Psalms 76:1

PSALM 76

THE WRATH OF MAN PRAISING GOD;

GOD'S CHAMPIONSHIP OF HIS PEOPLE;

A PROPHETIC GLIMPSE OF THE JUDGMENT DAY;

THE CELEBRATION OF A GREAT MILITARY VICTORY

Any of the above titles is appropriate for this remarkable psalm. Many scholars view the occasion of it as that of God's destruction of Sennacherib's army in the times of Hezekiah, an interpretation with which this writer fully agrees, although some are hesitant to accept this, supposing that some other great victory could have inspired the psalm.

It is hardly possible for there to be a psalm which so exactly coincides with a historical situation, the overthrow of the Assyrian army before Jerusalem, as affirmed by the superscription in LXX.[1] No known event corresponds so closely to allusions in this psalm as does the destruction of Sennacherib's army.[2] The occasion that springs to mind here is the elimination of Sennacherib's army by the angel of the Lord (Isaiah 37:36).[3] There were many other occasions in Jewish history to which the psalm would likewise be applicable (but he listed none of them).[4] Critics of all schools agree that the occasion here is the deliverance from the threat of Sennacherib's army, and we must therefore understand the `Asaph' of the title as designating not the original Asaph, but the division of the Levites named after him.[5]

The paragraphing of the psalm is simple enough, there being four stanzas of three verses each. The psalm also divides into two parts, the first two stanzas speaking of the deliverance, and the last two stressing the results.

Psalms 76:1-3

"In Judah is God known:

His name is great in Israel,

In Salem also is his tabernacle,

And his dwelling place in Zion.

There he brake the arrows of the bow;

The shield, and the sword, and the battle.

(Selah)"

"In Judah ... in Israel" (Psalms 76:1). Rhodes thought these terms to be "synonymous,"[6] but the setting of the psalm is in the days of the divided kingdom, and the words may apply to the two divisions, thus including all of God's people.

"Tabernacle ... dwelling-place" (Psalms 76:2). These renditions are unfortunate, because, the words thus translated actually mean "covert" or "lair."[7] "The poet probably intended both of these terms in a literal sense, conceiving of God as the Lion of Judah."[8]

"In Salem also" (Psalms 76:2). "Salem is the ancient name of Jerusalem, for the Salem of Melchizedek is one and the same with the Jerusalem of Adonizedek (Joshua 10:1)."[9]

"There he brake the arrows of the bow" (Psalms 76:3). The big word here is "there," a reference to Jerusalem, which was exactly where the judgment of God fell upon the mighty army of Sennacherib and destroyed it in a single night. Note, that all of the significant military weapons of the enemy were destroyed: the arrows, the shield, the sword, and the `battle,' that latter word meaning `everything' that was required in the fighting of a battle. The horses, chariots and their riders would be mentioned a moment later. Delitzsch's comment on this was that, "God has broken in pieces the weapons of the worldly power directed against Judah."[10]