The psalmist, as he offers sacrifice in the Temple, calls on his fellow worshipers to think about God’s mighty deeds in saving his people; in a vivid way he calls upon them to Come and see what God has done (verse 5a).

For comments on the word translated terrible, see verse 3; in English, terrible here is a highly inappropriate word. In line b terrible in his deeds will in many languages require expressing the adjective phrase as a verb phrase; for example, “he does things that cause people’s hearts to tremble.” Men translates the phrase “sons of man” (see comments on “children of men” in 11.4); a better translation is “people.”

The psalmist in verse 6 picks two of the mighty deeds of God: the crossing of the Red Sea (the “Sea of Reeds” in Hebrew; see 106.7), when Yahweh parted the waters for the Israelites to escape from the pursuing Egyptians (Exo 14.21-22), and the crossing of the Jordan River (Josh 3.14-17). It is possible that the river in verse 6b is synonymous with the sea in verse 6a, so that both lines refer to the earlier event (so Briggs, New English Bible); but it seems preferable to assume that two separate events are meant. In some languages it is difficult to make a distinction between sea and river. One must often translate, for example, “he turned the big water into dry land” or “he dried up the big water and made it become dry land.” The interpretation of line b will affect in some languages the term that is used for “crossing a river,” since the term used for making a river crossing on foot may be different from walking across an area of dry land that is referred to as a river.

In the ritual that celebrated these saving events, the psalmist and his contemporaries are joined to their ancestors and can say There did we rejoice (verse 6a); the clause “because of what he did” (Good News Translation) translates what is literally in him.

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 .