to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
God
לֵ֭אלֹהִיםLe.lo.him
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · preposition + noun, common masculine plural absolute
terrible
נּוֹרָ֣אno.Ra'
H3372
to fear · verb, niphal active participle, masculine singular absolute
works
מַעֲשֶׂ֑יךָma.'a.Sei.kha
H4639
an action (good or bad) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
greatness
בְּרֹ֥בbe.Ro
H7230
abundance (in any respect) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
power
עֻ֝זְּךָ֗'u.ze.kha
H5797
strength in various applications (force · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
enemies
אֹיְבֶֽיךָ'o.ye.Vei.kha
H341
hating · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
submit
יְֽכַחֲשׁ֖וּye.kha.cha.Shu
H3584
to be untrue · verb, piel imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
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
Psalms 18:44 As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me: the strangers shall submit themselves unto me.
Psalms 65:5 By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation; who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of…
Psalms 81:15 The haters of the LORD should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever.
Psalms 47:2 For the LORD most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth.
Psalms 22:28-29 For the kingdom is the LORD’s: and he is the governor among the nations.
Psalms 78:35-36 And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer.
Isaiah 2:19 And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when…
Jeremiah 10:10 But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 66:1-7
I. In these verses the psalmist calls upon all people to praise God, all lands, all the earth, all the inhabitants of the world that are capable of praising God, Psa 66:1. 1. This speaks the glory of God, that he is worthy to be praised by all, for he is good to all and furnishes every nation with matter for praise. 2. The duty of man, that all are obliged to praise God; it is part of the law of creation, and therefore is required of every creature. 3. A prediction of the conversion of the Gentiles to the faith of Christ; the time should come when all lands should praise God, and this incense should in every place be offered to him. 4. A hearty good-will which the psalmist had to this good w…
A specimen of the praise.
How terrible--(Compare Psa 65:8).
submit--(Compare Margin), show a forced subjection (Psa 18:44), produced by terror.
John Gill on Psalms 66:3
Say unto God,.... Or, "concerning God" (t), as some; or, "before God", as the Targum; say to him as follows, in psalms and hymns of praise:
how terrible art thou in thy works! or "reverend" (u); to be feared and reverenced with a godly fear on account of them; such as the works of nature and providence, which are stupendous and marvellous, fearfully and wonderfully wrought; and especially those of grace and redemption, in which the goodness of Christ is manifest, and for which he is to be feared: unless rather his judgments upon his enemies are here meant; who, though he is a Lamb to his own people, is the Lion of the tribe of Judah to them, whom he will break in pieces as a potter's vessel…
Psalm 66:1-4
1. Shout unto God, all the earth. 2. Sing the honor of his name: make glorious his praise. [466] 3. Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works! in the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies lie [or feign submission] unto thee. 4. All the earth shall worship thee, and they shall sing unto thee; they shall sing thy name. Selah.
1. Shout unto God, all the earth The psalm begins with this general declaration, which is afterwards reduced to particulars. [467] He addresses himself to the whole world, and from this it would seem evident, that he predicts the extent to which the kingdom of God should reach at the coming of Christ. In the second verse the call is repeated wit…
The Church Fathers
"Say ye to God, How to be feared are Your works!" [Psalm 66:3]. Wherefore to be feared and not to be loved? Hear another voice of a Psalm: "Serve the Lord in fear, and exult unto Him with trembling." What means this? Hear the voice of the Apostle: "With fear," he says, "and trembling, work out your own salvation." [Philippians 2:12] Wherefore with fear and trembling? He has subjoined the reason: "for God it is that works in you both to will and to work according to good will." [Philippians 2:13] If therefore God works in you, by the Grace of God you work well, not by your strength. Therefore if you rejoice, fear also: lest perchance that which was given to a humble man be taken away from a proud one....Brethren, if against the Jews of old, cut off from the root of the Patriarchs, we ought not to exalt ourselves, but rather to fear and say to God, "How to be feared are Your works:" how much less ought we not to exalt ourselves against the fresh wounds of the cutting off! Before there had been cut off Jews, graffed in Gentiles; from the very graft there have been cut off heretics; but neither against them ought we to exalt ourselves; lest perchance he deserve to be cut off, that delights to revile them that are cut off. My brethren, a bishop's voice, however unworthy, has sounded to you: we pray you to beware, whosoever you are in the Church, do not revile them that are not within; but pray ye rather, that they too may be within. For God is able again to graft them in. [Romans 11:23] Of the very Jews the Apostle said this, and it was done in their case. The Lord rose again, and many believed: they perceived not when they crucified, nevertheless afterwards they believed in Him, and there was forgiven them so great a transgression. The shedding of the Lord's blood was forgiven the manslayers, not to say, God-slayers: "for if they had known, the Lord of glory they never would have crucified." [1 Corinthians 2:8] Now to the manslayers has been forgiven the shedding of the blood of Him innocent: and that same blood which through madness they shed, through grace they have drunk....O fullness of Gentiles, say thou to God, "How to be feared are Your works!" and so rejoice thou as that you may fear, be not exalted above the branches cut off.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
The phrase שׂים כבוד ל signifies "to give glory to God" in other passages (Jos 7:19; Isa 42:12), here with a second accusative, either (1) if we take תּהלּתו as an accusative of the object: facite laudationem ejus gloriam = gloriosam (Maurer and others), or (2) if we take כבוד as an accusative of the object and the former word as an accusative of the predicate: reddite honorem laudem ejus (Hengstenberg), or (3) also by taking תהלתו as an apposition: reddite honorem, scil. laudem ejus (Hupfeld). We prefer the middle rendering: give glory as His praise, i.e., to Him as or for praise. It is unnecessary, with Hengstenberg, to render: How terrible art Thou in Thy works! in that case אתּה ought no…
God conquers his enemies (see 18:44; 59:11; 81:15).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 66:3
Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works! through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee.
Say unto God. Turn all your praises to him. Devotion, unless it be resolutely directed to the Lord, is no better than whistling to the wind. How terrible art thou in thy works. The mind is usually first arrested by those attributes which cause fear and trembling; and, even when the heart has come to love God, and rest in him, there is an increase of worship when the soul is awed by an extraordinary display of the more dreadful of the divine characteristics. Looking upon the convulsions which have shaken continents, the hurricanes which have devastated nations…
