Here day and night are pictured as passing on the proclamation of God’s glory. The verb in line a, pours forth, means to pour out, like a spring, and indicates a continuous, uninterrupted proclamation. Speech in line b and knowledge in line b have to do with the proclamation of God’s glory; line a means “Each day talks about God’s glory to the next day,” and line b means “Every night shares its knowledge of God with the following night.”

In some languages it will be unnatural to speak of day and night in a personified manner, as if they can speak. In those cases these expressions may be recast to say something like “Day after day people can see the glory of God, night after night they can see how great God is.” However, since verses 3-4 refer to speech, words, and voice, it may be better to shift to a simile and say, for example, “Each day announces it like a person speaking; each night repeats it to the following night like a person repeats words.”

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 .