In Judah, God is known. His name is great in Israel.
His tabernacle is also in Salem; His dwelling place in Zion.
There he broke the flaming arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the weapons of war.
Glorious are you, and excellent, more than mountains of game.
Valiant men lie plundered, they have slept their last sleep. None of the men of war can lift their hands.
At your rebuke, God of Jacob, both chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep.
You, even you, are to be feared. Who can stand in your sight when you are angry?
You pronounced judgment from heaven. The earth feared, and was silent,
when God arose to judgment, to save all the afflicted ones of the earth.
Surely the wrath of man praises you. The survivors of your wrath are restrained.
Make vows to Yahweh your God, and fulfill them! Let all of his neighbors bring presents to him who is to be feared.
He will cut off the spirit of princes. He is feared by the kings of the earth.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 1. God is known in Judah. In the outset,…
1. God is known in Judah. In the outset, we are taught that it was not by human means that the enemies of Israel were compelled to retire without accomplishing any thing, but by the ever-to-be-remembered aid of Jehovah. Whence came that knowledge of God and the greatness of his name which are spoken of, but because He stretched forth his hand in an extraordinary manner, to make it openly manifest that both the chosen people and the city were under his defense and protection? It is therefore asserted, that the glory of God was conspicuously displayed when the enemies of Israel were discomfited by such a miraculous interposition.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12 He declareth that God’s power is evidently seen in…
He declareth that God’s power is evidently seen in preserving his people and destroying his enemies.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–12 Psa 76:1 « To the chief Musician on Neginoth,…
Psa 76:1 « To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm [or] Song of Asaph. » In Judah [is] God known: his name [is] great in Israel.
A Psalm or Song of Asaph] Or, for Asaph; either made prophetically, by Asaph himself, or by some other psalmist, who committed it to Asaph’s successors, to be played and sung. The Hebrews say it is made de bello Gogi, of the war with Gog and Magog, that is, the Eastern and Western antichrists. The Greeks say De Assyriis (περι των Aσσυριων. In Hexaplo), of Sennacherib and his host; and surely the matter of the psalm is such as very well agreeth with that overthrow. Confer Psa 46:1-11 Psa 48:1-14
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Ver. 1. In Judah is God known] Nobilis est, saith Tremellius; Notior est, saith another interpreter; i.e. Better known he is now than ever; not by his word only, which is preached in Judah, but by his wondrous works; this especially of destroying the Assyrians at Lachish, in the tribe of Judah.
His name is great in Israel] Greater now than ever, God having made himself a glorious name, Isa 63:14. Egypt rang of this slaughter of the Assyrians, as Herodotus testifieth; so did all other countries doubtless.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–12 Is great, i.e. famous and renowned, and greatly to…
Is great, i.e. famous and renowned, and greatly to be praised and admired.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 7 The church is here triumphant even in the midst…
The church is here triumphant even in the midst of its militant state. The psalmist, in the church's name, triumphs here in God, the centre of all our triumphs.
I. In the revelation God had made of himself to them, Psa 76:1. It is the honour and privilege of Judah and Israel that among them God is known, and where he is known his name will be great. God is known as he is pleased to make himself known; and those are happy to whom he discovers himself - happy people that have their land filled with the knowledge of God, happy persons that have their hearts filled with that knowledge. In Judah God was known as he was not known in other nations, which made the favour the greater, inasmuch as it was distinguishing, Psa 147:19, Psa 147:20.
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II. In the tokens of God's special presence with them in his ordinances, Psa 76:2. In the whole land of Judah and Israel God was known and his name was great; but in Salem, in Zion, were his tabernacle and his dwelling-place. There he kept court; there he received the homage of his people by their sacrifices and entertained them by the feasts upon the sacrifices; thither they came to address themselves to him, and thence by his oracles he issued out his orders; there he recorded his name, and of that place he said, Her will I dwell, for I have desired it. It is the glory and happiness of a people to have God among them by his ordinances; but his dwelling-place is a tabernacle, a movable dwelling. Yet a little while is that light with us.
III. In the victories they had obtained over their enemies (Psa 76:3): There broke he the arrows of the bow. Observe how threatening the danger was. Though Judah and Israel, Salem and Zion, were thus privileged, yet war is raised against them, and the weapons of war are furbished.
1. Here are bow and arrows, shield and sword, and all for battle; but all are broken and rendered useless. And it was done there, (1.) In Judah and in Israel, in favour of that people near to God. While the weapons of war were used against other nations they answered their end, but, when turned against that holy nation, they were immediately broken. The Chaldee paraphrases it thus: When the house of Israel did his will he placed his majesty among them, and there he broke the arrows of the bow; while they kept closely to his service they were great and safe, and every thing went well with them. Or, (2.) In the tabernacle and dwelling-place in Zion, there he broke the arrows of the bow; it was done in the field of battle, and yet it is said to be done in the sanctuary, because done in answer to the prayers which God's people there made to him and in the performance of the promises which he there made to them, of both which see that instance, Ch2 20:5, Ch2 20:14. Public successes are owing as much to what is done in the church as to what is done in the camp. Now,
2. This victory redounded very much, (1.) To the immortal honour of Israel's God (Psa 76:4): Thou art, and hast manifested thyself to be, more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey. [1.] "Than the great and mighty ones of the earth in general, who are high, and think themselves firmly fixed like mountains, but are really mountains of prey, oppressive to all about them. It is their glory to destroy; it is thine to deliver." [2.] "Than our invaders in particular. When they besieged the cities of Judah, they cast up mounts against them, and raised batteries; but thou art more able to protect us than they are to annoy us." Wherein the enemies of the church deal proudly it will appear that God is above them. (2.) To the perpetual disgrace of the enemies of Israel, Psa 76:5, Psa 76:6. They were stouthearted, men of great courage and resolution, flushed with their former victories, enraged against Israel, confident of success; they were men of might, robust and fit for service; they had chariots and horses, which were then greatly valued and trusted to in war, Psa 20:7. But all this force was of no avail when it was levelled against Jerusalem. [1.] The stouthearted have despoiled and disarmed themselves (so some read it); when God pleases he can make his enemies to weaken and destroy themselves. They have slept, not the sleep of the righteous, who sleep in Jesus, but their sleep, the sleep of sinners, that shall awake to everlasting shame and contempt. [2.] The men of might can no more find their hands than the stout-hearted can their spirit. As the bold men are cowed, so the strong men are lamed, and cannot so much as find their hands, to save their own heads, much less to hurt their enemies. [3.] The chariots and horses may be truly said to be cast into a dead sleep when their drivers and their riders were so. God did but speak the word, as the God of Jacob that commands deliverances for Jacob, and, at his rebuke, the chariot and horse were both cast into a dead sleep. When the men were laid dead upon the spot by the destroying angel the chariot and horse were not at all formidable. See the power and efficacy of God's rebukes. With what pleasure may we Christians apply all this to the advantages we enjoy by the Redeemer! It is through him that God is known; it is in him that God's name is great; to him it is owing that God has a tabernacle and a dwelling-place in his church. He it was that vanquished the strong man armed, spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–12 In Judah is God known,.... God is to be…
In Judah is God known,.... God is to be known, and is made known, by his works of creation, and by his providences, and particularly by his judgments in the whole world, even among the Gentiles; and he was made known by his word and ordinances, his statutes and his judgments, among the Jews, to whom these were specially given; and he is made known by his Spirit, and in his Son in a spiritual and saving manner to such who are Jews inwardly, or the true circumcision: moreover this may be understood of Christ, God manifest in the flesh, and regard his appearance in human nature in the land of Judea; he was, according to prophecy, of the tribe of Judah as man, and was born in Bethlehem, a city in that tribe, where David was, and of the family of David, that formerly lived there: and he was made known by John the Baptist, who came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and by his being baptized of him in Jordan; by his own ministry and miracles in that land, and by the preaching of his apostles in the several cities of it, he was known in person to many; and by the fame of his doctrine and miracles to more, though seemingly but to few:
his name is great in Israel; he himself is great, for his name is himself, being the great God, and possessed of all divine perfections; his offices and titles are great, he is a great Saviour, a great High Priest, a great Prophet risen up in Israel, a great King, add the great Shepherd of the sheep; his works which make him known are great, his works of creation and providence, in which he is jointly concerned with his Father; the mighty works he did on earth, and especially the great work of our redemption; and his Gospel, which is called his name, Act 9:15, brings glad tidings of great and good things; by means of which, and the wonderful things he did in the land of Israel, his fame was spread about in it, for he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel; here his marvellous works were done, and his Gospel first preached, which afterwards went into all the earth.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 11, 12 Asaph congratulates the church, in having God so nigh,…
Asaph congratulates the church, in having God so nigh, ver. 1-3. He celebrates the power of God, shewn in some late victory over their enemies, ver. 4-6. He shews that all ought to fear him on this account, ver. 7-9 And that his people ought to trust him, and to pay their vows, ver. 10-12. To the chief musician on Neginoth, A psalm or song of Asaph.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–12 The true God known in Judah, Israel, Salem, and…
PSALM LXXVI
The true God known in Judah, Israel, Salem, and Zion, 1, 2.
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A description of his defeat of the enemies of his people, 3-6.
How God us to be worshipped, 7-9.
He should be considered as the chief Ruler: all the potentates
of the earth are subject to him, 10-12.
NOTES ON PSALM LXXVI
The title, "To the chief Musician on Neginoth, a Psalm or Song of Asaph." See the titles to Ps 4:1; Ps 6:1. The Vulgate, Septuagint, and others have, "A Psalm for the Assyrians;" and it is supposed to be a thanksgiving for the defeat of the Assyrians. The Syriac says it is a thanksgiving for the taking of Rabbah, belonging to the children of Ammon. It is considered by some of the best commentators to have been composed after the defeat of Sennacherib. That it was composed after the death of David, and after the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah were separated, is evident from the first verse. If Asaph was its author, it could not be the Asaph that flourished in the days of David but some other gifted and Divinely inspired man of the same name, by whom several others of the Psalms appear to have been composed during the captivity.
