Psalm 76

Possibly this Psalm was written with the defeat of Sennacherib, King of Assyria, as the backdrop (Isa. 36-37).  The connections are certainly quite illustrative and the Psalm certainly seems to have a military victory in mind.  If you are not familiar with that story it might be good to read it now.

·         76:1 speaks of both Judah and Israel, the southern and northern kingdoms.  Sennacherib was God’s tool in carrying the Northern Kingdom into captivity.  After that victory he made his way south, through the northern reaches of the Kingdom of Judah, taking several walled cities.  When he came to Jerusalem he spoke boastfully of what he had done to other kingdoms and challenged the God of Israel.  Hezekiah had prayed and God answered the prayer by protecting Judah from the wrath of Sennacherib.

·         76:2: Sennacherib’s defeat took place at Jerusalem.

·         76:4: The mountains of prey probably refer to the nations defeated by the army of Assyria (Isa. 37:12-13).  Sennacherib’s commander had spoken of the weak gods of those nations, and intimated Israel’s God would be no different.

·         76:5,6 refer to the way God delivered Israel.  After Hezekiah’s prayer Isaiah told him to watch God work.  In the morning when they went out to battle there were all the corpses, the dead bodies of the Assyrians.  There was no explanation as to what happened; God just put them in the deep sleep of death.

·         76:10: In the end, the wrath of man (Sennacherib) was a means of great praise for God who defeated Assyria in a way that can only be said to be a true act of God.  (God’s words through Moses to and about Pharaoh, King of Egypt, are a powerful statement of this eternal principle, Exodus 9:16-17; 15:9-11).

·         76:12:  God had brought to nothing the King of the greatest empire in the world at the time.  Thus all the kings of the earth would see the God of Israel/ Judah as awesome!

The lessons are many in this Psalm.  For one thing we are reminded that we ought to give thanks to God for His deliverances.  Certainly we see that we ought to depend on God in our impossible situations.  Hezekiah did this; in the face of the Assyrian army which had in fact defeated nation after nation.  None of the gods of these nations had been able to resist Sennacherib.  That could have been intimidating to Hezekiah.  But he prayed.  Then he accepted God’s answer and acted upon it.

Do not fail to see what this story illustrates.  If you choose to defy God, be very clear that your wrath against God will be for His praise!  God will be glorified in you.  We implore you on Christ’s behalf: be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:20).