Psalm 76

Psalm 76  •  2 min. read  •  grade level: 6
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This Psalm needs little comment, save only that it is consequent upon the whole scene of God's deliverance. He is known in Judah, and His Name great in Israel (compare Zechariah 10:66And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place them; for I have mercy upon them: and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I am the Lord their God, and will hear them. (Zechariah 10:6)) bringing in Salem and Zion as the place of His manifestation in contrast with all the strong places of the earth. It is a definite prophetic statement of the locality and extent of God's blessings in celebration.
It is not merely that Israel is delivered, but that God is known-not merely Jehovah faithful, that comes in occasionally in this class of Psalms, but God known in contrast with all else. He indeed is manifested as the God of Jacob; but this is their great glory, that God is manifested as the God of Jacob. Judah and Israel are both mentioned. Salem and Zion resume their place. Blessed day! We, yet more blessed, are let into His counsels in Christ, but the nationalism of a Jew is divine. There it is He has met and broken man; the mountains of prey are nothing-as a dream passed. When God arises, Zion takes her place in beauty, owned of Him; and the men of might come to simply nothing, and all their parade passes as impotent, at the rebuke of the God of Jacob. Glorious and blessed word for that people!
7. This is the comment of Israel on all this. This came from heaven (v. 8). How magnificent and true the result! "The earth trembled and was still, when God arose to judgment, and to help "; for in all His name and glory, He forgets not, in infinite and condescending grace, the poor, the meek of the earth—that is His name, His character, "The God that comforteth them that are cast down."
10. " Shall praise thee." What it does, is to praise Thee, todekha.
11, 12. This is the summons thereon. I do not know that yiv'tzor (he shall cut off) is more than absolute, “He cutteth off."
It is a noble display of what happens in Zion, and God's manifestation of Himself in it.