Verse 1. In Judah is God known] The true God revealed himself to the Jews. The Israelites, after the separation of the tribes, had the same knowledge, but they greatly corrupted the Divine worship; though still God was great, even in Israel.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12 Psa 76:1-2. In Judah is God known — God’s…
Psa 76:1-2. In Judah is God known — God’s people do not worship an unknown God, as the Athenians did, Act 17:23, but one who hath made himself known, not only by his word and ordinances, but also by the glorious effects of his wisdom and power, exerted on their behalf, and against their potent and malicious enemies. His name is great in Israel — That is, famous and renowned, and greatly to be praised and admired. In Salem is his tabernacle — In Jerusalem, which was anciently called Salem, Gen 14:18; Heb 7:1. And his dwelling-place in Zion — Largely so called, as it included Moriah, an adjoining hill, or another part of the same hill.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–12 In Judah is God known - That is, he…
In Judah is God known - That is, he has made himself known there in a special manner; he has evinced his watchful care over the city so as to demand a proper acknowledgment; he has manifested himself there as he has not elsewhere. It is true that God is known, or makes himself known everywhere; but it is also true that he does this in some places, and at some times, in a more marked and striking manner than he does in other places and at other times. The most clear and impressive displays of his character are among his own people - in the church. “His name is great in Israel.” Among the people of Israel; or, among his own people. The meaning here is, that, by some act referred to in the psalm, he had so displayed his power and his mercy in favor of that people, as to make it proper that his name should be exalted or praised.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 76
Psalms 76
To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm or Song of Asaph
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2 In Judah is God known:
His name is great in Israel,
3 In Salem also is his tabernacle,
And his dwelling place in Zion.
4 There brake he the arrows of the bow,
The shield, and the sword, and the battle. Selah.
5 Thou art more glorious and excellent
Than the mountains of prey.
6 The stout hearted are spoiled,
They have slept their sleep:
And none of the men of might have found their hands.
7 At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob,
Both the chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep.
8 Thou, even thou, art to be feared:
And who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry?
9 Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven;
The earth feared, and was still,
10 When God arose to judgment,
To save all the meek of the earth. Selah.
11 Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee:
The remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.
12 Vow, and pay unto the Lord your God:
Let all that be round about him bring presents unto him that ought to be feared.
13 He will cut off all the spirit of princes,
He is terrible to the kings of the earth.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Contents and Composition.—On the superscription compare § 12, No. 4. The close relationship of this Psalm to Psalms 75 is universally acknowledged. What is to be said as to its occasion and composition has been given already under that Psalm. Without assuming this relationship we might, especially with a peculiar interpretation of Psa_76:5 (see below), be led to bring it into connection with the defeat of the allied neighboring nations, in the reign of Jehoshaphat, foretold by the Asaphite Jehaziel. It is now, with greater certainty, held to relate to the execution of that Divine judgment upon the Assyrians in the time of Hezekiah, which in the foregoing Psalm was considered as in prophetic prospect. [So the commentators generally approve of the superscription of the Sept.: πρὸς τὸν Ασσύριον.—J. F. M.]. It is first brought into view how God has again made His name glorious in His chosen dwelling-place in Jerusalem, by the annihilation of the forces of the enemy, which before His rebuke sunk down into the sleep of death (Psa_76:2-7). From this the inference is, drawn (Psa_76:8-10) that God, in the terribleness of His wrath, is irresistible when He arises to judgment for the deliverance of His suffering ones. To this, after presenting God’s truthfulness in support of this declaration, the Psalmist adds an exhortation to a course of conduct in agreement therewith (Psa_76:11-12). [Hengstenberg: “The enthusiastic feeling, the courageous tone, which characterize the prophecies and also the Psalms of the Assyrian period (comp. besides Psalms 75, especially Psalms 46) meet us here also.”—J. F. M.]
Psa_76:2-4. Known.—נוֹדָע, as parallel to the following stich, is not to be taken as a præterite but as a participle. Judah is the more restricted, Israel the wider conception. Salem is evidently Jerusalem, and so named in allusion to Gen_14:18. Comp. Jos_10:1. By choosing it as His dwelling God had made Zion the place of His self-revelation by which He became known in Israel, and especially in Judah. שָׁמָּה does not mean: thither (Hengst.), but like שָׁם simply: there (Hupfeld). The breaking in pieces of the enemy’s weapons is to be compared with Psa_46:10; Hos_2:20. In the latter passage also war is put for weapons of war. The lightnings of the bow are the arrows.
Psa_76:5-7. Thou art shining forth, glorious One, from the mountains of spoil. [E. V., Thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey].—Comp. Dan_2:22; 1Ti_6:16. It is unnecessary to change נָאוֹר into נוֹרָא (Sept., Targ.). The latter is found in the text only in Psalm 76:8, 13. The mountains (plural also in Psa_87:1; Psa_133:2) of spoil here denote Mount Zion. From thence God, triumphing as the Glorious One in His majesty (Psa_8:2; Psa_18:13 f.), shines forth as a victorious Hero, over His disarmed enemies, sinking into the sleep of death (Jer_51:39; Jer_51:57; Nah_3:18), and unable even to raise a hand any longer for possible resistance (Jos_8:20; 2Sa_7:27), and thunders down, crushing and stupefying them (Isa_29:6; Isa_30:30) But the use of this figure is not based so much upon the comparison of God to a lion (Kimchi, Venema, and others), although His dwelling-place (Psa_76:3 b) is denoted by the usual word for a lion’s lair (Psa_104:22; Amo_3:4). The illustration is rather employed because spoiling is an accompaniment of victory, Isa_49:24 (Hupfeld). The Sept. has “everlasting mountains” (approved by Hitzig), which is based upon another reading. [Hitzig’s opinion is that the original reading was עַד, and that this ambiguous word has been misunderstood and explained by טֶרֶף.—J. F, M.]. They, however, as also Aquila and Symmachus, have taken the מִן=from. If it is taken as the sign of the comparative (as the Targ. and others), then the mountains of prey are to be understood either as the predatory villages of the hostile mountain-tribes or as the high-handed and rapacious, powerful (kings or giants) and wealthy (Isaaki, Delitzsch). Yet there is nothing to recommend the feeble thought that God is more bright and glorious than these, nor the unexpected form of expression employed in the comparison.
Psa_76:11. The wrath of man praiseth Thee.—This does not mean that those who once contended with God and set themselves in opposition to Him will afterwards praise Him, but that all the raging of men against the will of God, His people and kingdom, must serve, in its own despite, to show forth God’s glory, while then will be made manifest, on the one side, the feebleness and worthlessness of man, and on the other, the majesty and glory of God, especially by the punishment of the guilty and the defence of the righteous. In this almost all expositors agree. But the sense of the other member of the verse is doubtful. Many think that the wrath of man is referred to also here, and understand by the remainder of it, the greatest, utmost (Luther), or the last (Flaminius and others), remaining efforts. God arms Himself to overthrow these, or decks Himself with them as trophies of victory (Venema, Muntinghe, Hupfeld). Or it is viewed as though the wrath of the enemy even to its last effort were to serve God only as a weapon for their destruction (Hengst.). [See the various meanings of חגר.—J. F. M.]. Linguistically it is a more forced interpretation still to understand, the rest of the enraged men, that is, the rest of the wicked, whom God hems about and restrains (Isaaki, Kimchi, Calvin, and others). But if we take girding in the sense of arming (Isa_51:9; Isa_59:17; Wis_5:21), which is most appropriate to the context, then it is more natural to understand God’s wrath. And by “the remainder” we would understand the store of wrath not yet exhausted for the completion of the overthrow (Targ., Geier and others), or “that store of inexhaustible fulness of wrath yet remaining with God and now discharging itself, when the rage of men is exhausted and God calmly and derisively (Psa_2:4) lets the Titans work their will” (Delitzsch). An apt remark in the Midrash (in Delitzsch, 1:579): “Man is controlled by wrath. God controls wrath. He restrains it when He will, and lets it work when He will.” [Dr. Moll therefore renders: With the remainder of wrath Thou girdest Thyself. Perowne follows Hupfeld’s view given above. Alexander prefers that of Hengstenberg.—J. F. M.]
Psa_76:12. All that are round about Him.—This expression is not in the vocative, as designating the Israelites, Num_2:2 (Köster, Hengst.), but, as the accents and the mention of gifts (Psa_68:30) demand, the subject of the following words, and describes the neighboring heathen nations, which must pay tribute to God the Fear-inspirer (מוֹרָא as in Isa_8:12), while the Israelites bring to Jehovah, their, God, thank-offerings in fulfilment of their vows (Deu_23:22). [Hengstenberg: Psa_76:11 is in accordance with the narrative as given in 2Ch_32:23, that the heathen actually did honor God by presents, in consequence of the destruction of the Assyrian army.—J. F. M.]. In Psalm 76:13רוּחַ is certainly not to be understood as boldness, pride (De Wette, Hupfeld); nor scarcely as spirit, breath of life (Hengst.), but as in Jdg_8:3; Isa_25:4; Isa_33:11, as the breathing of wrath (Hitzig), or as snorting (Del.). Nor must we give to the verb the meaning of plundering, robbing (Geier and others), or that of cutting short=reducing (Targ.), but that of cutting off=taking away (Sept., Symm.), as the vine-dresser does to the wild vines, Joel 4:13; Isa_18:5; Rev_14:17 ff.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. God has not only set up His dwelling in Zion and made Himself known to His people; He makes Himself appear glorious there by His mighty deeds. By them also He defends His city and people and destroys the plans of their enemies as well as their resources, life and power. Thus He appears at once glorious and dreadful.
