As an opener the question form is common in the psalms. (See also Psa 2; 10; 13; 52; 74.) Its purpose is to arouse interest in the listener or reader, who will want to find out how the question will be answered or dealt with by the end of the poem. This does not mean that the question form cannot be modified in the receptor language, but the translator should have a valid reason before doing so.
In these two verses the psalmist cries to God in despair because God does not answer him. The two anguished questions in verse 1 dramatically express the psalmist’s desolation and hopelessness. He cannot understand why God has abandoned him. But even in his suffering he still addresses God as My God, my God, thereby affirming his own faith in and dependence on God, who seems so distant and silent. He feels that God has forsaken him (see similar expression in 10.1), that he doesn’t pay any attention to his loud groans, to his cries of pain. Why hast thou forsaken me? is often expressed as “why have you left me?” or “why have you gone away from me?”
In verse 1b Revised Standard Version‘s literal rendering of the Hebrew makes for unnatural English, since the prepositional phrase from the words of my groaning is governed by the verb phrase Why art thou so far. The line has been reordered in a more natural manner in Good News Translation, which provides a clear model for the translator. In some languages it may be necessary to make more explicit than does Good News Translation that it is God whom the writer is calling to for help; for example, “I have cried for you to help me, but you do not come to me.” Should the translator wish to stay closer to the Hebrew form, however, something like the following may be said: “Why do you remain so far away from me, and refuse to help me or even to listen to my anguished cries?”
The two parallel references to time in verse 2, by day … by night, indicate that the psalmist never stops praying for help; but it is all useless, since God does not answer his plea.
The word for rest in verse 2 occurs only here and in 39.2 (“I was silent”) and 62.1 (“waits in silence”); and perhaps in 65.1. It seems to mean “silence,” and the Hebrew phrase “no silence for me” indicates that his pain is not alleviated, he gets no relief, which would come if God were to listen to him and answer his pleas.
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 .