to gather grapes · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
spirit
ר֣וּחַRu.ach
H7307
wind · noun, common feminine singular construct
princes
נְגִידִ֑יםne.gi.Dim
H5057
a commander (as occupying the front) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
terrible
נ֝וֹרָ֗אno.Ra'
H3372
to fear · verb, niphal active participle, masculine singular absolute
kings
לְמַלְכֵיle.mal.khei-
H4428
a king · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
earth
אָֽרֶץ'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · 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
Zephaniah 3:6 I have cut off the nations: their towers are desolate; I made their streets waste, that none passeth by: their cities are destroyed, so that…
Isaiah 13:6-8 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
Psalms 68:12 Kings of armies did flee apace: and she that tarried at home divided the spoil.
2 Chronicles 32:21 And the LORD sent an angel, which cut off all the mighty men of valour, and the leaders and captains in the camp of the king of Assyria. So…
Psalms 2:5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.
Isaiah 24:21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upo…
Revelation 6:15 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every fr…
Psalms 2:10 Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 76:7–end
This glorious victory with which God had graced and blessed his church is here made to speak three things: -
I. Terror to God's enemies (Psa 76:7-9): "Thou, even thou, art to be feared; thy majesty is to be reverenced, thy sovereignty to be submitted to, and thy justice to be dreaded by those that have offended thee." Let all the world learn by this event to stand in awe of the great God. 1. Let all be afraid of his wrath against the daring impiety of sinners: Who may stand in thy sight from the minute that thou art angry? If God be a consuming fire, how can chaff and stubble stand before him, though his anger be kindled but a little? Psa 2:12. 2. Let all be afraid of his jealousy for oppre…
He shall cut off the spirit of princes,.... The pride of their spirits, as the Targum, humble their proud spirits, and bring them down; or dispirit them, take away their courage from them, upon which they flee apace to rocks and mountains to cover them; or confound them, blast their schemes, and carry their counsel headlong, and even take away their breath, or life; which he can as easily do as a man can cut off a bunch of grapes from the vine, as the word (g) here used signifies; the destruction of the wicked is expressed by cutting down the vine of the earth, and casting it into the winepress of God's wrath, Revelation 14:17,
he is terrible to the kings of the earth; as he was to the king…
Psalm 76:7-12
7. Thou, even thou, art terrible, and who shall stand before thy face when thou art angry? 8. From heaven thou hast made thy judgment to be heard: the earth was afraid, [275] and was still, 9. When God arose to judgment, [276] to save all the meek [277] of the earth. Selah. 10. Surely the wrath of men shall praise thee, and the remainder of wrath thou wilt restrain. 11. Vow and pay [278] to Jehovah your God: let all those who are round about him bring presents to him who is worthy to be feared, [279] [literally to the terrible one.] 12. He will cut off the spirit of princes: he is terrible to the kings of the earth.
7. Thou, even thou, art terrible. The repetition of the pron…
The Church Fathers
To whom shall they offer gifts? "To Him terrible, and to Him that taketh away the spirit of princes" (ver. 12). For the spirits of princes are proud spirits. They then are not His Spirits; for if they know anything, their own they will it to be, not public; but, that which setteth Himself forth as equal toward all men, that setteth Himself in the midst, in order that all men may take as much as they can, whatever they can; not of what is any man's, but of what is God's, and therefore of their own because they have become His. Therefore they must needs be humble: they have lost their own spirit, and they have the Spirit of God....For if thou shalt have confessed thyself dust, God out of dust doth make man. All they that are in the circuit of Him do offer gifts. All humble men do confess to Him, and do adore Him. "To Him terrible they offer gifts." Whence to Him terrible exult ye with trembling: "and to Him that taketh away the spirit of princes:" that is, that taketh away the haughtiness of proud men. "To Him terrible among the kings of the earth." Terrible are the kings of the earth, but He is above all, that doth terrify the kings of the earth. Be thou a king of the earth, and God will be to thee terrible. How, wilt thou say, shall I be a king of the earth? Rule the earth, and thou wilt be a king of the earth. Do not therefore with desire of empire set before thine eyes exceeding wide provinces, where thou mayest spread abroad thy kingdoms; rule thou the earth which thou bearest. Hear the Apostle ruling the earth: "I do not so fight as if beating air, but I chasten my body, and bring it into captivity, lest perchance preaching to other men, I myself become a reprobate."...
