In this final section (verses 46-49) the psalmist praises Yahweh for giving him victory over his enemies. Here again the psalmist brings the series of events to a close and opens a new stage in the discourse through the use of static parallelism. The two lines say approximately the same thing. Typical of the praise section in many psalms, verses 46-49 pile on image after image, with little or no heightening effect in the second line.

The LORD lives is a cry of confidence in Yahweh as a living god who constantly acts on behalf of his people; it is not the same as saying “Long live the LORD!” The LORD lives may be rendered in some languages as “I know God is alive” or “I know God really lives.”

Blessed be: this passive has the force of an imperative: “Bless.” Used of God, “to bless” means to praise (see comments in 16.7).

For rock see the use of the term in verses 2b, 31.

The passive verbal phrase exalted be is a way of exhorting the people to “exalt” God, that is, announce or proclaim his great power and might. So it is better to translate, as Good News Translation has done, as an exhortation for others to proclaim God’s greatness, or else, as Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has done, “I will extol God.”

The noun phrase the God of my salvation means “the God who saves me” (Good News Translation). The word for salvation here perhaps means victory (as in 3.8, “deliverance”).

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 .