In this strophe (letter lamed, verses 89-96) the psalmist praises Yahweh’s law as perfect and eternal, and again asks him to save him from his enemies. The Good News Translation heading may need to be restated for translation; for example, “The psalmist has faith in the Law of the LORD” or “The psalmist believes in the LORD’s teachings.”
In verse 89a thy word is synonymous with Torah, the complete expression of Yahweh’s will. In Hebrew there is only the one verb “is firm” in line b; Good News Translation uses two synonymous verbs for a better balance of the lines. New Jerusalem Bible, however, translates line a “The LORD exists forever,” taking the word “LORD” as nominative, not vocative. None of the other translations consulted does this. The Hebrew text in line b is in the heavens; New American Bible adopts a conjecture, “(it is as firm) as the heavens”; Dahood translates the Hebrew text “more stable than the heavens.” In many languages it is not possible to speak of a word lasting for a long time, since a word is not thought of as having that kind of duration. Accordingly line a must often be shifted to something like “your word will always be true” or “what you have said will always be true; it will be true for ever in heaven.”
In verses 90b-91 the author speaks of the created universe, which is fixed and permanent. First (verse 90a) he refers to Yahweh’s faithfulness (see 36.5 and comments), which will last forever (to all generations); this line balances verse 89, which speaks of the eternity of Yahweh’s law. In verse 90b the verbal phrase thou hast established the earth means “you have set the earth firmly in its place.” It is to be noticed that the text in verse 90 does not mention the Law, and some, instead of the Hebrew “your faithfulness,” conjecture “your word” (Briggs; see New English Bible “Thy promise”). In place of Thy faithfulness endures, it will often be necessary in translation to say, for example, “You will be faithful for ever,” or in some languages, “You will always be faithful to people.”
In verse 91a Revised Standard Version does not make clear who they (the subject of stand) refers to; in line b the reader may be able to infer that all things is the subject of stand in line a. It is better to make the subject explicit in line a and then use the pronoun in line b. By thy appointment means “Because of your command,” “In obedience to your command.” The noun in Hebrew is plural, so Traduction œcuménique de la Bible has “according to your decisions.”89-91 New Jerusalem Bible, however, takes the Hebrew preposition to mean “to” (and not “by” or “according to”) and translates the line “They stand this day to [carry out] your rulings.” This does not seem very probable.
The subject of the verb in verse 91b in Hebrew is simply “all (things),” which most translations take to mean “all created things” (see Traduction œcuménique de la Bible “the universe”). But New English Bible has for line a “This day, as ever, thy decrees stand fast,” which is possible; it seems more likely, however, that the reference is to “all created things.” All things are thy servants and Good News Translation‘s “they are all your servants” must often be shifted to a verb phrase by saying, as does New English Bible, “for all things serve you” or “everything obeys your commands.”
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 .