Psalms 76
What Happens in This Chapter
This psalm celebrates God as the one known in Judah, whose dwelling is in Salem and Zion, and who broke the weapons of war there. It describes an army destroyed at his rebuke, with strong men and horses lying still, and asks who can stand before him when he is angry. It ends by calling people to make and keep their vows and to bring gifts to the God whom kings fear.
God is known in Judah. His name is great in Israel.
1In Judah is God known: his name is great in Israel.
Judah and Israel: the two halves of the nation after it split into a southern kingdom (Judah, with Jerusalem) and a northern one (Israel). In poetry like this the two names are often paired simply to mean the whole people.
2His tent is also in Salem, and the place where he lives is in Zion.
2In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling place in Zion.
Salem is an old, shortened name for Jerusalem. Zion was originally the fortified hill inside the city, and the name came to stand for Jerusalem as a whole. The Hebrew word behind 'tent' is the one used for the portable shrine Israel carried in the wilderness; used of the Temple it pictures God as a resident with a dwelling in the city, not a visitor.
3There he broke the arrows that fly from the bow. He broke the shield, the sword, and the weapons of battle. Selah.
3There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle. Selah.
'There' means in Zion, just named. The Hebrew for the arrows is literally 'the flames of the bow', arrows wrapped in burning material, a standard siege weapon. Selah is a term found scattered through the Psalms, probably a direction to the musicians or a marker for a pause; its exact meaning was already lost in antiquity, and translators leave it untranslated.
4You shine with light. You are greater and more majestic than the mountains full of prey.
4Thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey.
'Mountains full of prey' translates a difficult Hebrew phrase. It may picture the crags where predators drag their kills, or be a figure for foreign powers loaded with plunder. Some ancient copies read 'the everlasting mountains' instead. The ambiguity is in the text itself.
5The brave men have been stripped of everything. They have slept their last sleep. Not one of the strong fighters could lift a hand.
5The stouthearted are spoiled, they have slept their sleep: and none of the men of might have found their hands.
'Stripped of everything' is the language of a battlefield after the looting: the dead have been plundered by the victors. 'Slept their last sleep' is a common Hebrew way of saying they died. The final line renders an idiom, 'they did not find their hands': they could not make their hands work.
6At your scolding, O God of Jacob, both horse and chariot lay still as the dead.
6At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep.
Jacob was the ancestor whose descendants became the twelve tribes; 'God of Jacob' is a standing phrase for the God of Israel. Horses and chariots were the most expensive and feared part of an ancient army, roughly what tanks are now.
7You, you alone, are the one to be feared. Once you are angry, who can stand in front of you?
7Thou, even thou, art to be feared: and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry?
8From heaven you announced your decision. The earth was afraid and went silent,
8Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven; the earth feared, and was still,
The picture is a courtroom: a verdict announced from heaven, with the earth as the hushed party waiting to hear it.
9when God stood up to judge, to save all the humble people of the earth. Selah.
9When God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth. Selah.
In the same courtroom picture, a judge 'stands up' to deliver the sentence. 'Humble' here carries the sense of the poor and powerless, people with no one to defend them, rather than modest in temperament.
10Even the anger of people ends up bringing you praise. Whatever anger is left over, you hold back.
10Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.
The second half of this verse is one of the most disputed lines in the Psalms. The Hebrew can be read as God restraining or belting up the leftover anger, or as God clothing himself with the survivors of his anger. Translations divide, and no reading is certain.
11Make promises to the LORD your God, and do what you promised. Let everyone around him bring gifts to the one who should be feared.
11Vow, and pay unto the LORD your God: let all that be round about him bring presents unto him that ought to be feared.
A vow was a formal promise to give God something specific, usually made when asking for help; paying it meant delivering afterwards, and leaving it unpaid was treated as a serious debt. The 'gifts' are tribute, the payment that surrounding peoples brought to an overlord to acknowledge his authority.
12He breaks the spirit of rulers. The kings of the earth are afraid of him.
12He shall cut off the spirit of princes: he is terrible to the kings of the earth.
'Cut off the spirit' translates a phrase meaning to cut short the breath, and so to break the nerve or end the life of. Where the King James Version says God is 'terrible,' it means awe-inspiring, someone who inspires fear, not 'dreadful' in the modern sense of bad.
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