The opening words of verse 6 may be understood in a number of ways, depending on how ʾelohim “God” is understood, either as a vocative (“O God”) or as a descriptive noun modifying throne. The order in Hebrew is “Your throne God forever and ever.” It should be noted that throne here means “kingdom” or “sovereignty”; it is not literally a piece of royal furniture. The possible interpretations are as follows:
(1) Taking ʾelohim as vocative: (a) “Your throne, O God, is…” (Briggs, An American Translation, Revised Standard Version footnote, New International Version, Good News Translation footnote, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy); (b) “Your throne, O divine one” (Zürcher Bibel), or “Your throne, O divine king” (Weiser); so Taylor, Toombs, and Oesterley, who believe the king is being addressed.
(2) Taking ʾelohim as descriptive: (a) Your divine throne (Anderson, Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation footnote, New Jerusalem Bible); (b) or else “Your glorious throne” (taking ʾelohim as superlative); New English Bible, Bible en français courant “your throne is like God’s throne.”
(3) Taking ʾelohim as genitive: “Your throne is of God” (Kirkpatrick, Bible de Jérusalem, New Jerusalem Bible, Revised Standard Version footnote); Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “Your throne is God’s throne”; Good News Translation “The kingdom that God has given you” takes the genitive “of God” as source.
(4) Dahood: “The eternal and everlasting God has enthroned you.” Mft follows a conjectural text, “Your throne shall stand forevermore”; this takes the original Hebrew text to have used a form of the verb “to be” (yihyeh), which a later editor mistook for YHWH (Yahweh) and which he changed to ʾelohim (God), as it now stands in the Masoretic text.
If the vocative “O God” is preferred, it should be noticed that some take it as a title for the king (see New American Bible footnote), and not as directly referring to God. But some commentators do not believe that the word ʾelohim would be used as a title for the king (so Anderson). Others, however, say that the king could be addressed with this title, since at coronation he became “a son of God” (Toombs; see 2.7-9).
It makes little sense to take ʾelohim as addressed to God; the poem is addressed to the king and his bride, not to God. Between the two alternatives, (1) “God” as a title for the king, and (2) God as the source of the king’s power and authority, it seems that the latter is more likely in this context, as shown in Good News Translation. In any case, the translation of this difficult phrase here should not be influenced by the Septuagint translation of verses 6-7, which are quoted in Hebrews 1.8-9. There the words are applied to Christ, and the meaning of the Greek text is quite clear.
Good News Translation‘s “The kingdom that God has given you” will require adaptations in some translations, particularly since kingdom here represents both a place as well as the act of ruling. In some languages it will be possible to say “The country God has given you to be the chief of” or “The country God has given you to rule.”
The psalmist continues, praising the king’s devotion to equity and righteousness, on account of which God has made him the happiest of all kings. In verse 6 scepter is a figure of the king’s power; a scepter of equity means that the king is fair and just in ruling his people. In languages where a chief’s authority is symbolized in an object associated with him, such as a cane, stool, or scepter, line b can be translated using such symbols of authority; for example, “Your scepter shows that you rule your people fairly.”
In verse 7a the abstract qualities righteousness and wickedness stand for deeds or conduct: “righteous actions … evil actions.” The expression you love righteousness and hate wickedness must be rendered by verb phrases in many languages. It is best in the context to relate these to the acts of the king; for example, “you are a chief who loves to do good things and who hates to see people do bad things.”
Has anointed you with the oil of gladness: the king’s installation in office included anointing (see 1 Sam 16.13, Samuel anoints David). Here “oil of gladness” means either that this was very happy occasion, or else (as Good News Translation has it) God “poured out” happiness on the king, that is, made him very happy. The expression above your fellows refers to his fellow kings; less probably, but possibly, it could mean “more than any other man.” Or, if “anointed” is taken in a twofold sense, the translation can be “God (has anointed you and) has chosen you (to be king) instead of any other man” (see Bible en français courant). Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates the verse, “Therefore God has appointed you as ruler, your God has given you more honor and gladness than to all your people.” In many languages it will not be possible to preserve the idea of anointing, as has been done in Good News Translation “poured out … on.” Therefore it may be necessary to say “That is why God has chosen you and placed you higher than any other king.”
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 .