a man in general (singly or collectively) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
ride
הִרְכַּ֥בְתָּhir.Kav.ta
H7392
to ride (on an animal or in a vehicle) · verb, hiphil perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
heads
לְרֹ֫אשֵׁ֥נוּle.Ro.She.nu
H7218
the head (as most easily shaken) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
went
בָּֽאנוּba.nu-
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common plural
fire
בָאֵ֥שׁva.'Esh
H784
fire (literally or figuratively) · preposition with the article + noun, common both genders singular absolute
water
וּבַמַּ֑יִםu.va.Ma.yim
H4325
water · conjunction + preposition with the article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
out
וַ֝תּוֹצִיאֵ֗נוּva.to.tzi.'E.nu
H3318
to go (causatively · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix
wealthy
לָֽרְוָיָֽהLa.re.va.Yah
H7310
satisfaction · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Isaiah 43:1-2 But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called…
Isaiah 51:23 But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid th…
James 5:11 Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pit…
Psalms 40:2-3 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
Job 36:16 Even so would he have removed thee out of the strait into a broad place, where there is no straitness; and that which should be set on thy t…
Acts 14:22 Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the…
1 Thessalonians 3:3-4 That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto.
Revelation 7:14-17 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes,…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 66:8-12
In these verses the psalmist calls upon God's people in a special manner to praise him. Let all lands do it, but Israel's land particularly. Bless our God; bless him as ours, a God in covenant with us, and that takes care of us as his own. Let them make the voice of his praise to be heard (Psa 66:8); for from whom should it be heard but from those who are his peculiar favourites and select attendants? Two things we have reason to bless God for: -
I. Common protection (Psa 66:9): He holdeth our soul in life, that it may not drop away of itself; for, being continually in our hands, it is apt to slip through our fingers. We must own that it is the good providence of God that keeps life and sou…
men to ride over our heads--made us to pass.
through fire, &c.--figures describing prostration and critical dangers (compare Isa 43:2; Eze 36:12).
wealthy--literally, "overflowing," or, "irrigated," and hence fertile.
John Gill on Psalms 66:12
Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads,.... Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it of the kings and nations of the world ruling over Israel; and may very well design the Heathen powers and antichristian states tyrannizing over Christian people. The word in the original text is singular, "a man" (c), a frail mortal man; and may be understood of the man of sin and son of perdition; who rides upon the heads of men, exalts himself above all that is called God, and has exercised dominion over the saints in a most lawless and tyrannical manner. Vitringa, on Isaiah 43:2 interprets it of Antiochus Epiphanes, who was a type of antichrist, and supposes the following clause to refer to the persecution of…
Psalm 66:10-12
10. For thou, O God! hast proved us, thou hast tried us as silver is tried. 11. Thou broughtest us into the net, thou laidest restraint upon our loins. 12. Thou hast made man to ride over our heads, [475] we have come into fire and water, and thou hast brought us into a fruitful place. [476]
10 For thou, O God! hast proved us We may read, Though thou, O God! etc., and then the passage comes in as a qualification of what went before, and is brought forward by the Psalmist to enhance the goodness of God, who had delivered them from such severe calamities. But there is another object which I consider him to have in view, and this is the alleviation of the grief of God's people,…
The Church Fathers
And again listen unto him, for he teacheth thee in another place that before a man hath gone through tribulations and hath been tried in the furnace of enduring labours patiently, he cannot go forth into the wide place of spiritual happiness, saying, "Thou hast brought me through fire and water, and hast brought me out into a wide place;" now he likeneth unto fire and water the afflictions, and wickedness, and labours which surround him on all sides, whether the afflictions arose from his own will, or from the chastisement of God which took place to try him, or from the wicked men who envied him his good works.
[Syncletica] also said, 'When the devil does not use the goad of poverty to tempt us, he uses wealth for the same purpose. When he cannot win by scorn and mockery, he tries praise and flattery. If he cannot win by giving health, he tries illness. If he cannot win by comfort, he tries to ruin the soul by vexations that lead us to act against our monastic vows. He inflicts severe sicknesses on people whom he wants to tempt and so makes them weak, and thereby shakes the love they feel towards God. But although the body is shattered and running a high temperature and thirsting unbearably, yet you, who endure all this, are a sinner; you should therefore remember the punishments of the next world, the everlasting fire, the torments of judgement. Then you will not fail in the sufferings of this present time, indeed you should rejoice because God has visited you. Keep saying the famous text: "The Lord hath chastened and corrected me: but he hath not given me over unto death" (Ps. 118:18). Iron is cleaned of rust by fire. If you are righteous and suffer, you grow to a higher sanctity. Gold is tested by fire. When a messenger from Satan is given to you to be a thorn in your flesh, lift up your heart, for you have received a gift like that of St Paul. If you suffer from fever and cold, remember the text of Scripture, "We went through fire and water," and "thou broughtest us out into a place of rest" (Ps. 66:12). If you have overcome suffering, you may expect rest, provided you are following what is good. Cry aloud the prophet's words, "I am poor and destitute and in misery" (Ps. 66:29). Threefold suffering like this shall make you perfect. He said also, "Thou hast set me at liberty when I was in trouble" (Ps. 4:1). So let this kind of self-discipline test our souls, for our enemy is always in sight.'
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Afflictions · Often severe — Often severe
Afflictions And Adversities · .Often severe — .Often severe
Temptation · 1:8-22;2:3-10; — 1:8-22;2:3-10;
Water · Illustrative: (Deep,) of severe affliction — Illustrative: (Deep,) of severe affliction
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The character of the event by which the truth has been verified that the God who redeemed Israel out of Egypt still ever possesses and exercises to the full His ancient sovereign power, is seen from this reiterated call to the peoples to share in Israel's Gloria. God has averted the peril of death and overthrow from His people: He has put their soul in life (בּחיּים, like בּישׁע in Psa 12:6), i.e., in the realm of life; He has not abandoned their foot to tottering unto overthrow (mowT the substantive, as in Psa 121:3; cf. the reversed construction in Psa 55:23). For God has cast His people as it were into a smelting-furnace or fining-pot in order to purify and to prove them by suffering; - t…
Then you put a leader over us: Or You made people ride over our heads. This expression possibly refers to a foreign ruler who kept the Israelites in submission.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 66:12
Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.
Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads. They stormed, and hectored, and treated us like the mire of the street. Riding the high horse, in their arrogance, they, who were in themselves mean men, treated the Lord's people as if they were the meanest of mankind. They even turned their captives into beasts of burden, and rode upon their heads, as some read the Hebrew. Nothing is too bad for the servants of God when they fall into the hands of proud persecutors. We went through fire and through water. Trials many and varied were endured by Israel in Egypt, an…