2 God needs only to arise to judgment and all the might of the rebellious world recoils upon itself. Therefore have believers every reason to thank God, and the heathen every reason to submit themselves to Him. For none can stand before God’s anger, and the wicked, even in their overthrow, must contribute to His glory.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
God is shown everywhere to be Lord and Master, on fields of battle as well as in spiritual warfare.—All that we know of God results from His making Himself known.—It is better for us to serve the Lord voluntarily than to be compelled to submit ourselves to Him.—Where God dwells, there He lets something of Himself be heard and seen.—God employs His power for deliverance and for judgment.—God is as glorious in the shining of His favor as He is dreadful in the lightning of His wrath.—A single word of God and all the world’s commotion comes to nothing.—How different is God’s wrath and the world’s rage.
Starke: The greatest honor which a nation or place can have is to possess the knowledge of the true God, and to be able to glory in His gracious presence (Deu_4:7-8).—God often employs feeble means when He subdues His foes, that all the world may know that He Himself watches over His own and defends them.—God observes the law of retaliation very strictly. See in the ruin of most tyrants, whether the mode of their death has not been in accordance with their wicked lives. Exo_14:27; Act_12:23.—Our best and first gift to God must be our heart (Pro_23:26). From this there will result of itself a desire to contribute something of our means to advance His kingdom.
Osiander: The more tyrants rage against the Church of Christ, the nobler victory does God bring therefrom, when He casts them to the ground, and preserves His Church, even though some of its members are taken to heaven by death and martyrdom.—Selnecker: These are the three great blessings which God alone affords His Church: 1. That He may be rightly known and invoked in His Church. 2. That He dwells in the midst of His faithful ones as in His temple in presence and power. 3. That He preserves His Church against all the gates of Hell—Frisch: He who has no judge in the world need not think that he will leave it without one. When all human help ceases and passes away, then the heavenly begins.—The tardiness of God’s judgments is compensated for by their severity. The wounds are therefore the more painful, the help more efficient, desirable, and opportune, the comfort the sweeter, and the praise to God the more delightful.—Rieger: The whole Psalm insists upon the glorifying of God, that He alone is to be feared. With this in view, therefore, 1. The mercy is praised with which God has brought Himself so nigh to His people. 2. The judgments are praised which God has undertaken for the deliverance of His own. 3. Good instruction is given, how we are to regard all this, and to adore God with faith, hope, and confidence.—Tholuck: Let there be displayed unmistakably out of heaven the bared arm of God, and the ungodly will be still.—Diedrich: As God has in His mercy defended His own against all opposing hosts, they must, in return therefor, surrender themselves entirely to Him, henceforward to wait patiently for Him alone.—Schaubach (25th Sunday after Trinity): In the midst of the universal destruction will the Lord preserve His little band, and His name shall appear above the desolation, and be for all the faithful a rock and mountain of refuge.—Taube: The dreadful majesty of the God of Zion as the defence of the distressed in sudden judgments upon their enemies.—We see how a mission-call rings out through all the Lord’s judgments at the present time, and that He who judges the nations out of Salem, shall by these judgments, lead them back to Salem.
[Scott: Puny mortals dare madly, through their whole lines, to defy the vengeance of that God one of whose angels in one night destroyed 185,000 men! But if temporal judgments excite such consternation, what will be the case when God shall arise to judgment at the last day?
Barnes: The princes of the earth are under God’s control.—He can defeat their plans.—He can check them when He pleases.—He can and will make their plans—even their wrath—the means of promoting or carrying out His own purposes.—He will allow them to proceed no further in their plans of evil than He can make them submit to the furtherance of His own.—He can cut down the most mighty of them at His pleasure, and destroy them forever.—J. F. M.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12 1. In Judah is God known—The glory of Israel,…
1. In Judah is God known—The glory of Israel, then and now, is the knowledge and confession of an actually present God and Saviour. His presence supposes the fulness of his works of grace.
Israel—Now represented only by the kingdom of Judah, the ten tribes having already gone into captivity.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12 1. known] Lit., one who has made Himself known.…
1. known] Lit., one who has made Himself known. By this recent deliverance He has once more “made Himself known in her palaces as a sure refuge” (Psa_48:3; cp. Psa_9:16; Isa_33:13).
his name is great] Cp. Psa_75:1; Psa_47:2; Psalms 48, 1, 10; Psa_77:13.
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Israel] The covenant name, denoting the people of God’s choice. Now that the kingdom of Israel had fallen, Judah was the representative of the whole nation.
1–3. God has once more shewn His might in Zion by shattering the power of her assailants.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12 (1) Judah . . . Israel.—A comparison with Psa_114:1-2,…
(1) Judah . . . Israel.—A comparison with Psa_114:1-2, leads to the conclusion that these names are introduced here in this order, simply for the rhythm. (Comp. “Salem” and “Sion” in the next verse, and notice that the four names offer an instance of introversion, the more restricted terms, Judah, Sion, occupying the first and last clauses, the more general Israel, Salem, the middle ones.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–12 THE present psalm consists of three stanzas the first…
THE present psalm consists of three stanzas the first of three verses, terminated by the pause mark, "Selah;" the second of six verses, ended similarly, and the third (like the first) of three verses. It is a psalm of thanksgiving for some great and signal mercy, which has delivered Jerusalem, and at the same time benefited "all the afflicted of the earth" (ver. 9). All the earth is therefore called upon to join with Israel in praising God, and making him an offering (vers. 10-12). Critics of all schools (Hengstenberg, Canon Cook, Professor Alexander, Dr. Kay, Four Friends, etc.) agree in regarding the deliverance as that from Sennacherib. We must, therefore, understand the "Asaph" of the title as designating, not the individual, but the division of the Levites named after him.
In Judah is God known. (comp. Psa_9:16 Psa_48:3) By "known" is meant "freshly made known," "revealed," as it were, "anew" by the recent wonderful deliverance. His Name is great in Israel; i.e. greatly honourcd and regarded, on account of what has happened.
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HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY Vers. 1-12. The triumphs of God.
There can be little doubt that this psalm is one of several others whose main theme is God"s deliverance of his people from Sennacherib, King of Assyria. Then, in Judah, God was known, and his Name was great in Israel. But we may fitly use the psalm as telling of those great and blessed spiritual deliverances which the soul of God"s servants have often known and rejoiced in these triumphs of God over a deadlier foe than ever any Assyrian king could be to Israel. Concerning these note
I WHERE THEY TAKE PLACE. (Cf. vers. 1, 2) It is where God dwells. The soul that is the abiding place of God witnesses and shares in the triumphs of God as none other can do. Fitful and partial religion leaves the soul more often vanquished than victor, and can never sing such a psalm as this.
II THEIR NATURE. It is threefold.
1. God destroys the weapons of the souls great enemy. The arrows of evil thought; the shield of unbelief, love of sin, indifference all that which wards off those words of God which are sharp in the heart of the King"s enemies (Psalm 45); the sword of the soul-slaying sin; the battle, the combined array of all the forces of evil.
2. Takes for himself the prey which the enemy had regarded as his own. (Ver. 4) All the spoil of Judah, which Assyria had reckoned to gather on the mountains where they were encamped, all that spoil, together with what they already had, all was taken from them. (cf. Luk_11:22) So God takes from the evil one the possession of those human powers and faculties which he had usurped and claims, and keeps them as his own.
3. Keeps the enemy in the place of death. (Ver. 6) It would be of little avail if our great spiritual foe were but for a time overcome, if after a little while he could come back with all his power. But our Lord came that he might give complete deliverance; and by the soul that continually trusts in him that deliverance is realized.
III HOW THEY ARE ACCOMPLISHED. (Ver. 6, "At thy rebuke.") The moment we believe, our help comes. Not before. All our strivings and endeavours leave us pretty much where we were; but when abandoning ourselves to God, that he may save us, then his power is made known, the enemy is rebuked and slain. The life of faith is, through God"s grace, the death of our foe.
IV FOR WHOM ALL THIS IS DONE. (Ver. 9, "The meek of the earth.") Judah and Jerusalem were emptied of all self-trust, all pride and boasting, and had become meek, knowing that in quietness and in confidence was their strength. And so with the soul that is delivered by God.
V THE IMPRESSION PRODUCED.
1. Holy fear. (Ver. 7) God"s mercy and deliverance will never destroy, but ever deepen, holy fear. And there is no argument for God so effectual amongst men as the witnessing his real spiritual deliverances of his people.
2. Disdain of the wrath of man. What can it do against us, if God be for us?
3. Exultant confession, adoration, and service, together with earnest endeavours to draw others unto God. S.C.
Great because known.
I NOTHING IS OF MORE IMPORTANCE TO MEN THAN THE KNOWLEDGE AND RIGHT ESTEEM OF GOD.
1. We see this in regard to nations. Such knowledge raises them from the degradation of sensuality and barbarity to purity and humanity.
2. So also in regard to individuals. Such knowledge ministers guidance for life, solace for the spirit, inspiration for righteousness. Thus important is it.
II SUCH KNOWLEDGE IS THE SPECIAL POSSESSION AND PRIVILEGE OF THE CHURCH OF GOD. "In Judah is God known: his Name is great in Israel." Judah and Israel represent the Church of God, the company of believing, redeemed, God-fearing people, scattered throughout the world. Amongst them God is known by his Word, his people, his ordinances, his Spirit.
III WHERE HE IS THUS KNOWN HE IS GREAT AMONGST THEM. Increase of knowledge of one another, familiarity with them, by no means always increases our esteem of them; but the more we know of God, the greater he becomes to us. See this in the Lord Jesus the more his disciples knew of him the greater he became to them. For in the past, the present, the future, he is our All. S.C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK Ver. 1. Ways of knowing God.
