4 For my sins have flooded over my head;
they are a burden too heavy for me to bear.
5 My wounds are foul and festering
because of my foolishness.

Most translations I looked at had some variation of the more literal “my wounds fester and stink” in verse 5 (REB, NEB, ESV, TNIV, JB, NJB, NLTse, JPS Tanakh).

Only the NASB had the same alliteration as the HCSB, albeit in different verb forms: “My wounds grow foul and fester because of my folly.” However, the NASB didn’t use “flooded” in verse 4 (”For my iniquities are gone over my head…”), which, in the HCSB, creates a literary connection between the different thoughts

Update: the older RSV has the same wording as the NASB above, or more accurately, the NASB uses the same wording as the RSV.

This, plus the “burden [...] bear” alliteration in verse 4, brought to mind a previous post on some of the literary qualities of the HCSB.

There has been quite a bit of discussion of Psalm 51 lately, especially on Better Bibles by Suzanne, David et al., so I thought I would add one more late voice to the chorus. A few days ago, I received my copy of Seerveld’s translation of some three dozen or so psalms and other passages from the OT and NT.

Those who read my post on Seerveld’s translation of Song of Songs will know that his approach to translation is to explore as fully as possible the original message and then present it in American English in “a format that is accessible today but may also seem a touch quaint or unusual in the current tongue, so one catches a little of the otherness in what is being articulated anew.” (p.xxiii)

Included in the present collection is Seerveld’s take on Psalm 51:

God! be merciful to me in your covenantal love!
In your boundless motherly compassion undo my violating act!
Scrub me utterly clean of my guilty wickedness!
Make me pure from my wasteful sin!

Yes, I know intimately my dirty deed myself, I do.
My spoilsome sin is ever in front of my face.
I have sinned against you; especially against you have I sinned, O God.
I did evil while you looked on -
You are perfectly just in your accusation;
You are utterly right in your judgment.
It’s true, I was born perverted.
When my mother conceived me, I was already crooked.
I know, you want truth in the gut:
quietly now teach me that wisdom deep down, O God.

Purge me with hyssop that I become pure;
Wash me until I become whiter than snow.
Make me cheerful and happy again.
Let my very bones you have broken move joyfully once more -
Turn your face away, O God, from my wasteful sin.
Wipe out all my dirty deeds.

Create in me a clean heart, O God!
Give me a steady, fresh spirit inside.
Do not expel me from your presence.
Do not take your Holy Spirit away from me!
O God, bring back to me the joyful experience of your help again.
Prop me up - make me a willing obedient spirit.

Then I will teach rebels your ways of doing things
so that sinners will be turned around to come back to you -
Deliver me, God, O God of my salvation, undo the blood-guilty deeds!
so that my tongue may jubilate at your trustworthily coming through.
O, my Lord, let me lips be opened
so that my mouth may shout out your praise!
A sacrifice is not what you want
- even if I were to give you a burnt offering
it would not smell sweet to you.
My offering, O God, is a chastened spirit.
O God, a chastened, yielded heart you will not despise, will you?

Do good to Zion in your grace, O God.
Rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
Then you shall take pleasure in offerings of right-doing,
in offerings that go completely up in smoke, the “total” kind of offerings
- that’s the festive time when people will offer whole young bulls on your altar!

I was particularly struck by the differing types of poetic structure each of these translation uses. The NRSV uses “deliver/deliverance” to frame the verse:

Deliver me from bloodshed, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.

The NJB ends each line with a variant of “save”:

Deliver me from bloodshed, God, God of my salvation,
and my tongue will acclaim your saving justice.

Finally, the REB slips into what feels like a stream of consciousness word trail in the first part of the verse:

My God, God my deliverer, deliver me from bloodshed,
and I shall sing the praises of your saving power. (REB)

There’s a directness to this last example that is quite appealing - the words just pour out in rhythm as you read them. I can feel this one as a spoken prayer, more than poetic verse.

I came across such an annotation this morning in my reading of Psalm 110:3b, where the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) reads:

In holy splendor, from the womb of the dawn,
the dew of Your youth belongs to You.

I was particularly struck by the HCSB’s rendering of the striking imagery of “the womb of dawn”, but especially the alliterative connection between lines: “the womb of the dawn / the dew of Your youth”. It’s this turn of phrase, this type of poetical phrasing that makes an English translation outstanding and beautiful.

Both images can be understood. The “womb of the dawn” referring the start of the day, “the dew of Your youth” is the freshness of life. Dew comes at the start of each day, the womb of dawn. Freshness, strength and vigor come in the youth of life. God is assuring the poet that on the day of battle (Ps. 110:3a), he will have the vigor and freshness of his youth to sustain him and his efforts.

Because the annotation suggested this phrase was uncertain, I consulted several other translations:

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV):

From the womb of the morning,
like dew, your youth will come to you.

