The first part of the psalm concludes with the vow to praise Yahweh for his goodness. In verse 9 the two lines are parallel: rejoice and exulting; my soul, as often, means “I.” And in the LORD means “because of what the LORD has done.” The noun phrase his deliverance is best represented as a clause with a verb, “he delivered me.” Rejoice in the LORD requires some adjustments in translation. In some languages it is possible to say “I will be glad because of what the LORD has done for me” or “because the LORD has protected me.”
In verse 10 All my bones is a way of saying “my whole being,” “my whole self.” In English All my bones is not a natural expression, but most English translations use it. Bible en français courant has “From the depths of my being,” and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy and Good News Translation have “With all my heart.”
The rhetorical question in verse 10, who is like thee? is a way of saying “There is no one like you” (Good News Translation).
The Hebrew for the weak means the poor, the oppressed, the helpless (see comments on the same word, translated “afflicted,” in 9.12); “the strong” (Good News Translation) translates “the one (who is) too strong for him,” leaving implicit their overpowering the poor.
The Hebrew for deliverest means to snatch away from the oppressor; Good News Translation “protect.” In some languages it is necessary to make explicit what it is that the LORD protects; for example, “you protect the weak when the strong abuse them” or “you prevent the strong from harming the weak.”
The weak and needy are synonyms here, where weak again means “poor”; see 12.5 where they also are used as synonyms, translated “poor” and “needy.”
The one who despoils him is one who exploits, oppresses, the weak. The Hebrew verb is graphic, “rip off”; in Micah 3.2 there is a vivid description of how violent exploiters “rip off” the skin of their victims. Here it will sometimes be necessary to say, for example, “you prevent powerful people from exploiting poor people” or “you protect the poor when the rich treat them badly.”
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 .