Psalms 76King James Version
In Judah is God known: his name is great in Israel. Thou, even thou, art to be feared.
A hymn of Zion's military invincibility through God's presence. In Judah is God known; his name is great in Israel; his tabernacle in Salem, his dwelling in Zion. There he broke the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the battle. The stouthearted are spoiled; they slept their sleep. God arose to judgment to save all the meek. The wrath of man shall praise him. Kings and princes tremble. The psalm is military but the victor never draws a sword.
The most decisive battles are won by divine presence that makes the mightiest warriors sleep where they stood, so that God's judgment rises to save the meek.
verse: "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain." Human fury is not outside God's sovereignty; he uses it and limits it for his own praise.
Superscription: 'To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm or Song of Asaph.' Asaph collection, Book 3. Salem (v2) is an old name for Jerusalem (Gen 14:18). The 'mountains of prey' may refer to mountains where predatory nations camped. The psalm was used on the Sabbath in Jewish liturgy.
God enthroned in Zion as the primary figure; the stouthearted warriors who are spoiled; the meek who are saved; kings and princes who fear; all who are round about bringing presents.
Psalm 76 is connected by scholars to the deliverance from Sennacherib's army in 701 BC, when 185,000 Assyrian soldiers died in a single night (2 Kings 19:35). The 'they slept their sleep' of v5 fits that deliverance. The psalm became a model for Jewish and Christian theology of holy war as divine action rather than human valor.
For when a threat is genuinely beyond your capacity to handle. This psalm does not minimize the scale of the threat; it introduces the scale of the response.
1[To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm or Song of Asaph.] In Judah is God known: his name is great in Israel.
2In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling place in Zion.
3There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle. Selah.
4Thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey.
5The stouthearted are spoiled, they have slept their sleep: and none of the men of might have found their hands.
6At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep.
7Thou, even thou, art to be feared: and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry?
8Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven; the earth feared, and was still,
9When God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth. Selah.
10Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.
11Vow, and pay unto the LORD your God: let all that be round about him bring presents unto him that ought to be feared.
12He shall cut off the spirit of princes: he is terrible to the kings of the earth.