English Standard Version (ESV):

from the womb of the morning,
the dew of your youth will be yours.

Today’s New International Version (TNIV):

Arrayed in holy splendor,
your young men will come to you
like dew from the morning’s womb.

New Living Translation (NLT):

You are arrayed in holy garments,
and your strength will be renewed each day like the morning dew.

Revised English Bible (REB):

Arrayed in holy garments, a child of the dawn,
you have the dew of your youth.

King James’ Version (KJV):

in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning:
thou hast the dew of thy youth.

JPS Tanakh Translation:

In majestic holiness, from the womb,
from the dawn, yours was the dew of youth.

Sadly, almost every other translation uses “morning” instead of “dawn” (the REB and Tanakh excepted). Now, “morning” is almost certainly a valid word choice, but doesn’t “the womb of dawn” just have an extra bit of elegance? I think so.

Morning is a generic term that can mean anything before noon. Dawn is specific, the hours just before full daylight, when dew glistens and the sun’s rays begin spreading across the sky in glorious colors. The womb of dawn is the unfolding of the day, the flowers that open and spread their petals to grasp the sun and the freshening dew.

Just this specific word choice adds semantic strength to the translation. Where the HCSB shines even over the REB and Tanakh is its syntactic word flow, the alliteration, the poetical repetition.

To be fair, the REB achieves a bit of this with its “child of dawn / [...] dew of your youth” rendering — if the REB had phrased it “… a child of the dawn / the dew of your youth is yours”, then it would be similar, though I still prefer the HCSB’s word choices of the uncertain Hebrew.

First the NASB:

[1] He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
[2] I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

Next, the TNIV:

[1] Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
[2] They say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

And the NRSV:

[1] You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,
[2] will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.’

And finally the NET:

[1] As for you, the one who lives in the shelter of the sovereign One, and resides in the protective shadow of the mighty king –
[2] I say this about the Lord, my shelter and my stronghold, my God in whom I trust [...]

Pronoun soup! At least verses 3-13 in all translations use the “he/you” pronouns, then switch to God speaking in the first-person in verses 14-16. In response to my comment along these lines to Wayne’s post, Peter Kirk posted the following:

“[T]here is a good reason for the pronoun soup in Psalm 91:2. The Masoretic text is literally ‘omar “I say” or “I will say”, but the BHS [ed. Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia] suggests an emendation to yo’mar “he says” or “he will say”, based on the LXX reading erei “he will say”; or the unpointed Hebrew could be read as the participle ‘omer “saying”, agreeing with the subject of verse 1. Add into the mix the policy in NRSV and TNIV of avoiding gender generic “he”, and that explains the variation here.”

My ear prefers the unpointed Hebrew ‘omer’ approach since it allows the opening two phrases of verse 1 to be read as a parallel descriptive structure leading into verse 2 rather than forming an autonomous causal statement. In addition to the NRSV, the REB is the other translation I’m familiar with that took this approach:

[1] He who lives in the shelter of the Most High, who lodges under the shadow of the Almighty,
[2] says of the LORD, ‘He is my refuge and fortress, my God in whom I put my trust.’

Getting back to Wayne’s original post and question, the NRSV gender polishes the pronoun issue by using “You” in verse 1, consistent with the rest of the Psalm. The REB keeps verses 1-2 as an introduction with a generic “He”, before switching voice to “you” in verse 3ff. Without any immediate recourse to the original language texts or explanatory notes from the translations considered above, it would be interesting to consider the work of Alter, Kugel and Hobbins on this psalm.

** 10/4 update **

Blogger Iyov has provided a detailed response to the pronoun issues discussed here. He prefers the traditional interpretation that sees three voices in the psalm: the poet (vss 1, 3-13), the protected (vs. 2) and God (vss. 14-16). Iyov provides Robert Alter’s translation:

[1] He who dwells in the Most High’s shelter, in the shadow of Shaddai lies at night –
[2] I say of the LORD, “My refuge and bastion, my God in whom I trust.”

Here is a unique approach in verse 1, where Alter explicitly translates (lodges, abides, rests, resides) as “lies at night”, creating a day/night contrast between the protection of the Most High and of the Almighty. Note also the mirror structure of the opening verse. Iyov also quotes Alter’s notes, where he comments that:

“The Israeli scholar Yair Hoffman, noting its eloquent expression of God’s unflagging providential protection, has interestingly characterized the poem as an “amulet psalm” with the idea that its recitation might help a person attain or perhaps simply feel God’s guarding power.”

Ironically, that thought was one of my first introductions to this particular psalm when someone referred to it as their “911 verse” - a double reference to September 11, 2001 and also to the 9-1-1 emergency response phone number used here in the United States.

