to see · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
God
אֱֽלֹהִ֗ים'elo.Him
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural absolute
waters
מַּ֣יִםMa.yim
H4325
water · noun, common masculine plural absolute
saw
רָא֣וּךָra.'U.kha
H7200
to see · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
afraid
יָחִ֑ילוּya.Chi.lu
H2342
properly · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
depths
תְהֹמֽוֹתte.ho.Mot
H8415
an abyss (as a surging mass of water) · noun, common feminine plural absolute
troubled
יִרְגְּז֥וּyir.ge.Zu
H7264
to quiver (with any violent emotion · verb, qal 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
Exodus 14:21 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea…
Joshua 3:15-16 And as they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, (fo…
Habakkuk 3:15 Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses, through the heap of great waters.
Psalms 114:3-6 The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back.
Habakkuk 3:8-10 Was the LORD displeased against the rivers? was thine anger against the rivers? was thy wrath against the sea, that thou didst ride upon thi…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 77:11–end
The psalmist here recovers himself out of the great distress and plague he was in, and silences his own fears of God's casting off his people by the remembrance of the great things he had done for them formerly, which though he had in vain tried to quiet himself with (Psa 77:5, Psa 77:6) yet he tried again, and, upon this second trial, found it not in vain. It is good to persevere in the proper means for the strengthening of faith, though they do not prove effectual at first: "I will remember, surely I will, what God has done for his people of old, till I can thence infer a happy issue of the present dark dispensation," Psa 77:11, Psa 77:12. Note, 1. The works of the Lord, for his people, ha…
The waters saw thee, O God,.... The waters not of Jordan, but of the Red sea; these felt and perceived the power of God, in causing a strong east wind, which dried it up, and made way for the children of Israel to pass through it as on dry land: compare with this Psalm 114:3,
the waters saw thee; which is repeated for the confirmation of it, and to excite attention to it, as well as to express the psalmist's admiration at it; the Targum is,
"they saw thy majesty in the midst of the sea, O God; they saw thy power upon the sea;''
not the Egyptians, but the sons of Jacob and Joseph; the old Syriac church understood these waters of the waters of Jordan, at the baptism of Christ, when in their…
Psalm 77:15-20
15. Thou hast redeemed thy people by thy arm, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah. 16. The waters saw thee, O God! the waters saw thee; they were afraid, yea even the deeps trembled. 17. The clouds poured out waters, the heavens [or skies] sent forth a sound: thy arrows also went abroad. 18. The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven; the lightnings illumined the world: the earth trembled and shook. 19. Thy ways are in the sea, and thy paths in the great waters: and thy footsteps are not known. 20. Thou didst lead thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
15. Thou hast redeemed thy people by thy arm. The Psalmist here celebrates, above all the other wonderful w…
The Church Fathers
Your lightnings shone upon the world: the apostolic preaching. The earth was moved and trembled. Unless our earth had been moved and troubled, we would not be Christians. The earth was moved and trembled. For the Spirit of the Lord rests upon no one, save upon him who is humble and quiet and trembles at his words.
"When our Lord had arrived and had entered the boat with Simon, the wind abated." The Arian, therefore, who contradicts the birth [of the Lord] is also rejected, through the word that those who were in the boat spoke, "They came and worshiped him, and they were saying to him, 'You are indeed the Son of God.' " It is he of whom it is written, "The waters saw you and trembled, and the depths too were stirred up. Your pathways are on many waters, and your footsteps are not known." So they confessed by their word that he, concerning whom these things were spoken, was indeed the Son of God.
And he continues how? "The waters have seen You, O God, and they have feared and the abysses have been troubled" [Psalm 77:16]. What are the waters? The peoples. What are these waters has been asked in the Apocalypse, [Revelation 17:15] the answer was, the peoples. There we find most clearly waters put by a figure for peoples. But above he had said, "You have made known in the peoples Your virtue." With reason therefore, "the waters have seen You, and they have feared." They have been changed because they have feared. What are the abysses? The depths of waters. What man among the peoples is not troubled, when the conscience is smitten? You seek the depth of the sea, what is deeper than human conscience? That is the depth which was troubled, when God redeemed with His arm His people. In what manner were the abysses troubled? When all men poured forth their consciences in confession.
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
Exodus — The great deliverance wrought for the children of Isreal when they were brought out of the land of Egypt with “a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm” (Ex 12:51; Deut. 26:8; Ps 114; 136), about…
Readings, Select · THE MAJESTY OF GOD — THE MAJESTY OF GOD
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).
When He directed His lance towards the Red Sea, which stood in the way of His redeemed, the waters immediately fell as it were into pangs of travail (יחילוּ, as in Hab 3:10, not ויּחילו), also the billows of the deep trembled; for before the omnipotence of God the Redeemer, which creates a new thing in the midst of the old creation, the rules of the ordinary course of nature become unhinged. There now follow in Psa 77:18, Psa 77:19 lines taken from the picture of a thunder-storm. The poet wishes to describe how all the powers of nature became the servants of the majestic revelation of Jahve, when He executed judgment on Egypt and delivered Israel. זרם, Poel of זרם (cognate זרב, זרף, Aethiopi…
the Red Sea: The Canaanites attributed divine power to the sea, but God is the one who made the sea and uses it for his own purposes.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 77:16
The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled.
The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid. As if conscious of its Maker's presence, the sea was ready to flee from before his face. The conception is highly poetical, the psalmist has the scene before his mind's eye, and describes it gloriously. The water saw its God, but man refuses to discern him; it was afraid, but proud sinners are rebellious and fear not the Lord. The depths also were troubled. To their heart the floods were made afraid. Quiet caves of the sea, far down in the abyss, were moved with fear; and the lowest channels were left bare, as the water rushed a…
