The speakers in this verse are the people of Israel, at worship in the Temple.

Line a is difficult to understand: Be exalted … in thy strength means either “Show your greatness by using your power” or else “Because of your strength you are exalted” (that is, praised, as Good News Translation has it). Bible en français courant has “Lord, show your great power.” Dahood takes the verb here to mean “Rejoice, O Yahweh, in your triumph”; Anderson takes it as an emphatic statement, “You shall be exalted”; Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “Rise with your power” (so Jerusalem Bible); others “Rise, LORD, show your power.” The translation of this verse will depend upon which interpretation the translator follows.

Be exalted as an impersonal command is difficult in many languages, since it is far more common to command someone to act. If one follows the Good News Translation rendering, it will often be necessary to change from a noun phrase to a verb phrase; for example, “Because you do great deeds, we say you are a great LORD.”

Unless syntactic reasons make it impossible, the translator should preserve the envelope structure of the psalm by employing in verse 13 the same expression used in verse 1 for in thy strength.

In line b the two verbs may be understood as indicating two distinct actions: sing and praise. It may be, however, that the meaning is “By means of songs (or, singing) we will praise your powers.”

Instead of the abstract quality power at the end of the verse, New Jerusalem Bible translates “Your mighty deeds,” and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “your victories”; either one of these two is recommended as a good dynamic equivalence translation.

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 .