Psalm 77:17

17 [The] clouds poured out water. [The] skies {thundered}. Your arrows also {flew about}.

Psalm 77:17 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 77:17

The clouds poured out water
This, with some other circumstances which follow, are not related by Moses in the history of this affair; but as they are here recorded by an inspired penman, there is no doubt to be made of the truth of them; besides Josephus ^F1 relates the same things; he says, that at the time when the Egyptians were drowned in the Red sea, rains descended from heaven, and there were terrible thunders, lightnings, and thunderbolts; this was when the Lord looked through the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians, ( Exodus 14:24 ) ,

the skies sent out a sound;
or the airy clouds, the lighter ones, and which were higher in the heavens, as the others before mentioned were thick clouds, full of water, and hung lower; these were thunderclouds, and thunder is the sound which they sent forth, as in the following verse:

thine arrows also went abroad:
that is, lightnings, as in ( Psalms 18:14 ) , so Aben Ezra; but Kimchi interprets them of hailstones.

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FOOTNOTES:

F1 Antiqu. l. 2. c. 16. sect. 3.

Psalm 77:17 In-Context

15 With [your] arm you redeemed your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph. Selah

16 Waters saw you, O God; waters saw you [and] they trembled. Surely [the] deeps shook.

17 [The] clouds poured out water. [The] skies {thundered}. Your arrows also {flew about}.

18 The sound of your thunder [was] in the whirlwind; lightnings lit [the] world; the earth shook and quaked.

19 Your way [was] through the sea, and your path through many waters. Yet your footprints were not discerned.

Footnotes

• [a] Literally "gave voice"
• [b] Literally "walked back and forth"