Semantic Analysis

Semantic Analysis: Psalms (Full Book) — English → French

0. Methodological Note on Original Language

Unlike the Romans baseline (a Koine Greek New Testament document), Psalms is a Hebrew Old Testament book (with the Aramaic loanword bar at Ps 2:12). All primary lexical analysis below is therefore given in Biblical Hebrew, with transliteration. Where a psalm is directly quoted in the New Testament (Ps 2, 8, 16, 22, 31, 40, 45, 68, 69, 82, 89, 102, 109, 110, 118), the Septuagint (LXX) Greek rendering is also cited, because it is the LXX wording that the New Testament authors quote and that shaped the church’s christological reading of these psalms — and because it keeps this Psalms package lexically anchored to the same Greek term registry used by the Romans baseline (e.g., LXX κύριος kyrios for Hebrew יהוה/אֲדֹנָי, LXX υἱός huios for Hebrew בֵּן).

All French renderings below reuse baseline translation_memory.json terms exactly wherever the same underlying concept recurs (e.g., grâce, justice, Messie, alliance, Dieu, Esprit Saint, Seigneur, Fils de Dieu, résurrection, David, Israël). New terms required by Psalms’ distinct vocabulary (shepherd, refuge, hesed, confession, righteous/wicked, anointed-as-king, etc.) are introduced and risk-rated on the same Critical/High/Medium/Low scale, for incorporation into an extended translation memory in a later step.

Per project scope rules, every one of the 150 psalms is treated below. Chapters carrying the curriculum’s eight doctrine strands (or feeding the core passage’s intertextual network) receive full field-by-field term treatment. Chapters that principally reuse vocabulary already treated are noted explicitly in the Full Chapter Coverage Ledger (§3) rather than silently omitted.

1. Core Passage: Psalm 23:1-6 — Verse-by-Verse Analysis

Psalm 23:1 — “יְהוָה רֹעִי לֹא אֶחְסָר” / “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.”

יהוה (YHWH) — “the LORD”

Literal meaning: The tetragrammaton, Israel’s covenant name for God, traditionally linked to הָיָה hayah, “to be/exist” (cf. Exodus 3:14).
Semantic range: The personal, covenant-bound name of God, distinct from אֱלֹהִים Elohim (God, generic) and אֲדֹנָי Adonai (Lord/Master, a title). Occurs in Psalms far more than any other divine designation.
English variants: LORD (small caps), Yahweh, Jehovah, “the Eternal.”
Contextual theological meaning: The God who binds himself in covenant to his people speaks and acts here in utterly personal, relational terms — not a distant deity but my covenant God.
French rendering & risk: l’Éternel (Segond-tradition rendering, adopted as this curriculum’s primary rendering for YHWH to keep it visually and lexically distinct from אֲדֹנָי/κύριος, rendered Seigneur per baseline). Alternative: le SEIGNEUR (small caps, TOB/Bible de Jérusalem ecumenical convention) noted for reviewers. Risk: Critical. See glossary entry “YHWH / le SEIGNEUR (l’Éternel)”; this distinction is the load-bearing decision for Psalm 110:1’s messianic argument (§ below) and must be applied with total consistency across all 150 psalms.

רֹעִי (ro’i) — “my shepherd”

Literal meaning: Participle of רָעָה ra’ah + 1st-person suffix: “my one-who-shepherds.”
Semantic range: To feed, lead, guard, and rule a flock; in the Ancient Near East the verb also describes kings and gods as shepherd-rulers of a people (2 Samuel 5:2, Ezekiel 34).
English variants: shepherd; archaic “pastor.”
Contextual theological meaning: YHWH as personal provider, protector, and guide — a royal-pastoral image later claimed by Jesus: “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11).
French rendering & risk: berger (established; cf. “le bon Berger”). Risk: Medium. In secularized urban French usage the pastoral image risks reduction to bucolic sentimentality, losing the ANE ruler-protector force; teaching notes must supply the king-as-shepherd background.

לֹא אֶחְסָר (lo echsar) — “I shall not want”

Literal meaning: “I will not lack/be deficient in” (root חָסֵר chaser).
Semantic range: To lack, be without, be in need of something required.
English variants: “I shall not want,” “I lack nothing,” “I have all I need.”
Contextual theological meaning: Total sufficiency of genuine need, not a guarantee of material abundance.
French rendering & risk: je ne manquerai de rien. Risk: Low (flag in teaching notes against prosperity-gospel over-reading).

Psalm 23:2 — “בִּנְאוֹת דֶּשֶׁא יַרְבִּיצֵנִי עַל־מֵי מְנֻחוֹת יְנַהֲלֵנִי” / “He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.”

נְאוֹת דֶּשֶׁא (ne’ot deshe) — “green/lush pastures”

Literal meaning: “Pastures of tender new growth” (deshe = fresh sprouting vegetation).
Semantic range: Abundance and safety sufficient for rest, not mere available grazing.
English variants: “green pastures,” “lush pastures.”
Contextual meaning: Provision so complete that rest, not just survival, is possible.
French: verts pâturages. Risk: Low.

יַרְבִּיצֵנִי (yarbitseni, hiphil of רָבַץ) — “he makes me lie down”

Literal meaning: Causes to recline/rest.
Semantic range: A sheep will lie down only when fed, unafraid, unthirsty, and unharassed — a shepherding proverb embedded in the verb choice.
English variants: “makes me lie down,” “gives me rest.”
Contextual meaning: Security so total that anxiety itself is removed.
French: me fait reposer. Risk: Low-Medium (avoid the blunter “me fait coucher,” which reads as abrupt in formal register).

מֵי מְנֻחוֹת (mey menuchot) — “still/quiet waters”

Literal meaning: “Waters of resting-places” (root נוּח nuach, rest).
Semantic range: Calm water safe to drink from, not necessarily motionless water.
English variants: “still waters,” “quiet waters.”
Contextual meaning: Guided provision, not merely available resource.
French: eaux tranquilles. Risk: Low.

יְנַהֲלֵנִי (yenahaleni, from נָהַל) — “he leads me [gently]”

Literal meaning: To lead with gentle, patient care (distinct from נָהַג nahag, “to drive”).
Semantic range: Guidance appropriate to a weak or young animal.
English variants: “leads,” “guides gently.”
Contextual meaning: Patient, unhurried divine guidance.
French: me conduit. Risk: Low.

Psalm 23:3 — “נַפְשִׁי יְשׁוֹבֵב יַנְחֵנִי בְמַעְגְּלֵי־צֶדֶק לְמַעַן שְׁמוֹ” / “He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”

נֶפֶשׁ (nephesh) — “soul/my life”

Literal meaning: The whole living self; breath, life-force — not a disembodied soul.
Semantic range: Life, self, person, throat/appetite, inner being.
English variants: soul, life, self, being.
Contextual meaning: Total restoration of the person, not an ethereal “spiritual” refreshment alone.
French: âme. Risk: Medium. French “âme,” like English “soul,” imports a Platonic body-soul dualism foreign to Hebrew nephesh’s holistic sense; teaching notes must clarify nephesh = whole living self.

יְשׁוֹבֵב (yeshovev, hiphil of שׁוּב) — “restores”

Literal meaning: Causes to turn back / brings back to life; revives.
Semantic range: Restoring what was lost or depleted; elsewhere used of repentance (“turning back”).
English variants: “restores,” “revives,” “refreshes.”
Contextual meaning: Active divine intervention reversing depletion.
French: restaure. Risk: Low.

מַעְגְּלֵי־צֶדֶק (ma’agley tsedeq) — “paths of righteousness”

Literal meaning: Tracks/paths of tsedeq (rightness).
Semantic range: Tsedeq denotes conformity to a right standard/order; can mean “right” in a directional sense as well as morally righteous.
English variants: “paths of righteousness,” “right paths.”
Contextual theological meaning: Guidance reflecting God’s own righteous character, not human achievement — the pastoral counterpart to Romans’ dikaiosynē.
French: sentiers de justice (reuses baseline justice). Risk: High. The same baseline risk (secular French “justice” = the legal system) applies here; must be taught as God’s own righteous guidance, not a courtroom verdict.

לְמַעַן שְׁמוֹ (lema’an shemo) — “for his name’s sake”

Literal meaning: “For the sake of his name” (shem = name/reputation/revealed character).
Semantic range: Grounds action in God’s own character, not the recipient’s merit.
English variants: “for his name’s sake,” “to honor his name.”
Contextual meaning: A grace-not-merit formula tied to God’s covenant faithfulness (hesed).
French: pour l’honneur de son nom. Risk: Medium (must not be read as self-interested reputation management).

Psalm 23:4 — “גַּם כִּי־אֵלֵךְ בְּגֵיא צַלְמָוֶת לֹא־אִירָא רָע כִּי־אַתָּה עִמָּדִי שִׁבְטְךָ וּמִשְׁעַנְתֶּךָ הֵמָּה יְנַחֲמֻנִי”

גֵּיא צַלְמָוֶת (gey tsalmavet) — “valley of the shadow of death”

Literal meaning: Valley of tsalmavet (tsel “shadow” + mavet “death”; some scholars read it as an intensive form meaning simply “deepest darkness”).
Semantic range: Deathly gloom, mortal danger.
English variants: “valley of the shadow of death” (KJV/ESV), “darkest valley” (NIV).
Contextual meaning: Any place of mortal danger, not necessarily the moment of physical death.
French: la vallée de l’ombre de la mort (established rendering). Risk: Medium. Must retain the “death” component; “vallée sombre” alone loses the mortal-danger force.

רָע (ra) — “evil/harm”

Literal meaning: Evil, harm, calamity, moral wrong.
Semantic range: Broad — physical calamity as well as moral evil.
English variants: “evil,” “harm,” “danger.”
Contextual meaning: Primarily calamity/danger here, though the term carries moral overtones elsewhere (cf. Psalm 1).
French: mal. Risk: Low.

שֵׁבֶט וּמִשְׁעֶנֶת (shevet umish’enet) — “rod and staff”

Literal meaning: shevet = rod/club (also the word for royal “scepter” — same root as Psalm 110:2 and Genesis 49:10); mish’enet = a walking/support staff.
Semantic range: shevet spans “shepherd’s defensive club” to “king’s scepter,” binding the Shepherd and King doctrine strands to a single Hebrew word.
English variants: “rod and staff,” “crook and staff.”
Contextual meaning: The shepherd’s protective (rod) and guiding (staff) tools, doubling as royal-authority imagery — an important intertextual bridge to Psalm 2 and 110.
French: ta houlette et ton bâton (established Segond rendering). Risk: Low-Medium. “Houlette” is a literary/rare word for many modern readers outside the idiom “sous la houlette de”; retain with a brief gloss.

יְנַחֲמֻנִי (yenachamuni, piel of נָחַם) — “they comfort me”

Literal meaning: To comfort, console, bring relief.
Semantic range: Comfort in grief/fear; elsewhere “to relent/be sorry.”
English variants: “comfort,” “console,” “reassure.”
Contextual meaning: Active reassurance, not passive sentiment.
French: me rassurent. Risk: Low.

Psalm 23:5 — “תַּעֲרֹךְ לְפָנַי שֻׁלְחָן נֶגֶד צֹרְרָי דִּשַּׁנְתָּ בַשֶּׁמֶן רֹאשִׁי כּוֹסִי רְוָיָה”

שֻׁלְחָן (shulchan) — “table”

Literal meaning: A table/spread of food.
Semantic range: A meal-table, often in a royal/hospitality setting.
English variants: “table,” “banquet.”
Contextual meaning: A shift from shepherd-and-sheep to royal host-and-honored-guest imagery — covenant-meal fellowship.
French: table. Risk: Low.

צֹרְרַי (tsorerai, root צָרַר) — “my enemies/adversaries”

Literal meaning: Those showing hostility; adversaries, oppressors.
Semantic range: Personal enemies, often in a besieging/harassing sense.
English variants: “enemies,” “adversaries,” “foes.”
Contextual meaning: God’s provision continues in the immediate presence of real danger, not only afterward.
French: mes ennemis. Risk: Low.

דִּשַּׁנְתָּ (dishanta, piel of דָּשֵׁן) — “you anoint”

Literal meaning: To anoint, to make fat/rich.
Semantic range: Ceremonial anointing for honor, refreshment, or consecration (kings, priests).
English variants: “anoint,” “richly bless.”
Contextual meaning: Guest-honor anointing, thematically resonant with (but lexically distinct from) the technical royal/priestly mashiach (“anointed”) terminology treated below.
French: tu répands l’huile sur ma tête (Segond) / tu oins ma tête d’huile. Risk: Medium. Teaching notes should distinguish this hospitality-anointing verb from the technical mashiach root, to avoid implying Psalm 23:5 is itself a messianic-anointing text.

כּוֹסִי רְוָיָה (kosi revayah) — “my cup overflows”

Literal meaning: “My cup [is] saturation/abundance.”
Semantic range: Superabundant fullness.
English variants: “my cup overflows,” “my cup runs over.”
Contextual meaning: Provision beyond sufficiency, echoing hesed’s characteristic overflow.
French: ma coupe est débordante. Risk: Low.

Psalm 23:6 — “אַךְ טוֹב וָחֶסֶד יִרְדְּפוּנִי כָּל־יְמֵי חַיָּי וְשַׁבְתִּי בְּבֵית־יְהוָה לְאֹרֶךְ יָמִים”

טוֹב (tov) — “goodness”

Literal meaning: Good, goodness, benefit.
Semantic range: Moral goodness, benefit, well-being.
English variants: “goodness,” “good.”
Contextual meaning: The shepherd’s active, ongoing benevolence.
French: bonté. Risk: Low.

חֶסֶד (chesed) — “mercy / lovingkindness / steadfast love”

Literal meaning: Covenant loyalty-love; steadfast commitment-keeping love.
Semantic range: The OT’s central covenant-faithfulness term (~245 occurrences), fusing loyalty, love, mercy, and faithfulness — with no single exact one-word equivalent in English or French.
English variants: “mercy” (KJV), “lovingkindness” (NASB), “steadfast love” (ESV), “unfailing love” (NIV).
Contextual theological meaning: The anchor term for the curriculum’s Covenant Faithfulness doctrine strand; personified here as actively “pursuing” the psalmist.
French rendering & risk: amour fidèle (recommended primary rendering for this curriculum; Segond 1910 uses “bonté,” TOB/BJ variably use “grâce” or “fidélité”). Risk: Critical. No single French word captures chesed’s blend of loyal obligation + warm affection + mercy; risk of collapsing into cold “fidélité” (loyalty without warmth), generic “amour” (warmth without covenant commitment), or confusion with baseline grâce (charis — unmerited favor, a related but conceptually distinct term already reserved for a different word-family). See glossary for full discussion; this decision governs over 245 occurrences across the whole book.

יִרְדְּפוּנִי (yirdefuni, root רָדַף) — “shall follow/pursue”

Literal meaning: To pursue, chase, follow closely.
Semantic range: Normally hostile pursuit (enemies pursuing prey); here strikingly inverted to describe benevolent pursuit.
English variants: “shall follow,” “shall pursue,” “will chase after.”
Contextual meaning: God’s covenant love is relentless, deliberately using an “enemy-pursuit” verb with benevolent intent.
French: m’accompagneront / me poursuivront. Risk: Medium. “Suivre” (follow) loses the ironic relentless-pursuit force of radaph; “poursuivre” is stronger and preferred, though it carries a secondary legal-prosecution connotation in modern French (“être poursuivi”) worth flagging for reviewers.

בֵּית־יְהוָה (beit YHWH) — “house of the LORD”

Literal meaning: “House of YHWH” — the sanctuary, or by extension God’s own dwelling/presence.
Semantic range: Likely used representatively (before the Temple existed in David’s lifetime) for abiding in God’s presence/household, not a specific building.
English variants: “house of the LORD,” “presence of the LORD.”
Contextual meaning: Eternal covenant belonging in God’s household, not merely visiting a shrine — echoed in Jesus’s “my Father’s house” (John 14:2).
French: maison de l’Éternel. Risk: Medium. French readers, especially those formed by Catholic parish culture, may map this onto a physical church building; teaching notes must clarify the eternal-covenant-belonging sense.

לְאֹרֶךְ יָמִים (le’orekh yamim) — “forever”

Literal meaning: “For length of days.”
Semantic range: A long duration; some scholars note ambiguity between “as long as I live” and unending eternity, though canonical/NT theology reads it eschatologically.
English variants: “forever,” “all my days.”
Contextual meaning: Enduring, likely lifelong and by canonical extension eternal, covenant belonging.
French: pour toujours. Risk: Low-Medium (flag the literal-idiom nuance for teaching without undermining the historic everlasting-fellowship reading).

2. Chapter-by-Chapter Study of the Whole Book

Organized by the Psalter’s traditional five-book division. Chapters that introduce load-bearing new theological vocabulary receive full field treatment. Chapters reusing already-treated vocabulary are flagged and cross-referenced (never silently omitted) and receive fuller treatment in §3.

BOOK I (Psalms 1–41)

Psalm 1 — The Righteous and the Wicked (core doctrine anchor)

אַשְׁרֵי (ashrei) — “blessed/happy”

Literal meaning: Plural construct exclamation, “Oh, the happinesses of…!”
Semantic range: A state of flourishing/well-being granted by right relationship to God, not mere emotional happiness.
English variants: “blessed,” “happy.”
Contextual meaning: Opens the whole Psalter with a beatitude formula matching the NT Beatitudes’ “heureux” (Matthew 5).
French: heureux (matches established Beatitudes convention). Risk: Low.

צַדִּיק (tsaddiq) — “the righteous [one]”

Literal meaning: One who is tsedeq — in right standing/right conduct.
Semantic range: Moral rightness in covenant relationship with God, contrasted structurally throughout Psalms with rasha.
English variants: “righteous,” “just,” “the upright.”
Contextual meaning: Doctrine anchor for “The Righteous and the Wicked”; reuses baseline justice/righteousness root concept but here denotes a person’s covenant-faithful life-pattern rather than a forensic status.
French: le juste. Risk: Medium. Distinguish carefully from baseline’s forensic “justice” (Romans’ declared righteousness) — Psalm 1’s tsaddiq is a life-pattern of covenant loyalty, not (yet) the imputed status of Romans 4. Teach both senses without conflating them.

רָשָׁע (rasha) — “the wicked”

Literal meaning: One who is disturbed/turbulent, in moral/covenant rebellion.
Semantic range: Actively hostile to God’s order, not merely unpleasant or naughty.
English variants: “the wicked,” “the ungodly,” “evildoers.”
Contextual meaning: Moral-covenantal opposition to God, the structural foil to tsaddiq throughout the Psalter.
French: le méchant. Risk: High. In everyday modern French, “méchant” is a mild word used of naughty children or storybook villains (“le grand méchant loup”), risking serious trivialization of the psalm’s weighty covenant-rebellion category. Recommend supplementing with l’impie (“the godless/irreligious one”) in doctrinally load-bearing contexts to preserve gravity.

דֶּרֶךְ (derekh) — “way/path”

Literal meaning: Road, way, path; figuratively, life-course or conduct.
Semantic range: The “two ways” motif — a life-course leading to blessing or ruin.
English variants: “way,” “path,” “conduct.”
Contextual meaning: Moral destiny, not mere geography.
French: voie. Risk: Low-Medium (must retain moral-destiny sense, not read as literal roadway).

הָגָה (hagah) — “meditate”

Literal meaning: To murmur, mutter, ponder — often audibly, as in reciting aloud.
Semantic range: Sustained, vocalized rumination on a text, day and night.
English variants: “meditate,” “ponder,” “murmur over.”
Contextual meaning: Continuous engagement with God’s Torah, shaping character.
French: méditer. Risk: Medium. Post-1970s French popular culture strongly associates “méditer/la méditation” with secular mindfulness or Buddhist/Eastern meditation practice; teaching notes should clarify this is sustained verbal rumination on revealed Scripture, not content-free mental stillness.

תּוֹרָה (torah) — “law”

Literal meaning: Instruction, teaching (from יָרָה, “to point/direct”), not narrowly “law” in a legal-code sense.
Semantic range: God’s whole revealed instruction — broader than the baseline Romans usage.
English variants: “law,” “instruction,” “teaching.”
Contextual meaning: Reuses baseline loi (la Loi) rendering, but flag that Psalm 1’s torah is the object of delight and meditation — the totality of God’s revealed word — not narrowly the Mosaic legal code as emphasized in the Romans package. Extend baseline note rather than contradicting it.
French: loi (reuse); consider gloss “l’instruction de l’Éternel” where torah’s broader teaching-sense is in view. Risk: Medium-High (extension of baseline’s already-High-risk “law” entry).

