It is not easy to understand in what sense the Hebrew word translated portent in verse 7a is used here. The same word is generally used of something extraordinary; in Ezekiel 12.6, 11; 24.24, 27 the word is used of the prophet as a “sign” to Israel. Here it means that the psalmist’s experience was either an “example” (so New Jerusalem Bible, Good News Translation) or “a solemn warning” (New English Bible), either as a demonstration of God’s care (so New Jerusalem Bible, Good News Translation in verse 7b) or as the object of God’s punishment (so Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “a motive of fear”; also Bible de Jérusalem, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). Bible en français courant expresses this idea with the wording “Many think that you had cursed me.” The interpretation depends in part on the meaning attributed to the initial conjunction in line b, which usually means simply “and.” Revised Standard Version, New English Bible, New American Bible, New International Version, Bible en français courant, Bible de Jérusalem, and New Jerusalem Bible translate but; Good News Translation “because”; New Jerusalem Bible “since.” If the translator follows the lead of Good News Translation, “My life has been an example to many” may in some languages be rendered as “Many people have seen how I lived, and have therefore lived like me” or “Many people have seen how I go, and followed my road.”
The two-noun phrase translated strong refuge in verse 7b is not found elsewhere in the Old Testament; the two Hebrew nouns “refuge and strength” are used in 46.1.
In verse 8a My mouth is filled with means to proclaim, announce, say. The word translated glory in verse 8b means “excellence, beauty, adornment,” used here in a spiritual sense; the word appears elsewhere in the Psalms at 78.61b; 89.17a; 96.6b. The expression My mouth is filled … thy glory may be rendered in direct discourse as “I say ‘You are wonderful’ ” or “I say ‘You are glorious.’ ”
The petition Do not cast me off in verse 9a is similar to that of 51.11; the verb means “throw off, reject”; and forsake in line b is the same verb used in 16.10. Most translations, like Good News Translation, take “I am old” and “I am feeble” in verse 9 as statements of the psalmist’s condition at the time of writing the psalm (see verse 18); some, however, take them to mean that the psalmist is speaking of the time still in the future when he will be an old man. The former seems preferable. When my strength is spent is sometimes rendered, for example, “when I am an old man with one hair,” “when I am stiff in the body,” and “when they lead me by the hand.”
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 .