The passage that I’ve been looking at right now is from Psalm 89 (HCSB):

38 But You have spurned and rejected him;
You have become enraged with Your anointed.
39 You have repudiated the covenant with Your servant;
You have completely dishonored his crown.
40 You have broken down all his walls;
You have reduced his fortified cities to ruins.
41 All who pass by plunder him;
he has become a joke to his neighbors.
42 You have lifted high the right hand of his foes;
You have made all his enemies rejoice.
43 You have also turned back his sharp sword
and have not let him stand in battle.
44 You have made his splendor cease
and have overturned his throne.
45 You have shortened the days of his youth;
You have covered him with shame. Selah
46 How long, Lord? Will You hide Yourself forever?
Will Your anger keep burning like fire?
47 Remember how short my life is.
Have You created everyone for nothing?
48 What man can live and never see death?
Who can save himself from the power of Sheol? Selah
49 Lord, where are the former acts of Your faithful love
that You swore to David in Your faithfulness?
50 Remember, Lord, the ridicule against Your servants—
in my heart I carry [abuse]* from all the peoples—
51 how Your enemies have ridiculed, Lord,
how they have ridiculed every step of Your anointed.

When I first read this part of Psalm 89, I was struck by the similarities to the servant passages in Isaiah, especially the suffering servant in Isaiah 53. So I got to wondering why Isaiah 53 was considered “messianic” by most Christians, but this passage was not. Was it a psalter vs. prophet issue? But there are plenty of passages from Psalms that are considered messianic, so that couldn’t be the reason. Then, frankly, I got busy with other tasks and didn’t have time to dig into this. That is, until earlier today when I followed some blog links and was astounded to find this exact topic covered by Brant Pitre and Michael Barber on their Singing In The Reign blog (great name!).

There have been two posts on this topic: the first, by Brant Pitre back in June, is titled The “Footsteps of the Messiah” and the Messianic Tribulation and discusses how, in addition to being the messianic Son of Man and suffering Servant, “Jesus also saw himself as the Davidic Messiah who would suffer the messianic tribulation by undergoing the days of ‘the footsteps of the Messiah.’” The latter is a rabbinical phrase taken from Psalm 89:51!

The second article, “The Footsteps of the Messiah: Psalm 89, Isaiah 53 and 1 Peter 2” by Micahel Barber, dives deeper into the similarities between Psalm 89 and Isaiah 53. Barber then leaps to 1 Peter 2 (HCSB) to quote this striking passage:

21 For you were called to this,
because Christ also suffered for you,
leaving you an example,
so that you should follow in His steps.
22 He did not commit sin,
and no deceit was found in His mouth;
23 when reviled, He did not revile in return;
when suffering, He did not threaten,
but committed Himself to the One who judges justly.
24 He Himself bore our sins
in His body on the tree,
so that, having died to sins,
we might live for righteousness;
by His wounding you have been healed.
25 For you were like sheep going astray,
but you have now returned
to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

Vss. 22-25 are familiar territory from Isaiah 53, but also consider “that you should follow in His steps” in v.21 — an allusion to Psalm 89! — further drawing these passages together. Barber finishes with this conclusion:

“Even more, Peter links the sufferings of Christians with Jesus’ sufferings ― they must walk in his steps. In other words, whether or not Isaiah 53 describes an individual or the people of God would have been a moot point for Peter―for him it describes both, since Christians have a participation in the eschatological suffering of Christ. He thus goes on to say, ‘Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same thought, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin… rejoice in so far as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed’ (1 Pet 4:1, 13).”

Now I’ll be honest… when I was originally reading this psalm, I initially jumped to Revelation and wondered if the covenant being broken in Psalm 89 was the end of the millennium of Revelation 20:1-3. Would all the victories of Christ be broken and dishonored while Satan was released “for a short time”? But as a preterist who believes the majority of eschatological texts find fulfillment in the generation of Jesus Christ, it makes far more sense that Psalm 89 describes the period of tribulation announced by Christ and leading up to the destruction of the Temple in 70AD. Especially as this would be a strong argument for a tradition of a suffering Messiah before the days of Jesus - that is, Jesus as the individual suffering Servant is not a purely Christian interpretation of OT texts, but rooted in earlier Jewish expectations.

“You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High, who rest in the shadow of the Almighty, say of the LORD, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’”

I later looked at the NET bible’s translation and found it closer, though fairly dense. Now, in looking at the NRSV, I found an approach that is much closer to what I arrived at:

“You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.’”

It is gender neutral for those who care (not surprisingly, the older RSV has “He who lives in the…”) and uses parallel phrases in verse 1. More importantly, this approach keeps a second-person voice through the passage, which is consistent with the rest of the psalm, avoiding the drastic switch to first-person in verse 2 that most translations use. It is also much closer to the language that Michael Joncas used in his song “On Eagles’ Wings”, which was the inspiration for the original post.

You who dwell in the shelter of the Lord, Who abide in His shadow for life,
Say to the Lord, “My Refuge, My Rock in Whom I trust.”

