The psalmist begins with a prayer that God not keep quiet or remain inactive in response to his pleas, but that he take action against his enemies (see 28.1; 83.1). O God of my praise means “O God, whom I praise.” Be not silent may have to be recast positively in some languages to say, for example, “God, please do something” or “Answer my plea, God.”

The psalmist’s enemies are wicked; with no reason for doing so, they lie and say evil things about the psalmist (verses 2-3); see similar language in 69.4. In verse 2 the Hebrew has mouths as the subject; it is better to speak of people who accuse and revile the psalmist; and in line b the expression lying tongues can be represented by “liars” or “they tell lies,” instead of Good News Translation “have attacked me,” which may be taken to mean physical assault. A better translation, for example, may be “… say bad things about me” or “… slander me.”

In verse 3 words of hate can be translated “hateful words”; Good News Translation “evil things” is not adequate, since the same Hebrew word “hatred” is used also in verse 5b, and the verb beset means surround, encircle.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .