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Psalm 103-104

Psalm 103^[a]

By David.

103 Praise the Lord, O my soul.
With all that is within me, praise^[b] his holy name.
²Praise the Lord, O my soul.
Do not forget all his kind deeds.^[c]
³He is the one who forgives all your sins,
who heals all your diseases,^[d]
⁴who delivers^[e] your life from the Pit,^[f]
who crowns you with his loyal love and compassion,
⁵who satisfies your life with good things,^[g]
so your youth is renewed like an eagle’s.^[h]
⁶The Lord does what is fair,
and executes justice for all the oppressed.^[i]
⁷The Lord revealed his faithful acts^[j] to Moses,
his deeds to the Israelites.
⁸The Lord is compassionate and merciful;
he is patient^[k] and demonstrates great loyal love.^[l]
⁹He does not always accuse,
and does not stay angry.^[m]
¹⁰He does not deal with us as our sins deserve;^[n]
he does not repay us as our misdeeds deserve.^[o]
¹¹For as the skies are high above the earth,
so his loyal love towers^[p] over his faithful followers.^[q]
¹²As far as the eastern horizon^[r] is from the west,^[s]
so he removes the guilt of our rebellious actions^[t] from us.
¹³As a father has compassion on his children,^[u]
so the Lord has compassion on his faithful followers.^[v]
¹⁴For he knows what we are made of;^[w]
he realizes^[x] we are made of clay.^[y]
¹⁵A person’s life is like grass.^[z]
Like a flower in the field it flourishes,
¹⁶but when the hot wind^[aa] blows, it disappears,
and one can no longer even spot the place where it once grew.
¹⁷But the Lord continually shows loyal love to his faithful followers,^[ab]
and is faithful to their descendants,^[ac]
¹⁸to those who keep his covenant,
who are careful to obey his commands.^[ad]
¹⁹The Lord has established his throne in heaven;
his kingdom extends over everything.^[ae]
²⁰Praise the Lord, you angels of his,
you powerful warriors who carry out his decrees
and obey his orders.^[af]
²¹Praise the Lord, all you warriors of his,^[ag]
you servants of his who carry out his desires.^[ah]
²²Praise the Lord, all that he has made,^[ai]
in all the regions^[aj] of his kingdom.
Praise the Lord, O my soul.

Psalm 104^[ak]

