The psalmist praises God as the Creator of the universe, who defeated the forces of chaos and evil. Despite all the defeats of the people at the hands of their enemies, the psalmist knows that God still rules; so he begins with Yet, which can be stated more strongly, “But in spite of all this, I know that….” In this verse Good News Translation keeps the second person of address, in line with what comes before and follows after. The psalmist calls God my King; in the context it is probable that he is speaking for the nation, and so Good News Translation has “our king from the beginning” (see Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). “The beginning” in this context refers back to the events in Egypt, when Yahweh made the Israelites his own people.

In line b the Hebrew is “working deeds of salvation in the middle of the earth (or, land).” The plural of the noun salvation may be taken here as “victories” (Briggs, Dahood, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible); Good News Translation represents the plural by “you have saved … many times,” and takes the noun “land” to mean the land of Israel, which is represented by “us,” that is, the people of Israel. New Jerusalem Bible takes it to be the world, translating “author of saving acts throughout the earth” (also Bible en français courant). A translation should keep closer to the Hebrew than Good News Translation has, and translate something like “you won many victories (for us) in our land” or “you helped us defeat our enemies here where we live”; see Traduction œcuménique de la Bible “in the heart (or, center) of our land.”

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 .