In the opening hymn of praise (verses 1-2), the two lines of verse 1 are parallel, both of them stating that the earth and all things and beings on it belong to Yahweh; literally “To Yahweh (belong) the earth and its fulness, the world and those who dwell in it.” This includes all created things, animate and inanimate, human and animal.
Earth and world are not distinguished here in their meanings. The Hebrew word translated earth is simply the general term and is far more common than the Hebrew term translated world. In many translations it will not be possible to find synonyms. Consequently one must sometimes say “The world and everything on it belong to the LORD; all the people on it are his too” or “Everything in the world belongs to the LORD; even all the people belong to him.”
Fulness thereof means everything that is in the world, all the objects and beings that fill it.
For: as translated by Revised Standard Version and others, this gives the justification for the statement in line a about Yahweh’s complete dominion over the world.
In verse 2 Revised Standard Version uses the past perfect of the verbs (has founded … established); Good News Translation‘s simple past (“built … laid”) seems more appropriate, since the verbs refer to the act of creation.
Verse 2 is also made up of two parallel lines, both of them saying the same thing about how Yahweh created the world. The two verbs, “to found, establish” and “to make firm” (see 7.9), are nearly synonymous, as are the two nouns the seas and the rivers, both of them referring to the vast subterranean ocean, “the deep waters beneath the earth” (Good News Translation; see Gen 7.11; Exo 20.4; Psa 136.6), upon which the earth rested. The earth was thought to be supported by pillars (the “foundations”), which were also the bases of the mountains (see 18.7, 15; 1 Sam 2.8; Pro 8.29; Jonah 2.6), which reached down to the underworld. For a more complete description of the Hebrew view of the world, see the discussion and illustration at 104.5-6. Simply to translate the two words literally by the seas and the rivers, as Revised Standard Version has done, fails to convey the meaning of the original. New Jerusalem Bible “the ocean … the nether-streams” is hardly an improvement. Biblia Dios Habla Hoy has combined and shortened the lines as follows: “For the Lord laid the foundations of the earth, and placed it firm on the seas and the rivers.” Here “the seas and the rivers” is also misleading. The seas and the rivers were probably used quite commonly as a pair of terms with poetic effect in Hebrew, but this effect will usually be lost in translation.
He has founded it upon the seas is difficult to translate, where the largest body of water is a local river. However, the switch from seas to “deep waters,” as in Good News Translation, provides a model. Furthermore, it will often be necessary to provide a footnote which will clarify this Hebrew view of the universe.
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 .