Psalm 2 — Kingship and the Messianic King (core doctrine anchor)

מָשִׁיחַ (mashiach) — “anointed”

Literal meaning: One anointed with oil, consecrated to an office (king, priest, sometimes prophet).
Semantic range: In Psalm 2’s immediate historical setting, the reigning Davidic king; canonically and in NT quotation (Acts 4:25-26), the ultimate Anointed King, Jesus the Messiah.
English variants: “anointed,” “Messiah,” “Christ” (Greek Christos calques mashiach).
Contextual meaning: Reuses baseline Messie, but requires a dual-register rendering strategy: the generic royal title (“l’oint de l’Éternel,” “son oint”) for the immediate Davidic referent, and Messie where the canonical/messianic sense is explicitly in view (as the NT reads this psalm).
French: l’oint (immediate royal sense) / Messie (canonical-messianic sense, reuse baseline). Risk: High. Collapsing every mashiach occurrence in the Psalter to “Messie” flattens the historical Davidic-king referent (and other kings, e.g. Saul, Cyrus in Isaiah 45:1); conversely never signaling the messianic trajectory loses NT typological fulfillment. Context-sensitive judgment required at each occurrence (cf. Psalm 2:2; 18:50; 20:6; 28:8; 89:20,38,51; 132:10,17).

בֵּן (ben) — “Son” (Ps 2:7, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you”)

Literal meaning: Son, in this context a royal adoption/enthronement formula (cf. 2 Samuel 7:14).
Semantic range: In its original Davidic setting, royal sonship language conferred at coronation; quoted in the NT (Acts 13:33; Hebrews 1:5; 5:5) as a declaration of Christ’s eternal divine Sonship.
English variants: “Son,” “my Son.”
Contextual meaning: Distinct from but directly feeding baseline’s Fils de Dieu (Critical risk) doctrine; here render literally as “Fils” for the Davidic-coronation sense while flagging its NT christological reuse.
French: Fils. Risk: Critical. Must not be silently equated with the full baseline “Fils de Dieu” formula in its OT setting (that would import NT metaphysics anachronistically into the historical psalm), yet must be taught alongside the NT’s own re-application of this verse to Christ’s eternal Sonship — a genuine two-horizon (historical / canonical-messianic) teaching requirement, escalate to human theologian review.

נָשְׁקוּ־בַר (nashequ-bar) — “kiss the Son” (Ps 2:12)

Literal meaning: bar is the Aramaic word for “son” (cognate of Hebrew ben), appearing here uniquely within a Hebrew psalm.
Semantic range: Homage-kiss to a king (cf. 1 Samuel 10:1).
English variants: “kiss the Son,” “do homage to the Son.”
Contextual meaning: A textual curiosity (rare Aramaic loanword) reinforcing the royal-homage reading; some older translations render “kiss his feet” via a different vocalization — a known text-critical note for reviewers.
French: rendez hommage au Fils. Risk: Medium (textual-critical variant should be flagged for theologian review, not resolved unilaterally by the translator).

גּוֹיִם (goyim) — “nations” (Ps 2:1,8)

Literal meaning: Nations, peoples.
Semantic range: Same lexeme as baseline’s “gentiles” (goyim/ethnē), but here in a context of nations in armed rebellion against God’s king, not the missiological “nations to be reached” sense.
English variants: “nations,” “peoples,” (older) “heathen.”
Contextual meaning: Political-rebellion referent, distinct from the baseline’s mission-emphasis “païens.”
French: les nations (prefer bare “nations” over baseline’s “païens” here, to avoid importing baseline’s pejorative-flattening risk into a context about political rebellion rather than religious identity). Risk: Medium.

חֹק (choq) — “decree”

Literal meaning: An inscribed statute, fixed decree.
Semantic range: A sovereign, unalterable royal/divine pronouncement.
English variants: “decree,” “statute.”
Contextual meaning: The divine enthronement decree establishing the king’s sonship and rule.
French: décret. Risk: Low.

מַחְסֶה (machaseh) / חָסָה (chasah) — “refuge/take refuge” (Ps 2:12b)

See full treatment under Psalm 46/91 below; first occurrence here links Kingship doctrine to the Refuge doctrine strand: “Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”
French: refuge / se réfugier. Risk: Medium (see §2, Psalm 46).

Psalm 3 — Lament (representative treatment)

מָגֵן (magen) — “shield”

Literal meaning: A shield, portable defensive weapon.
Semantic range: Figurative divine protection.
English variants: “shield,” “protector.”
Contextual meaning: God as personal defender amid mortal danger (David fleeing Absalom) — introduces the Lament and Honest Prayer doctrine strand’s characteristic vocabulary of raw danger met by trust.
French: bouclier. Risk: Low.

Psalms 4–12: no new load-bearing theological vocabulary beyond terms already treated (lament cries, trust formulas, “shield,” “refuge”); see Ledger.

Psalm 13 — Lament (representative “how long” formula)

עַד־אָנָה (ad-anah) — “how long?”

Literal meaning: “Until when?”
Semantic range: An anguished, repeated protest-question addressed directly to God, characteristic of the lament genre.
English variants: “how long, O LORD,” “how long will you…”
Contextual meaning: Models the curriculum’s Lament and Honest Prayer doctrine: unresolved complaint voiced directly to God is itself an act of covenant trust, not unbelief.
French: jusques à quand (Segond) / jusqu’à quand. Risk: Medium. Modern French readers may hear open complaint against God as spiritually inappropriate or irreverent; teaching notes must affirm lament as a legitimate, modeled form of covenant prayer, not doubt or disrespect.

Psalm 14: no new theological vocabulary beyond נָבָל (naval, “fool” — one who denies God practically, not merely intellectually; French: insensé, Risk: Low); psalm is largely duplicated at Psalm 53.

Psalm 15 — reuses righteous/wicked vocabulary (Ps 1); no new load-bearing terms.

Psalm 16 — Messianic Resurrection Prophecy

שְׁאוֹל (Sheol) — “the realm of the dead”

Literal meaning: The grave, the underworld abode of the dead.
Semantic range: Not annihilation but the shadowy realm all the dead enter; distinct from later NT “Hades/Gehenna” refinements.
English variants: “Sheol,” “the grave,” “the realm of the dead.”
Contextual meaning: Quoted in Acts 2:27, 31 by Peter as prophecy of Christ’s resurrection (“you will not abandon my soul to Sheol”).
French: le séjour des morts (established French convention). Risk: Medium (avoid conflating with a purely metaphorical “death” that would blunt the resurrection-prophecy force).

שַׁחַת (shachat) — “corruption/the Pit”

Literal meaning: Decay, the pit of decomposition.
Semantic range: Bodily decay after death.
English variants: “corruption,” “decay,” “the Pit.”
Contextual meaning: “Nor let your Holy One see corruption” — read by Peter and Paul (Acts 2:31; 13:35) as a direct prophecy that Christ’s body would not decay, i.e., bodily resurrection.
French: la corruption. Risk: Critical. This is a direct textual warrant for the Messianic Prophecy and resurrection_of_christ doctrines (reuse baseline résurrection); must not be softened to a vague “the pit of death” that loses the specific no-decay claim.

חָסִיד (chasid) — “your Holy One / faithful one”

Literal meaning: One characterized by chesed — a chesed-shaped person (cognate of the doctrine-anchor term chesed itself).
Semantic range: Covenant-loyal, devoted one.
English variants: “your Holy One,” “your faithful one,” “godly one.”
Contextual meaning: Directly cognate with hesed; ties the Messianic Prophecy strand back to the Covenant Faithfulness strand through shared vocabulary.
French: ton bien-aimé / ton fidèle. Risk: Medium (avoid rendering as baseline’s “saint,” which would obscure the chesed-root connection and risk the “canonized-intercessor” collision already flagged in the baseline for “saints”).

Psalm 17 — reuses lament/refuge vocabulary; no significant new terms.

Psalm 18 — Royal Thanksgiving; Rock/Fortress/Refuge cluster

צוּר (tsur) — “rock”

Literal meaning: A rock, cliff, or bedrock outcropping usable as a stronghold.
Semantic range: Figurative for unshakeable divine strength and reliability; the same image Paul applies to Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4).
English variants: “rock,” “stronghold.”
Contextual meaning: Anchors the Character of God as … Refuge doctrine strand; connects intertextually to Psalm 23 (“your rod,” similar defensive-object imagery) and to the NT’s christological reuse.
French: rocher. Risk: Medium. Risk of flattening to a dead metaphor (“solide comme un roc” is a common secular idiom in French); must retain the active, personal, protective sense — God himself as the place of safety, not a mere character trait of “solidity.”

מְצוּדָה (metsudah) / מָעוֹז (ma’oz) — “fortress/stronghold”

Literal meaning: A fortified place, stronghold.
Semantic range: Military defensive structure, figuratively applied to God.
English variants: “fortress,” “stronghold,” “high tower.”
Contextual meaning: Reinforces the Refuge doctrine strand alongside tsur and machaseh.
French: forteresse. Risk: Low.

קֶרֶן יִשְׁעִי (qeren yish’i) — “the horn of my salvation”

Literal meaning: “Horn,” an animal’s horn, symbol of strength/power (a goring animal’s weapon).
Semantic range: Figurative for might, particularly royal/military might.
English variants: “horn of my salvation,” “the strength of my salvation.”
Contextual meaning: Reuses baseline salut compounded with a strength-image; anticipates the “horn of salvation” language reused at Luke 1:69 of the Messiah.
French: la corne de mon salut (established rendering, retained despite the odd literal image in French, since it carries forward into the Magnificat/Benedictus tradition). Risk: Medium (the animal-horn literalism can sound strange/comic to modern French ears without a brief explanatory gloss).

Psalm 19 — Creation and Torah Praise

כָּבוֹד (kavod) — “glory”

Literal meaning: Weightiness, heaviness — figuratively, honor, splendor, manifest presence.
Semantic range: God’s manifest, weighty splendor, displayed here through creation itself (“the heavens declare the glory of God”).
English variants: “glory,” “splendor.”
Contextual meaning: Reuses baseline gloire; extends the doctrine to natural revelation, not only redemptive-historical acts.
French: gloire (reuse). Risk: Medium (as baseline notes, avoid triumphalist/celebrity “gloire” readings).

תּוֹרָה (torah) — reuse from Psalm 1, here explicitly paired with creation-revelation; see Psalm 1 entry. No new field-level risk beyond the note already recorded.

