In verse 7 my loins are filled with burning seems to be a description of fever. Loins, which is archaic in English, refers to the region about the hips, and here it is a part of the body used to represent the whole. In languages in which a part of the body is said to be feverish, it is good to translate it in that way; for example, “my neck is hot with fever.” In this context, where loins is parallel with flesh, the whole body is represented by the loins (“waist, hips”).

Verse 7b is the same as verse 3a. This line goes beyond mere fever to make a more inclusive statement about the whole body, called flesh. Instead of Good News Translation “I am near death,” it is better to render no soundness in my flesh as “I am seriously ill,” “I am very sick,” or “my health is completely broken,” or negatively “I have no health at all,” or idiomatically in some languages, “my body is loose” or “my body has drunk tiredness.”

In verse 8a the psalmist again describes his condition, using language similar to that used in verse 6a. The verb translated spent is used here in the passive voice; elsewhere it is used in the active voice with the sense of becoming numb, insensitive. Some translate here “benumbed” (see New Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible). The verb translated crushed is the one that appears in 10.10a. The psalmist uses vivid terms to describe his physical and emotional distress, and a translator should choose equally vivid and extreme terms in the translation of these verses. In languages which must use the active voice, I am utterly spent and crushed may be recast to say, for example, “I am so ill I can feel nothing” or “without strength I am broken into pieces.”

In verse 8b the tumult of my heart is a figure for deep distress rather than a physical symptom of heart trouble. The word translated tumult is used of “the roaring of the sea” in Isaiah 5.30. Here it refers to confusion, turmoil; see New Jerusalem Bible “the turmoil in my mind.” The psalmist’s groan is the outward expression of his inward feeling. I groan translates “I roar” (like a lion) and was used in a similar way in 2.1. This exaggerated expression poetically expresses the degree of anguish experienced by the psalmist. In translation the howl or roar of an animal may be used, if appropriate. The tumult of my heart may be expressed sometimes without the figure; for example, “because of the troubles I have” or “because trouble has taken hold of me.”

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 .