(6) The next qualification is literally “despised in his eyes (is) the reprobate.” A reprobate is a person who has been reproved or rejected by God because of his or her evil way of life. The verb is used in the active voice with God as subject in 53.5; 78.59, 67; 89.38; with a person as subject in 36.4; 118.22. Bible en français courant translates “he does not respect those of whom God disapproves.” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy takes reprobate to reflect human judgment and translates “he looks with contempt on those who deserve contempt.” New English Bible has “who shows his scorn for the worthless.”

The verb “to despise” in Psalms usually has God as the subject: 22.24; 51.17; 69.33; 73.20; 102.17 (see also 22.6b; 119.141). Despised is sometimes expressed as “to consider as nothing,” “to look down upon.” Line a is rendered in some languages “he looks down on the person God has considered evil” or “he considers as nothing the evil person whom God says ‘No’ to.”
(7) “To honor” someone is to applaud his actions, to think highly of him, to speak of him with praise and admiration. Honors may be rendered by such expressions as “to say he is great” or “to speak well of his name.” This line is rendered in some languages as “he says that the man is great who follows God’s way.” To fear the LORD means to reverence, obey, worship, serve him (see comments on 2.11). Those who fear the LORD are the exact opposites of the reprobate.
(8) The meaning of the next qualification is disputed. (a) The Septuagint (followed by Syriac, Vulgate) combines the consonants of the Hebrew text (after the verb who swears) with vowels that make it mean “to his neighbor” (“he makes a promise to his neighbor and does not break it”). Briggs favors this. (b) The Hebrew text seems to mean “who swears to (do) evil,” which is obviously wrong. Dahood understands the Hebrew preposition here to indicate separation, and translates “to do no wrong.” (c) The majority of commentaries and translations take it in the sense that Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation take it: a person who keeps his promise even though it hurts him, financially or otherwise.

Swears to his own hurt implies that the person invokes the supernatural as a witness or sanction for his statements. Swears is rendered in some languages as “I say this before God” or “I say this and God cuts it,” meaning that God decides if it is true and applies the appropriate sanction if it is not true. This line may be rendered “he swears before God that what he says he will do, and does not change his words” or “he tells God he will do something, and he really does it.”

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 .