In the opening cry for help the psalmist addresses God as “Yahweh, God of my salvation.” After this the Masoretic text has “by day I cry (and) at night before you,” which Dahood translates “day and night I cry to you” (so Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, New International Version, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible); New Jerusalem Bible translates as a temporal clause, “when I cry out in the night before You….” Many emend the text as Revised Standard Version has done, I call for help by day; I cry out in the night before thee (also An American Translation, New English Bible, New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible). Weiser and Bible en français courant are like Good News Translation. Although not free of difficulty, the Masoretic text can be translated; see Anderson, Dahood.1-2 Hebrew Old Testament Text Project says there are two possible interpretations of the Masoretic text: (1) “God of my salvation during the day I cried and in the night before you”; (2) “God of my salvation when (literally, the day when) I cried in the night before you.” “My savior” must be expressed as a verb phrase in some languages; for example, “God who saves me” or “God the one who rescues me.” For the verb “to save” see comments on “Help” in 12.1. Cry out should not be translated by a term for “shout” but rather by one which carries the element of sadness and distress. In some languages the equivalent is to mourn. If the verb to mourn is only used in connection with a death, then it is sometimes possible to say, for example, “I cry out in my sadness,” or as a simile, “I cry like one who is mourning for the dead.”

In verse 2 Good News Translation “Hear” stands for “May (my prayer) come before you” (see Revised Standard Version), and “listen” translates “bend your ear” (see 17.6). Let my prayer come before thee may sometimes be rendered as “Hear the words that I pray to you.”

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 .