"In Judah is God known." This is a fitting psalm to be sung after any great national victory, any Divine deliverance. It may be associated with the victory of Jehoshaphat, or with the discomfiture of Sennacherib. (2Ch_20:28 Isa_37:36) If we associate it with Hezekiah"s times, it should be noticed that the triumph over Sennacherib was, in a very special sense, a Divine triumph, and so an extraordinary revelation of God, through which he ought to have been better known by his people. Man had nothing to do with that defeat of Assyria. God"s working in it man might study. One hundred and eighty-five thousand men are said to have been miraculously destroyed in one night, without the operation of any military agencies. Judah and Israel are mentioned together as thus coming to know God, because the two nations, which had been separated from the days of Rehoboam, were united again under Hezekiah. Here God is revealed, and so known and apprehended, by the judgments which he executes. But God"s judgments are always two-sided they relate to those who suffer under them; and they relate to those who are delivered through them.
I THEY KNOW GOD WHO SUFFER UNDER HIS JUDGMENTS. Illustrate from the Assyrians. It is quite clear that the Assyrian general, Rabsbakeh, did not know Jehovah, or he never would have put him into comparison with the gods of the nations as he did.The (Isa_37:10-13) Assyrians had to be taught that Jehovah was God alone; and that lesson they could only learn through such a manifestation of Jehovah"s power as would declare him to stand alone. See the effect of Divine manifestation on Nebuchadnezzar; (Dan_3:28, 29 4:37) Darius. (Dan_6:26, Dan_6:27) But God is known through his judgments even by his own people. Illustrative cases may be taken from the wilderness experiences, the times of Joshua, David, etc. And it is still true for the godly individual; he has sometimes to learn to know God fully by coming under Divine judgments. "Judgments" may, for the present purpose, be distinguished from "afflictions" or "chastisements," as meaning "irremediable calamities," such as this plague on the Assyrians. The point is an important one. The "irremediable" is more or less in every man"s life; and the "irremediable" is a help to the fall knowledge of God.
II THEY KNOW GOD WHO ARE DELIVERED THROUGH HIS JUDGMENTS. This leads us along more familiar and easy lines. Israel learned to know God through deliverances and redemptions. Those political and social difficulties of Hezekiah"s time, which had their true rootage in mistaken views of Jehovah"s relation to his people, were in part removed by the knowledge gained of God through this deliverance. R.T.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT Vers. 1-12. A psalm of triumph.
This is one of several psalms supposed to have been written in celebration of the sudden overthrow of Sennacherib"s army in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, and suggests the following truths
I THAT THE CHURCH IS GOD"S PECULIAR ABODE, WHERE THE MOST GLORIOUS REVELATIONS OF HIS POWER AND GRACE ARE SEEN. (Ver. 3) The gospel is most emphatically the "power of God unto salvation.
II THAT GOD"S GREATEST GLORY IS NOT IN DESTROYING, BUT IN SAVING AND REDEEMING, MEN. (Vers. 4-6) Here his power for destruction is celebrated; but in the New Testament his work of salvation his power to give life, not his power to take it away.
III GOD IS TO BE FEARED MORE FOR HIS HOLINESS AND LOVE THAN FOR HIS PHYSICAL OMNIPOTENCE. (Vers. 7-9) These excite filial affectionate fear; that excites an unworthy slavish fear.
IV GOD IS ABLE TO OVERRULE THE REBELLION OF MEN SO THAT IN THE END IT SHALL ILLUSTRATE HIS PRAISE. (Ver. 10) God"s love can conquer human wrath, and so make it praise him.
V THE ONLY ACCEPTABLE GIFTS WE CAN OFFER TO GOD ARE THOSE OF REPENTANCE AND A RENEWED LIFE. (Ver. 11) "A broken and a contrite spirit; "To do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God;" "Let all that are around him do homage to his majesty. S.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv1–12 To the Chief Musician on Neginoth. The Precentor is…
To the Chief Musician on Neginoth. The Precentor is here instructed to perform this song to the music of stringed instruments. The master of the harpers was called for his most skilful minstrelsy, and truly the song is worthy of the sweetest sounds that strings can yield. A Psalm or Song of Asaph. The style and matter indicate the same hand as that which wrote the preceding; and it is an admirable arrangement which placed the two in juxtaposition. Faith in the 75th Psalm sung of victories to come, and here it sings of triumphs achieved. The present Psalm is a most jubilant war song, a paean to the King of kings, the hymn of a theocratic nation to its divine ruler. We have no need to mark divisions in a song where the unity is so well preserved.
Ver. 1. In Judah is God known. If unknown in all the world beside, he has so revealed himself to his people by his deeds of grace, that he is no unknown God to them.
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His name is great in Israel. To be known, in the Lord's case, is to be honoured: those who know his name admire the greatness of it. Although Judah and Israel were unhappily divided politically, yet the godly of both nations were agreed concerning Jehovah their God; and truly whatever schisms may mar the visible church, the saints always "appear as one" in magnifying the Lord their God. Dark is the outer world, but within the favoured circle Jehovah is revealed, and is the adoration of all who behold him. The world knows him not, and therefore blasphemes him, but his church is full of ardour to proclaim his fame unto the ends of the earth.
Whole Psalm. No Psalm has a greater right to follow Psalm 75 than this, which is inscribed To the Precentor, with accompaniment of stringed instruments (vid.) iv. 1, a Psalm by Asaph, a song. Similar expressions (God of Jacob, Ps 75:10 77:7; saints, wicked of the earth, Ps 75:9 76:10), and the same impress throughout speak in favour of unity of authorship. In other respects too, they form a pair: Psalm 75 prepares the way for the divine deed of judgments as imminent, which Psalm 76 celebrates as having taken place. Franz Delitzsch.
Ver. 1. In Judah is God known. God is truly and savingly known only in and through his Son; God indeed is obscurely and darkly known in his works, as a God of power; in his providence, as a God of authority, wisdom, and order; in his common mercies, as a God of bounty; and in his punishments and judgments, as a God of justice; but in Christ opened and preached in the gospel, God is known with a clear, a comfortable, and saving knowledge, as a father of grace and singular mercy and lovingkindness. In Judah (saith the psalmist) is God known: his name is great in Israel. In Judah, in his church, where his word and ordinances are, where Christ is preached and the mystery of man's salvation is opened, there God is known truly without error, perspicuously without obscurities, and savingly without uncertainties; there he is known as a King in his courts, for the glory and beauty which he there manifests; as a teacher in his school, for the wisdom and knowledge which he there dispenses; as a dweller in his house, for the holy orders he there prescribes, and gracious rule and dominion he there erects and beareth in the souls of his servants; as a bridegroom in the banqueting house, for the spiritual dainties he there maketh, for the clear and open manifestation of himself, and love and comforts he there ministereth to his spiritual friends and guests; and his name is great in Israel; his power, wisdom, truth, love, and goodness is much magnified and very glorious in their apprehensions who know him in Christ Jesus. Alexander Grosse.
Ver. 1. His name. By the name of God here, God himself is understood; for in so many good effects as God uttereth himself towards his kirk, so many names he giveth to himself whereby he may be praised of her. As for example, when he promises unto his kirk freely grace and mercy, his kirk giveth him a name, and calleth him merciful. When he keepeth his promise, and uttereth himself a faithful God to his kirk, his kirk giveth him a name, and calleth him a true God. When he delivereth his kirk out of danger, and sheweth him a mighty God, and terrible against his enemies, the kirk giveth him a name, and calleth him a potent God, and so forth in the rest of his effects: so that by the name of God is understood here God himself, as God maketh himself to be known in his wonderful works. Robert Bruce.
Ver. 1. His name is great in Israel. Properly the great name in Israel, that is, the church, is the name of Jesus, which is great, first, by its efficacy: for it signifies Saviour. There is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved. Secondly, it is great in dignity: for it is the name that is above every name... Thirdly, it is great in the breadth if its range, Ps 8:1: How excellent is thy name in all the earth. Thomas Le Blanc.
Ver. 1. Reverence for God's name proportionate to true knowledge of it.
Psalms 76:2*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 8, 9 In Judah is God known: His name is great…
Psa_76:1-12
In Judah is God known: His name is great in Israel.
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Glorious aspects of the Divine character
I. As the glorious resident in the midst of His people (Psa_76:1-2). God is everywhere; but is in an especial sense present with holy souls. They are represented as His temple, which implies--
1. Special connection with Him.
2. Special consecration to Him.
3. Special manifestation of Him.
II. As the triumphant conqueror of his enemies. He does His work--
1. Thoroughly (Psa_76:3-5).
2. Easily (Psa_76:6). His word is the fire that will burn up corruption, the hammer that will break the rocky heart, the sword that will slay moral evil.
3. Judicially (Psa_76:8-9). God is infinitely just in crushing all evil. Satan is a usurper, and all his hosts are rebels. As a just God, He will put all-enemies under His feel. In a moral sense, God is a God of battles. He is eternally warring against wrong.
III. As the absolute master of malign passions (Psa_76:10).
1. He subordinates human wrath. As the mariner makes the gale his servant to bear his vessel to the port, so God makes the malign passions of men and devils to bear on His great purposes to their complete fulfilment.
2. He restrains it. He allows the wrath of His creatures to go no further than He chooses. As He has set a boundary to the ocean, He has also to the human passions. So far shalt thou go, and no further.
IV. As the supreme object of human worship (Psa_76:11). This implies two things.
1. Devout resolutions. Vow and pay unto the Lord your God. In this clause we have the fundamental God, and do right, and we shall get on as much as He thinks good for us. (A. K. H. Boyd, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 76
Psalms 76
IN contents and tone this psalm is connected with Psalms 46 and 48. No known event corresponds so closely with its allusions as the destruction of Sennacheribs army, to which the LXX in its superscription refers it. The singer is absorbed in the one tremendous judgment which had delivered the dwelling place of Jehovah. His song has but one theme-Gods forth flashing of judgment on Zions foes. One note of thankfulness sounds at the close, but till then all is awe. The psalm is divided into four strophes, of three verses each. The former two describe the act; the latter two deal with its results, in an awed world and thankful praise.
