell there
so that they may establish a habitable city
37. and sow fields and plant vineyards
so that they may produce fruit as revenue.
38. When He blesses them, they multiply greatly
and does not let their livestock diminish.
39. And when they are diminished and bowed down
from coercion, trouble, and grief,
40. He pours contempt on nobles
and makes them wander in a wasteland where there is no path,
41. but He sets the poor safely out of the reach of affliction
and makes [their] families like a flock.
I.e., He makes them prolifically fruitful.
42. The upright see [this] and are glad
and all injustice shuts its mouth.
43. Whoever is wise, let him keep a watchful guard over these things;
then they will discern for themselves the kindnesses of YHWH.
PSALM 108
(A song; a psalm of David)
1. My heart is [stable and] ready, O Elohim!
I will sing and make music—even putting all my weight [into it]!
2. Wake up, O lute and harp!
I will stir up the dawn!
3. I will thank You among the peoples, O YHWH!
I will make music to You [where the] nations fail [to do so],
4. because Your kindness is great above all the heavens,
And Your faithfulness reaches to the [highest] clouds!
Clouds: particularly the thinnest ones, and thus those furthest up in the atmosphere.
5. Be exalted above the skies, O Elohim,
and let Your reputation be over all of the earth!
Be exalted: or, simply, rise up, but He is already that high; the emphasis is on our recognizing it. Over: both known throughout all the earth and recognized by all as being highest.
6. In order that Your beloved may be rescued,
Let Your right hand deliver, and answer me!
7. Elohim has declared in His unique [way]:
“I will triumph! I will apportion out Sh’khem
and measure out the Valley of Sukkoth.
8. “Gil’ad is Mine; M’nasheh is Mine.
And Efrayim is My chief stronghold; Yehudah is My engraver who marks it out.
9. “Moav is My washbasin; over Edom I will toss My shoe;
Over Filistia I will raise a shout of triumph!”
10. Who will carry me away [captive to] a fortified city?
Who will lead me away to Edom?
11. Isn’t it [the case that] Elohim has rejected us?
But didn’t Elohim go out among our armies?
12. Provide help for us out of a tight spot
when human deliverance is deceitful.
Rome was like that; it was its practice to obligate any nation they ever helped to be forever in their debt, though they did not tell them this in advance. They subjugated Israel because they helped her overthrow the yoke of the Greeks. “It is better to trust in YHWH than to put confidence in men.” (Ps. 118:8-9)
13. Through Elohim we will act capably,
And [it is] He [who] will trample down our oppressors!
Act capably: or efficiently, and thus succeed.
PSALM 109
(For the Director [of Music]; a psalm of David)
1. O Elohim, the One I praise,
do not keep silent,
2. because the mouth of the wicked
and the mouth of the deceitful have opened up against me!
They have spoken with me [with] a lying tongue.
3. They have both surrounded me with words of hatred
and made war against me for no reason!
4. In exchange for my love they are accusing me—
even while I [am at] prayer!
Accusing: based on the word satan. (Also in verse 6, where it is precisely that word.)
5. They have done me evil in exchange for good;
and hatred in place of love.
6. Appoint a wicked man over him [to hold him accountable];
let an accuser also be stationed over his right hand!
7. When he is tried in court, let him come out [the] guilty [party]
and let his prayer go off target!
Go off target: or come to be a sin.
8. Let his days be few;
let someone else take his appointed position!
9. Let his children become fatherless
and his wife a widow!
David expresses to YHWH, who searches all hearts, the first thin that comes to his mind; he knows he cannot hide his feelings. But he leaves the outcome to YHWH’s better judgment.
10. Let his children constantly be vagabonds
and let them beg and seek [their sustenance] from drought-ridden places!
11. Let the creditor ensnare all that he owns,
and let foreigners plunder what he has worked hard for!
12. Don’t let anyone extend kindness to him,
and let there be no one to show pity to his orphans!
David understands that having one’s children suffer is worse than suffering oneself.
13. Let his posterity be cut off!
Let their name be wiped out in the [very] next generation!
14. Let the perversity of his ancestors toward YHWH be remembered,
and the sin of his mother not be struck from the record.
15. Let them constantly be right in front of YHWH,
so that He will let their memory be cut off from the earth
16. on account of the fact that he did not remember to show mercy,
but persecuted the needy and poor man
[trying] to kill even [one with a] wounded heart.
17. Since he loved vilification, let it come to him;
since he did not take pleasure in blessing, let it be far from him!
As Yeshua said, according to the measure we use on others, it will be measured out to us. (Mat. 7:2)
18. Since he put on cursing like his garment,
let it enter his own innards like water, and [enter] his own bones like oil!
19. Let it be like a cloak in which he wraps himself,
and [let it] always serve as a belt with which he tightens it up.
20. Let this be the wage from YHWH [for] my accusers
and those who threaten evil against my life!
21. But You, O YHWH, my Master, deal with Me for the sake of Your reputation;
Snatch me out [of this], because Your mercy is just right,
22. because I myself am needy and poor,
and my heart is pierced within me.
Pierced: or violated.
23. I have gone away like a shadow when it lengthens;
I am shaken off like a locust.
24. My knees are weak from fasting,
and my flesh is lean from insufficient oil;
25. thus I have become an object of their scorn,
[when] they look at me, they shake their heads.
26. Help me, O YHWH, my Elohim!
Save me according to Your lovingkindness
27. so that they may know that this is Your hand;
[that] You, O YHWH, have accomplished [it].
28. They may curse, but You will bless.
When they rise up, let them be ashamed, but let Your servant be glad.
