Psalms 77:16-19

16 The ¹waters saw You, O God; The waters saw You, they were in anguish; The deeps also trembled.

17 The ²clouds poured out water; The skies ³gave forth a sound; Your ⁴arrows flashed here and there.

18 The ⁵sound of Your thunder was in the whirlwind; The ⁶lightnings lit up the world; The ⁷earth trembled and shook.

19 Your ⁸way was in the sea And Your paths in the mighty waters, And Your footprints may not be known.

Psalms 77:16-19 Meaning and Commentary

To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun, A Psalm of Asaph. Jeduthun was the name of the chief musician, to whom this psalm was inscribed and sent; see 1 Chronicles 25:1, though Aben Ezra takes it to be the first word of some song, to the tune of which this was sung; and the Midrash interprets it of the subject of the psalm, which is followed by Jarchi, who explains it thus, "concerning the decrees and judgments which passed upon Israel;" that is, in the time of their present captivity, to which, as he, Kimchi, and Arama think, the whole psalm belongs. Some interpreters refer it to the affliction of the Jews in Babylon, so Theodoret; or under Ahasuerus, or Antiochus; and others to the great and last distress of the church under antichrist; though it seems to express the particular case of the psalmist, and which is common to other saints.

Cross References

• 1. Exodus 14:21; Psalms 114:3; Habakkuk 3:8, 10
• 2. Judges 5:4
• 3. Psalms 68:33
• 4. Psalms 18:14
• 5. Psalms 18:13; Psalms 104:7
• 6. Psalms 97:4
• 7. Judges 5:4; Psalms 18:7
• 8. Isaiah 51:10; Habakkuk 3:15

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "went"