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The emphatic words in the first strophe are those which designate the scene of the Divine act. The glow of humble pride, of wonder and thankfulness, is perceptible in the fourfold reiteration-"in Judah, in Israel, in Salem, in Zion"; all which names are gathered up in the eloquent "There" of Psa_76:3. The true point of view from which to regard Gods acts is that they are His Self-revelation. The reason why Israel is the object of the acts which manifest His name is that there He has chosen to dwell. And, since He dwells there, the special act of judgment which the psalm celebrates was there performed. "The lightnings of the bow" picturesquely designate arrows, from their swift flight and deadly impact. {Compare Psa_46:9}
The second strophe (Psa_76:4-6) comes closer to the fact celebrated, and describes, with magnificent sweep, brevity, and vividness, the death sleep of the enemy. But, before it shows the silent corpses, it lifts one exclamation of reverence to the God who has thus manifested His power. The word rendered "Effulgent" is doubtful, and by a slight transposition of letters becomes, as in Psa_76:7 which begins the next strophe, "dread." In Psa_76:4 b the rendering "more excellent than," etc., yields a comparison which can scarcely be called worthy. It is little to say of God that He is more glorious than the enemies "mountains of prey," though Delitzsch tries to recommend this rendering by supposing that God is represented as towering above "the Lebanon of the hostile army of peoples." The Hebrew idiom expresses comparison by the preposition from appended to the adjective in its simple form, and it is best here to take the construction as indicating point of departure rather than comparison. God comes forth as "glorious," from the lofty heights where He sits supreme. But "mountains of prey" is a singular phrase, which can only be explained by the supposition that God is conceived of as a Conqueror, who has laid up his spoils in His inaccessible storehouse on high. But the LXX translates "everlasting mountains," which fits the context well, and implies a text, which might easily be misinterpreted as meaning "prey," which misinterpretation may afterwards have crept into the body of the text. If this alteration is not adopted, the meaning will be as just stated.
Psa_76:5 gives some support to the existing text, by its representation of the stout-hearted foe as "spoiled." They are robbed of their might, their weapons, and their life. How graphically the psalmist sets before the eyes of his readers the process of destruction from its beginning! He shows us the warriors falling asleep in the drowsiness of death. How feeble their "might" new! One vain struggle, as in the throes of death, and the hands which shot the "lightnings of the bow" against Zion are stiff for evermore. One word from the sovereign lips of the God of Jacob, and all the noise of the camp is hushed, and we look out upon a field of the dead, lying in awful stillness, dreamlessly sleeping their long slumber.
The third strophe passes from description of the destruction of the enemy to paint its widespread results in the manifestation to a hushed world of Gods judgment. In it anger and love are wondrously blended; and while no creature can bear the terrible blaze of His face, nor endure the weight of His onset "in the time of His anger," the most awful manifestations thereof have a side of tenderness and an inner purpose of blessing. The core of judgment is mercy. It is worthy of God to smite the oppressor and to save the "afflicted," who not only suffer, but trust. When He makes His judgments reverberate from on high, earth should keep an awed stillness, as nature does when thunder peals. When some gigantic and hoary iniquity crashes to its fall, there is a moment of awed silence after the hideous tumult.
The last Strophe is mainly a summons to praise God for His manifestation of delivering judgment. Psa_76:10 is obscure. The first clause is intelligible enough. Since God magnifies His name by His treatment of opposing men, who set themselves against Him, their very foaming fury subserves His praise. That is a familiar thought with all the Scripture writers who meditate on Gods dealings. But the second clause is hard. Whose "wraths" are spoken of in it? Gods or mans? The change from the singular ("wrath of man") to plural ("wraths") in b makes it all but certain that Gods fulness of "wrath" is meant here. It is set over against the finite and puny "wrath" of men, as an ocean might be contrasted with a shallow pond. If so, Gods girding Himself with the residue of His own wrath will mean that, after every such forth-putting of it as the psalm has been hymning, there still remains an unexhausted store ready to flame out if need arise. It is a stern and terrible thought of God, but it is solemnly true. His lovingkindness out measures mans, and so does His judicial judgment. All Divine attributes partake of Infinitude, and the stores of His punitive anger are not less deep than those of His gentle goodness.
Therefore men are summoned to vow and pay their vows; and while Israel is called to worship, the nations around, who have seen that field of the dead, are called to do homage and bring tribute to Him who, as it so solemnly shows, can cut off the breath of the highest, or can cut down their pride, as a grape gatherer does the ripe cluster (for such is the allusion in the word "cuts down"). The last clause of the psalm, which stands somewhat disconnected from the preceding, gathers up the lessons of the tremendous event which inspired it, when it sets Him forth as to be feared by the kings of the earth.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 Superscription.—“To the chief Musician on Neginoth.” See Introduction to…
INTRODUCTION
Superscription.—“To the chief Musician on Neginoth.” See Introduction to Psalms 54.
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A Psalm—a Song of Asaph. (See notes on the authorship of Psalms 74) The superscription may be thus paraphrased—A Psalm, a Song of Asaph, to be delivered to the director of music, that he may arrange for its performance with the accompaniment of stringed instruments.
Occasion.—There appear to us very good reasons for regarding the Psalm as a celebration of Israel’s victory over the Assyrians. The preceding Psalm sang the heroic anticipation of triumph, this one the uxultant realisation of triumph.
GOD THE CHAMPION OF THE GOOD
The victorious army of Sennacherib is encamped before Jerusalem threatening to besiege it unless Hezekiah will submit to them, and admit them into the city. The invading army was very numerous and powerful, and was emboldened by many and signal victories. In his extremity Hezekiah is strengthened by the word of the Lord, by the mouth of Isaiah the prophet, and he refuses to surrender to the generals of Sennacherib. Isaiah declared, that “the virgin, the daughter of Zion, despised and laughed to scorn” the invaders. According to His promise, God interposed on behalf of His people, “and on the first night of the siege, a hundred fourscore and five thousand, with their captains and generals, were destroyed.” (Vide 2 Chronicles 32; Isaiah 37; Josephus Antiq. x. 1.)
We may profitably regard this chapter of ancient history as an illustration of God’s Championship of His people. It is common to speak of human life upon earth as a battle. To every man who is in any degree acquainted with the meaning and importance of life there are difficulties and struggles to be encountered. There is disorder to be attacked, subdued, made orderly and rhythmic. There are ignorance, stupidity, brutality, to be encountered and vanquished by intelligence, wisdom, and manliness. The truly good man, he who, in the strength of God, is trying to live holily, usefully, and bravely, especially finds life a battle. To him there are not only the manifest enemies of ignorance, vice, and crime, but subtle, spiritual foes within him and around him. His own soul is beleaguered by enemies. The cause of God in the world, too, is attacked by foes, as was Jerusalem by the Assyrian hosts. We are inadequate to contend with forces so numerous and powerful. Yet “there be more with us than with him: with him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God to help us, and to fight our battles.”
I. The enemies of the good are many and mighty. The Assyrian army was vast and powerful, and had been very victorious. The Psalmist speaks of them as “the stouthearted,” … “the men of might.” They illustrate the enemies of the people of God. “Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armour of God,” &c. (Eph_6:10-13). Good men have to contend with Satan. He is the great leader of the antagonism against God and goodness. He strives for his own diabolical mastery, for the sovereignty of darkness and evil. In our day the great adversary of God and man seeks to compass his diabolic ends not so much by force as by fraud. The time was when the good had to dread the “roaring lion, going about seeking whom he may devour.” At present, he is far more dangerous when he “is transformed into an angel of light.” He works with a shrewd cunning, a subtle diplomacy, and by means of politic disguises. He can assume the self-possession of a man of the world, or the manners of a gentleman. He can speak the language of accomplished scholarship, or of deep and patient thought. Or, he can assume the garb of religion, and speak the language of piety. Indirectly and by means of artful disguises he seeks to accomplish his fiendish purpose, the utter depravation and ruin of souls. In all scenes and at all times he steadily works to accomplish his object. By many and varied means he is suggesting evil to the soul, and stimulating and impelling the soul under false pretences to follow that evil. A man is lured to drunkenness under the pretence of sociality and good companionship. Another is snared into the most miserable avarice under the guise of making provision for future emergencies, or of practising a proper economy. In this indirectness and subtlety of method lie the great strength of the devil; and by reason of these his attacks are fraught with great peril to men. Moreover, in his great warfare against the good, Satan has many allies. From the revelations of the Bible, it is clear to us that there are many angelic helpers of the good, and that there are many fallen angels who, under their great leader, oppose the good. There are ranks and orders of these fallen angels—“principalities, powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, spiritual hosts of wickedness.”
These beings exert much influence in suggesting evil to the mind and heart, and in impelling the mind and heart to evil. He is but a shallow thinker that ridicules the idea of malign spiritual influences acting upon us; and has studied with but little effect either the experiences of his own heart or the phenomena of mind in general. Assuredly
“There are more things in heaven and earth
Than are dreamt of in his philosophy.”
