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Psalm 113-115  New English Translation

Psalm 113[a]

113 Praise the Lord.
Praise, you servants of the Lord,
praise the name of the Lord.
2 May the Lord’s name be praised
now and forevermore.
3 From east to west[b]
the Lord’s name is deserving of praise.
4 The Lord is exalted over all the nations;
his splendor reaches beyond the sky.[c]
5 Who can compare to the Lord our God,
who sits on a high throne?[d]
6 He bends down to look[e]
at the sky and the earth.
7 He raises the poor from the dirt,
and lifts up the needy from the garbage pile,[f]
8 that he might seat him with princes,
with the princes of his people.
9 He makes the barren woman of the family[g]
a happy mother of children.[h]
Praise the Lord.

Psalm 114[i]

114 When Israel left Egypt,
when the family of Jacob left a foreign nation behind,[j]
2 Judah became his sanctuary,
Israel his kingdom.
3 The sea looked and fled;[k]
the Jordan River[l] turned back.[m]
4 The mountains skipped like rams,
the hills like lambs.[n]
5 Why do you flee, O sea?
Why do you turn back, O Jordan River?
6 Why do you skip like rams, O mountains,
like lambs, O hills?
7 Tremble, O earth, before the Lord—
before the God of Jacob,
8 who turned a rock into a pool of water,
a hard rock into springs of water.[o]

Psalm 115[p]

115 Not to us, O Lord, not to us,
but to your name bring honor,[q]
for the sake of your loyal love and faithfulness.[r]
2 Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
3 Our God is in heaven.
He does whatever he pleases.[s]
4 Their[t] idols are made of silver and gold—
they are man-made.[u]
5 They have mouths, but cannot speak,
eyes, but cannot see,
6 ears, but cannot hear,
noses, but cannot smell,
7 hands, but cannot touch,
feet, but cannot walk.
They cannot even clear their throats.[v]
8 Those who make them will end up[w] like them,
as will everyone who trusts in them.
9 O Israel, trust in the Lord.
He is their deliverer[x] and protector.[y]
10 O family[z] of Aaron, trust in the Lord.
He is their deliverer[aa] and protector.[ab]
11 You loyal followers of the Lord,[ac] trust in the Lord.
He is their deliverer[ad] and protector.[ae]
12 The Lord takes notice of us;[af] he will bless[ag]—
he will bless the family[ah] of Israel,
he will bless the family of Aaron.
13 He will bless his loyal followers,[ai]
both young and old.[aj]
14 May he increase your numbers,
yours and your children’s.[ak]
15 May you be blessed by the Lord,
the Creator[al] of heaven and earth.
16 The heavens belong to the Lord,[am]
but the earth he has given to mankind.[an]
17 The dead do not praise the Lord,
nor do any of those who descend into the silence of death.[ao]
18 But we will praise the Lord
now and forevermore.
Praise the Lord!

Footnotes

  1. Psalm 113:1 sn Psalm 113. The psalmist praises God as the sovereign king of the world who reaches down to help the needy.
  2. Psalm 113:3 tn Heb “from the rising of the sun to its setting.” The extent is not temporal (“from sunrise to sunset”) but spatial (“from the place where the sun rises [the east] to the place where it sets [the west].” In the phenomenological language of OT cosmology, the sun was described as rising in the east and setting in the west.
  3. Psalm 113:4 tn Heb “above the sky [is] his splendor.”
  4. Psalm 113:5 tn Heb “the one who makes high to sit.”
  5. Psalm 113:6 tn Heb “the one who makes low to see.”
  6. Psalm 113:7 sn The language of v. 7 is almost identical to that of 1 Sam 2:8.
  7. Psalm 113:9 tn Heb “of the house.”
  8. Psalm 113:9 tn Heb “sons.”
  9. Psalm 114:1 sn Psalm 114. The psalmist recalls the events of the exodus and conquest and celebrates God’s kingship over his covenant people.
  10. Psalm 114:1 tn Heb “the house of Jacob from a nation speaking a foreign language.”
  11. Psalm 114:3 sn The psalmist recalls the crossing of the Red Sea (Exod 14:21).
  12. Psalm 114:3 tn Heb “the Jordan” (also in v. 5). The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
  13. Psalm 114:3 sn The psalmist recalls the crossing of the Jordan River (Josh 3:13, 16).
  14. Psalm 114:4 sn The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs. This may recall the theophany at Sinai when the mountain shook before God’s presence (Exod 19:18).
  15. Psalm 114:8 sn In v. 8 the psalmist recalls the event(s) recorded in Exod 17:6 and/or Num 20:11 (see also Deut 8:15 and Ps 78:15-16, 20).
  16. Psalm 115:1 sn Psalm 115. The psalmist affirms that Israel’s God is superior to pagan idols and urges Israel to place their confidence in him.
  17. Psalm 115:1 tn Or “give glory.”
  18. Psalm 115:1 sn The psalmist asks the Lord to demonstrate his loyal love and faithfulness, not simply so Israel may benefit, but primarily so that the Lord will receive honor among the nations, who will recognize, contrary to their present view (see v. 2), that Israel’s God is committed to his people.
  19. Psalm 115:3 sn He does whatever he pleases. Such sovereignty is characteristic of kings (see Eccl 8:3).
  20. Psalm 115:4 tn The referent of the pronominal suffix is “the nations” (v. 2).
  21. Psalm 115:4 tn Heb “the work of the hands of man.”
  22. Psalm 115:7 tn Heb “they cannot mutter in their throats.” Verse 5a refers to speaking, v. 7c to inarticulate sounds made in the throat (see M. Dahood, Psalms [AB], 3:140-41).
  23. Psalm 115:8 tn Heb “will be.” Another option is to take the prefixed verbal form as a prayer, “may those who make them end up like them.” sn Because the idols are lifeless, they cannot help their worshipers in times of crisis. Consequently the worshipers end up as dead as the gods in which they trust.
  24. Psalm 115:9 tn Or “[source of] help.”
  25. Psalm 115:9 tn Heb “and their shield.”
  26. Psalm 115:10 tn Heb “house.”
  27. Psalm 115:10 tn Or “[source of] help.”
  28. Psalm 115:10 tn Heb “and their shield.”
  29. Psalm 115:11 tn Heb “[you] fearers of the Lord.” See Ps 15:4.
  30. Psalm 115:11 tn Or “[source of] help.”
  31. Psalm 115:11 tn Heb “and their shield.”
  32. Psalm 115:12 tn Or “remembers us.”
  33. Psalm 115:12 tn Another option is to translate the prefixed form of the verb “bless” in vv. 12-13 as a jussive, “may he bless” (see v. 14).
  34. Psalm 115:12 tn Heb “house.”
  35. Psalm 115:13 tn Heb “the fearers of the Lord.”
  36. Psalm 115:13 tn Heb “the small along with the great.” The translation assumes that “small” and “great” here refer to age (see 2 Chr 15:13). Another option is to translate “both the insignificant and the prominent” (see Job 3:19; cf. NEB “high and low alike”).
  37. Psalm 115:14 tn Heb “may he add to you, to you and your sons.” The prefixed verbal form is jussive, indicating this is a prayer.
  38. Psalm 115:15 tn Or “maker.”
  39. Psalm 115:16 tn Heb “the heavens [are] heavens to the Lord.”
  40. Psalm 115:16 tn Heb “to the sons of man.”
  41. Psalm 115:17 tn Heb “silence,” a metonymy here for death (see Ps 94:17).
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