Psalm 20-21 — Royal Psalms; reuse “anointed,” “salvation,” “name of the LORD”; no new terms beyond those already treated in Ps 2/18.

Psalm 22 — Messianic Suffering Psalm

עֲזַבְתָּנִי (azavtani, root עָזַב) — “you have forsaken me”

Literal meaning: To abandon, leave, forsake.
Semantic range: Total relational abandonment, the deepest lament cry in the Psalter.
English variants: “forsaken,” “abandoned.”
Contextual meaning: Quoted verbatim by Jesus on the cross (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34, in Aramaic/Hebrew transliteration “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani”), the psalm’s opening cry becomes the interpretive key to the crucifixion’s depth of dereliction.
French: pourquoi m’as-tu abandonné. Risk: Critical. Central to the curriculum’s Messianic Prophecy strand; must not be softened (e.g., to “why do you seem far from me”) in a way that mutes the dereliction, which is theologically essential to the doctrine of the atonement it undergirds.

כָּארוּ (karu) / כָּאֲרִי (ka’ari) — “pierced” / “like a lion” (Ps 22:16)

Literal meaning: A famous text-critical crux: the Masoretic vocalization ka’ari can be read “like a lion [my hands and feet],” while other witnesses (some medieval Hebrew manuscripts, LXX ὤρυξαν “they have pierced,” Dead Sea Scroll fragment 5/6HevPs) support karu, “they have pierced.”
Semantic range: Either a lion-mauling image or an explicit piercing of hands and feet.
English variants: “pierced my hands and feet” (most modern translations) vs. “like a lion my hands and feet” (some literal/Masoretic-only renderings).
Contextual meaning: If “pierced,” a striking direct prophetic anticipation of crucifixion; the textual question itself must be flagged for theologian review rather than silently resolved.
French: ils ont percé mes mains et mes pieds (following LXX/DSS support and the reading adopted by essentially all major French Bible traditions, Segond/TOB/BJ). Risk: Critical. Flag the underlying Hebrew textual variant explicitly for reviewers; do not present the French rendering as textually uncontested.

חִלְּקוּ בְגָדַי / יַפִּילוּ גּוֹרָל (Ps 22:18) — “they divide my garments… cast lots”

Literal/contextual meaning: Directly quoted at the crucifixion (John 19:24).
French: ils partagent mes vêtements… ils tirent au sort ma tunique. Risk: High (direct fulfillment citation; consistency with Gospel-passage renderings required if this curriculum later covers the Gospels).

Psalm 23 — CORE PASSAGE (see §1 above)

Psalm 24 — Kingship/Entrance Liturgy

כְּבוֹד יְהוָה (kevod YHWH) — “the King of glory”

Reuses gloire (baseline) and l’Éternel (YHWH, this package). Introduces the acclamation “Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts (יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת, YHWH tseva’ot), he is the King of glory.”

יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת (YHWH tseva’ot) — “the LORD of hosts / LORD of armies”

Literal meaning: YHWH of the [heavenly/angelic or military] armies.
Semantic range: A divine-warrior/sovereign-commander title.
English variants: “LORD of hosts,” “LORD Almighty,” “LORD of armies.”
Contextual meaning: Emphasizes YHWH’s absolute sovereign power, feeding the Kingship doctrine strand.
French: l’Éternel des armées (established rendering, consistent with the YHWH = l’Éternel convention adopted above). Risk: Medium (avoid a militaristic-nationalist misreading in contemporary French political discourse; the title denotes cosmic sovereignty, not endorsement of any earthly army).

Psalm 25-30 — Lament/Trust acrostic and praise psalms; introduce no new terms beyond hesed (already treated), tsur/machaseh (already treated); Psalm 29 introduces theophany “voice of the LORD” (קוֹל יְהוָה, qol YHWH) — French la voix de l’Éternel, Risk Low, standard theophanic language.

Psalm 31 — Trust/Lament; Passion connection

בְּיָדְךָ אַפְקִיד רוּחִי (beyadekha aphqid ruchi) — “into your hand I commit my spirit”

Literal meaning: To deposit/entrust one’s spirit (ruach — breath/life-force) into God’s hand.
Semantic range: Total, trusting self-surrender at the point of extremity.
English variants: “into your hands I commit my spirit.”
Contextual meaning: Quoted by Jesus as his final word from the cross (Luke 23:46), making this phrase directly load-bearing for the Messianic Prophecy strand.
French: je remets mon esprit entre tes mains (matches the Gospel citation’s established French rendering). Risk: Critical (verbatim consistency with any future Gospel-of-Luke translation work required per the curriculum’s cross-document consistency rule).

Psalm 32 — Confession and Forgiveness (core doctrine anchor)

נָשׂוּי (nasu, from נָשָׂא) — “forgiven” (lit. “lifted/carried away”)

Literal meaning: To lift, bear, carry away.
Semantic range: Guilt physically “carried off,” removed from the guilty party.
English variants: “forgiven,” “whose transgression is taken away.”
Contextual meaning: Anchors the Confession and Forgiveness doctrine strand alongside Psalm 51.
French: pardonné (baseline-aligned register). Risk: Medium.

כִּסָּה (kissah) — “covered” (of sin)

Literal meaning: To cover, conceal.
Semantic range: Sin no longer exposed to judgment.
English variants: “covered,” “concealed” [in the sense of no longer counted].
Contextual meaning: Complements “lifted away”; together they form a doubled image of removed guilt.
French: couvert. Risk: Low.

הוֹדַעְתִּי (hoda’ti, from יָדַע via hiphil) — “I acknowledged” (my sin)

Literal meaning: I made known, I confessed.
Semantic range: Verbal, deliberate self-disclosure of guilt to God.
English variants: “I acknowledged,” “I confessed,” “I did not hide.”
Contextual meaning: The verbal-confession act itself; directly feeds the Confession doctrine-strand vocabulary developed fully at Psalm 51.
French: je t’ai fait connaître / j’ai reconnu [mon péché]. Risk: High. See full discussion of “confession” under Psalm 51 below — French “confession” collides with the Catholic sacrament of Penance and must be handled with equal care here.

Psalm 33-36 — Praise/wisdom psalms; introduce no new load-bearing terms beyond hesed (36:7 “how precious is your chesed, O God”) and creation-by-word vocabulary already covered structurally by baseline “God”/“word” concepts; note explicitly reviewed.

Psalm 37 — Righteous and Wicked (acrostic wisdom extension of Psalm 1)

יִירְשׁוּ אָרֶץ (yiroshu aretz) — “shall inherit the land/earth”

Literal meaning: To take possession by inheritance.
Semantic range: Covenant land-promise language, later universalized in the NT (“the meek shall inherit the earth,” Matthew 5:5, itself quoting this psalm).
English variants: “inherit the land,” “inherit the earth.”
Contextual meaning: Extends the Psalm 1 righteous/wicked doctrine with an eschatological land/inheritance promise.
French: hériteront de la terre. Risk: Medium (must be taught with its NT universalizing reuse in view, not left as a narrowly territorial-political promise given contemporary sensitivities around “the land”).

Psalm 38-39 — Penitential/mortality laments; reuse péché, mal; no new load-bearing terms.

Psalm 40 — Thanksgiving + Messianic Obedience

גֻּלָּה כָּתוּב עָלָי (Ps 40:7-8, “in the scroll it is written of me… I delight to do your will”)

Contextual meaning: Quoted in Hebrews 10:5-7 (via LXX, which reads “a body you have prepared for me” rather than the Hebrew’s “ears you have dug for me/opened for me”) as words placed in Christ’s mouth regarding his incarnate obedience.
Semantic range: A known Hebrew/LXX textual divergence (אָזְנַיִם, “ears,” vs. LXX σῶμα, “body”) directly feeding the incarnation doctrine.
French: tu m’as ouvert les oreilles (Hebrew) / cross-reference un corps tu m’as formé (LXX, as quoted in Hébreux). Risk: High — flag the Hebrew/LXX divergence explicitly for theologian review; both readings must be available to reviewers given the verse’s direct incarnation-doctrine use in Hebrews.

Psalm 41 — Lament + betrayal typology (“he who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me,” quoted John 13:18); no new lexical field beyond established lament vocabulary; flag the betrayal-typology connection for teaching notes. Closes Book I with the doxological “Amen and Amen” — Amen (established transliterated form per baseline instructions).

BOOK II (Psalms 42–72)

Psalm 42-43 — Lament (“As the deer pants”)

כָּסַף / עָרַג (arag, “pants/longs”) — “as the deer pants (arag) for flowing streams, so my soul (nephesh) pants for you, O God.”

Contextual meaning: Intense, embodied spiritual longing; models Lament doctrine’s combination of desperate honesty and enduring hope (“hope in God,” a refrain).
French: soupire après / languit après. Risk: Low-Medium (ensure the intensity of physical thirst-imagery is not flattened to a mild emotional “yearning”).

Psalm 44-47 — Communal lament, kingship of God (“God is King of all the earth,” Ps 47); reuse Royaume de Dieu-adjacent kingship vocabulary; no new field-level terms beyond those already treated.

Psalm 45 — Royal Wedding Psalm; Deity of the King

כִּסְאֲךָ אֱלֹהִים (kis’akha Elohim) — “your throne, O God” (Ps 45:6)

Literal meaning: “Your throne, God, [is forever and ever]” — addressed to the reigning/anticipated king.
Semantic range: A genuinely debated crux: some read Elohim here as a divine title applied (startlingly) directly to the human king, others as a vocative shift addressing God himself within a royal-wedding ode.
English variants: “Your throne, O God” (most translations, retaining the direct address); some render “Your divine throne.”
Contextual meaning: Quoted in Hebrews 1:8 as the Father’s own address to the Son, making this verse direct scriptural warrant for the deity_of_christ doctrine.
French: ton trône, ô Dieu (retain the direct address, matching the NT’s own use of the LXX text; this is the reading required for the Hebrews 1:8 connection). Risk: Critical. Escalate to human theologian review in every occurrence; do not resolve the underlying Hebrew ambiguity by translating around it (e.g., “your royal throne” would erase the doctrinally load-bearing ambiguity the NT itself exploits).

Psalm 46 — Refuge and Strength (core Character-of-God doctrine anchor)

מַחְסֶה / מָעוֹן (machaseh) — “refuge”

Literal meaning: A place of shelter, a hiding place from danger.
Semantic range: Trust-object in danger; God himself as the place of safety, not merely a provider of safety.
English variants: “refuge,” “shelter.”
Contextual meaning: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” — this is the doctrine-strand’s defining verse.
French: refuge. Risk: Medium. Contemporary secular French “un refuge” (a mountain shelter, an animal shelter, a place of asylum) carries a passive-shelter connotation; teaching notes must recover the active, trust-relationship sense — refuge as personal reliance on God himself, not merely a safe location one happens upon.

