¹tn Heb “his name,” which here stands metonymically for God’s reputation.
²tn Heb “make honorable his praise.”
³tn See Deut 33:29; Ps 81:15 for other uses of the verb vjk in the sense “cower in fear.” In Ps 18:44 the verb seems to carry the nuance “be weak, powerless” (see also Ps 109:24).
⁴tn Or “bows down to.” The prefixed verbal forms in v. 4 are taken (1) as imperfects expressing what is typical. Another option (2) is to interpret them as anticipatory (“all the earth will worship you”) or (3) take them as jussives, expressing a prayer or wish (“may all the earth worship you”).
⁵tn Or “see.”
⁶tn Or “acts” (see Ps 46:8).
⁷tn Heb “awesome [is] an act toward the sons of man.” It is unclear how the prepositional phrase relates to what precedes. If collocated with “act,” it may mean “on behalf of” or “toward.” If taken with “awesome” (see 1 Chr 16:25; Pss 89:7; 96:4; Zeph 2:11), one might translate “his awesome acts are beyond human comprehension” or “his awesome acts are superior to anything men can do.”
⁸sn He turned the sea into dry land. The psalmist alludes to Israel’s crossing the Red Sea (Exod 14:21).
⁹tn Because of the reference to “the river,” some understand this as an allusion to Israel’s crossing the Jordan River. However, the Hebrew term rhn does not always refer to a “river” in the technical sense; it can be used of sea currents (see Jonah 2:4). So this line may also refer to the Red Sea crossing (cf. NEB).
¹⁰tn The adverb <v (“there”) is used here, as often in poetic texts, to point “to a spot in which a scene is localized vividly in the imagination” (BDB 1027).
¹¹tn Heb “[the] one who rules.”
¹²tn Heb “his eyes watch.” “Eyes” are an anthropomorphism, attributed to God here to emphasize his awareness of all that happens on earth.
¹³tn The verb form is jussive (note the negative particle la). The Kethib (consonantal text) has a Hiphil form of the verb, apparently to be understood in an exhibitive sense (“demonstrate stubborn rebellion,” see BDB 927), while the Qere (marginal reading) has a Qal form, to be understood in an intransitive sense. The preposition -l with pronominal suffix should be understood in a reflexive sense (“for themselves”) and indicates that the action is performed with the interest of the subject in mind (see BDB 515-16).
¹⁴tn Heb “bless,” in the sense of declaring “God to be the source of…special power” (see HALOT 160).
¹⁵tn Heb “cause the voice of his praise to be heard.”
¹⁶tn Heb “the one who places our soul in life.”
¹⁷tn Or “indeed.”
¹⁸tn Heb “you brought us into a net.” This rare word for “net” also occurs in Ezek 12:13; 13:21; 17:20 (see BDB 845).
¹⁹tn Heb “you placed suffering on our hips.” The noun hquwm (“suffering”) occurs only here in the OT (see HALOT 558-59).
²⁰tc The MT reads hywr (“saturation”) but this should be emended to hjwr (“wide open place”; i.e., “relief,” see BDB 926), a reading supported by several ancient versions (LXX, Syriac, Jerome, Targum).
²¹sn Here the psalmist switches to the singular; he speaks as the representative of the nation.
²²tn Heb “all of the fearers of God.”
²³tn Heb “to him [with] my mouth I called.”
²⁴tn Heb “and he was extolled under my tongue.” The form <m^or appears to be a polal (passive) participle from <wr (“be exalted”), but many prefer to read <m*or, “high praise [was under my tongue]” (cf. NEB). See BDB 928.
²⁵tn Heb “sin if I had seen in my heart.”
²⁶tn Heb “blessed [be] God.”
²⁷tn Or “who.” In a blessing formula after iwrb, “blessed be,” the form rva, whether taken as a relative pronoun or causal particle, introduces the basis for the blessing/praise.
²⁸tn Heb “did not turn aside my prayer and his loyal love with me.”
²⁹sn Psalm 67. The psalmist prays for God’s blessing upon his people and urges the nations to praise him for he is the just ruler of the world.