Amen.

As for you, the one who lives in the shelter of the sovereign One, and resides in the protective shadow of the mighty king – I say this about the Lord, my shelter and my stronghold, my God in whom I trust – he will certainly rescue you from the snare of the hunter and from the destructive plague.

In this translation, verse 2 (”I say this…”) is set apart from the text as an aside from the narrator, while vss 1 and 3 use the second-person “you” to speak to the reader. The footnotes state that in “this psalm an individual (perhaps a priest) addresses one who has sought shelter in the Lord and assures him that God will protect him from danger.” If this is the case, then none of the primary translations I considered really hit the mark. The NLTse and HCSB make the switch to first-person in v2, but these opening passages still remain an odd jumble of first-, second- and third-person voices. The NET is consistent between v1 and the rest of the psalm, and uses effective structural markers to set v2 apart.

Another inspirational verse. This one resonates with me because of the adaption that Michael Joncas did in his song “On Eagles’ Wings” (above), which my mom liked and was sung at her funeral and memorial services. And I can’t but also help remember the connection that someone from a former small group made, talking about this psalm and how it was their “911″ verse (Psalm 91:1, get it?), what they looked to when they needed spiritual help and safety. And that was even before the events of September 11, 2001.

TNIV: “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. They say of the LORD, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’”

NLTse: “Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. This I declare about the LORD: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him.”

REB: “He who lives in the shelter of the Most High, who lodges under the shadow of the Almighty, says of the LORD, ‘He is my refuge and fortress, my God in whom I put my trust.’”

HCSB: “The one who lives under the protection of the Most High dwells in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’”

This is the first verse that I’ve considered where there is a definite difference in gender and voice. The TNIV, NLTse and HCSB studiously avoid masculine language in identifying the gender of the subject of verses 1 and 2; I’m actually quite surprised that the HCSB didn’t use “He” here given their adherence to the Colorado Springs Guidelines. Ironically the REB, which was associated with the early “gender neutral” movement uses “He” here.

The NLTse leaves open the possibility of a plural subject in verse 1, while the TNIV, REB and HCSB use singular language. Reread the TNIV with “He who” or “They who”; the verb “dwells” indicates a singular subject, similarly for the HCSB’s “lives”. So the early comparison is:

TNIV: third-person singular, gender neutral
NLTse: third-person plural, gender neutral
REB: third-person singular, masculine
HCSB: third-person singular, gender neutral

Jumping forward to verse 2, we find that only the TNIV and REB maintain voice consistency, the former using a singular “they”. The NLTse makes the abrupt shift from third-person plural to first person singular; the HCSB also shifts from third-person to first-person, but still singular. Careful readers of this blog will have already noted that I like consistency.

There are two clauses in verse 1: “He who lives in the shelter of the Most High” and “who lodges under the shadow of the Almighty” (REB). The phrase “the Most High” is a translation of Elyon, while “the Almighty” is a translation of Shaddai; both are common epithets of God in the Old Testament texts.

The TNIV and NLTse have a cause-and-effect translation… if you do A (”live in the shelter of the Most High”), then you will get B (”find rest in the shadow of the Almighty”). The HCSB is similar, but perhaps not as explicit. This approach is also taken in the Jewish Study Bible and the older translations, e.g. KJV, NASB and ESV, that I’ve checked. There must be a textual basis for this approach.

However, I really like how the REB has approached these verses, making them into parallel phrases, each saying essentially the same thing but with different language and under a different attribute of God. Using the parallel construction as a setup for verse 2 allows the text to use the subject of verse 1 as the voice of verse 2 without breaking the flow of the thought. The TNIV also maintains a third-person subject through both verses, but it just feels weaker and a less personal statement of trust than the REB.

It’s ironic to me that the second-person voice approach taken by Michael Joncas is probably the most consistent translation within the context of the entire psalm. Beginning in verse 3 and continuing until the Lord speaks his promises in verses 14-16, the text addresses the reader/listener as “you” or “your”. What if verses 1-2 were translated as such:

“You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High, who rest in the shadow of the Almighty, say of the LORD, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’”

That’s a translation approach that’s gender neutral, singular and consistent with the rest of the psalm! Unless, of course, verses 1-2 are set apart in the text as a prologue, just as verses 14-16 end the psalm. I would like to hear from anyone familiar with the Hebrew if the shift to first-person in verse 2 is explicitly in the original text. In the meantime, for my tastes, this round goes to the REB. I prefer the verse construction and continuity, and the masculine language doesn’t bother me.

Update: Please see Psalm 91 Redux for some additional comments on this post based on the NET Bible.

Update: Please see Part 3 for consideration of the NRSV’s translation of this passage.

Update: Please see Part 4 for a discussion of the pronouns used in verses 1-2 of Psalm 91.