Satan has allies also in human society. The good have to contend against “the world” as well as against the devil, or against the devil as he works by human agency. There are men of splendid but impure imagination who are corrupting souls by sensuous literature. There are others of education and mental power who are producing works which tend to unsettle men’s faith not only in human creeds, but in Divine revelation, and even in the reality of truth, and righteousness, and love. Music, and many of the so-called refinements and arts of life are, to a great extent, made to minister to the senses rather than to the soul, to the appetites rather than to the aspirations of man’s nature. And the souls of many seem steeped in worldliness. At the shrine of Mammon immense multitudes are ever bowing. Men are sacrificing all mental culture and progress for gold, sacrificing principle for gold, sometimes sacrificing their soul for gold. Parents are willing to immolate their children upon the altar of Mammon, and sacrifice their daughters for gold. It is not without reason that we pray for deliverance from the snares and seductions of “the world;” for they are full of peril, and they beset all classes and conditions of men. The good have also to contend against enemies within themselves. There are tendencies to evil in our own nature. The completeness of our moral power is broken. “The flesh lusteth against the spirit.” Passion is frequently arrayed against principle. Inclination and conscience are often at variance. “To will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” There is that in us which responds to temptation, and gives to temptation its power; that in us which is attracted by evil in certain of its forms as steel is drawn by the magnet. Thus some of the severest struggles are fought in the arena of human souls. Here, then, are the enemies against which we have to battle, “the world, the flesh, and the devil;” evil within us, and evil around us; ignorance, superstition, oppression, bigotry, unbelief, vice, crime, pain, disease, misery, and death. “O our God, we have no might against this great company that cometh against us, neither know we what to do; but our eyes are upon Thee.”
II. The Champion of the good is greater than all their enemies. The Psalmist represents God as completely vanquishing the foes of Israel. In one night one hundred and eighty-five thousand of the Assyrian army were slain. “When God arose to judgment to save” His people, the enemy was speedily and utterly discomfited.
1. He issues forth to battle from Zion, Zion is represented as the dwelling-place of God. “In Judah is God known: His name is great in Israel: in Salem also is His tabernacle, and His dwelling-place in Zion.” “The Lord hath chosen Zion; He hath desired it for His habitation. This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it.” Sennacherib had virtually challenged Jehovah to combat. He sent to the Jews, saying, “No god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of mine hand, and out of the hand of my fathers; how much less shall your God deliver you out of mine hand?” The contest was “between the gods as well as the military forces of the two kingdoms.” The presumptuous monarch begins to besiege the holy city. He will capture the very dwelling-place of the Lord God of Sabaoth. God accepts the challenge, and in the silence of the night. He calmly goes forth, and with the breath of His nostrils He slays His foes. “The stout-hearted are spoiled, they have slept their sleep; and none of the men of might have found their hands.” And the proud boaster hastily retreats, to meet with a speedy and ignominious death. Not in any local Zion does God now manifest His glory. Jesus Christ is the true Shekinah, “the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person.” God goes forth in Him to combat His foes. The great controversies of Christendom are concerning Him. The opposition to religion is to a great extent directed against Him. His spirit and principles, His authority to legislate for human society, His right to reign over men, His claim of God-hood, these are combated by men to-day. All the opposition to which His disciples are subjected He regards as directed against Himself. Their foes He holds to be His foes. He is the great antagonist of all evil. By His Spirit and His Church He wages war against sin, suffering, and death. In proportion as His people are animated by His Spirit and live in His life are they victorious in conflict. God in Christ shall conquer all our foes. The sublime wisdom of His teaching, the Divine beauty of His life, the heart-moving, Godlike power of His death shall subdue the world unto Him. “At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow,” &c.
2. He issues forth to complete victory. When God entered the lists the vast and valiant hosts of Sennacherib were swept into the silent sleep of death in a moment. “There brake He the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle,” &c.
“Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen:
Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay wither’d and strown.”
God not only got to Himself a complete victory, but His glory was increased amongst His people and amongst the heathen by reason of the wrath of His enemies. He made the wrath of man to praise Him. The proud boasting of Sennacherib and the attack of his mighty hosts called forth a conspicuous display of the power and majesty of God. His people saw it, and celebrated His praises. The heathen saw it, and “brought gifts unto the Lord to Jerusalem, and presents to Hezekiah, king of Judah: so that He was magnified in the sight of all nations.” Thus the Lord got Him honour upon Sennacherib. This is an illustration of the victory which He will achieve over all His foes. There are times when we stand dismayed before our enemies. The evils of our own hearts are more than a match for us. And, when we think of the foes that are in the world, and of the vast influence of the great leader of the evil forces, we feel how utterly inadequate we are to cope with such tremendous powers. But the Captain of our salvation is more than sufficient for us. He will turn the counsel of the enemies of His people to their own confusion. He will give us the victory over our foes. “The God of peace shall bruise Satan under thy feet shortly.” “We are more than conquerors through Him that hath loved us.” He will enable us to draw from our conflicts a strength and courage, a hatred of evil, and an enthusiasm for goodness which we could not otherwise have obtained. He will continue the conflict until He is victorious over every foe. He will even overrule the dark and malicious designs and workings of Satan and his allies for the promotion of His glory. After all the devil is but the vassal of the Lord our God. Unwittingly he is being used to promote the enthronement of the true and good. “Hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.”
3. He achieves complete victory with the utmost ease. Whatever the “angel,” messenger, which the Lord sent against the Assyrian host was, it is clear that the victory was achieved with the utmost ease. “Who can stand in Thy sight when once Thou art angry?”
“For the angel of death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
And the eyes of the sleepers wax’d deadly and chill.
And their hearts but once heav’d, and for ever grew still.”
God rebukes His foes, and they are vanquished. So in the end He will subdue His foes with the most consummate ease. The foes of the good exist and are active, not because He is unable to subdue them, but because for wise and benevolent purposes He sees fit to allow them to resist Him and oppose His cause. But when He arises to judgment they will “melt like snow in His glance.” Wherefore let the people of God take courage and exult in their Champion.
III. The Champion of the good should be duly honoured.
1. His people should pay their vows to Him, “Vow, and pay unto the Lord your God all ye who are round about Him.” The latter clause makes it clear that this refers to His people. The twelve tribes used to pitch round about the tabernacle. And Jehovah was said to dwell in the midst of them. The vows which they had made to Him in the time of their danger and fear, they are exhorted to pay to Him now that deliverance has been wrought for them. In the conflicts of life men frequently vow that if deliverance from trouble, or extrication from difficulty, or victory over enemies be granted to them, they will consecrate themselves or their possessions more fully to God. But these vows are frequently forgotten when the peril is past. Thy vows are registered in heaven by the faithful God. Pay them. With shameful ingratitude thou hast far too long left them unpaid, pay them at once.
2. Offerings of devotion should be made to Him. “Bring presents unto Him that ought to be feared.” After the defeat of Sennacherib “many brought gifts unto the Lord to Jerusalem,” and “He was magnified in the sight of all nations.” God is worthy to receive the homage of all peoples. The day is coming when men shall esteem it a high privilege and pleasure to bring their richest treasures as an offering to Him.
Let us bring presents to Him who fighteth for us in all our battles. Man of wealth, dedicate thy possessions to Him. Man of genius, lay thy genius on the altar of Divine consecration. Let us each give to Him of our best and richest treasures.
3. The glory of victory should be ascribed to Him alone. In the case of the Assyrian hosts He alone encountered and vanquished them. “O sing unto the Lord a new song; for He hath done marvellous things: His right hand, and His holy arm, hath gotten Him the victory.” And the praise and honour were all ascribed to Him. In all the victories of His people He is the real Conqueror. If we come out of temptation victorious, it is because of the help of His grace. If in any measure we have been successful in our conflict with ignorance and sin and misery, we have been so by the power of His might. “Blessed be the Lord my rock, who teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight.”
“He makes the glorious victory mine,
And His shall be the praise.”
CONCLUSION.—
1. Let the Church of God remember its obligation. “Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might,” &c. (Eph_6:10-18).
2. Let the Church of God remember its Champion. “Through God we shall do valiantly; for He shall tread down our enemies.”
GOD THE SAVIOUR OF THE MEEK
(Psa_76:9.)
Consider—
I. The character of the people of God. “The meek.” “A pious, patient one.”—Fuerst’s Lex.
1. Meekness is not mere easiness of disposition, or apathy. Absence of sensibility, whether physical, mental, or moral, is neither virtuous nor blessed.
2. Meekness is not cowardice or weakness. The truly meek man is as brave as he is calm, as courageous as he is patient.
3. Meekness has a God-ward and a man-ward aspect.
(1) Its attitude towards God is that of cheerful acquiescence in the appointments of His will and the arrangements of His providence. It does not criticise, or complain, or murmur because of His doings, but is humble and quiet before Him.
(2) Towards man, meekness manifests itself in patiently bearing with the defects and weaknesses of others, in willingness to endure insult and injury rather than do wrong, and in charitably adopting the most favourable construction on the action or course of conduct of any one, when two constructions are admissible. Meekness is “not overcome of evil, but overcomes evil with good.”
II. The peril of the people of God. They need some one “to save” them.
1. They have enemies.
2. These enemies are many and strong.
3. They art inadequate to cope with these enemies.
III. The Deliverer of the people of God. God is their vindicator and Saviour.
1. He punishes the proud oppressor.
2. He saves the oppressed meek. “For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord.”
GOD GLORIFIED THROUGH MAN’S WRATH
(Psa_76:10.)
Our text gives a special aspect of Divine Providence. Amid the confusion and suffering and sin of the present God reigns, so that the issue is His highest glory. The world has not been deserted by its Maker, although the mode of His continuous presence and working is inexplicable. But how wonderful that man’s freedom and responsibility should be inviolate, while his resistance is overcome, the fierce and swelling tide of his passions controlled, and the character of God illustrated and glorified. God’s spiritual Providence is an organ for bringing forth the largest possible amount of happiness and good, and for filling the universe with pure and lasting glory. From the first the world has been afflicted with sufferings and tumults, and the crimes which war against private and public good. There are times of social and political earthquake, when the abyss opens at our feet. But for the Divine Providence these phenomena must have been more distressing and terrific. Through God’s continuous and universal presence and acting, the misery springing from the sin and crime of men is immeasurably lessened. With this conviction, we gratefully say, “Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee,” &c.
I. The wrath of man not unfrequently defeats its own aims and accomplishes the Divine purpose. The cruel envy of Joseph’ brothers, Pharaoh’s crafty policy of imposing heavier and more grievous burdens on the Israelites, Haman’s ambition and his enmity against Mordecai, illustrate this. Opposite and conflicting interests, as it seems to us, are so balanced, violence is so checked, “vaulting ambition” so “overleaps itself,” that man’s wrath brings into greater clearness and glory the Divine power and wisdom and goodness.
