In these verses the psalmist expresses his deep longing for Yahweh to rescue him from his distress. The Hebrew in verse 5a is emphatic, “I wait for Yahweh, my nefesh waits”–with his whole being he waits. See New English Bible “I wait for the LORD with all my soul”; also possible is “I wait for the LORD; I wait eagerly.” Or the translation can be “I wait longingly” or “… with deep longing.” But his waiting is not hopeless, for he trusts in his word, that is, in Yahweh’s promise to save those who turn to him. Both in verses 5 and 7 Good News Translation “trust” translates the verb which may be rendered hope (Revised Standard Version and others) or “wait” (New Jerusalem Bible and others). There is no sure way of deciding which word in English better represents the original; but it may be said in general that in English, at least, the distance between the attitude of “hope” (for which there is no objective support in the facts) and of “trust” (which generally implies an assumption that the facts warrant it) is greater than in the biblical concept, where “hope” is in many places practically a synonym for “faith, assurance.” So it seems better to translate “trust” here. Certainly the sentries guarding the walls of a city (verse 6) know that day will eventually come, even though the sun may seem to be taking a long time finally to appear on the horizon. For in his word I hope see 119.74b, 81b, 114b. In his word I hope must sometimes be recast to say, for example, “I trust in what he has said.”

In the Hebrew text verse 6 begins “my nefesh for the Lord,” without a verb; the verb is implied from the previous verse. (Here the Masoretic text has the title adonai, not the proper name “Yahweh”; many Hebrew manuscripts, including the Cairo Geniza manuscript, have the proper name.) Some (Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, New American Bible, New English Bible, Bible de Jérusalem, New Jerusalem Bible) join the last line of verse 6 to the first line of verse 7, as follows: “As sentries wait for the morning, wait, O Israel, for the Lord” (Biblia Dios Habla Hoy). This is possible, but it seems better to take verse 6c with verse 6b, as a poetic device for emphasis, a stylistic “step-like” feature (see introduction to Psa 120 on the meaning of A Song of Ascents).

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 .