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Psalm 76

Israel’s God—Judge of All the Earth

To the leader: with stringed instruments. A Psalm of Asaph. A Song.

In Judah God is known,

his name is great in Israel.

His abode has been established in Salem,

his dwelling place in Zion.

There he broke the flashing arrows,

the shield, the sword, and the weapons of war. Selah

Glorious are you, more majestic

than the everlasting mountains.

The stouthearted were stripped of their spoil;

they sank into sleep;

none of the troops

was able to lift a hand.

At your rebuke, O God of Jacob,

both rider and horse lay stunned.

But you indeed are awesome!

Who can stand before you

when once your anger is roused?

From the heavens you uttered judgment;

the earth feared and was still

when God rose up to establish judgment,

to save all the oppressed of the earth. Selah

Human wrath serves only to praise you,

when you bind the last bit of your wrath around you.

Make vows to the L ord your God, and perform them;

let all who are around him bring gifts

to the one who is awesome,

who cuts off the spirit of princes,

who inspires fear in the kings of the earth.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

12. He will cut off ²⁸⁵²⁸⁵ The word employed by Calvin is “Vindemiabit,” which expresses the precise idea of the original verb, יבצור, yebtstor It is from בצר, he cut off, brake off, referring properly to grapes and other fruits. The reading of the LXX. is, “takes away.” the spirit of princes. As the Hebrew word בצר, batsar, occasionally signifies to strengthen, some think it should be so translated in this passage. But as in the two clauses of the verse the same sentiment is repeated, I have no doubt that by the first clause is meant that understanding and wisdom are taken away from princes; and that by the second, God is represented in general as terrible to them, because he will cast them down headlong from their loftiness. As the first thing necessary to conduct an enterprise to a prosperous issue is to possess sound foresight, in which the people of God are often deficient from the great perplexity in which they are involved in the midst of their distresses, while, on the other hand, the ungodly are too sharp-sighted in their crafty schemes; it is here declared that it is in the power of God to deprive of understanding, and to inflict blindness on those who seem to surpass others in acuteness and ingenuity. The majority of princes being enemies to the Church of God, it is expressly affirmed, that He is sufficiently terrible to subdue all the kings of the earth. When it is said, that their spirit is cut off, or taken away from them, it is to be limited to tyrants and robbers whom God infatuates, because he sees that they apply all their ingenuity and counsels to do mischief.

²⁸⁵ The word employed by Calvin is “Vindemiabit,” which expresses the precise idea of the original verb, יבצור, yebtstor It is from בצר, he cut off, brake off, referring properly to grapes and other fruits. The reading of the LXX. is, “takes away.”