Verse 15 seems more naturally to lend itself to the events of the exodus from Egypt, specifically of the splitting of the rock for water (Exo 17.6; Num 20.7-11); it is perhaps significant that here the verb “to split” is used. But, in keeping with verses 16-17, this may also refer to the creation of springs and brooks. And in verse 15b the reference can be to the drying up of the Jordan (Josh 3.14-17; 4.23); but in line with parallels in other creation accounts, this may also refer to acts of creation (see Anderson). Lines a and b are opposites, and in some languages it is necessary to mark this kind of shift. For example, “In some places you made springs and streams flow with water, but in other places you dried up the rivers.” Springs and brooks may be rendered “springs and small streams.” Good News Translation‘s “fountains” may suggest a jet of water maintained by a power supply, which is not intended here; “springs and streams” is better. Ever-flowing streams refers to streams or rivers that continually flow. The focus is not so much on their size (as in Good News Translation) but on their unfailing flow, or as New English Bible says, “rivers never known to fail.”

In verse 16a the day and the night are said to belong to God. The meaning may be that he rules over them and determines everything that happens in the daytime and at night. Or else it can mean that God created them (as in Good News Translation), and so they belong to him, not to human beings. In line b the statement thou hast established the luminaries and the sun seems to support the idea that line a refers to the creation of the day and the night, since in the creation story in Genesis the sun and the moon were created to rule over the day and the night (Gen 1.14-18). The word translated luminaries may refer to the moon alone, as Good News Translation, New English Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Bible en français courant, New International Version, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, and Dahood translate it. But it may mean “the moon and the stars” (so Weiser, “the stars”).

Verse 17a may refer to the boundaries of the land that God gave to his people, or to the division of the surface of the earth among the various nations (see Deut 32.8); but it seems more likely that it refers to the creation of the earth, in line with verse 16, that is, establishing the limits of the dry land as it emerged from the waters (Gen 1.9-10).

Summer and winter in verse 17b stands for the seasons of the year. The verb translated made is synonymous with the verb “to create.” In many areas summer and winter will be rendered “hot season and cold season,” “dry season and rainy season,” or “light rains and heavy rains.”

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 .