The psalmist does not identify his enemies who are trying to ruin him. He speaks of himself in the third person as one who occupies a “place of honor” (Good News Translation, verse 4a), so he is a man of some importance.
There are two verbs in verse 3a (Revised Standard Version set upon … shatter), both of uncertain form and meaning. The first one occurs only here; the second one usually means “to murder,” but only Weiser has this meaning (“slay”); also possible, “strike”; New Jerusalem Bible “crush”; New English Bible “battering”; New American Bible “beat him down.” Good News Translation has expressed the meaning of the two verbs by “attack”; using the Good News Translation language, the two verbs could be separately expressed by “… will all of you attack and do away with a man…?” It should be understood, of course, that the question is rhetorical–it is not a request for information. If a rhetorical question is difficult for most readers, the meaning can be expressed by means of a statement, “All of you must quit attacking a man who is no stronger than a broken-down fence, and trying to do away with him.”
The psalmist’s enemies are trying to ruin him by bringing him down as though he were a leaning wall, a tottering fence (verse 3c). Some (Briggs, Dahood) take these figures to apply to the psalmist’s enemies, but most take them to refer to the psalmist himself. Good News Translation has reduced the two synonymous figures to one, “no stronger than a broken-down fence.” In most language areas both a leaning wall and a tottering fence are fully understood. The translator must decide if the two expressions really represent mere duplication, or if the reader will think of two distinct types of structures.
The psalmist’s enemies are liars and hypocrites (verse 4b-d); see similar language in 12.1; 28.3; 55.21. Here again, curse means to use certain words to cause ruin or disaster (see comments at 59.12).
If the use of the third person to refer to the psalmist himself is difficult or strange, it is possible to switch to the first person, as follows (using Good News Translation language): “I am no stronger than a broken-down fence; so how much longer will you attack me? All you want to do is to bring me down from my place of honor….”
It is to be noticed that in verse 4 the psalmist’s enemies are spoken of in the third person; for consistency with verse 3, Good News Translation has used the second person.
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 .