In a way which is not clear, it was the psalmist’s intense devotion to the Temple in Jerusalem that created trouble for him. Some suggest that he was like the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, whose deep commitment to the rebuilding of the Temple after the Israelites had returned from exile in Babylonia aroused hostility and opposition. The psalmist felt that the Temple was being scorned or misused, and since it was the dwelling of the God of Israel, any insult (from the psalmist’s point of view) directed at the Temple was an affront to God; and the psalmist felt as though these affronts had been directed against him personally.
Verse 9a is quoted in John 2.17; verse 9b is also applied to Jesus, in Romans 15.3.
The word translated zeal means “ardor, love, passion”; in other contexts it can be used in a bad sense, “jealousy, envy” (as in Pro 6.34; 27.4). The expression zeal for thy house has consumed me presents the translator with the problem of expressing adequately the idea of zeal in relation to the Temple, and the consuming effect of such zeal. In some languages the first part may best be translated “my love for your house.” In other languages it is possible to say idiomatically, for example, “I am eaten with love for your house” or “like hunger holds a man, I am devoted to your house.” Many languages can follow Good News Translation in the second part of this expression, while others will find it more natural to say, for example, “eats up my heart” or “melts my insides.”
In many languages it is not possible to speak of insults being hurled or falling. One may sometimes say, for example, “people have insulted you, and their words speak insults to me” or “what people said when they insulted you has now come upon me.” Insult as a verb may be rendered, for example, “to speak evil words about someone” or “to injure people by speaking bad words about them.”
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 .