Psalm 76:11

Vow, and pay unto the LORD your God: let all that be round about him bring presents unto him that ought to be feared.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(11) Vow, and pay . . .—This clause seems to be addressed to the Israelites, the next to the heathen.

Benson Commentary

Psalm 76:11. Vow unto the Lord — Vow a sacrifice of thanksgiving; either at this time, for this wonderful deliverance, or hereafter, in all your future straits and troubles: let this experience encourage you to make such vows to God with confidence of success. And pay — But when God hath accepted your vows, and given you the desired deliverance, forget not to pay your vows. Let all that be round about him — All the tribes of Israel, who have the benefit of this mercy: or, rather, all the neighbouring nations, on every side, to whom the fame of this mighty work of God hath or shall come; bring presents — I advise them, for the future, if they love themselves, to cease from all hostilities against Jehovah and his people, and to submit themselves to the God of Israel; unto him that ought to be feared — Whom, though they do not love, yet they see and feel that they have great reason to fear, and to seek his favour.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

76:7-12 God's people are the meek of the earth, the quiet in the land, that suffer wrong, but do none. The righteous God seems to keep silence long, yet, sooner or later, he will make judgment to be heard. We live in an angry, provoking world; we often feel much, and are apt to fear more, from the wrath of man. What will not turn to his praise, shall not be suffered to break out. He can set bounds to the wrath of man, as he does to the raging sea; hitherto it shall come, and no further. Let all submit to God. Our prayers and praises, and especially our hearts, are the presents we should bring to the Lord. His name is glorious, and he is the proper object of our fear. He shall cut off the spirit of princes; he shall slip it off easily, as we slip off a flower from the stalk, or a bunch of grapes from the vine; so the word signifies. He can dispirit the most daring: since there is no contending with God, it is our wisdom, as it is our duty, to submit to him. Let us seek his favour as our portion, and commit all our concerns to him.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

vow, and pay unto the Lord your God - That is, Pay your vows, or sacredly observe them. On the word "vow," see the notes at Psalm 22:25. Compare Psalm 50:14; Psalm 56:12; Psalm 66:13. The word refers to a voluntary promise made to God.

Let all that be round about him - All that worship him, or that profess to honor him.

Bring presents - Bring gifts or offerings; things expressive of gratitude and homage. See the notes at Psalm 45:12. Compare Isaiah 16:1, note; Isaiah 18:7, note; Isaiah 60:5, note.

Unto him that ought to be feared - Margin, "to fear." The meaning would be well expressed by the word dread; "to the Dread One." It was not to inspire fear that the presents were to be brought; but they were to be brought to One who had shown that he was the proper object of dread or reverence.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

11, 12. Invite homage to such a God (2Ch 32:23), who can stop the breath of kings and princes when He wills (Da 5:23).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Vow a sacrifice of thanksgiving; either at this time, for this wonderful deliverance; or hereafter, in all your future straits and troubles. Let this experience encourage you to make such vows to God with confidence of success. But when God hath accepted your vows, and given you the desired deliverance, forget not to pay your vows.

All that be round about him; either,

1. All the tribes of Israel, who have the benefit of this mercy. Or rather,

2. All the neighbouring nations on every side, to whom the fame of this mighty work of God shall come, I advise them for the future, if they love themselves, to cease from all hostilities against God or his people, and to submit themselves to the God of Israel.

Him that ought to be feared; whom though they do not love, yet they see and feel that they have great reason to fear and to seek his favour.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Vow, and pay unto the Lord your God,.... Not monastic vows, which the Papists would infer from these and such like words; nor ceremonial ones, but spiritual sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving, such as men sometimes make in times of distress, or when delivered, Psalm 66:13 and which when vowed ought to be paid, Ecclesiastes 5:4, not to creatures, angels, or saints, but to God, from whom the mercy desired must be expected, and from whence it comes, Psalm 50:14, these words are an address to such who were delivered from wrath, either of God or man:

let all that be round about him; who surround the throne of his grace, gather together in his house to attend his word and ordinances, who are his servants, and constantly and faithfully adhere to him; among whom he grants his presence, they are near to him, and he to them. It is a periphrasis of the assembly of the saints; see Psalm 89:7. The Targum is,

"all ye that dwell round about his sanctuary;''

the allusion is to the situation of the camp of Israel, and the tabernacle in the wilderness, Numbers 2:1 compare with this Revelation 4:4,

bring presents unto him that ought to be feared, or "to the fear" (f), which is one of the names of God; see Genesis 31:42 and who is and ought to be the object of the fear and reverence of men; the "presents", to be brought to him are the sacrifices of prayer and praise, yea, the whole persons, the souls and bodies, of men; see Psalm 72:10, compare with this 2 Chronicles 32:22. The Targum is,

"let them bring offerings into the house of the sanctuary of the terrible One;''

of him that is to be feared, with a godly fear by good men, and to be dreaded by evil men, as follows.