II. The wrath of man is sometimes the instrument of the Divine will. Generally our sins become our scourge. Our “own wickedness corrects” us, &c. But specially. The sole object of the Babylonian monarch was the gratification of his ambition by conquest and spoil, yet he was “the rod” of God (Isa_10:5-7). This is frequently exemplified in the conduct of the first Napoleon—in our Chinese wars, indefensible, yet introducing the Gospel—in the Russian war, so unnecessary and so barren in anticipated results, yet abolishing serfdom, and preparing for the emancipation of religion from a bigotry as narrow and fierce as that of Rome—in the Indian Mutiny, which roused the Church to acknowledge India’s claim on her prayers and efforts—in the terrible conflict that raged in America, issuing in the freedom of the slave, and, despite appearances, in a higher and purer public opinion and morality—in the recent Franco-German war, tending to widen civil and religious liberty, as it limits and weakens the priestly power, everywhere and always the enemy of popular rights and of a free Gospel. With no fear of God, in the simple pursuit of their own ends, men are the instruments of the Divine Providence.
III. Man in his wrath accomplishes the Divine will when setting himself to resist and frustrate it. The design of God is fulfilled by direct attempts to defeat it (Act_4:27-28, with Act_4:10-11.) Persecution defeats itself. “Noble lives crowned by heroic deaths” are the best arguments and defences of any church. The assaults of infidelity result in the more triumphant vindication of the faith. Hume prophesied that Christianity could not survive the nineteenth century. Voltaire impiously said that one wise man would undo what twelve fools had accomplished. Julian will exterminate the faith; but he and all exclaim—“O Galilean! Thou hast conquered.” “Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee.”
God rules in wisdom, righteousness, and love. The end of His rule, the triumph of purity and truth. The way to the end is not traceable by us; but the fact, the end is sure.
Courage, then. We are not the sport of fortune. It is not a great drama of chance which is now acted. A hand unseen is turning all to a great end, and blessed as great—the glory of God in the triumph of truth and holiness and love, and thus the complete and everlasting blessedness of man.
For God is not a despot, careless at what cost His purposes are realised, if only He triumph. He is a wise and beneficent Ruler; or rather a holy and wise and loving Father, employing His resources for the good of all His children, patient though they are rebellious and foolish, and only at last, if at last, banishing from the home they have forsaken and despised the obstinately perverse. Because God is so wise and holy and gracious, and withal so mighty, how hazardous to resist His will or despise His grace!—W. Y., B. A.
VOWS MADE IN TROUBLE
(Psa_76:11.)
“Vow and pay unto the Lord your God, all ye who are round about Him.” “Round about Him. A description of His people, as the twelve tribes pitched round about the tabernacle, and the four and twenty elders were round about God’s throne.”—Ainsworth.
I. The great tendency of man to make religious vows in times of danger and trouble. The Jews did so when the Assyrians were before Jerusalem. Men are very prone to do so.
1. This is sometimes evil, because it indicates a disposition to bargain with God. To vow that we will serve God on condition that He will deliver or help as is wrong. He has an absolute claim upon our possessions and upon ourselves. See the meanness and selfishness of Jacob as manifested in his vow at Bethel (Gen_28:20-22).
2. This is sometimes good. When trouble awakens thought, and thought leads to repentance, and the humble spirit vows to honour and serve God, such vows are excellent.
II. The great tendency of man to forget these vows when the trouble and danger are past. This is proverbial—
“When the devil was sick, the devil a monk would be;
When the devil was well, the devil a monk was he.”
“Thus we say, The river past, and God forgotten, to express with how mournful a frequency He whose assistance was invoked, it may have been earnestly, in the moment of peril, is remembered no more, so soon as by His help the danger has been surmounted.”—Archbishop Trench.
1. Vows begotten of fear are not likely to be kept when the cause of fear is removed.
2. Vows begotten of penitence or gratitude will be piously remembered and fulfilled.
III. The great sin of forgetting or failing to fulfil these vows.
1. There is ingratitude. Having received the benefit we ignore our obligation to the Benefactor.
2. There is unfaithfulness. Having promised we fail to perform that which we have promised. We lie unto the faithful God. Brother, thy vows are registered in heaven. Pay them. Pay them fully, heartily, at once.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Through the long, sad history of the world, the…
Psa 76:10
Through the long, sad history of the world, the glory of God has very much arisen from the display of His power in contest with human iniquity. He has an overruling wisdom and power, which can constrain the mighty evil that is in the world to render Him honour against its will, to act with an unconscious and undesigned subservience. The "wrath of man" very generally involves a corrupt principle: pride, arrogance, resentment, revenge. Can such a thing as this be made to praise the all-righteous Being? How transcendent then His power! Notice several of the ways in which He has manifested this power.
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I. Sometimes He has suddenly quelled and crushed the wrath itself.
II. Sometimes the wrath and the persons actuated by it have been suddenly crushed by an avenging stroke of Divine justice.
III. The wrath of man has been made subservient to the "praise" of God by provoking signal manifestations of His power in very many ways, for example those in vindication of His insulted majesty. Not that His supreme majesty can be injured, or can need any avenging. But if He is to govern the earth, it is requisite that that be done which shall preserve an awful reverence in His subjects, that He shall not be defied with impunity by wrath pointed at Him. Therefore such transactions have taken place as those at Egypt and the Red Sea.
IV. Again, the "wrath of man" as against the cause and people of God has been overruled to His "praise." Persecution has driven the adherents of the good cause into a wide dispersion; and wherever they have gone, they have carried their sacred faith and become its apostles: they have carried much of their Christian virtues also. And then, again, by His avenging judgments on those who have endeavoured to destroy His people and cause, God has gained Himself glory.
V. It were a somewhat varied illustration of the text to observe that God has in some instances suffered the wrath of man to work on in a successful process, and without any apparent interference or opposition, till it was just coming to its natural result, and then by a sudden interposition has caused a result infinitely different.
VI. God makes use of this great evil, the "wrath of man," to make war on and destroy other great evils in the earth; He lets it go forth, with His commission, as a giant demolisher. One wicked nation has been made His avenger on the greater wickedness of another.
J. Foster, Lectures, 1st series, p. 282.
Psa 76:11
I. A vow is a resolution, and something more. A vow affects not only the judgment, but the heart. A vow should not be based upon expediency, but upon rectitude, upon foundations which cannot change.
II. Vows are to be made to God, or in the name of God; they are deeply religious acts. What subjects are fit for the solemnity of vows? (1) The religious consecration of periods of time, (2) the godly training of children, (3) the religious devotion of sums of money, and (4) a fuller dedication of energy to Divine service.
III. We are not only to vow: we are also to pay our vows. (1) To vow and not to pay destroys the finest qualities and powers of manhood. (2) In not paying a vow, man loses faith in himself; he is a liar to his own soul.
Parker, City Temple, vol. i., p. 218.
Reference: Psa 76:11.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. viii., p. 16.
Psa 76:11
(with Rom 1:14-15)
The missionary plea one of justice.
I. The Divine plea. Justice demands our labours and contributions to the missionary cause on behalf of God. Pay thy debts to Him. To think of compensating the Lord for what He has bestowed would be as absurd as it would be profane. But this we can do, for evincing that we are actuated by a sense of justice: we can endeavour to please Him. (1) He is pleased when He is praised, when men glorify His name. (2) After the praise of His name, that which pleases God most is the happiness of His children, a gratification consequently which a just man who is sensible of his obligations will labour to secure for Him. God’s family is commensurate with the race of man. By attention to their interests you may so far discharge the onerous debts which you owe their Father. The only efficient antidote to their disease is the Gospel, which, by the terms of our argument, we are bound, in justice to their Father, to send them.
Consider the plea for missions on the ground of justice to Christ. (1) The honour of His Father pleases Christ. He has made it the first object of that formula of prayer which He has constructed for our direction, as if He would exclude from praying for daily bread or the pardon of sin that man who takes no interest in the hallowing of the Father’s name and the hastening of His kingdom, when His will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven. (2) Christ is pleased by being praised. (3) Christ also is pleased by the sight of the happiness of His brethren. (4) Christ is pleased with the moral beauty and respectability of His brethren.
How shall a quickened, comforted, ennobled sinner evince that he is animated by a sense of justice towards the Holy Ghost but by delivering himself up to Him to be employed and used as an agent in the cleansing out of this polluted earth, that it may be made a temple in which He may complacently dwell?
II. The human plea. Justice demands our co-operation in the missionary cause: (1) In the name of the Church. To the Church catholic has the Divine commission been issued that the Gospel be preached to every creature. (2) In the name of the missionaries. (3) In the name of the heathen themselves. (a) All of them have a claim on us by the bond of the brotherhood of our common humanity. (b) Many heathen, as well as others, have claims of justice on us for being at the expense of both much labour and wealth in communicating the Gospel to them by the rule of making them some compensation for wrongs. (c) We are under obligations of justice to be zealous in the missionary cause by Paul’s rule of reckoning his debts in Rom 1:14, Rom 1:15. In this text he represents himself as being a debtor to all who had been converted by his ministry. He says he had had fruit among them. They had contributed to the glory of his heavenly crown, and they gratified his heart and honoured him by taking his King to be their King.
W. Anderson, Discourses, p. 118.
Reference: Psa 76:11.—A. Watson, Sermons for Sundays, Festivals, and Fasts, vol. ii., p. 104.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 The prostration of the creature.
The prostration of the creature.
To the chief musician, on stringed instruments: a psalm of Asaph, a song.
