The meaning of verse 18a in Hebrew is none too clear; it is literally “he will save in peace my nefesh.” Most commentators and translators give the sense expressed by Good News Translation and Revised Standard Version.
The expression in line c translated against seems normally to mean “with,” as the Septuagint has it (so New Jerusalem Bible “It is as though many are on my side”); but twice in 94.16 the related Hebrew preposition means “against.” So the majority take “for there were many (fighting) with me” to mean “fighting against.”18-19 Hebrew Old Testament Text Project (“C” decision) says the Hebrew expression “has a positive meaning of help,” and proposes the translation “(has freed … my life) of the attack against me, for in great number (they were with me).” Bible en français courant has “he (God) comes near me when everybody is against me.” In some languages it may be necessary to say, for example, “from fighting people” or “from battling (or, warring).”
Humble in verse 19a translates a verb that can be taken to be the verb “to answer” (so An American Translation). Good News Translation takes humble to imply the “defeat” of the psalmist’s enemies.
The expression enthroned from of old or “from eternity” in some languages must be rendered “who has always ruled.” In some languages eternity is expressed idiomatically in this context as “chair of great age” or “ancient stool.”
Line c of verse 19 seems in Hebrew to be “there are no changes for them (or, for him).” The noun is defined “substitute, change, relief”; Holladay has “settlement”; K-B “mutual liabilities”; the Septuagint has “retribution.” If the Hebrew lamo means “to him,” the line can mean “for in him (God) there is no variation” (so Dahood; similarly An American Translation); or, as New Jerusalem Bible has it, “who will have no successor.” But if it means “to them,” the line can mean: (1) “they do not change,” that is, from their evil ways (“they persist in evil”; similarly Good News Translation, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, New International Version, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, New American Bible); (2) “they have not received retribution” (see Anderson); so, apparently, the Septuagint; (3) Bible en français courant translates “It is impossible to make an alliance with them; they have no respect for God”; (4) Briggs takes it to mean that in the future they will have the same defeats that they have had in the past; (5) Kirkpatrick explains the line to mean that their success is constant, so they don’t fear God; (6) others, like New English Bible, change the text and understand it (in verses 18-19) to refer to various desert tribes. It is difficult to understand how Revised Standard Version arrived at its rendering of the text. It seems best to take verse 19c as Good News Translation and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible have.
Selah (see 3.2) in the Hebrew text comes at the end of verse 19b, not at the end of line d (as Revised Standard Version). It is rather unusual, however, for it to come in the middle of a verse.
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 .