a voice or sound · noun, common masculine singular construct
thunder
רַעַמְךָ֨ra.'am.Kha
H7482
a peal of thunder · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
heaven
בַּגַּלְגַּ֗לba.gal.Gal
H1534
a wheel · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
lightnings
בְרָקִ֣יםve.ra.Kim
H1300
lightning · noun, common masculine plural absolute
lightened
הֵאִ֣ירוּhe.'I.ru
H215
to be (causative · verb, hiphil perfect, 3rd person common plural
world
תֵּבֵ֑לte.Vel
H8398
the earth (as moist and therefore inhabited) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
earth
הָאָֽרֶץha.'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
trembled
רָגְזָ֖הra.ge.Zah
H7264
to quiver (with any violent emotion · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
shook
וַתִּרְעַ֣שׁva.tir.'Ash
H7493
to undulate (as the earth · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 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
Psalms 97:4 His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw, and trembled.
Revelation 11:19 And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices…
Exodus 19:16 And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voic…
Judges 5:4 LORD, when thou wentest out of Seir, when thou marchedst out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, the clouds a…
2 Samuel 22:14 The LORD thundered from heaven, and the most High uttered his voice.
Habakkuk 3:4 And his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power.
Matthew 27:51 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
Matthew 28:2 And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door…
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 voice of thy thunder was in the heaven,.... Thunder is the voice of God, Job 37:5 this is heard in "the orb" (b), or the air, so called, because spherical; the Targum is
"the voice of thy thunder was heard in the wheel;''
so the word here used sometimes signifies; so Ezekiel 10:13, and is so rendered here by some (c); some think this refers to the wheels of the chariots of the Egyptians, which were taken off, it may be by the force of thunder and lightning, so that they drove on heavily, Exodus 14:25,
the lightnings lightened the world; not only that part of the world where the Israelites and Egyptians were, but the whole world; for lightning comes out of the east, and shines to the w…
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
"The voice of Your thunder is in the wheel" [Psalm 77:18]. What is this? How are we to understand it? May the Lord give aid. When boys we were wont to imagine, whenever we heard thunderings from Heaven, that carriages were going forth as it were from the stables. For thunder does make a sort of rolling like carriages. Must we return to these boyish thoughts, in order to understand, "the voice of Your thunder is in the wheel," as though God has certain carriages in the clouds, and the passing along of the carriages does raise that sound? Far be it. This is boyish, vain, trifling. What is then, "The voice of Your thunder is in the wheel"? Your voice rolls. Not even this do I understand. What shall we do? Let us question Idithun himself, to see whether perchance he may himself explain what he has said: "The voice," he says, "of Your thunder is in the wheel." I do not understand. I will hear what you say, "Your lightnings have appeared to the round world." Say then, I had no understanding. The round world is a wheel. For the circuit of the round world is with reason called also an "orb:" whence also a small wheel is called an "orbiculus." "The voice of Your thunder is in the wheel:" Your "lightnings have appeared to the round world." Those clouds in a wheel have gone about the round world, have gone about with thundering and with lightning, they have shaken the abyss, with commandments they have thundered, with miracles they have lightened. "Unto every land has gone forth the sound of them, and unto the ends of the orb the words of them." "The land has been moved and made to tremble:" that is, all men that dwell in the land. But by a figure the land itself is sea. Why? Because all nations are called by the name of sea, inasmuch as human life is bitter, and exposed to storms and tempests. Moreover if you observe this, how men devour one another like fishes, how the stronger does swallow up the weaker— it is then a sea, unto it the Evangelists went.
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
Earthquake — Mentioned among the extraordinary phenomena of Palestine (Ps. 18:7; comp. Hab. 3:6; Nah. 1:5; Isa. 5:25). The first earthquake in Palestine of which we have any record happened in the reign of Ahab…
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…
Heaven — (1.) Definitions. The phrase “heaven and earth” is used to indicate the whole universe (Gen. 1:1; Jer. 23:24; Acts 17:24). According to the Jewish notion there were three heavens, (a) The firmament,…
Thunder — Often referred to in Scripture (Job 40:9; Ps. 77:18; 104:7). James and John were called by our Lord “sons of thunder” (Mark 3:17). In Job 39:19, instead of “thunder,” as in the Authorized Version,…
Arrows · Illustrative: Of lightnings — Illustrative: Of lightnings
Clouds · Thunder and lightning come from — Thunder and lightning come from
Earthquakes · .At Sinai — .At Sinai
Lightning · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Readings, Select · THE MAJESTY OF GOD — THE MAJESTY OF GOD
Thunder · On Mount Sinai — On Mount Sinai
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 77:18
The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook.
The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven, or in the whirlwind. Rushing on with terrific swiftness and bearing all before it, the storm was as a chariot driven furiously, and a voice was heard (even thy voice, O Lord!) out of the fiery car, even as when a mighty man in battle urges forward his charger, and shouts to it aloud. All heaven resounded with the voice of the Lord. The lightnings lightened the world. The entire globe shone in the blaze of Jehovah's lightnings. No need for other light amid the battle of that terrible night, every wave gleamed in the fire flashes, and the sh…