Psalm 47-49 — Kingship of God, wisdom on mortality; no new field-level terms beyond those established.

Psalm 50 — Covenant lawsuit; reuse alliance (covenant); introduces no new field-level risk beyond baseline’s covenant entry.

Psalm 51 — Confession and Forgiveness (CORE doctrine anchor, alongside Ps 32)

חַטָּאתִי (chatta’ti) — “my sin”

Reuses baseline péché. Risk: Medium (as baseline notes, colloquial trivialization risk — “péché mignon” — is especially acute here given the psalm’s raw seriousness).

פְּשָׁעַי (pesha’ai) — “my transgressions”

Literal meaning: Rebellion, willful breach of covenant relationship (distinct from chattah’s “missing the mark”).
Semantic range: Deliberate revolt against a sovereign, not mere error.
English variants: “transgressions,” “rebellious acts,” “trespasses.”
Contextual meaning: Emphasizes willful covenant-breach, intensifying the confession beyond mere mistake-acknowledgment.
French: mes transgressions / ma révolte. Risk: Medium-High. “Transgression” in French can sound clinical/legalistic; where the willful-rebellion sense is theologically load-bearing, “révolte” better preserves the covenant-betrayal force.

עֲוֹנִי (avoni) — “my iniquity/guilt”

Literal meaning: Guilt, crookedness, the twisted condition and its resulting culpability.
Semantic range: Both the wrongdoing and the guilt-liability incurred by it.
English variants: “iniquity,” “guilt,” “wickedness.”
Contextual meaning: A third, distinct term in Psalm 51’s opening triad (chattah/pesha/avon) — together the fullest OT vocabulary of sin, essential for teaching the doctrine’s depth.
French: ma faute. Risk: Medium.

מָחָה (machah) — “blot out”

Literal meaning: To wipe, erase, obliterate (as writing from a surface).
Semantic range: Complete removal of a recorded liability.
English variants: “blot out,” “wipe away,” “erase.”
Contextual meaning: A vivid image of total forgiveness — nothing remains on the record.
French: efface. Risk: Low.

כַּבְּסֵנִי / הַרְבֵּה כַּבְּסֵנִי (kabbeseni) / טָהֵר (taher) — “wash/purify me,” and the hyssop image (Ps 51:7)

Literal meaning: To wash thoroughly (as a launderer); to purify ritually.
Semantic range: Draws on Levitical ritual-purification imagery (hyssop, used in cleansing rites, e.g. Leviticus 14) while requesting an inward, moral reality far beyond ritual.
English variants: “wash me,” “purify me,” “cleanse me with hyssop.”
Contextual meaning: A deliberate fusion of external ritual-cleansing language with a request for internal moral transformation — must preserve both registers.
French: purifie-moi avec l’hysope… lave-moi. Risk: Medium (do not flatten to purely hygienic “nettoyer”; retain the ritual-purification resonance while emphasizing the psalm’s own move beyond ritual to the heart).

לֵב טָהוֹר (lev tahor) — “a clean/pure heart”

Literal meaning: A heart (lev — the seat of will and thought, broader than emotion alone) that is tahor (ritually and morally pure).
Semantic range: Complete inner renewal, not merely improved behavior.
English variants: “a clean heart,” “a pure heart.”
Contextual meaning: Matches the Beatitude “heureux les cœurs purs” (Matthew 5:8) — an important intertextual consistency point.
French: un cœur pur. Risk: Low-Medium (maintain consistency with any future Matthew-curriculum rendering of the Beatitudes).

רוּחַ נְכוֹנָה (ruach nekonah) — “a steadfast/right spirit” and רוּחַ נִשְׁבָּרָה, לֵב נִשְׁבָּר (ruach nishbarah, lev nishbar) — “a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart” (Ps 51:17)

Contextual meaning: The sacrifice God desires is inward brokenness/humility, not ritual offering — directly relevant to the doctrine’s “honest confession over ritual performance” emphasis.
French: un esprit droit / un esprit brisé et un cœur brisé. Risk: Low.

רוּחַ קָדְשֶׁךָ (ruach qodshekha) — “your Holy Spirit” (Ps 51:11)

Reuses baseline Esprit Saint. Risk: Medium — one of the OT’s rare explicit “Holy Spirit” phrases; must be taught carefully to avoid either (a) collapsing OT and NT pneumatology into an identical fully-Trinitarian statement without qualification, or (b) under-reading it as merely an impersonal divine influence. Escalate to native speaker/theologian discretion.

“Confession” as a doctrinal category (no single Hebrew word; conceptual header for Ps 32 + 51)

Contextual meaning: The curriculum names an entire doctrine strand “Confession and Forgiveness”; the closest Hebrew term is הוֹדָה (hodah, “to acknowledge/confess,” cf. Psalm 32:5).
French rendering & risk: confession (as a doctrine/topic label) is High-to-Critical risk in French — for the same reason baseline flags Catholic-collision terms: “la confession” overwhelmingly denotes the sacrament of Penance/Reconciliation (auricular confession to a priest) in both practicing- and lapsed-Catholic French cultural memory. When used as a lesson/doctrine title, it must be glossed (e.g., “la confession du péché devant Dieu,” “l’aveu sincère du péché”) to clarify this is direct, personal acknowledgment of sin to God, not the sacramental rite. Risk: High — human theologian or at minimum native-speaker review required for every doctrinal (non-narrative) use of “confession” as a topic label in this curriculum’s Psalm 32/51 materials.

Psalm 52-67 — Imprecatory, trust, and communal-praise psalms; principally reuse tsur/machaseh (rock/refuge), hesed, and lament vocabulary already treated. Psalm 53 duplicates Psalm 14 (no new terms); Psalm 57:1 introduces the wing-shelter image (sous l’ombre de tes ailes, “under the shadow of your wings” — French: Low risk, tender covenant-intimacy image, reused at Psalm 91).

Psalm 68 — Praise; Ascension typology

עָלִית עַל־שֶׁבַי (Ps 68:18, “you ascended… you led captives”)

Contextual meaning: Quoted (with modification) in Ephesians 4:8 regarding Christ’s ascension and gift-giving to the church.
French: tu es monté… tu as emmené des captifs. Risk: Medium (flag the NT’s adapted quotation for theologian awareness; the apostolic use modifies the psalm’s wording, a known interpretive move worth noting rather than treating as a discrepancy to “correct”).

Psalm 69 — Lament with Messianic-suffering echoes

“Zeal for your house has consumed me” (quoted John 2:17); “they gave me vinegar to drink” (echoed John 19:29); imprecatory section (quoted Romans 11:9-10, Acts 1:20 re: Judas).
Contextual meaning: A second major messianic-suffering lament alongside Psalm 22, feeding the same doctrine strand.
French: standard lament vocabulary, no new field-level terms beyond those already established; Risk: High for the passion-typology verses specifically, flag for theologian review given direct NT quotation.

Psalm 70-71 — Short lament/trust in old age; reuse established vocabulary, no new terms.

Psalm 72 — Messianic/Royal Universal Reign

מִיָּם עַד־יָם (miyam ad-yam) — “from sea to sea”

Contextual meaning: Universal dominion of the ideal Davidic/messianic king — feeds both Kingship and Messianic Prophecy strands, and anticipates Romans-adjacent universal-scope-of-the-gospel language (though that specific baseline doctrine belongs to Romans, the thematic resonance is worth noting for curriculum coherence).
French: d’une mer à l’autre. Risk: Low.
Closes Book II with the notice “the prayers of David… are ended” (72:20) — a canonical seam, not a new theological term.

BOOK III (Psalms 73–89)

Psalm 73 — Righteous and Wicked reconsidered (prosperity of the wicked)

Reuses tsaddiq/rasha vocabulary from Psalm 1/37; introduces no new lexical field but is doctrinally essential as the Psalter’s most extended wrestling with the doctrine’s apparent contradiction (the wicked prosper) — flag for teaching emphasis, not new terminology.

Psalm 74-77 — Communal lament (destroyed temple, national crisis); reuse established lament vocabulary; no new field-level terms.

Psalm 78 — Historical Psalm; God as Shepherd of Israel through the wilderness

Reuses berger (shepherd, from Ps 23) applied corporately to the nation; no new field-level term, but an important intertextual note connecting the individual Shepherd Psalm (23) to Israel’s national history — flag for teaching cross-reference.

Psalm 79-83 — Communal lament, covenant renewal; Psalm 82 introduces a notable crux term:

אֱלֹהִים (Elohim, of human judges, Ps 82:1,6) — “gods”

Literal meaning: Elohim, here applied to human judges/rulers acting in a God-derived judicial office, not to deities.
Semantic range: A known extended/derivative use of Elohim for authorized human authority-bearers.
English variants: “gods,” “you are gods” (some translations add a footnote “judges”).
Contextual meaning: Quoted by Jesus in John 10:34-36 as part of his defense against the charge of blasphemy for claiming to be the Son of God — a text requiring careful theological framing to avoid either overreading (as if it undermines Christ’s unique deity) or underreading (dismissing the verse’s relevance to that debate).
French: dieux (with mandatory contextual gloss ”= les juges/les autorités”). Risk: High. Escalate to human theologian review; must not be translated or taught in a way that could be read as implying a plurality of true deities, nor flattened so as to lose its relevance to John 10:34’s argument.

Psalm 84-87 — Longing for the temple, Zion psalms; reuse established vocabulary (“how lovely is your dwelling place” — no new field-level term); no new theological vocabulary beyond what is already treated.

Psalm 88 — The Darkest Lament

The only psalm that ends without any resolution, turn to praise, or word of hope (“you have put me… in the regions dark and deep… darkness is my closest friend”).
Contextual meaning: The doctrinal high-water mark of “Lament and Honest Prayer” — Scripture itself models unresolved anguish addressed to God as legitimate prayer, without requiring a tidy resolution within the same poem.
French: no new field-level lexical terms beyond established lament vocabulary; Risk: Medium as a teaching matter (not a lexical one) — French Christian devotional culture (both Catholic and Protestant/evangelical) can carry an implicit expectation that prayer/testimony must end on a note of victory or resolution; this psalm’s unresolved ending must be preserved and taught as intentional, not “fixed” through added hopeful framing in study materials.

