judgement (the suit · noun, common masculine singular absolute
heard
הִשְׁמַ֣עְתָּhish.Ma'.ta
H8085
to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · verb, hiphil perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
heaven
מִ֭שָּׁמַיִםMi.sha.ma.yim
H8064
the sky (as aloft · preposition + noun, common masculine plural absolute
earth
אֶ֖רֶץ'E.retz
H776
the earth (at large · noun, common feminine singular absolute
feared
יָֽרְאָ֣הya.re.'Ah
H3372
to fear · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
still
וְשָׁקָֽטָהve.sha.Ka.tah
H8252
to repose (usually figurative) · conjunction + verb, qal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
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
2 Chronicles 20:29-30 And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries, when they had heard that the LORD fought against the enemies of Israel.
Habakkuk 2:20 But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.
Zechariah 2:13 Be silent, O all flesh, before the LORD: for he is raised up out of his holy habitation.
Exodus 19:10 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes,
Judges 5:20 They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.
1 Chronicles 16:30 Fear before him, all the earth: the world also shall be stable, that it be not moved.
2 Chronicles 32:20-22 And for this cause Hezekiah the king, and the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz, prayed and cried to heaven.
Psalms 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in 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…
Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven,.... When an angel was sent down from heaven, and destroyed the Assyrian army, a judgment of God upon them; at which time some think there was a violent clap of thunder, which is the voice of God: and it may refer to the judgments which God has decreed to execute on the antichristian states, the seven vials of his wrath he will pour upon them; for all decrees, as Aben Ezra on the place observes, come from heaven; or to the last judgment, when Christ the Judge shall descend from heaven, the voice of the archangel shall be heard, the last trumpet shall sound, the dead in their graves shall hear it, and rise and stand before the judgment seat, a…
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
From heaven thou didst make judgment to be heard. Thou didst speak from heaven, all the people heard and trembled: and yet they did not believe in thee. The earth feared and was still. But Israel neither feared nor was still.
"From Heaven You have hurled judgment: the earth has trembled, and has rested" [Psalm 76:8]. She which now does trouble herself, she which now speaks, has to fear at the end and to rest. Better had she now rested, that at the end she might have rejoiced. Rested? When? "When God arose unto judgment, that He might save all the meek in heart" [Psalm 76:9].
If every one had imitated this cruelty, nothing else would have been left then for me in my lifetime but to be wasted by want, and, at my death, instead of being committed to a tomb, to be made meat for dogs and wild beasts. But I have found support in those who care nothing for this present life but await the enjoyment of everlasting blessings, and these furnish me with manifold consolation. But the loving Lord "caused judgment to be heard from heaven; the earth feared and was still, when God arose to judgment." But the wicked shall perish. The falsehood of the new heresy20 has been proscribed, and the truth of the divine Gospels is publicly proclaimed. I for my part exclaim with the blessed David, "Blessed be the Lord God who alone does wondrous things, and blessed be his glorious name: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; amen and amen."
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
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…
Anger Of God, The · Manifested in terrors — Manifested in terrors
Meekness · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
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).
Nahum also (Psa 1:6) draws the same inference from the defeat of Sennacherib as the psalmist does in Psa 76:8. מאז אפּך (cf. Rut 2:7; Jer 44:18), from the decisive turning-point onwards, from the אז in Psa 2:5, when Thine anger breaks forth. God sent forth His judiciary word from heaven into the midst of the din of war of the hostile world: immediately (cf. on the sequence of the tenses Psa 48:6, and on Hab 3:10) it was silenced, the earth was seized with fear, and its tumult was obliged to cease, when, namely, God arose on behalf of His disquieted, suffering people, when He spoke as we read in Isa 33:10, and fulfilled the prayer offered in extreme need in Isa 33:2.
Tyndale Open Study Notes on Psalms 76:7-9
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 76:8
Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven; the earth feared, and was still,
Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven. So complete an overthrow was evidently a judgment from heaven; those who saw it not, yet heard the report of it, and said, "This is the finger of God." Man will not hear God's voice if he can help it, but God takes care to cause it to be heard. The echoes of that judgment executed on the haughty Assyrian are heard still, and will ring on down all the ages, to the praise of divine justice. The earth feared and was still. All nations trembled at the tidings, and sat in humbled awe. Repose followed the former turmoils of war, when the oppressor's power was brok…
