to be (causative · verb, niphal active participle, masculine singular absolute
excellent
אַדִּ֗יר'a.Dir
H117
wide or (generally) large · adjective, masculine singular absolute
mountains
מֵֽהַרְרֵיme.ha.rei-
H2042
a mountain · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
prey
טָֽרֶףTa.ref
H2964
something torn · noun, common masculine 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
Ezekiel 19:1-4 Moreover take thou up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,
Daniel 7:17-28 These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth.
Jeremiah 4:7 The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make thy land deso…
Ezekiel 19:6 And he went up and down among the lions, he became a young lion, and learned to catch the prey, and devoured men.
Ezekiel 38:12-13 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gather…
Daniel 7:4-8 The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and mad…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 76:1-6
The church is here triumphant even in the midst of its militant state. The psalmist, in the church's name, triumphs here in God, the centre of all our triumphs.
I. In the revelation God had made of himself to them, Psa 76:1. It is the honour and privilege of Judah and Israel that among them God is known, and where he is known his name will be great. God is known as he is pleased to make himself known; and those are happy to whom he discovers himself - happy people that have their land filled with the knowledge of God, happy persons that have their hearts filled with that knowledge. In Judah God was known as he was not known in other nations, which made the favour the greater, inasmuch as it…
Thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey. Which is to be understood not of Zion, as some interpret it; though it is true that the mountain of Zion, or the church of Christ, his kingdom and interest, shall in the latter day be more glorious and excellent than all other mountains, kingdoms, and interests; see Isaiah 2:2, but of God or Christ before spoken of; and so the Targum,
"bright, to be feared, art thou, O God, to be praised from the house of thy sanctuary.''
Christ, who is God over all, is "bright" (z), splendid, and glorious, in his divine nature, being the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person: and "excellent" in his office as M…
Psalm 76:1-6
1. God is known in Judah; his name is great in Israel. 2. And his tabernacle was in Salem, and his dwelling-place in Zion. 3. There he broke the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle. Selah. 4. Thou art more glorious and terrible than the mountains of prey. 5. The stout hearted were spoiled, they slept their sleep, [266] and all the men of might have not found their hands. 6. At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob! the chariot and the horse were cast into a deep sleep.
1. God is known in Judah. In the outset, we are taught that it was not by human means that the enemies of Israel were compelled to retire without accomplishing any thing, but by the ever-to-be-reme…
The Church Fathers
Thou dost give light wondrously from the everlasting mountains. We interpret the mountains in two ways: in the Old Testament, the prophets; in the New Testament, the apostles. Of these mountains he says: "I have lifted up mine eyes unto the mountains, whence shall come my help." Upon these mountains also is the city of God set, "A city set upon a mountain cannot be hid." We were all sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death; and the Lord gave light to us from the everlasting mountains, that is, from the prophets and apostles. All the foolish of heart were troubled. This verse we can speak of the unbelievers.
I will remind you again about Illuminations, and that often, and will reckon them up from holy Scripture. For I myself shall be happier for remembering them (for what is sweeter than light to those who have tasted light?). I will dazzle you with my words: "There is sprung up a light for the righteous, and its partner joyful gladness." And, "The light of the righteous is everlasting";8 and "You are shining wondrously from the everlasting mountains" is said to God, I think of the angelic powers that aid our attempts to do good. You have heard David's words: "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?" Now he asks that the Light and the Truth may be sent forth for him, now giving thanks that he has a share in it, in that the Light of God is marked on him; that is, that the signs of the illumination given are impressed on him and recognized.
"You marvelously illuminate from the eternal mountains." He comes to the second part, where he explains in sequence the various miracles of the Lord. And to keep people from investigating where that illumination comes from, he added, "from the eternal mountains," that is, from preachers, who are truly eternal mountains because they stand in constant and unchangeable loftiness. Earthly mountains are not permanent and they have no life. But preachers, who are always wise in the task of the Lord, know how to last forever. And he keeps the order of the truth in a beautiful way. He said that Lord illuminates through the eternal mountains, because he himself gave to the prophets and the apostles what was published through the whole world by their holy preaching. And keep in mind that by this epithet "eternal" he keeps separate true preachers from false ones. For the latter cannot be called "eternal" when they teach the corrupt things of their perversity and are destroyed along with their teachings.
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 "mountains of prey," for which the lxx has ὀρέων αἰωνίων (טרם?), is an emblematical appellation for the haughty possessors of power who also plunder every one that comes near them,
(Note: One verse of a beautiful poem of the Muḥammel which Ibn Dûchı̂, the phylarch of the Beni Zumeir, an honoured poet of the steppe, dictated to Consul Wetzstein runs thus: The noble are like a very lofty hill-side upon which, when thou comest to it, thou findest an evening meal and protection (Arab. 'l-‛š' w-ḏry).)
or the proud and despoiling worldly powers. Far aloft beyond these towers the glory of God. He is נאור, illustris, prop. illumined; said of God: light-encircled, fortified in light, in t…
The psalmist praises God for his achievement and for his glorious majesty.
76:4 The victorious king’s splendor, glory, and majesty are greater than anything in the created order (8:1; 29:4; 111:3).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 76:4
Thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey.
Thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey. Far more is Jehovah to be extolled than all the invading powers which sought to oppress his people, though they were for power and greatness comparable to mountains. Assyria had pillaged the nations till it had become rich with mountains of spoil, this was talked of among men as glory, but the psalmist despised such renown, and declares that the Lord was far more illustrious. What are the honours of war but brags of murder? What the fame of conquerors but the reek of manslaughter? But the Lord is glorious in holiness, and his terrible deeds are done in justice fo…