Psalm 89 — Davidic Covenant, Hesed, and Covenant Crisis

Opens “I will sing of the chesed of the LORD forever” (89:1) — the fullest single-psalm concentration of hesed vocabulary (occurs 7 times) directly bound to the Davidic covenant, then pivots (89:38-51) to lament that God has “renounced the covenant of your servant” — a startling combination of Covenant Faithfulness doctrine with Lament doctrine within a single psalm.
No new field-level lexical terms beyond hesed (already treated, Critical) and alliance (baseline covenant term, reused); flagged for teaching emphasis as the Psalter’s most theologically demanding hesed-and-crisis text — recommend human theologian review of any teaching material built on this psalm given its unresolved tension between covenant promise and apparent covenant failure.
Closes Book III with a doxology (89:52).

BOOK IV (Psalms 90–106)

Psalm 90 — Moses’ Prayer; Mortality and Eternity of God

מֵעוֹלָם עַד־עוֹלָם (me’olam ad-olam) — “from everlasting to everlasting”

Literal meaning: From [hidden] eternity to eternity (olam = a long, often unbounded, duration).
Semantic range: God’s timeless existence contrasted with human transience (“our years… are soon gone”).
English variants: “from everlasting to everlasting,” “from eternity to eternity.”
Contextual meaning: Establishes God’s eternal character as the ground for the whole Character-of-God doctrine strand.
French: d’éternité en éternité. Risk: Low.

Psalm 91 — Refuge under the Almighty’s Wings (core Character-of-God/Refuge anchor)

עֶלְיוֹן (Elyon) — “the Most High”

Literal meaning: The Highest, the Exalted One.
Semantic range: A divine title emphasizing supreme sovereignty over all other powers, human and spiritual.
English variants: “the Most High,” “the Highest.”
Contextual meaning: Pairs with Refuge doctrine (“he who dwells in the shelter of the Most High”).
French: le Très-Haut. Risk: Low.

בְּצֵל שַׁדַּי (betsel Shaddai) — “in the shadow of the Almighty”

Literal meaning: shaddai, a divine title of disputed etymology, traditionally “Almighty” (possibly related to might/mountain imagery).
Semantic range: Overwhelming divine power exercised protectively.
English variants: “the Almighty,” “Shaddai.”
Contextual meaning: Intimate protective imagery (“under his wings you will find refuge,” reusing the wing-shelter image from Psalm 57).
French: le Tout-Puissant. Risk: Low.

Psalm 92-94 — Sabbath praise, kingship of God, plea for justice; reuse established vocabulary; no new field-level terms.

Psalm 95 — Worship Call; Shepherd Imagery; Hardened Hearts

נָבוֹא לְפָנָיו בְּתוֹדָה (navo lefanav betodah) — “let us come before him with thanksgiving”

Reuses baseline action de grâce.

צֹאן יָדוֹ (tson yado) — “the sheep of his hand”

Literal meaning: “The flock of his hand” — sheep under his direct, personal care.
Semantic range: Reinforces the Shepherd doctrine corporately (“we are… the sheep of his hand”).
French: le troupeau qu’il conduit. Risk: Low (reuses “berger/troupeau” field already established).

אַל־תַּקְשׁוּ לְבַבְכֶם (al-taqshu levavkhem) — “do not harden your hearts”

Literal meaning: To make the heart stiff/unyielding.
Semantic range: Willful resistance to God’s voice, quoted extensively in Hebrews 3-4 as a warning to the church.
English variants: “do not harden your hearts.”
Contextual meaning: Directly links the worship-call psalm to a NT doctrine of perseverance; important cross-curriculum consistency point if Hebrews is later translated.
French: n’endurcissez pas votre cœur. Risk: Medium (ensure consistency with any future Hebrews-curriculum rendering).

Psalm 96-99 — “The LORD reigns” kingship psalms; reuse Royaume de Dieu-adjacent vocabulary and gloire; no new field-level terms.

Psalm 100 — Worship Call; Shepherd of the People (core doctrine anchor)

עַמּוֹ וְצֹאן מַרְעִיתוֹ (ammo vetson mar’ito) — “his people, the sheep of his pasture”

Reuses berger/troupeau/pâturage field established at Psalm 23. Risk: Low (already-treated field; corporate application flagged for teaching emphasis rather than new lexical risk).

Psalm 101 — Royal integrity psalm; reuses established vocabulary; no new terms.

Psalm 102 — Lament + Christological Creation-quotation (Hebrews 1:10-12); reuses established mortality/eternity vocabulary from Psalm 90; flag the Hebrews citation for theologian awareness but no new field-level lexical term.

Psalm 103 — Praise; Hesed and Forgiveness (core doctrine anchor)

הַסֹּלֵחַ (hasoleach) — “who forgives” (root סָלַח, salach)

Literal meaning: To forgive, pardon (a distinct verb from Psalm 32/51’s “cover/blot out” vocabulary, specifically used of God’s prerogative to forgive).
Semantic range: Sovereign divine pardon.
English variants: “forgives,” “pardons.”
Contextual meaning: “Who forgives all your iniquity” — the most concentrated single-verse forgiveness-and-hesed statement outside Psalm 51.
French: pardonne. Risk: Low-Medium.

כִּרְחֵם אָב עַל־בָּנִים (kirachem av al-banim) — “as a father shows compassion to his children”

Reuses baseline Père in a simile of tender parental compassion (רָחַם, racham — womb-compassion), reinforcing the Character-of-God doctrine strand with maternal-tender overtones alongside the Shepherd/King images.
French: comme un père a compassion. Risk: Low.

Psalm 104-105 — Creation praise, historical praise (Abrahamic covenant); reuse established alliance/covenant vocabulary; no new field-level terms.

Psalm 106 — Historical Confession; National Unfaithfulness and Hesed

Combines the confession vocabulary of Psalm 32/51 (national scale) with the hesed refrain (“Save us… that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise,” and the closing hesed-based appeal); no new field-level lexical terms, but an important doctrinal bridge between Confession and Covenant Faithfulness strands — flag for teaching cross-reference.
Closes Book IV with a doxology (106:48).

BOOK V (Psalms 107–150)

Psalm 107 — Thanksgiving; Hesed Refrain

Refrain: “Let them thank the LORD for his chesed” (repeated 4x across four rescue-narratives). No new field-level term beyond hesed (already Critical-rated); reinforces the term’s centrality across genre types (thanksgiving as well as lament and praise).

Psalm 108-109 — Praise/petition composite; imprecatory lament (Ps 109, quoted Acts 1:20 regarding Judas’ fate); no new field-level terms; flag Ps 109’s imprecatory intensity as a teaching-sensitivity note (imprecatory prayer is a legitimate but pastorally delicate biblical genre) rather than a lexical risk.

Psalm 110 — Messianic King and Priest (core doctrine anchor)

נְאֻם יְהוָה לַאדֹנִי (ne’um YHWH ladoni) — “The LORD says to my Lord” (Ps 110:1)

Literal meaning: “The utterance/oracle of YHWH to Adoni [my lord/master].”
Semantic range: YHWH (the covenant God) addresses אֲדֹנִי (adoni, “my lord,” a term of respect for a superior — king, master) — two distinct Hebrew words for two distinct referents within a single verse.
English variants: “The LORD says to my Lord” (most English translations preserve the capitalization distinction: LORD = YHWH, Lord = Adoni).
Contextual theological meaning: Quoted by Jesus (Matthew 22:41-46; Mark 12:35-37; Luke 20:41-44) as decisive proof that the Messiah/Son of David is also David’s superior Lord — i.e., a preexistent, divine figure, not merely David’s human descendant; also quoted at Acts 2:34-35 and repeatedly in Hebrews (1:13, 5:6, 7:17, 7:21, 10:13) regarding Christ’s heavenly enthronement and priesthood.
French rendering & risk: “L’Éternel dit à mon seigneur” (YHWH → l’Éternel per this package’s Critical-risk convention established at Psalm 23:1; Adoni → seigneur, lowercase, reusing baseline Seigneur/seigneur field). Risk: Critical. This is the single most consequential rendering decision in the entire Psalter for this curriculum’s Kingship/Messianic-King doctrine strand: if both YHWH and Adoni are collapsed into an undifferentiated capitalized “Seigneur,” the entire force of Jesus’s own argument from this verse (two distinct “lords,” one of them David’s own covenant God, the other David’s superior descendant) is destroyed. Mandatory human theologian review for every occurrence of this verse in any curriculum material; the YHWH/Adonai distinction established here must propagate consistently through every future citation of Psalm 110:1 across all documents (Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts, Hebrews).

שֵׁבֶט (shevet) — “scepter” (Ps 110:2)

Same Hebrew word as Psalm 23:4’s shepherd’s “rod” — see full treatment there. Here explicitly in its royal-scepter sense, completing the intertextual Shepherd/King union anticipated at Psalm 23:4.
French: sceptre. Risk: Low (lexical field already established; flag the Psalm 23/110 intertextual link for teaching material).

עַל־דִּבְרָתִי מַלְכִּי־צֶדֶק (al-divrati Malki-Tsedeq) — “after the order of Melchizedek” (Ps 110:4)

Literal meaning: Melchizedek (“king of righteousness,” melek + tsedeq — note the tsedeq root shared with Psalm 23:3’s “paths of righteousness”) was the priest-king of Salem in Genesis 14.
Semantic range: A unique dual priest-king office, without Levitical/Aaronic lineage.
English variants: “Melchizedek,” “the order of Melchizedek.”
Contextual meaning: Extensively developed in Hebrews 5-7 as a type of Christ’s own unique priest-king office, superior to the Levitical priesthood.
French: Melchisédek (established proper-name rendering); selon l’ordre de Melchisédek. Risk: High (typological argument requires careful framing; escalate to theologian review if curriculum later covers Hebrews).

Psalm 111 — Praise acrostic; hesed/covenant vocabulary reused; no new field-level terms.

Psalm 112 — The Righteous Man Blessed (parallel structure to Psalm 1)

Reuses tsaddiq vocabulary; no new field-level terms, but structurally significant as an acrostic companion to Psalm 111 (God’s righteousness/the righteous person’s righteousness in parallel) — flag for teaching cross-reference to the Psalm 1 doctrine anchor.

Psalm 113-117 — The “Egyptian Hallel” (praise psalms traditionally read at Passover)

הַלְלוּיָה (Hallelujah) — “Praise the LORD!”

