With verse 7 begins the confession of the community, and again there is cohesion, as the image of the withering grass in verse 6 is carried forward by the terms anger and wrath, which in Hebrew suggest heat and “hot breath of the nostrils.” The translator should note how the confession in verses 7-11 is enclosed in an envelope; that is, 7 opens with “anger/wrath,” and 11 closes with “anger/wrath.” The imagery of verses 7-11 continues the central theme of mankind’s fragile and brief span of life.

In a melancholy mood the psalmist sees life as trouble and sorrow, spent under the attacks of God’s anger and fury. Human life is not only short, it is also a wearisome burden. The relation between verses 7 and 8 seems to be that it is human sin which provokes God’s destructive anger, his terrifying wrath. People cannot hide their sins from God, and so they suffer God’s punishment. For the verb consumed in verse 7a, see 18.37b and comments; and the verb in verse 7b is “terrified, terror-struck” (see its use in 2.5b). Through its parallelism verse 7 emphasizes God’s anger at the people’s sin, and the translator should use the device which will communicate the equivalent function. This need not necessarily be by keeping the two synonymous lines. In some languages it may be necessary to reduce verse 7 to a single line by saying, for example, “we are destroyed and terrified by your anger.” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy translates “Truly your anger consumes us, it leaves us confused.” The more logical order is “terrified and destroyed.” In languages which do not use the passive, the rendering may be “your anger terrifies and destroys us.”

In verse 8b in the light of thy countenance (“your face”) is synonymous with before thee in verse 8a; it is quite appropriate for our secret sins, that is, those that are kept hidden from others. Intensification in parallel lines is not common in Psalm 90. However, in 8b secret sins steps up what is iniquities in line a and can be rendered, for example, “You place our sins before you, even our secret sins you put where you can see them.” In many languages it will not be possible to set … iniquities as if they were physical objects. Therefore it will sometimes be necessary to say, for example, “You not only see us when we sin, you even see us when we commit secret sins” or “… when we try to hide our sins from you.”

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 .