104 Praise the Lord, O my soul!
O Lord my God, you are magnificent.^[al]
You are robed in splendor and majesty.
²He covers himself with light as if it were a garment.
He stretches out the skies like a tent curtain,
³and lays the beams of the upper rooms of his palace on the rain clouds.^[am]
He makes the clouds his chariot,
and travels on the wings of the wind.^[an]
⁴He makes the winds his messengers,
and the flaming fire his attendant.^[ao]
⁵He established the earth on its foundations;
it will never be moved.
⁶The watery deep covered it^[ap] like a garment;
the waters reached^[aq] above the mountains.^[ar]
⁷Your shout made the waters retreat;
at the sound of your thunderous voice they hurried off—
⁸as the mountains rose up,
and the valleys went down—
to the place you appointed for them.^[as]
⁹You set up a boundary for them that they could not cross,
so that they would not cover the earth again.^[at]
¹⁰He turns springs into streams;^[au]
they flow between the mountains.
¹¹They provide water for all the animals in the field;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
¹²The birds of the sky live beside them;
they chirp among the bushes.^[av]
¹³He waters the mountains from the upper rooms of his palace;^[aw]
the earth is full of the fruit you cause to grow.^[ax]
¹⁴He provides grass^[ay] for the cattle,
and crops for people to cultivate,^[az]
so they can produce food from the ground,^[ba]
¹⁵as well as wine that makes people glad,^[bb]
and olive oil to make their faces shine,^[bc]
as well as bread that sustains them.^[bd]
¹⁶The trees of the Lord^[be] receive all the rain they need,^[bf]
the cedars of Lebanon that he planted,
¹⁷where the birds make nests,
near the evergreens in which the herons live.^[bg]
¹⁸The wild goats live in the high mountains;^[bh]
the rock badgers find safety in the cliffs.
¹⁹He made the moon to mark the months,^[bi]
and the sun sets according to a regular schedule.^[bj]
²⁰You make it dark and night comes,^[bk]
during which all the beasts of the forest prowl around.
²¹The lions roar for prey,
seeking their food from God.^[bl]
²²When the sun rises, they withdraw
and sleep^[bm] in their dens.
²³People then go out to do their work,
and they labor until evening.^[bn]
²⁴How many living things you have made, O Lord!^[bo]
You have exhibited great skill in making all of them;^[bp]
the earth is full of the living things you have made.
²⁵Over here is the deep, wide sea,^[bq]
which teems with innumerable swimming creatures,^[br]
living things both small and large.
²⁶The ships travel there,
and over here swims the whale^[bs] you made to play in it.
²⁷All your creatures^[bt] wait for you
to provide them with food on a regular basis.^[bu]
²⁸You give food to them and they receive it;
you open your hand and they are filled with food.^[bv]
²⁹When you ignore them, they panic.^[bw]
When you take away their life’s breath,
they die and return to dust.
³⁰When you send your life-giving breath, they are created,
and you replenish the surface of the ground.
³¹May the splendor of the Lord endure.^[bx]
May the Lord find pleasure in the living things he has made.^[by]
³²He looks down on the earth and it shakes;
he touches the mountains and they start to smolder.
³³I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I exist.^[bz]
³⁴May my thoughts^[ca] be pleasing to him.
I will rejoice in the Lord.
³⁵May sinners disappear^[cb] from the earth,
and the wicked vanish.
Praise the Lord, O my soul.
Praise the Lord.