29. Let my accusers be dressed in disgrace,
And like a garment of rank, let them cover themselves with their own humiliation!
30. I will emphatically thank YHWH [with] my mouth
and among many [people] I will rave about Him
31. because He will take His stand at the right hand of the poor,
to save him from those who would condemn him [to death in the courtroom].
PSALM 110
[A Psalm of David]
1. YHWH has uttered to my Master, “Sit at My right hand until I appoint your enemies [to be] your footstool.
Uttered: or declared, announced; the Arabic word for “yes” comes from the same root, so it includes the idea of affirmation or confirming that something is indeed true. Footstool: i.e., humbled in his presence, while he is exalted. This was so universally understood in Second-Temple times to refer to the Messiah, a particular one of David’s anointed descendants, that Yeshua used it as a riddle, asking why David would call him “Master” if he was his own descendant. (Luke 20:41-44) Why indeed? One submits to one he knows is greater than himself. (Compare Mat. 12:42 in regard to the first son of David in this illustrious lineage.)
2. “YHWH will send the rod of your [physical] strength out from Tzion; take dominion in the midst of your enemies!
Tzion: another name for the City of David, the initial part of Yerushalayim, from which he reigned. (2 Shmu’el 5:7; 1 Kings 8:1; compare Psalm 102:16; Yeshayahu/Isa. 2:3; 24:23) Take dominion: from the word for “come down”, i.e., “on them”, subjugating them from above, since they have proven that they have such motives as to need to be ruled over rather than to rule anyone, even themselves.
3. “Your people will volunteer in the day [you assemble] your army; you have the dew of your youth in the splendors of holiness from the womb of the dawn!”
Volunteer: or, be generous.
4. YHWH has sworn, and will not be moved [from it]: “You are a priest for the Age on the order of Melkhi-tzedeq.”
For the Age: or, to the Age (the 1,000-year Day of YHWH, the “age to come”); it sometimes means “forever” or “as far into the future as one can see (until it becomes “hidden”, which is the root meaning of the word). But he will particularly be the ruler of that Age. On the order of: or, based on the manner of, i.e., the way he was a priest (although a king). Melkhi-tzedeq (alternately, Adoni-tzedeq) was another name for Shem, Noakh’s firstborn (Yasher 16:11). . Shem was Noakh's firstborn--and thus the one to inherit the priesthood before it was assigned to the Levitical line. Yeshua was the firstborn of his mother but also, as the Word, the firstborn of creation and later the firstborn from among the dead, so this is another reason he is called a priest after the same order. Thus “priest after the order of Melkhitzedeq” is one of the titles conferred on a righteous king who reigns from Yerushalayim. Shlomo (the next in the royal line after David) had a priestly aspect to his kingship. He built the Temple and inaugurated the use of the altar by dedicating it. We later see Yoshiyahu rededicating it. (2 Kgs. 22:3) So this is the king’s prerogative. Three times a year he offered ascending offerings, peace offerings, and burned incense on the altar. (1 Kgs. 9:25) He blessed all of Israel in YHWH’s name (1 Kgs. 8:14ff; 2 Shm. 6:17-18) as the high priest also did. (Num. 6:22; 1 Chron. 23:13) A priest’s role is to provide judgment and justice. (Deut. 17:9-12; 21:5) David did the same. (2 Shmu’el 8:15) Yoshiyahu restored the worship of YHWH after a long period of paganism in Yehudah, and he tells the high priest how to spend money brought into the Temple treasury. (2 Kings 22) So the king had authority over the finances of the Temple (which explains Yeshua’s right to do what he did in Mark 11:15ff; 12:41-43). But this did not infringe in any way on the duties of the Levitical priests; Uzziyahu did try to do so, but was struck with leprosy for doing so when warned by the priests not to. (2 Chron. 26) The king acts in a priestly role only on special dedicatory occasions, as when Melkhi-tzedeq met Avraham after he rescued Lot.
5. YHWH is over your right hand; you will severely wound kings in the day of your wrath.
Over: i.e., strengthening and guiding. Severely wound: or, shatter, strike through—i.e., cancel out or severly weaken their power so that they will be no threat to his Kingdom.
6. He will judge among the nations, filling [them with] corpses; he will severely wound the head over the world at large.
Head: Not only will he subdue the “greater earth”—that “new world order” so many are striving to establish; the particular wording strongly alludes to that promised “crushing of the head” of the serpent (Gen. 3:15), whom Yeshua called “the prince of this world”. (Yochanan 12:31; 14:30)
7. On the way he will drink from the stream-bed. Since this is so, he will lift up his head.
Stream-bed: Heb., nahal. One place this term is used is of he Arnon, a great canyon of a riverbed, which he would cross over on the way back from Botzrah in Edom (Yeshayahu 63:1), after having defeated his enemies there before taking his throne.
Psalms or T'hillim
(Prayer-Songs)
INTRODUCTION: The psalms give us many examples of the way(s) YHWH wants to be approached and worshipped, whether there is an official sanctuary in place or not. The psalms are a songbook specifically designed for use in the Temple. They call on all to participate in praise to YHWH using a melody and instruments. (e.g., Psalm 33) When they tell us to clap our hands, shout, or dance to YHWH, these are not requests but commands. They call for a vivid response to what He has done. When He delivers His people throughout Scripture, a new song usually comes forth. (Psalm 98) Shouting aloud brings great release when we have been afraid or angered. People do it for worthless events like a football match, and the teams feed off it; how much more do YHWH’s awesome deeds deserve an emphatic response?