Literal meaning: Imperative plural “praise” (hallelu, from הָלַל halal) + “Yah” (a shortened form of YHWH).
Semantic range: A liturgical praise-summons, uniquely combining a command and the divine name in a single word.
English variants: “Hallelujah,” “Praise the LORD.”
Contextual meaning: Anchors the Praise and Worship doctrine strand’s central liturgical exclamation.
French: Alléluia (established transliterated form per baseline instructions, retained untranslated as in all French Bible traditions and in liturgical use across Catholic and Protestant French worship). Risk: Low — stable, ecumenically shared term, though note it also carries a strong Catholic-Mass liturgical association (“Alléluia” sung before the Gospel reading), which is a positive resonance here, not a collision.

Psalm 118 — Thanksgiving; Cornerstone and “Hosanna” (core Messianic doctrine anchor)

הוֹשִׁיעָה נָּא (hoshi’ah na) — “save now! / please save!”

Literal meaning: An imperative plea, “save, please” — the direct etymological source of the NT transliterated exclamation “Hosanna.”
Semantic range: An urgent liturgical cry for deliverance, later becoming a fixed acclamation.
English variants: “Save now,” “Hosanna” (Greek/Aramaic-derived transliteration retained in the NT and in most translations).
Contextual meaning: Directly the source-text for the crowd’s Palm Sunday acclamation of Jesus (Matthew 21:9, John 12:13), making the connection between Psalm 118 and Christ’s messianic entry into Jerusalem explicit.
French: Hosanna (retain the established transliterated form used identically in French Gospel translations) with the underlying Hebrew phrase glossed as sauve, je t’en prie in the Psalm’s own immediate context. Risk: High — flag the etymological link for teaching materials; do not translate the Gospel occurrences as anything other than the retained transliteration “Hosanna.”

אֶבֶן פִּנָּה (even pinnah) — “the cornerstone” (Ps 118:22)

Literal meaning: The foundational corner-stone of a building.
Semantic range: “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone” — a rejection-then-vindication image.
English variants: “cornerstone,” “chief cornerstone,” “capstone” (a minority reading, “head of the corner”).
Contextual meaning: Quoted by Jesus of himself (Matthew 21:42; Mark 12:10-11; Luke 20:17), by Peter (Acts 4:11), and Paul (Ephesians 2:20), and 1 Peter 2:7 — one of the most frequently NT-quoted OT verses, central to Messianic Prophecy doctrine.
French: la pierre angulaire (established rendering across all major French Bible traditions and consistently used in the NT citations). Risk: Critical — verbatim consistency required across every future NT-curriculum document that quotes this verse.

בָּרוּךְ הַבָּא בְּשֵׁם יְהוָה (barukh haba beshem YHWH) — “blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD” (Ps 118:26)

Contextual meaning: The second half of the Palm Sunday acclamation (Matthew 21:9), directly paired with Hosanna above.
French: béni soit celui qui vient au nom de l’Éternel — note the YHWH → l’Éternel rendering choice must be reconciled with how the Gospel citation itself will likely render “Lord” (kyrios in the Greek NT text, typically Seigneur in French Gospels) — Risk: High, flag for cross-document harmonization when Matthew is translated, since the Gospel’s own Greek text uses kyrios (→ Seigneur) to translate this very verse’s YHWH, creating a legitimate divergence between this Psalms package’s YHWH-convention and the NT’s own Greek rendering. This is not an error to resolve but a known feature of translation from Hebrew Psalm to Greek Gospel quotation; document clearly for reviewers.

Psalm 119 — Torah Acrostic (longest chapter in the Bible)

An extended 22-stanza acrostic meditation entirely on torah/God’s word using at least eight near-synonyms for “law/instruction” (torah, mitzvah “commandment,” mishpat “judgment/ordinance,” chuqqah “statute,” edah “testimony,” davar “word,” imrah “utterance/saying,” derekh “way”). No new doctrine-strand beyond the Psalm 1 Torah-delight theme already treated; however, this cluster of near-synonyms should be flagged as a Medium-risk translation-consistency issue: French must render each Hebrew synonym with a distinct, consistent French equivalent (commandement, jugement/ordonnance, décret, témoignage, parole, promesse/dit, voie) so that readers can perceive the psalm’s deliberate lexical variety rather than a flattened repetition of “loi.” Risk: Medium (consistency/register issue, native speaker review recommended).

Psalms 120–134 — The Songs of Ascents (pilgrim collection)

Ps 120: lament, deceitful tongue; Ps 121: “I lift my eyes to the hills… my help comes from the LORD,” God as keeper (שֹׁמֵר, shomer — “the one who watches/guards,” French gardien, Risk Low, reinforces Refuge/Shepherd doctrine); Ps 122: prayer for the peace of Jerusalem (reuses baseline paix); Ps 123: servant’s eyes to a master (reuses Adonai/seigneur field, Risk Medium — flag consistency with Ps 110’s Adonai rendering); Ps 124-125: help/trust, “as Mount Zion… so the LORD surrounds his people”; Ps 126: restoration and joy (“those who sow in tears shall reap in joy”); Ps 127: “unless the LORD builds the house” — vanity of self-reliant labor; Ps 128: blessing of “the fear of the LORD” (see below); Ps 129: affliction and deliverance; Ps 130: see full treatment below; Ps 131: humility, childlike trust; Ps 132: Davidic covenant oath and Zion (reuses alliance/David, Risk Medium, ties Kingship doctrine to this collection); Ps 133: unity/brotherly love; Ps 134: night-time call to bless the LORD.

יִרְאַת יְהוָה (yirat YHWH) — “the fear of the LORD” (Ps 128, and throughout Psalms/Proverbs)

Literal meaning: Fear, dread, awe (root יָרֵא, yare).
Semantic range: Reverential awe combined with submissive trust, not servile terror — though the lexeme’s ordinary sense is indeed “fear/dread.”
English variants: “the fear of the LORD,” “reverence for the LORD.”
Contextual meaning: Foundational wisdom-piety posture toward God, integrating awe, trust, and obedience.
French: la crainte de l’Éternel (established rendering across French Bible traditions). Risk: Medium. French “crainte” leans toward dread/apprehension in ordinary usage; must be consistently taught (not re-translated) as reverent awe bound up with trust and love, not servile terror — a teaching note rather than a lexical substitution, since “crainte de l’Éternel” is the fixed, recognizable idiom across Segond/TOB/BJ.

Psalm 130 — “Out of the Depths” (Lament + Forgiveness)

מִמַּעֲמַקִּים (mima’amaqqim) — “out of the depths”

Literal meaning: From the deep places/depths (of distress, often watery-drowning imagery elsewhere in Psalms).
Semantic range: Extreme distress, near-despair.
English variants: “out of the depths,” “from the depths.”
Contextual meaning: A model lament-cry opening, doctrine-linking Lament and Confession/Forgiveness (“if you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness… with the LORD is chesed and abundant redemption”).
French: du fond de l’abîme / des profondeurs. Risk: Low-Medium (retain the depth/distress imagery; do not flatten to a mild “de loin”).

Psalm 135-138 — Praise, exodus recital, contrast with idols, thanksgiving; reuse established vocabulary; no new field-level terms.

Psalm 136 — The Great Hallel; Hesed Refrain (core Covenant Faithfulness anchor)

The refrain “for his chesed endures forever” (כִּי לְעוֹלָם חַסְדּוֹ) is repeated 26 times, once per verse — structurally making this single psalm the numerically densest concentration of the hesed term in the entire Bible.
No new field-level lexical term beyond hesed itself (already Critical-rated); flagged as the single most important psalm for reviewers to test any proposed French hesed-rendering against, since the refrain’s repetitive liturgical function means the chosen French phrase will be heard 26 consecutive times and must sustain that repetition naturally (a strong practical argument for a short, singable phrase such as “car son amour fidèle dure à toujours” rather than a longer or more abstract construction). Risk: Critical (same rating as the base hesed entry; this psalm is the primary test case).

Psalm 139 — Omniscience and Omnipresence of God (Character-of-God doctrine)

חָקַרְתָּנִי וַתֵּדָע (chaqartani vateda) — “you have searched me and known me”

Literal meaning: To search out thoroughly, examine; to know intimately.
Semantic range: Total, penetrating divine knowledge of a person, not distant observation.
English variants: “you have searched me and known me,” “you know me completely.”
Contextual meaning: Complements the Shepherd/King/Refuge triad with a fourth dimension of God’s character — his total, intimate knowledge — relevant to the curriculum’s “Character of God” doctrine strand.
French: tu me sondes et tu me connais. Risk: Low.

Psalm 140-144 — Lament, evening prayer, royal petition; reuse established refuge/lament vocabulary (“no refuge… no one cares for my soul,” Ps 142, reusing machaseh field); no new field-level terms.

Psalm 145 — Praise Acrostic; Universal Hesed and Compassion (Praise doctrine anchor)

חַנּוּן וְרַחוּם (channun verachum) — “gracious and merciful”

Literal meaning: channun (gracious, showing favor) + rachum (compassionate, from the same root as “womb,” racham — visceral compassion).
Semantic range: A fixed liturgical divine-character formula (cf. Exodus 34:6-7), summarizing God’s covenant character.
English variants: “gracious and merciful,” “gracious and compassionate.”
Contextual meaning: Pairs with hesed in this psalm’s climactic praise (“the LORD is good to all, and his mercy [rachamim] is over all he has made”), universalizing the covenant-faithfulness doctrine beyond Israel alone.
French: compatissant et miséricordieux. Risk: Medium. Distinguish rachamim (visceral, tender compassion) from hesed (covenant-loyal commitment) in teaching notes — they are frequently paired but not synonymous; avoid collapsing both into a single undifferentiated French “miséricorde.”

Psalm 146-147 — Praise; God’s care for the oppressed, orphan, widow, and creation; reuses established Shepherd/compassion vocabulary; no new field-level terms.

Psalm 148 — Cosmic Doxology (Praise doctrine anchor)

A call for the whole created order — sun, moon, stars, sea creatures, weather, mountains, trees, animals, kings, and all peoples — to praise the LORD.
No new field-level lexical terms beyond halal (praise, already treated via Hallelujah) and gloire; flagged as the doctrine strand’s clearest statement that praise is the intended response of the entire cosmos, not merely a religious activity — an important teaching emphasis for a secularizing French audience for whom “praise” may otherwise seem a narrowly devotional or even performative act.

Psalm 149 — Praise; God’s people rejoice; reuses established vocabulary, no new terms.

