The care and providence of God are shown by his sending the rain to make the earth produce abundant crops. In verse 9a Good News Translation “You show your care” translates the Hebrew verb “to visit” (as in 8.4b, where Revised Standard Version has “care for”; see comments there). To translate literally Thou visitest (Revised Standard Version; also New English Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible) gives the wrong idea of God descending from heaven to do the things listed in verses 9-10. It is better, like New Jerusalem Bible, to translate “You take care of the earth….” It is possible that in the same line the Hebrew ʾerets means “land” of Israel (An American Translation, New American Bible) instead of earth (Revised Standard Version and others; Good News Translation “land” is probably ambiguous); the majority of translations have “earth.”
Some languages do not speak of fertile soil as being “rich,” but rather as “dark, deep, good,” or “like riverside soil.” Thou greatly enrichest it may be rendered, for example, “you make the soil good for growing crops” or “you give the soil life and it grows things.”
In verse 9c the river of God is the heavenly source of the rain which God sends down to earth (see Gen 1.6-7; see similar language in Psa 46.4); New English Bible translates “the waters of heaven.” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy understands “of God” here to be a superlative, and translates “roaring streams.” Good News Translation has represented the Hebrew by “You fill the streams with water.” It would be better, however, to stay closer to the Hebrew form, as follows: “Your river, O God, is full of water, to provide the land with crops.” The point is that there is a never-failing supply of water for God to send in order to “provide the earth with crops (or, grain).” Their grain in line d means “grain for the inhabitants of the earth (or, of the land).” The expression thou providest their grain can be rendered in some languages, for example, “you cause the earth to grow crops.”
The last line of verse 9 may point backward (so Revised Standard Version, New Jerusalem Bible, New International Version) or forward (Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, Bible en français courant). Biblia Dios Habla Hoy makes of it a complete sentence, without necessarily pointing backward or forward: “Thus you prepare the field.” The context of the translator’s own language will determine the best way to render the line.
In verse 10 the effect of the rain on the fields is described. The furrows and ridges describe a field that has been plowed and sown. In Palestine the rainy season lasted from October to May; the early rains were in the fall, the later rains in the springtime. Settling its ridges in line b describes the effects of constant rain, which levels the ridges of the grooves dug in the field by the plow. Softening it with showers must sometimes be recast to say, for example, “and sending rain which turns hard clods to soft soil.” In the last line, blessing its growth means that God blesses the soil by making the plants grow; so a translation can say “you bless the soil by making the plants sprout and grow.”
Throughout the whole process it is God who is at work, sending the rain, making the soil rich and fertile, and providing abundant harvests for his people.
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 .