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Thus, then, for blessing, man has to be put down into the place of need. With God’s judgments upon the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. We see, therefore, the need of what this psalm presents to us, which naturally follows, also, the one before it. As a psalm of divine government, manifestly exercised, it has the regular 12 verses, and with the regular division also, into four sections of 3 verses each for there is plainly nothing to disturb this. Again, it is a psalm of Asaph, and a song, which the stringed instruments accompany, for the earth is now tuned and ready for its Maker’s praise.
1. The first section shows us the inauguration of the reign of peace. God is known in Judah, the worshiper-tribe, and His Name is great in Israel. The once-divided kingdom is now impliedly united and at rest, in obedience to Him whom so to serve brings into harmony with all His universe.
And thus there is relationship between Him and His people never to be disturbed. His tabernacle is at Salem, Jerusalem gone back to the meaning of its older name as Melchizedek’s city -"Peace." Another Melchizedek now rules in her, "Priest of the Most High God" in full reality, and in Zion is His "fixed" abode (meonatho), "His rest." And because He is to be at rest, He has broken up all the instruments of war together: the "flashings" -the arrows flashing from -"the bow," the shield and the sword, and all that makes up war.
2. Never will war have been more pronounced, more deadly, than in that last spasm in which it expires. As we think of the diligent perfecting of the machinery of it now, which leaves the old "flashings" of the bow to be but the types of its far-reaching artillery, how good it is to think of its collapse which is impending when the Prince of peace makes war upon war! Serene, beautiful, like the breaking forth of morning at the end of a night of storm; the glory of the Lord shines forth there where all had been but the prey of the spoiler hitherto. The "mountains of prey" are not any indefinite allusion to the fastnesses of robbers generally, but Jerusalem itself, the city of so many sieges, the constant "prey" of the enemy. The contrast expressed (for which the "more than" of the common version is inadequate) is between the city in its recent awful desolation, and the Light that now enfolds and glorifies her, wrapping all her dwellings in its bright, yet chastened lustre (Isa 4:5). The new day is come, that shall have no decline, the "morning without clouds" of prophetic vision (2Sa 23:4).
On the other hand, night is fallen upon the children of night. Like nocturnal birds of prey, the morning has sealed their eyes, and sunk them in helpless sleep from which there is no waking. It was the necessary doom of such as they were.
But there is another reason: and here we have the assurance, once again, of the grace which can consist with holiness. It is the God of Jacob who has thrown His arms around the feeble objects of their attack. And here, notice, it is chariot and horse upon which sleep has fallen. The enemies find their doom because of what they are: here it is simply the means of attack that fail, because God has sheltered His people.
3. In the next section, therefore, it is God Himself who is before the soul: but God revealed in judgment, which is openly manifested from heaven, in omnipotent, discriminative, holy wrath. His power is such that He must needs be feared: who can stand before Him; when He is angry? His judgment is discriminative, as the word used here (din) implies: wise, therefore, and searching, and recognized by the still awe of earth. It is holy, also, for it is in behalf of the meek of the earth, for whose salvation God at last, after long patience, rises up.
4. The fourth section shows the earth entirely in His hands. So complete is His government of it, that the wrath of man, which has just been at its wildest, nevertheless praises Him. Whatever could not be made to do this He could not permit to be. Men are bidden therefore to vow and pay their vows to Him who is the Eternal and their God and to bring presents in sign of their subjection to Him who is truly to be feared. For that to Him it belongs is plain by His judgment of its kings, just now executed. "He cutteth off the spirit of princes: He is terrible to the kings of the earth."
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Like the previous Ps. this is a song of…
Like the previous Ps. this is a song of national deliverance, which may have been called forth, as the title in LXX suggests, by the overthrow of Sennacherib's army (2Ki_19:35; 2Ch_32:21; Isa_37:36). In Psa_76:1-6 God is described as returning to His dwelling-place in Zion from the mountains where He has overthrown His adversaries. In Psa_76:7-9 another figure is introduced which represents God as uttering sentence from heaven upon His enemies, while the earth is hushed in silence. Psa_76:10 explains how God gains glory even from the rebelliousness of men, and Psa_76:11-12 call the whole world to render Him the homage which is due to His terrible majesty.
Title.—Neginoth] see on Psalms 4.
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2. Salem] Jerusalem.
3. Selah] see on Psa_3:4.
4. More glorious.. than] RV 'glorious.. from.' Mountains of prey] God comes back like a lion from hunting and slaying His foes.
8. Judgment] RV 'sentence.' 10b. RV 'the residue.. gird upon thee.' The spent and powerless anger of men is worn as an ornament by God, or becomes His sword by which they are destroyed.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v1 Neginoth, stringed instruments.
Neginoth
Neginoth, stringed instruments.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Psalm 76
Psalm 76
Divine Government Established and Maintained
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1. The Prince of Peace reigns (Psa 76:1-6)
2. The day of wrath and what it brought (Psa 76:7-12)
We behold the Lord now in Judah, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, His Name great in Israel! In Salem He has His tabernacle and in Zion His dwelling place. There, as the Prince of Peace, He broke the arrows, the shield, and sword and battle. The stouthearted were spoiled. Judgments were heard from heaven; the earth feared and was still, then the meek of the earth were saved. The Lord is terrible to the kings of the earth, the final confederacy of nations. How wonderful the order of these Psalms!
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 God the Protector of His Church.
God the Protector of His Church.
To the chief musician on Neginoth, to be sung in public worship to the accompaniment of stringed instruments, a psalm or song of Asaph, another hymn commemorating God’s deliverance of His people by a miraculous interposition of His power.
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v. 1. In Judah, where the central Sanctuary of Jehovah had been established, is God known, having revealed Himself to His people; His name is great in Israel, having been magnified by the proclamation of His servants throughout the nation.
v. 2. In Salem, the city of Jerusalem, also is His Tabernacle, the dwelling of His tent, the central Sanctuary, and His dwelling-place in Zion, on whose summit the Tabernacle had been erected by David, the ancient tent of Moses being at that time still at Gibeon.
v. 3. There brake He the arrows of the bow, literally, the lightnings of the bow, the weapons with which the enemies intended to attack the Church, the shield and the sword and the battle, war being used for the weapons of war. Selah.
v. 4. Thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey, literally, "Full of splendor art Thou, glorious from the mountains of spoil," that is, the Lord is infinitely more glorious and splendid than all the powers of the enemy, of Satan and the world, who eagerly desire to spoil the Church, to rob it of its beauty.
v. 5. The stouthearted are spoiled, forced to deliver their weapons to the Lord, standing disarmed and disgraced, they have slept their sleep, fallen into the sleep of death; and none of the men of might have found their hands, they are helpless, they are unable to use their hands, to grasp their weapons for the purpose of continuing their warfare against the Church of God.
v. 6. At Thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, at His almighty threat, by virtue of the power of His Word, both the chariot and horse, here used as types of the weapons and the attack of the enemies, are cast into a dead sleep, rendered helpless forever. Cf Isa 43:17.
v. 7. Thou, even Thou, stated with the greatest emphasis, art to be feared; and who may stand in Thy sight when once Thou art angry? The answer is obvious: It is impossible for any man to stand before the almighty power of Jehovah; no enemy, no matter how powerful, can carry out his hostile designs without Jehovah’s permission.
v. 8. Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven, Jehovah Himself speaking the decisive word against the tumult of the hostile world; the earth feared and was still, its tumult being constrained to die down into silence,
v. 9. when God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth, His people, suffering from the oppression of the enemies. Selah.
v. 10. Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee, bound finally to tend to the glorification of Jehovah, obliged, in its own despite, to show forth God’s glory in its own ruin; the remainder of wrath shalt Thou restrain, or, while Thou girdest Thyself with the remainder of wrath, that is, after men have exhaused their rage against Jehovah, He makes use of His store of divine wrath, the result being the complete overthrow of all enemies, as pictured above. The psalmist, therefore, turns to the people of the Lord in a final admonition.
v. 11. Vow and pay unto the Lord, your God, being sure to fulfill what they promised Jehovah in recognition of His deliverance; let all that be round about Him, all the surrounding nations, bring presents unto Him, as a tribute to His almighty power, that ought to be feared, He being the essence of all that inspires reverence.
v. 12. He shall cut off the spirit of princes, taking away their snorting, putting an end to their arrogance; He is terrible to the kings of the earth, feared, if not revered, by them all, for those who will not accept Him as their Redeemer must acknowledge Him the almighty Ruler of the universe. The enemies are judged; the Church is delivered, and the glory of God stands revealed before all man.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11 General Information:
General Information:
Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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For the chief musician
"This is for the director of music to use in worship"
on stringed instruments
"people should play stringed instruments with this song."
A psalm of Asaph
"This is a psalm that Asaph wrote" See how this is translated in Psalms 53:1.
made himself known in Judah
"caused the people of Judah to know who he is" or "made himself famous in Judah"
his name is great in Israel
The words "his name" are a metonym for his reputation. AT: "the people of Israel consider him good and powerful" (See: Metonymy)
his dwelling place
"the place where he has chosen to live"
There he broke the arrows of the bow, the shield, the sword, and the other weapons of war
These words are probably a metaphor for God causing the people of Judah to live in peace without being afraid of enemies making war on them, but the words should be translated literally. (See: Metaphor)
Selah
This may be a musical term that tells people how to sing or play their instruments here. Some translations write the Hebrew word, and some translations do not include it. See how you translated this in (Psalms 3:1). (See: Copy or Borrow Words)
translationWords
psalm
Asaph
God
know
Judah
name
Israel
Zion
bow and arrow
shield
sword
selah
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 4, 7 Ps 76 This psalm appears to celebrate a victory.…
Ps 76 This psalm appears to celebrate a victory. The victory might have been recent, such as over the Assyrians (see note on 76:title; see also Isa 37); or the psalm might be recalling God’s great acts of rescue in the past.
76:title to be accompanied by stringed instruments: The Greek version reads for the Assyrian.
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76:1-3 God’s victory over Zion’s enemies foreshadows his worldwide victory over all his enemies.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.