Psalm 76

1In Judah, God is known. His name is great in Israel. 2His tabernacle is also in Salem. His dwelling place in Zion. 3There he broke the flaming arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the weapons of war. Selah. 4Glorious are you, and excellent, more than mountains of game. 5Valiant men lie plundered, they have slept their last sleep. None of the men of war can lift their hands. 6At your rebuke, God of Jacob, both chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep. 7You, even you, are to be feared. Who can stand in your sight when you are angry? 8You pronounced judgment from heaven. The earth feared, and was silent, 9when God arose to judgment, to save all the afflicted ones of the earth. Selah. 10Surely the wrath of man praises you. The survivors of your wrath are restrained. 11Make vows to Yahweh your God, and fulfill them! Let all of his neighbors bring presents to him who is to be feared. 12He will cut off the spirit of princes. He is feared by the kings of the earth.

This psalm seems to have been penned upon occasion of some great victory obtained by the church over some threatening enemy or other, and designed to grace the triumph. The Septuagint calls it, "A song upon the Assyrians," whence many good interpreters conjecture that it was penned when Sennacherib's army, then besieging Jerusalem, was entirely cut off by a destroying angel in Hezekiah's time; and several passages in the psalm are very applicable to that work of wonder: but there was a religious triumph upon occasion of another victory, in Jehoshaphat's time, which might as well be the subject of this psalm (Ch2 20:28), and it might be called "a song of Asaph" because always sung by the sons of Asaph. Or it might be penned by Asaph who lived in David's time, upon occasion of the many triumphs with which God delighted to honour that reign. Upon occasion of this glorious victory, whatever it was, I. The psalmist congratulates the happiness of the church in having God so nigh (Psa 76:1-3). II. He celebrates the glory of God's power, which this was an illustrious instance of (Psa 76:4-6). III. He infers hence what reason all have to fear before him (Psa 76:7-9). And, IV. What reason his people have to trust in him and to pay their vows to him (Psa 76:10-12). It is a psalm proper for a thanksgiving day, upon the account of public successes, and not improper at other times, because it is never out of season to glorify God for the great things he has done for his church formerly, especially for the victories of the Redeemer over the powers of darkness, which all those Old Testament victories were types of, at least those that are celebrated in the psalms.

To the chief musician on Neginoth. A psalm or song of Asaph.

Cross-references: 2Chr 20:28 · Ps 76:1 · Ps 76:4 · Ps 76:7 · Ps 76:10

Introduction