Good News Translation has joined the last line of verse 4 (Revised Standard Version Rouse thyself, come to my help, and see!) to verse 5 and rearranged the material for a more natural ordering of the text.

The psalmist says to God Rouse thyself (see comments on “awake” in 7.6), Awake (see comments on 35.23). Both verbs are used in the same way in 44.23. The psalmist does not thereby imply that God is asleep, but that he is indifferent, he is inactive. Come to my help translates “to meet me,” but the idea of helping may be implied. And the command see is a way of asking God to notice how the enemies are threatening him (or his people). Most translations include the idea of help, as in Revised Standard Version; but New International Version has “look on my plight,” and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates the line “Wake up, come, and see for yourself.”

In verse 5a, by reminding Yahweh that he is God of Israel, the psalmist gives the reason why Yahweh should act and deliver the psalmist from peril. For LORD God of hosts as a title of God, see comments on 46.7. The way in which the psalmist addresses God, LORD God of hosts and God of Israel, favors the idea that the psalmist may be the king, and that it is not just the psalmist who needs help against the attacks of foreign enemies, but the whole nation.

The enemies, the nations (Good News Translation “the heathen”), are described as those who treacherously plot evil (for comments on the verb “are … treacherous,” see 25.3b). The translation of punish all the nations is in many languages “punish all the other tribes,” thus specifying all who are not of Israel. In English “the heathen” or “those pagans” better represents the emotional impact of the Hebrew word than the nations (see Bible en français courant, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy). They are called “treacherous” (“traitors”) because they have broken their pact with Israel, or with its king (so Dahood). The translation of “traitors” in some languages is “people who sell their friends” or “people who give friends to their enemies.”

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 .