In Hebrew these two verses form one sentence, with the initial “What happened…?” carrying over into the next three lines. The Hebrew is simply “What to you?” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy translates it as “What happened to you?” New Jerusalem Bible “What alarmed you?” New English Bible “What was it?” Traduction œcuménique de la Bible “Why…?” The psalmist mocks them for their fear of Yahweh. Revised Standard Version and some others use the present tense (New American Bible, Bible de Jérusalem, New Jerusalem Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible), as though the psalmist were present and seeing the events; this is a superb poetic device, but in translation it may convey the idea that the events are still taking place. So it is better to use the past tense, as Good News Translation and others do. In languages in which the asking of questions to inanimate objects is not a familiar poetic device, it may be necessary to say “Why did the sea dry up, and why did the River Jordan stop flowing?”

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 .