The third-person command expressed in English by Let the words … must often be restructured in translation as a wish or request; for example, “I ask that the words…” or “I pray that the words….”

The psalmist asks that Yahweh accept his words and thoughts (meditation). The mouth represents the source of words, and the heart the source of thoughts. Good News Translation has taken the mouth and heart to be redundant in this context. Hence the figures symbolizing the speaking and thinking activities have been dropped. In some languages words of my mouth must be replaced by “words of my tongue.”

Meditation translates the word that is used as a musical term in 9.16.

Acceptable translates the noun “favor” (see 5.12), that is, good will, pleasure (of Yahweh). Be acceptable in this context must often be recast in the active voice; for example, “I ask that you accept all that I say and think” or “I pray that you will receive gladly the words my tongue speaks and the thoughts my insides think.” In some languages “accept” does not carry the implied meaning of positive regard, and one must therefore translate “I ask that you accept as good the words…” or “May you find that my words and thoughts are good to receive.”

For rock see comments on the second Hebrew word for “rock” in 18.2. Redeemer translates the title of the individual, the goʾel usually the nearest of kin, who had the duty of providing for a relative who needed help–in particular, in the case of murder, of seeking out and killing the murderer (see the similar expression in 9.12). Here Yahweh is proclaimed the protector and savior of the psalmist. One may say “my Protector”; Bible en français courant “my Defender”; Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “my liberator.”

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 .