Footnotes

Psalm 103:1 sn Psalm 103. The psalmist praises God for his mercy and willingness to forgive his people.
Psalm 103:1 tn The verb “praise” is understood by ellipsis in the second line (see the preceding line).
Psalm 103:2 tn Or “his benefits” (see 2 Chr 32:25, where the noun is also used of kind deeds performed by the Lord).
Psalm 103:3 tn This relatively rare noun refers to deadly diseases (see Deut 29:22; Jer 14:18; 16:4; 2 Chr 21:19).
Psalm 103:4 tn Or “redeems.”
Psalm 103:4 tn The Hebrew term שַׁחַת (shakhat, “pit”) is often used as a title for Sheol (see Pss 16:10; 30:9; 49:9; 55:24 HT [55:23 ET]).
Psalm 103:5 tc Heb “who satisfies with the good of your ornaments.” The text as it stands makes little, if any, sense. The translation assumes an emendation of עֶדְיֵךְ (ʿedyekh, “your ornaments”) to עֹדֵכִי (ʿodekhi, “your duration; your continuance”), that is, “your life” (see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 18).
Psalm 103:5 sn The expression your youth is renewed like an eagle’s may allude to the phenomenon of molting, whereby the eagle grows new feathers.
Psalm 103:6 tn Heb “the Lord does fairness, and [acts of] justice for all the oppressed.”
Psalm 103:7 tn Heb “made known his ways.” God’s “ways” in this context are his protective and salvific acts in fulfillment of his promise (see also Deut 32:4; Pss 18:30; 67:2; 77:13 [note vv. 11-12, 14]; 138:5; 145:17).
Psalm 103:8 tn Heb “slow to anger” (see Ps 86:15).
Psalm 103:8 tn Heb “and great of loyal love” (see Ps 86:15).
Psalm 103:9 tn The Hebrew verb נָטַר (natar) is usually taken to mean “to keep; to guard,” with “anger” being understood by ellipsis. The idiom “to guard anger” is then understood to mean “to remain angry” (see Lev 19:18; Jer 3:5, 12; Nah 1:2). However, it is possible that this is a homonymic root meaning “to be angry” (see HALOT 695 s.v. נטר).
Psalm 103:10 tn Heb “not according to our sins does he do to us.”
Psalm 103:10 tn Heb “and not according to our misdeeds does he repay us.”
Psalm 103:11 tn For this sense of the verb גָבַר (gavar), see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 17, 19.
Psalm 103:11 tn Heb “those who fear him.”
Psalm 103:12 tn Heb “sunrise.”
Psalm 103:12 tn Or “sunset.”
Psalm 103:12 tn The Hebrew term פֶּשַׁע (peshaʿ, rebellious act”) is here used metonymically for the guilt such actions produce.
Psalm 103:13 tn Or “sons,” but the Hebrew term sometimes refers to children in general.
Psalm 103:13 tn Heb “those who fear him.”
Psalm 103:14 tn Heb “our form.”
Psalm 103:14 tn Heb “remembers.”
Psalm 103:14 tn Heb “we [are] clay.”
Psalm 103:15 tn Heb “[as for] mankind, like grass [are] his days.” The Hebrew noun אֱנוֹשׁ (ʾenosh) is used here generically of human beings. What is said is true of all mankind.
Psalm 103:16 tn Heb “[the] wind.” The word “hot” is supplied in the translation for clarification.
Psalm 103:17 tn Heb “but the loyal love of the Lord [is] from everlasting to everlasting over those who fear him.”
Psalm 103:17 tn Heb “and his righteousness to sons of sons.”
Psalm 103:18 tn Heb “to those who remember his precepts to do them.”
Psalm 103:19 tn Heb “his kingdom rules over all.”
Psalm 103:20 tn Heb “[you] mighty ones of strength, doers of his word, by listening to the voice of his word.”
Psalm 103:21 tn Heb “all his hosts.”
Psalm 103:21 tn Heb “his attendants, doers of his desire.”
Psalm 103:22 tn Heb “all his works,” which includes mankind.
Psalm 103:22 tn Heb “places.”
Psalm 104:1 sn Psalm 104. The psalmist praises God as the ruler of the world who sustains all life.
Psalm 104:1 tn Heb “very great.”
Psalm 104:3 tn Heb “one who lays the beams on water [in] his upper rooms.” The “water” mentioned here corresponds to the “waters above” mentioned in Gen 1:7. For a discussion of the picture envisioned by the psalmist, see L. I. J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World, 44-45.
Psalm 104:3 sn Verse 3 may depict the Lord riding a cherub, which is in turn propelled by the wind current. Another option is that the wind is personified as a cherub. See Ps 18:10 and the discussion of ancient Near Eastern parallels to the imagery in M. Weinfeld, “‘Rider of the Clouds’ and ‘Gatherer of the Clouds’,” JANESCU 5 (1973): 422-24.
Psalm 104:4 tc Heb “and his attendants a flaming fire.” The lack of agreement between the singular “fire” and plural “attendants” has prompted various emendations. Some read “fire and flame.” The present translation assumes an emendation from מְשָׁרְתָיו (m^eshar^etayv, “his attendants”) to מְשָׁרְתוֹ (m^eshar^eto, “his attendant”), a reading supported by one of the Dead Sea Scrolls, 4Q⁹³.sn In Ugaritic mythology Yam’s messengers appear as flaming fire before the assembly of the gods. See G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 42.
