The verb translated Wondrously show is the same one used in 4.3a, “set apart,” where it means “treat in a special way.” For comments on steadfast love see 5.7.

Revised Standard Version translates the second line as the vocative phrase O savior of those who seek refuge. Good News Translation has joined those who seek refuge to their adversaries: “I am safe from my enemies.” All other English translations consulted keep the vocative phrase, as Revised Standard Version does; in some of them it becomes very long (see New International Version). The translator will have to determine whether such a form in the target language is natural and fairly easy to understand.

In most languages it will be necessary to indicate the receivers of thy steadfast love and the one who provides refuge in those who seek refuge. Steadfast love refers to the love that God has for his people, and may be rendered “Show your people the great love you always have for them.” It will often be necessary to recast the vocative O savior of … as a second-person address form; for example, “You are the one who saves your people who come to you for protection from their enemies.”

The last word in Hebrew, at thy right hand, is taken by most as the place where the oppressed, the persecuted, find protection: “at your side” or “near you” (see also comments at 16.8). Others (see New Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, New International Version) take it to mean the way in which God saves: “with your right hand.” Some, however, take it to apply to the enemies, “the enemies at your side,” that is, “those who oppose you” (so Weiser, Anderson; also possible is “those who defy you”). Adversaries is literally “those who rise up against.”

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 .