Give me up translates “abandon my nefesh” (see comments at 3.2); and for Sheol see comments at 6.5. The psalmist is confident that Yahweh will keep him from dying prematurely.
Sheol may often be rendered “The place where dead people go.” However, the translator must be able to distinguish between this place and the local cemetery which may be in the mind of the reader.
The term godly one refers to the psalmist himself (see comments on “godly” in 4.3). It is also possible to translate “your loyal servant”; Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “your faithful friend.” Good News Translation uses a verbal phrase, “I have served you faithfully.” Some, however, take the term to be generic, a way of speaking of all of Yahweh’s faithful people. It seems best to take it as a reference to the psalmist. (New International Version “your Holy One” takes the Hebrew text to refer to Jesus Christ.)
The verb see means here, as often in the Bible, “to experience.”
The term Pit (see comments at 7.15; 9.15) is used synonymously with Sheol and is elsewhere also used of the world of the dead (see 30.9; 49.9; 103.4). The Septuagint translators mistakenly derived the word for Pit from the Hebrew verb meaning “to corrupt,” and this is why the passage means something quite different in the quotation in Acts 2.27. It should be noticed that both here and in verse 9a (“my tongue rejoices”), New International Version has forced the Hebrew text to conform to the meaning of the Septuagint, as quoted in Acts 2.25-26.
Good News Translation has restructured line b of this verse quite radically, due mainly to “I have served you faithfully” as a meaningful equivalent of what Revised Standard Version represents as thy godly one.
It is disputed whether or not the passage speaks of resurrection (as it is applied to Christ in Acts 2.25-28, 31; 13.35). Some scholars believe that it does; Dahood understands it to mean that the psalmist believes that, like Enoch and Elijah, he will go directly into the presence of God without having died. Others believe the text means that the psalmist has been kept from untimely, unexpected death. H. H. Rowley takes a mediating position, speaking of it as “a glimpse, rather than … a firm faith” (in the resurrection). Briggs believes that it means that the psalmist hopes that in Sheol itself he will still have Yahweh with him. Whatever the interpretation, the translation should be faithful to the text as it is: “You do not abandon me to Sheol, you do not allow your devoted (or, faithful) servant to go down to the grave (or, the world of the dead).”
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 .