Psalm 104:6 tc Heb “you covered it.” The masculine suffix is problematic if the grammatically feminine noun “earth” is the antecedent. For this reason some emend the form from כִּסִּיתוֹ (kissito) to a feminine verb with feminine suffix, כִּסַּתָּה (kissattah, “[the watery deep] covered it [i.e., the earth]”), a reading assumed by the present translation.
Psalm 104:6 tn Heb “stood.”
Psalm 104:6 sn Verse 6 refers to the condition described in Gen 1:2 (note the use of the Hebrew term תְּהוֹם [t^ehom, “watery deep”] in both texts).
Psalm 104:8 tn Heb “from your shout they fled, from the sound of your thunder they hurried off.”sn Verses 7-8 poetically depict Gen 1:9-10.
Psalm 104:9 tn Heb “a boundary you set up, they will not cross, they will not return to cover the earth.”
Psalm 104:10 tn Heb “[the] one who sends springs into streams.” Another option is to translate, “he sends streams [i.e., streams that originate from springs] into the valleys” (cf. NIV).
Psalm 104:12 tn Heb “among the thick foliage they give a sound.”
Psalm 104:13 tn Heb “from his upper rooms.”
Psalm 104:13 tn Heb “from the fruit of your works the earth is full.” The translation assumes that “fruit” is literal here. If “fruit” is understood more abstractly as “product; result,” then one could translate, “the earth flourishes as a result of your deeds” (cf. NIV, NRSV, REB).
Psalm 104:14 tn Heb “causes the grass to sprout up.”
Psalm 104:14 tn Heb “for the service of man” (see Gen 2:5).
Psalm 104:14 tn Heb “to cause food to come out from the earth.”
Psalm 104:15 tn Heb “and wine [that] makes the heart of man happy.”
Psalm 104:15 tn Heb “to make [the] face shine from oil.” The Hebrew verb צָהַל (tsahal, “to shine”) occurs only here in the OT. It appears to be an alternate form of צָהַר (tsahar), a derivative from צָהָרִים (tsaharim, “noon”).
Psalm 104:15 tn Heb “and food [that] sustains the heart of man.”
Psalm 104:16 sn The trees of the Lord are the cedars of Lebanon (see the next line), which are viewed as special because of their great size and grandeur. The Lebanon forest was viewed elsewhere in the OT as the “garden of God” (see Ezek 31:8).
Psalm 104:16 tn Heb “are satisfied,” which means here that they receive abundant rain (see v. 13).
Psalm 104:17 tn Heb “[the] heron [in the] evergreens [is] its home.”sn The cedars and evergreens of the Lebanon forest are frequently associated (see, for example, 2 Chr 2:8; Isa 14:8; 37:24; Ezek 31:8).
Psalm 104:18 tn Heb “the high mountains [are] for the goats.”
Psalm 104:19 tn Heb “he made [the] moon for appointed times.” The phrase “appointed times” probably refers to the months of the Hebrew lunar calendar.
Psalm 104:19 tn Heb more metaphorically, “knows its setting.”
Psalm 104:20 tn Heb “you make darkness, so that it might be night.”
Psalm 104:21 sn The lions’ roaring is viewed as a request for food from God.
Psalm 104:22 tn Heb “lie down.”
Psalm 104:23 tn Heb “man goes out to his work, and to his labor until evening.”
Psalm 104:24 tn Heb “How many [are] your works, O Lord.” In this case the Lord’s “works” are the creatures he has made, as the preceding and following contexts make clear.
Psalm 104:24 tn Heb “all of them with wisdom you have made.”
Psalm 104:25 tn Heb “this [is] the sea, great and broad of hands [i.e., “sides” or “shores”].”
Psalm 104:25 tn Heb “where [there are] swimming things, and without number.”
Psalm 104:26 tn Heb “[and] this Leviathan, [which] you formed to play in it.” Elsewhere Leviathan is a multiheaded sea monster that symbolizes forces hostile to God (see Ps 74:14; Isa 27:1), but here it appears to be an actual marine creature created by God, probably some type of whale.
Psalm 104:27 tn Heb “All of them.” The pronoun “them” refers not just to the sea creatures mentioned in vv. 25-26, but to all living things (see v. 24). This has been specified in the translation as “all of your creatures” for clarity.
Psalm 104:27 tn Heb “to give their food in its time.”
Psalm 104:28 tn Heb “they are satisfied [with] good.”
Psalm 104:29 tn Heb “you hide your face, they are terrified.”
Psalm 104:31 tn Heb “be forever.”
Psalm 104:31 tn Or “rejoice in his works.”
Psalm 104:33 tn Heb “in my duration.”
Psalm 104:34 tn That is, the psalmist’s thoughts as expressed in his songs of praise.
Psalm 104:35 tn Or “be destroyed.”

