The psalmist’s statement of the security of God’s people in trouble describes such a time in terms of worldwide upheavals and disasters. God is our refuge: see the word refuge as it is used in 14.6; God is our … strength means “God keeps us strong,” that is, confident, unafraid. The expression God is our refuge must often be shifted to a verb phrase; for example, “God is the one who protects us” or “God is the one who shelters us.”

In verse 1b very present translates a phrase meaning “very accessible”; the verb means “be present, near.” The noun help is used also in 22.19.

All of the catastrophes listed in verses 2-3 represent the end of the world, with the disappearance of order and the return of the chaos which existed before creation.

In verse 2a Revised Standard Version translates the earth should change; it is better, following Holladay, to see the meaning “shake, quake” for this verb, which in other contexts means “to change, exchange.” So most modern translations have “heave, be shaken, reel, quake.” New Jerusalem Bible translates “be in turmoil”; New Jerusalem Bible “reels.” The passive constructions used in Good News Translation and implied in Revised Standard Version will be difficult to use in languages where the passive is nearly nonexistent. In verses 2a and 3b it will be necessary in some languages to say, for example, “even if the earth breaks up” and “the hills move violently.”

The second phenomenon, in verse 2b, is that of mountains shaking in the heart of the sea. This is better represented by “the mountains fall into the depths of the ocean” as the result of a severe earthquake. Or else “the mountains in the depths of the seas totter.” These are the mountains reaching down into the underworld, and upon which the earth rests, according to the idea of that time about the structure of the earth.

In verse 3a the psalmist speaks of the seas as they roar and foam, and in verse 3b of the hills as they tremble from the fury of the waves. Revised Standard Version tumult carries only the notion of noise; the main idea, however, is that of the violence, the fury of the waves as they hurl themselves against the hills. The expression its waters roar may in some languages be expressed as a simile; for example, “even if the seas roar like a wild animal and make a great noise.”

In verse 3b, instead of with its tumult (Good News Translation “by the violence”), New English Bible has “before his majesty”; the Hebrew noun has the meaning of “majesty” in 68.34 (and see also Deut 33.26); most other translations have the same meaning expressed by Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation.

Translators should be accustomed by now to recognize movement or lack of movement between parallel lines. In verse 2 line a has the earth, which is made more specific by mountains in line b. In verse 3 line a waters picks up from sea in verse 2b, and verse 3b repeats mountains from verse 2b. The movement through verse 2ab to verse 3a is that of a step-up of intensity, both by being more specific in the choice of nouns and by the addition of the verbs. Translators should try to reflect this element of meaning in their translations. In English the step-up can be seen by rendering, for example,

• So we will not be afraid if the earth should shake
not even if the mountains should fall into the sea;
nor even if the oceans roar and rage
and the hills are violently shaken.

For Selah see 3.2.

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 .