To the terrible one. To whom? To God. And to him who takes away the spirit of princes. When we see certain powerful men, for example, emperors, prefects, and men exceedingly powerful in this world, let us too say to God: Who takes away the spirit of princes. By "spirit" we can speak both of the soul, and we can speak also of pride. Let us understand it also in another way. Who takes away the spirit of princes. Let us here understand "princes" as the saints. For example, Solomon was a prince, the other saints too were princes, Judas the apostle also was a prince: and because they sinned, God took away from them his spirit. Let no one, then, say: I am a bishop, I am a presbyter or a deacon or a monk, I am a prince in this world: God is able to take away the spirit of princes. Indeed, that you may know that God takes away the spirit, the good spirit of God departed from Saul, and the malignant spirit choked him. It follows: "And the evil spirit of God choked him," that is, from God. Does God, then, have an evil spirit? By no means: but God had departed for this reason, that afterward the evil spirit might choke him. Therefore the spirit is called God's evil spirit. Indeed, the holy David, knowing that he takes away the spirit of princes, prays to God and says: "And take not thy holy spirit from me." To the terrible one among the kings of the earth. This is understood also according to the letter. But may God grant to us also that we may be kings of the earth: kings of the earth, that we may rule over our flesh. Whence the apostle also says: "Let not sin reign in your mortal body." And in another place it is written: "The heart of the king is in the hand of God." Was the heart of Julian the persecutor in the hand of God? Was the heart of Saul in the hand of God? Was the heart of Manasseh in the hand of God? Was the heart of Ahab in the hand of God? And were the hearts of all the impious kings of Judah in the hand of God? You see that it cannot stand according to the letter. Kings, then, are the saints, and the heart of these is in the hand of the Lord. Let us therefore also ask God that we may be kings, and may rule over our flesh, that it may be subject to us. Whence the apostle also says: "Therefore I chastise my body and bring it into servitude, lest by chance, while preaching to others, I myself should become a castaway." Let our soul rule, let the body…
Dictionary and topics
Neginoth — I.e., songs with instrumental accompaniment, found in the titles of Ps. 4; 6; 54; 55; 67; 76; rendered “stringed instruments,” Hab. 3:19, A.V. It denotes all kinds of stringed instruments, as the…
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 fact that has just been experienced is substantiated in Psa 76:10 from a universal truth, which has therein become outwardly manifest. The rage of men shall praise Thee, i.e., must ultimately redound to Thy glory, inasmuch as to Thee, namely (Psa 76:1 as to syntax like Psa 73:3), there always remains a שׁארית, i.e., a still unexhausted remainder, and that not merely of חמה, but of חמת, with which Thou canst gird, i.e., arm, Thyself against such human rage, in order to quench it. שׁארית חמת is the infinite store of wrath still available to God after human rage has done its utmost. Or perhaps still better, and more fully answering to the notion of שׁארית: it is the store of the infinite fu…
The needy await their victorious God, while the wicked stand in fear of him.
76:7 The word translated feared (Hebrew nora’) is a wordplay on the word translated “glorious” in 76:4 (Hebrew na’or).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 76:12
He shall cut off the spirit of princes: he is terrible to the kings of the earth.
He shall cut off the spirit of princes. Their courage, skill, and life are in his hands, and he can remove them as a gardener cuts off a slip from a plant. None are great in his hand. Caesars and Napoleons fall under his power as the boughs of the tree beneath the woodman's axe. He is terrible to the kings of the earth. While they are terrible to others, he is terrible to them. If they oppose themselves to his people, he will make short work of them; they shall perish before the terror of his arm, "for the Lord is a man of war, the Lord is his name." Rejoice before him all ye who adore the God of Jacob.
