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76. Psalm 76

¹ God is renowned in Judah;
   in Israel his name is great.
² His tent is in Salem,
   his dwelling place in Zion.
³ There he broke the flashing arrows,
   the shields and the swords, the weapons of war. The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here and at the end of verse 9.

    ⁴ You are radiant with light,
   more majestic than mountains rich with game.
⁵ The valiant lie plundered,
   they sleep their last sleep;
not one of the warriors
   can lift his hands.
⁶ At your rebuke, God of Jacob,
   both horse and chariot lie still.

    ⁷ It is you alone who are to be feared.
   Who can stand before you when you are angry?
⁸ From heaven you pronounced judgment,
   and the land feared and was quiet—
⁹ when you, God, rose up to judge,
   to save all the afflicted of the land.
¹⁰ Surely your wrath against mankind brings you praise,
   and the survivors of your wrath are restrained. Or Surely the wrath of mankind brings you praise, / and with the remainder of wrath you arm yourself

    ¹¹ Make vows to the LORD your God and fulfill them;
   let all the neighboring lands
   bring gifts to the One to be feared.
¹² He breaks the spirit of rulers;
   he is feared by the kings of the earth.

8. From heaven thou hast made thy judgment to be heard. By the name of heaven, the Psalmist forcibly intimates that the judgment of God was too manifest to admit of the possibility of its being ascribed either to fortune or to the policy of men. Sometimes God executes his judgments obscurely, so that they seem to proceed out of the earth. For example, when he raises up a godly and courageous prince, the holy and lawful administration which will flourish under the reign of such a prince will be the judgment of God, but it will not be vividly seen to proceed from heaven. As, therefore, the assistance spoken of was of an extraordinary kind, it is distinguished by special commendation. The same remarks apply to the hearing of God’s judgment, of which the Psalmist speaks. It is more for the divine judgments to sound aloud like a peal of thunder, and to stun the ears of all men with their noise, than if they were merely seen with the eyes. There is here, I have no doubt, an allusion to those mighty thunder-claps by which men are stricken with fear. ²⁸⁰²⁸⁰ When an angel of the Lord descended to perform some mighty work with which he had been commissioned, thunders and earthquakes frequently accompanied the execution of his commission; and it is highly probable that both these phenomena accompanied such a stupendous display of power, as that which was afforded by the slaughter of one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the army of Sennacherib. By God’s judgment being heard, may accordingly be understood the thunder which was heard; and what follows, “The earth was afraid,” may signify the earthquake which then took place. When it is said, the earth was still, it is properly to be referred to the ungodly, who, being panic-struck, yield the victory to God, and dare no longer to rage as they had been accustomed to do. It is only fear which has the effect of bringing them to subjection; and, accordingly, fear is justly represented as the cause of this stillness. It is not meant that they restrain themselves willingly, but that God compels them whether they will or no. The amount is, that whenever God thunders from heaven, the tumults which the insolence of the ungodly stir up, when things are in a state of confusion, come to an end. We are, at the same time, warned of what men may expect to gain by their rebellion; for, whoever despise the paternal voice of God which is loudly uttered, must be destroyed by the bolts of his wrath.