For translation suggestions on LORD God of hosts, see 46.7. Note also that this is the final, fully expanded name for God as it appears in verse 19.
The psalmist cries to Yahweh in protest against what he has done to his people (for similar language see 74.10-11; 79.5). He cannot understand why God has punished Israel so harshly. Even the people’s prayers of confession and repentance are rejected by God (verse 4a). Be angry translates the verb “to smoke” (see comments, 74.1); Bible en français courant translates “how long will you smoke (or, fume) in anger?” and New Jerusalem Bible “how long will you flare up?” Instead of with thy people’s prayers, some interpret the Hebrew phrase as a temporal clause, “while your people pray” (Briggs, Dahood). The sense of this passage is that God is angry and will not answer the prayers of the people; it may be rendered “how much longer will you be angry with us and refuse to answer our prayers?”
In verse 5a Good News Translation “sorrow to eat” translates the bread (or, food) of tears; see a similar expression in 42.3. In verse 5b Good News Translation “a large cup” translates “one-third of a measure,” which is otherwise unspecified; it indicates a large amount (Revised Standard Version in full measure). Traduction œcuménique de la Bible translates “a triple measure of tears”; New English Bible “tears of threefold grief.” It is sometimes necessary to recast verse 5 to say, for example, “You have given us sorrow for bread to eat and tears to drink” or “You have given us sorrow to eat just as we eat bread, and tears to drink just as we drink water.” In languages in which bread is not known, it is possible to say “… given us sorrow for the food we eat.”
In verse 6a the Hebrew text is “You made us a contention to our neighbors,” which means that Israel is an object of contention among the surrounding nations, who compete with each other for the possession of the land. Some prefer the conjecture scorn (manod “shaking” of the head, as in 44.14) in place of the Hebrew “strife” (madon); this offers a better parallel with the next line (so Revised Standard Version, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy) but does not seem necessary. If the translator follows Good News Translation, “nations fight over our land” may be rendered in some languages as “the other tribes fight each other to take away our land.”
In verse 6b the Masoretic text has laugh among themselves or, as Hebrew Old Testament Text Project interprets it, “laugh for themselves,” that is, for their own amusement. Two Hebrew manuscripts (and the Septuagint and Syriac) have “laugh at us,” which is preferred by Good News Translation (“insult us”); New Jerusalem Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, New International Version, and New English Bible have “mock us,” and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “laugh at us.” It seems best to follow the majority in their rendering of the text.
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 .