Some regard the appearance of “and your majesty” in verse 4a (immediately after “and your majesty” at the end of verse 3) as an accidental repetition; and so they connect the last words of verse 3 with the opening words of verse 4, “ride on to victory in majesty and glory.” Most stay with the Masoretic text.
The injunction to ride forth is not to be understood that the poet wants the king to set out on a military expedition on his wedding day; rather it expresses the poet’s wish that the king always be victorious in his campaigns. The king would be riding in a war chariot, or perhaps on a horse.
Victoriously in line a translates a verb form in Hebrew which means “be successful” (imperative); so one may translate “Good fortune be yours” (also Weiser “Good luck!”). But this involves deleting the first word of the verse “and (in) your majesty” as an accidental repetition of the same phrase at the end of verse 3.
In some languages it will be difficult to command the king to ride forth without indicating what he is to ride; for example, “ride your horse” or “ride on your wagon of war.” The expression In your majesty ride forth must in some languages be shifted to an adapted simile; for example, “ride forth like a great chief.” Victoriously must sometimes be rendered as a verb phrase such as “defeat your enemies.”
There is some difficulty in line b, which in Hebrew is “ride on in behalf of truth and meekness (of) justice”; Hebrew Old Testament Text Project prefers this and translates “for loyalty’s sake and for mild justice.” With a slight change the Hebrew can be made to mean “executing justice on behalf of the humble” (so Biblia Dios Habla Hoy); Bible en français courant “in defense of the poor and of justice.” Some would translate the Masoretic text “for the cause of faithfulness, meekness, and right” (similarly New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible). Revised Standard Version, instead of “and meekness (of) justice,” reads “and on account of justice,” which is the meaning represented by Good News Translation.
The expression for the cause of truth must often be translated as a causal clause; for example, “because you defend truth and justice.” Good News Translation‘s “the defense of truth and justice” must sometimes be rendered “defend the true words you speak and the fairness you judge with” or “… and the (right) decisions you make (fairly).”
Revised Standard Version gives a literal and practically unintelligible translation of the words in line c; it is most unnatural to speak of one’s hand teaching one dread deeds. Dread deeds means “awesome deeds,” that is, deeds that strike terror in the hearts of his enemies and evoke awe and respect from his allies. Good News Translation takes the Hebrew as a statement; it can be taken as a wish: see New American Bible “may your right hand show you wondrous deeds” (similarly New Jerusalem Bible). New English Bible and New Jerusalem Bible emend the text to get other meanings. In some languages it will be necessary to shift the noun phrase your right hand to a verb phrase which indicates the cause of the action; for example, “because you are strong” or “because you do powerful deeds.” Line c may be rendered, for example, “because you are strong you do powerful deeds” or “let your powerful arm show the great acts you do.”
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 .