Today’s Passage: Psalm 76
God is known in Judah, and His tent is set in Shalem, pronounced shah-LEM. Strong's H8004, an ancient name of Jerusalem, meaning peace, whole. This is an older name for Jerusalem. Back in Abraham’s day Melchizedek was the king of Salem, and the name itself shares a root with the word for peace. That makes it a fitting home for a song like this one, where the weapons are broken and no one in Israel has to lift a hand to do it. , and there He shattered the flaming arrows of every army that dared to come against His people. The mighty men who marched out so sure of themselves now sleep their last sleep, and not one of them is praised for it. It is God who acts here, God alone, and when He rises it is the lowly of the earth He rises to save.
As you read, hold this: God is known in Judah. He shattered the weapons.
Context Of Asaph, with strings
The words at the top are part of the psalm itself and not a label added later: for the choirmaster, with stringed instruments, a Psalm of Asaph, a song. Asaph’s house was the family that led the singing in the house of God, so this is a song made to be sung aloud. Salem is the old name for the city that would one day be called Jerusalem, and it is there, in that very place, that the psalm will watch the weapons of war break.
Psalm 76:1-3 (BSB)
For the choirmaster. With stringed instruments. A Psalm of Asaph. A song.
¹ God is known in Judah; His name is great in Israel. ² His tent is in Salem, His dwelling place in Zion. ³ There He shattered the flaming arrows, the shield and sword and weapons of war. Selah
God is known, and His name is great, and He has made His tent and His dwelling among His people. And it was there, in that very place, that He shattered the weapons.
Psalm 76:4-6 (BSB)
⁴ You are resplendent with light, more majestic than mountains filled with game. ⁵ The valiant lie plundered; they sleep their last sleep. No men of might could lift a hand. ⁶ At Your rebuke, O God of Jacob, both horse and rider lie stunned.
First there is light, the shining majesty of God Himself. Then the eye falls to a field where all the strong men lie asleep, and not one of them managed to lift a hand. A single rebuke from God was enough, and horse and rider together lie stunned where they fell.
Study notes A night the army did not wake
Many readers down the years have heard the echo of Sennacherib’s night in these lines.
"And that very night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!" 2 Kings 19:35 (BSB)
Whether or not that night is what first gave rise to this song, the match between them is sharp. They sleep their last sleep, and no men of might could lift a hand against Him, because from first to last the deed belongs to God alone.
Psalm 76:7-9 (BSB)
⁷ You alone are to be feared. When You are angry, who can stand before You? ⁸ From heaven You pronounced judgment, and the earth feared and was still ⁹ when God rose up to judge, to save all the lowly of the earth. Selah
He is to be feared, and the earth grows still before Him. He rose up to judge, and in that same rising He rose to save the lowly, so that judgment and rescue come down together in one motion. That God will judge is settled and sure. The exact hour of it, the place of it on any chart we might draw, is not ours to fix.
Psalm 76:10-12 (BSB)
¹⁰ Even the wrath of man shall praise You; with the survivors of wrath You will clothe Yourself. ¹¹ Make and fulfill your vows to the LORD your God; let all the neighboring lands bring tribute to Him who is to be feared. ¹² He breaks the spirits of princes; He is feared by the kings of the earth.
Even the wrath of man, once it has spent itself, ends up serving His praise. So the psalm closes by calling for vows to be made and kept, and for tribute to be brought from all the lands around, while the spirits of princes are broken and the kings of the earth stand afraid. God is known in Judah, and He shattered the weapons.