Ask of me means “Ask me to give you.” In some languages it may be better to translate “Ask me to give you all the lands of the earth and I will do so.” Or else, as a conditional, “If you ask me, I will give you….”

Here God promises the king universal dominion, authority over all the nations (same word as in verse 1). The phrase the ends of the earth means “all the earth,” “from one end of the earth to the other” (see 22.27; 48.10; 59.13). Line b, ends of the earth, represents the use of a metaphor following a nonmetaphor in line a. The meaning is essentially the same, but in the rhetorical use of parallelism, the more vivid expression is kept for the second line.

Heritage is a term often used in the Old Testament of what God gives his people; it involves the idea of permanent possession. Many times it refers to the land of Canaan as Israel’s gift from God (see Deut 4.21); the word possession is similarly used (see Gen 17.8; Deut 32.49). The noun “heritage” and the verb “to inherit” do not, in a context like this, carry the meaning ordinarily associated with these terms, that is, of a gift or a right that is given someone at the death of the one who previously owned the gift or held the right. So Good News Translation translates “I will give you.”

Because it is unnatural in many languages to “give” or “inherit” a social entity such as a tribe, it will often prove more satisfactory to say “to cause to rule the nations.” Likewise, asking for a favor often requires a response word. For example, “Ask me and I will say yes by making you rule over all tribes in the world. Indeed, you will own the whole world” or “… the whole world will be yours.”

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 .