Psalm 150 — Final Doxology (climactic Praise and Worship anchor)

הַלְלוּ (halelu) — “praise!” (repeated 13 times in 6 verses)

Literal meaning: Imperative of הָלַל (halal), “to praise, boast about, celebrate.”
Semantic range: Enthusiastic, public, often musically-accompanied acclamation — the root of “Hallelujah.”
English variants: “praise,” “give praise to.”
Contextual meaning: The Psalter’s closing command, summoning trumpet, lute, harp, tambourine, strings, pipe, and cymbals — the fullest instrumental-praise vocabulary in Scripture, and this curriculum’s climactic statement of the Praise and Worship doctrine.
French: louez (reuse the established “louange” word family; do not use “féliciter” or “applaudir,” which lack the worship register). Risk: Low. Instrument names (trompette, luth, harpe, tambourin, cordes, flûte, cymbales) are all stable, low-risk vocabulary items in French.

3. Full Chapter Coverage Ledger

Every psalm, 1–150, explicitly reviewed. “Detailed above” indicates full field-level treatment in §2. “No new vocabulary” indicates the chapter reuses already-treated terms with no additional lexical risk; a brief thematic note is still given per the full-book-coverage mandate.

Ps.	Status	Note
1	Detailed above	Righteous/Wicked doctrine anchor
2	Detailed above	Kingship/Messianic King doctrine anchor
3	Detailed above	Lament sample (shield)
4	No new vocabulary	Evening trust psalm; reuses lament/trust vocabulary
5	No new vocabulary	Morning lament/petition
6	No new vocabulary	Penitential lament (physical distress)
7	No new vocabulary	Lament, plea for vindication
8	No new vocabulary beyond gloire/Fils-of-Man motif	Creation praise; quoted Hebrews 2:6-8 of Christ; flag for messianic teaching cross-reference
9	No new vocabulary	Praise/thanksgiving, judgment of nations
10	No new vocabulary	Lament re: prospering wicked (reuses Ps 1 rasha vocabulary)
11	No new vocabulary	Trust/refuge (reuses machaseh field)
12	No new vocabulary	Lament, deceitful speech
13	Detailed above	Lament “how long” formula
14	No new vocabulary	”Fool” (naval); duplicated at Ps 53
15	No new vocabulary	Who may dwell with God; reuses tsaddiq field
16	Detailed above	Messianic resurrection prophecy
17	No new vocabulary	Lament/plea for vindication
18	Detailed above	Royal thanksgiving; rock/fortress cluster
19	Detailed above	Creation and Torah praise
20	No new vocabulary	Royal psalm, prayer for king in battle
21	No new vocabulary	Royal thanksgiving
22	Detailed above	Messianic suffering psalm
23	CORE PASSAGE	Full verse-by-verse treatment, §1
24	Detailed above	Kingship/entrance liturgy; LORD of hosts
25	No new vocabulary	Acrostic lament/trust; reuses hesed
26	No new vocabulary	Plea of integrity
27	No new vocabulary	Trust/refuge; “one thing I ask”
28	No new vocabulary	Lament/praise
29	No new vocabulary	Theophany; “voice of the LORD”
30	No new vocabulary	Thanksgiving after healing
31	Detailed above	”Into your hands I commit my spirit” — passion connection
32	Detailed above	Confession/Forgiveness doctrine anchor
33	No new vocabulary	Praise; creation by God’s word
34	No new vocabulary	Acrostic thanksgiving; “taste and see”
35	No new vocabulary	Lament with imprecatory elements
36	No new vocabulary	Wickedness of man / hesed of God (v.7)
37	Detailed above	Righteous/Wicked wisdom acrostic
38	No new vocabulary	Penitential lament
39	No new vocabulary	Lament on mortality
40	Detailed above	Thanksgiving + messianic obedience (Heb 10)
41	Noted above	Lament + betrayal typology (John 13:18); closes Book I
42-43	Detailed above	Lament, “as the deer pants”
44	No new vocabulary	Communal lament
45	Detailed above	Royal wedding; deity-of-the-king crux (Heb 1:8)
46	Detailed above	Refuge and Strength doctrine anchor
47	No new vocabulary	Praise; kingship of God over nations
48	No new vocabulary	Zion psalm
49	No new vocabulary	Wisdom; mortality and redemption
50	No new vocabulary	Covenant lawsuit; true worship vs. sacrifice
51	Detailed above	Confession and Forgiveness core doctrine anchor
52	No new vocabulary	Judgment on the deceitful/wicked
53	No new vocabulary	Duplicate of Psalm 14
54	No new vocabulary	Lament/trust
55	No new vocabulary	Lament; betrayal by a friend
56	No new vocabulary	Trust amid fear
57	Noted above	Lament/praise; wing-shelter image (reused Ps 91)
58	No new vocabulary	Imprecatory, unjust judges
59	No new vocabulary	Lament; plea for deliverance
60	No new vocabulary	Communal lament after defeat
61	No new vocabulary	Trust; “rock higher than I” (reuses tsur)
62	No new vocabulary	Trust; “God alone is my rock and refuge”
63	No new vocabulary	Longing for God; “my soul thirsts”
64	No new vocabulary	Lament against secret plots
65	No new vocabulary	Praise for harvest/creation
66	No new vocabulary	Corporate praise
67	No new vocabulary	Praise; blessing on the nations
68	Detailed above	Praise; ascension typology (Eph 4:8)
69	Detailed above	Lament with messianic-suffering echoes
70	No new vocabulary	Short lament (near-duplicate of 40:13-17)
71	No new vocabulary	Trust in old age
72	Detailed above	Messianic King; universal reign; closes Book II
73	Noted above	Righteous/Wicked reconsidered; prosperity of the wicked
74	No new vocabulary	Communal lament (temple destroyed)
75	No new vocabulary	Praise; God’s judgment
76	No new vocabulary	Praise; God’s power
77	No new vocabulary	Lament turning to remembrance
78	Noted above	Historical psalm; God as Shepherd of Israel (corporate reuse)
79	No new vocabulary	Communal lament (Jerusalem’s destruction)
80	No new vocabulary	Communal lament; “Shepherd of Israel… vine”
81	No new vocabulary	Covenant renewal exhortation
82	Detailed above	”Gods” crux (John 10:34)
83	No new vocabulary	Communal lament vs. enemies
84	No new vocabulary	Longing for the temple
85	No new vocabulary	Prayer for restoration; hesed/shalom meet
86	No new vocabulary	Individual lament; hesed emphasis
87	No new vocabulary	Zion praise
88	Detailed above	The darkest, unresolved lament
89	Detailed above	Davidic covenant/hesed/covenant crisis; closes Book III
90	Detailed above	Moses’ prayer; mortality/eternity of God
91	Detailed above	Refuge under the Almighty’s wings
92	No new vocabulary	Praise for the Sabbath
93	No new vocabulary	”The LORD reigns”
94	No new vocabulary	Plea for justice against the wicked
95	Detailed above	Worship call; Shepherd imagery; hardened hearts (Heb 3-4)
96	No new vocabulary	Praise; missionary/nations theme
97	No new vocabulary	”The LORD reigns”; theophany
98	No new vocabulary	Praise; new song; salvation
99	No new vocabulary	”The LORD reigns”; holiness
100	Detailed above	Worship call; Shepherd of the people
101	No new vocabulary	Royal psalm; integrity of the king
102	Noted above	Lament + hope; quoted Heb 1:10-12 (Creator Christology)
103	Detailed above	Praise; hesed and forgiveness
104	No new vocabulary	Creation praise
105	No new vocabulary	Historical praise; Abrahamic covenant
106	Detailed above	Historical confession; national unfaithfulness/hesed; closes Book IV
107	Detailed above	Thanksgiving; hesed refrain
108	No new vocabulary	Praise/petition composite (=57+60)
109	Noted above	Imprecatory lament (Acts 1:20, re: Judas)
110	Detailed above	Messianic King and Priest doctrine anchor
111	No new vocabulary	Praise acrostic; hesed/covenant
112	Noted above	Righteous man blessed; acrostic companion to Ps 111
113	No new vocabulary	Egyptian Hallel; praise
114	No new vocabulary	Praise; Exodus recital
115	No new vocabulary	Idols vs. the living God
116	No new vocabulary	Thanksgiving; “I love the LORD”
117	No new vocabulary	Shortest psalm; praise and the nations
118	Detailed above	Thanksgiving; cornerstone; Hosanna
119	Detailed above	Torah acrostic; near-synonym consistency issue
120	No new vocabulary	Songs of Ascents; lament, deceitful tongue
121	Noted above	”My help comes from the LORD”; keeper/gardien
122	No new vocabulary	Prayer for the peace of Jerusalem
123	Noted above	Servant’s eyes to a master (Adonai field)
124	No new vocabulary	Help of the LORD
125	No new vocabulary	Trust like Mount Zion
126	No new vocabulary	Restoration and joy
127	No new vocabulary	”Unless the LORD builds the house”
128	Detailed above	Blessing of the fear of the LORD
129	No new vocabulary	Affliction and deliverance
130	Detailed above	”Out of the depths”; lament + forgiveness + hesed
131	No new vocabulary	Humility; childlike trust
132	Noted above	Davidic covenant oath and Zion
133	No new vocabulary	Unity; brotherly love
134	No new vocabulary	Night-time call to bless the LORD
135	No new vocabulary	Praise; contrast with idols
136	Detailed above	The Great Hallel; hesed refrain (26x)
137	No new vocabulary	Exile lament (“by the rivers of Babylon”)
138	No new vocabulary	Thanksgiving
139	Detailed above	Omniscience/omnipresence; Character-of-God doctrine
140	No new vocabulary	Lament vs. violent men
141	No new vocabulary	Evening prayer; incense imagery
142	No new vocabulary	Lament; “no refuge” (reuses machaseh)
143	No new vocabulary	Penitential lament
144	No new vocabulary	Royal thanksgiving/petition
145	Detailed above	Praise acrostic; universal hesed and compassion
146	No new vocabulary	Praise; God’s care for the oppressed
147	No new vocabulary	Praise; God’s care for Israel and creation
148	Detailed above	Cosmic doxology
149	No new vocabulary	Praise; God’s people rejoice
150	Detailed above	Final doxology; climactic Praise and Worship anchor

End of Semantic Analysis. See 08_core_glossary.md for the consolidated per-term glossary table extending translation_memory.json and bible_term_registry.json for the Psalms curriculum.

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