It is uncertain whether loyalty and justice are meant to be God’s attributes or human qualities; in this context the latter seems preferable, and the king is talking about his own loyalty to Yahweh’s will for him, and the justice that he, the king, will practice. As a human quality, chesed (see 5.7) is better represented by loyalty (Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, New English Bible), or “faithful love” (New Jerusalem Bible), or “faithfulness” (New Jerusalem Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible), rather than “goodness” (Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), “kindness” (New American Bible), or “love” (Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, Bible de Jérusalem). Dahood takes the words to refer to God: “Your love and justice will I sing.” If the translator takes loyalty and justice to refer to the king’s actions, it will be necessary in some languages to switch to clauses and say, for example, “I will sing about how I will be loyal to God and how I will treat people fairly.”

Two synonymous verbs for sing are used in verse 1; New Jerusalem Bible and Dahood translate “sing” and “chant.”

The king’s first promise is in verse 2a: the Hebrew verb has a variety of meanings; the idea of “to understand, consider, ponder” seems basic. Revised Standard Version I will give heed to; New Jerusalem Bible “I will study the way of”; Bible en français courant “I will apply myself to understand.” Briggs prefers “I will behave myself wisely” (so King James Version), which McCullough rejects. Good News Translation has taken the verb to express a promise concerning the king’s own conduct; see Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “I want to live,” New English Bible “I will follow (a wise and blameless course),” New American Bible “I will persevere.” The complement of the verb is “in a perfect way” (New American Bible “the way of integrity”). The king promises to be blameless in his behavior.

Verse 2a in both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation is generic but may require more specific content in some languages, if it is to have any meaning. One may say, for example, “No one will be able to criticize the way I live” or “The way I live will not cause people to find fault with me.”

The question in verse 2 seems out of place, and some emend the Hebrew to get “Truth will abide with me” (so Weiser); New English Bible emends to get “whatever may befall me.” New Jerusalem Bible translates the Masoretic text “when shall I attain it?”; it does this by taking the verb as third feminine singular, referring to “way,” which is feminine, instead of second masculine singular “you” (the two forms in Hebrew are identical). But it is strange to speak of a way “coming” to someone. It seems better, with the vast majority of translations, to render “When will you come to me?”–an expression of the king’s desire to have an immediate and personal revelation of God’s power and guidance.

The king promises to “live a pure life” (so Good News Translation; literally “walk with a perfect heart”) in his house, which is, of course, the royal palace. His private conduct will be moral and pure. Integrity of heart is often translated by figures of speech; for example, “with one heart” or “with a straight liver.” Within my house focuses upon the king’s activity. The same expression in some languages may be too limiting and will have to be recast to say, for example, “where I rule the people” or “from the place where I govern the people.”

In verse 3a I will not set before my eyes means “I will not allow to appear in my presence.” Bible en français courant has “I refuse to become involved in (anything dishonest).” Base translates the phrase “a thing of Belial,” something worthless, or else something bad; the same phrase occurs in 41.8 (where Revised Standard Version translates “A deadly thing”). Good News Translation‘s “tolerate” is rather general in sense, and Revised Standard Version‘s set before my eyes suggests entirely a visual avoidance of evil. This may be recast in some languages to say, for example, “Where I am I will allow no evil.” In some languages it may not be possible to treat “evil” as a thing occupying space. One must switch, therefore, to “evil things” or, more commonly, to “evil people.”

In verse 3c those who fall away translates a word found only here in the Old Testament; the Septuagint translates “transgressions”; K-B labels the word “unknown,” but Holladay defines it as “deviation, transgression.” Dahood takes it to mean “(the making of) images”; New English Bible “disloyalty”; Briggs, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, and Bible en français courant take it to mean apostasy; New Jerusalem Bible “crooked dealing,” and New Jerusalem Bible “act crookedly.” Toombs explains it as a violation of the covenant. Good News Translation takes it to mean apostasy, “turn away from God”; equally Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “those who are not loyal to God.”

In verse 3d the verb phrase not cleave (see 22.15b) here means to avoid altogether, to get rid of. Bible en français courant has “I will have nothing in common with that,” and New English Bible “I will have none of it.” The reference may be to the people, “them” (Good News Translation, New American Bible, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy), or to the evil itself, it (Revised Standard Version, New Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Bible en français courant, New Jerusalem Bible). A translator may feel free to choose.

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 .