(f) "ad verb terrori, timori", Vatsblus; "numini", De Dieu, "venerando et timendo huic numini", Michaelis; so Ainsworth.

Geneva Study Bible

Vow, and pay unto the LORD your God: let all that be {h} round about him bring presents unto him that ought to be feared.

(h) That is, the Levites who dwell about the Tabernacle, or the people among whom he dwells.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

11. Let Israel pay the vows it made in its hour of peril (Psalm 66:13); let the nations that dwell near God’s city and people bring their presents—a phrase used only of bringing solemn tribute to God (Psalm 68:29; Isaiah 18:7). “Many,” we read in 2 Chronicles 32:23, “brought gifts unto Jehovah to Jerusalem,” after the great deliverance.

unto him that ought to be feared] Lit. unto the fear, the same word as in Isaiah 8:13.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 11. - Vow, and pay unto the Lord your God. The people of Israel are now addressed. Under the circumstances, they are sure to have made vows to God in the time of their great trouble, before the deliverance came. Now, when the deliverance has come, let them pay these vows. Let all that be round about him bring presents unto him that ought to be feared; literally, unto the Terrible One. By "all that are round about him" the psalmist seems to mean, not Israel only, but those other oppressed ones who had shared the benefit of the deliverance (comp. ver. 9). That presents were brought by some of these is recorded by the writer of Chronicles (2 Chronicles 32:23). Psalm 76:11

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The fact that has just been experienced is substantiated in Psalm 76:10 from a universal truth, which has therein become outwardly manifest. The rage of men shall praise Thee, i.e., must ultimately redound to Thy glory, inasmuch as to Thee, namely (Psalm 76:1 as to syntax like Psalm 73:3), there always remains a שׁארית, i.e., a still unexhausted remainder, and that not merely of חמה, but of חמת, with which Thou canst gird, i.e., arm, Thyself against such human rage, in order to quench it. שׁארית חמת is the infinite store of wrath still available to God after human rage has done its utmost. Or perhaps still better, and more fully answering to the notion of שׁארית: it is the store of the infinite fulness of wrath which still remains on the side of God after human rage (חמה) has spent itself, when God calmly, and laughing (Psalm 2:4), allows the Titans to do as they please, and which is now being poured out. In connection with the interpretation: with the remainder of the fury (of hostile men) wilt Thou gird Thyself, i.e., it serves Thee only as an ornament (Hupfeld), the alternation of חמה and חמת is left unexplained, and תּחגּר is alienated from its martial sense (Isaiah 59:17; Isaiah 51:9, Wisd. 5:21 [20]), which is required by the context. Ewald, like the lxx, reads תּחגּך, ἑορτάσει σοι, in connection with which, apart from the high-sounding expression, שׁארית חמת (ἐγκατάλειμμα ἐνθυμίου) must denote the remainder of malignity that is suddenly converted into its opposite; and one does not see why what Psalm 76:11 says concerning rage is here limited to its remainder. Such an inexhaustiveness in the divine wrath-power has been shown in what has just recently been experienced. Thus, then, are those who belong to the people of God to vow and pay, i.e., (inasmuch as the preponderance falls upon the second imperative) to pay their vows; and all who are round about Him, i.e., all the peoples dwelling round about Him and His people (כּל־סביביו, the subject to what follows, in accordance with which it is also accented), are to bring offerings (Psalm 68:30) to God, who is מורא, i.e., the sum of all that is awe-inspiring. Thus is He called in Isaiah 8:13; the summons accords with Isaiah's prediction, according to which, in consequence of Jahve's deed of judgment upon Assyria, Aethiopia presents himself to Him as an offering (Isaiah 18:1-7), and with the fulfilment in 2 Chronicles 32:23. Just so does v. 13a resemble the language of Isaiah; cf. Isaiah 25:1-12; Isaiah 33:1; Isaiah 18:5 : God treats the snorting of the princes, i.e., despots, as the vine-dresser does the wild shoots or branches of the vine-stock: He lops it, He cuts it off, so that it is altogether ineffectual. It is the figure that is sketched by Joel 3:13, then filled in by Isaiah, and embodied as a vision in Revelation 14:17-20, which is here indicated. God puts an end to the defiant, arrogant bearing of the tyrants of the earth, and becomes at last the feared of all the kings of the earth - all kingdoms finally becomes God's and His Christ's.