1 Corinthians 2

2 When I came^[a] to you, brothers and sisters,^[b] I did not come with superior eloquence or wisdom as I proclaimed the testimony^[c] of God. ²For I decided to be concerned about nothing^[d] among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. ³And I was with you in weakness and in fear and with much trembling. ⁴My conversation and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, ⁵so that your faith would not be based on human wisdom but on the power of God.

Wisdom from God

⁶Now we do speak wisdom among the mature,^[e] but not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are perishing. ⁷Instead we speak the wisdom of God, hidden in a mystery, that God determined before the ages for our glory. ⁸None of the rulers of this age understood it. If they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ⁹But just as it is written, “Things that no eye has seen, or ear heard, or mind imagined,^[f] are the things God has prepared for those who love him.”^[g] ¹⁰God has revealed these to us by the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. ¹¹For who among men knows the things of a man except the man’s spirit within him? So too, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. ¹²Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things that are freely given to us by God. ¹³And we speak about these things, not with words taught us by human wisdom, but with those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people.^[h] ¹⁴The unbeliever^[i] does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. And he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. ¹⁵The one who is spiritual discerns^[j] all things, yet he himself is understood^[k] by no one. ¹⁶For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to advise him?^[l] But we have the mind of Christ.

Footnotes

1 Corinthians 2:1 tn Grk “and I, when I came.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, κἀγώ (kagō) has not been translated here.
1 Corinthians 2:1 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:10.
1 Corinthians 2:1 tc ‡ A few significant mss (P^46vid א* A C as well as some versions and fathers) read μυστήριον (mustērion, “mystery”) instead of μαρτύριον (marturion, “testimony”). But the latter has wider ms support (א² B D F G Ψ 33 1739 1881 M and some versions), though not quite as impressive. μαρτύριον may have been changed by scribes in anticipation of Paul’s words in 2:7, or conversely, μυστήριον may have been changed to conform to 1:6. Transcriptionally, since “the mystery of God/Christ” is a well-worn expression in the corpus Paulinum (1 Cor 2:7; 4:1; Eph 3:4; Col 2:2; 4:3), while “testimony of Christ” occurs in Paul only once (1 Cor 1:6, though “testimony of the Lord” appears in 2 Tim 1:8), and “testimony of God” never, it is likely that scribes changed the text to the more usual expression. A decision is difficult in this instance, but a slight preference should be given to μαρτύριον.
1 Corinthians 2:2 tn Grk “to know nothing.”
1 Corinthians 2:6 tn In extrabiblical literature this word was applied to an initiate of a mystery religion (BDAG 995 s.v. τέλειος 3, gives numerous examples and states this was a technical term of the mystery religions). It could here refer to those who believed Paul’s message, the mystery of God (v. 1), and so be translated as “those who believe God’s message.”
1 Corinthians 2:9 tn Grk “entered the heart,” an OT expression, in which the heart functions like the mind.
1 Corinthians 2:9 sn A quotation from Isa 64:4.
1 Corinthians 2:13 tn Or “combining spiritual things with spiritual words” (i.e., words the Spirit gives, as just described).
1 Corinthians 2:14 tn Grk “natural person.” Cf. BDAG 1100 s.v. ψυχικός a, “an unspiritual pers., one who merely functions bodily, without being touched by the Spirit of God.”
1 Corinthians 2:15 tn Or “evaluates.”
1 Corinthians 2:15 tn Or “is evaluated” (i.e., “is subject to evaluation”); Grk “he himself is discerned,” that is, the person without the Spirit does not understand the person with the Spirit, particularly in relation to the life of faith.
1 Corinthians 2:16 sn A quotation from Isa 40:13.

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Old/New Testament

Psalm 103[a]

By David.

Psalm 104[ak]

Footnotes

Wisdom from God

Footnotes

Psalm 103^[a]

Psalm 104^[ak]