The psalm opens with a solemn declaration about the people of the earth being summoned by God, who is spoken of with three names: God (ʾel), God (ʾelohim), and Yahweh. The first two may be taken to mean “the God of gods” (so New Jerusalem Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible), but it is probably better to understand them in the superlative sense, “The Almighty God.” Revised Standard Version translates the first name The Mighty One, and joins the second and third names, God the LORD. The Mighty One and “The Almighty God” must in some languages be rendered “the God who is most powerful” or “the powerful God.”

Speaks and summons the earth: in some languages it will be necessary to indicate that it is “the people of the whole earth” who are called by God.

The expression from the rising of the sun to its setting refers to space, not time, and means “from all the earth,” “from everywhere in the world.”

The line arrangement in Good News Translation represents the parallelism correctly, since speaks in Revised Standard Version belongs with line a. Line b of Good News Translation, “calls to the whole earth,” makes specific what “speaks” refers to in line a and may be rendered, for example, “More than that, he calls to everyone from one end of the world to the other.”

God is in his Temple in Jerusalem (Zion), whose beauty is praised (see 48.2); from there his glory shines forth over the world (see 80.1; 94.1; Deut 33.2). God shines forth is not an easy form to translate literally, as many languages do not speak of God as shining. However, it is usually possible to make such expressions clear and fairly natural if one uses a comparison; for example, “God shines like a light,” or “God shines like the sun,” or “God’s splendor shines like a light.”

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 .