Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 66:7
He ruleth by his power forever; his eyes behold the nations: let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah.
7. by his power ] By his might (R.V.), as Psa 65:6.
for ever ] What is true for the past is true for the present and the future. God’s sovereignty is eternal. Cp. Psa 145:13; Jer 10:10.
his eyes behold the nations ] Better, as R.V. renders the word in Pro 15:3, keep watch upon. He is the world’s watchman, sleeplessly on the watch lest any foe should injure Israel. Cp. Psa 33:10; Psa 33:13 ff; Isa 27:3; and Hezekiah’s prayer (Isa 37:17), “open thine eyes, O Lord, and see.”
let not the rebellious exalt themselves ] A warning to those who obstinately resist God’s will (Psa 68:6; Psa 68:18) to humble themselves (Psa 2:10 f), rather than a prayer to God to humble them (Psa 9:19). Cp. God’s reproof of Sennacherib by Isaiah (Isa 37:23), “Against whom hast thou exalted thy voice and lifted up thine eyes on high?”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
He ruleth by his power for ever – literally, Ruling by his power forever. The idea is, that he does this constantly; in each age and generation. He never has ceased to rule; he never will. His dominion extends from age to age, and will stretch forward forever. The power which he evinced in delivering his people he retains now, and will retain forever. In that unchanging power, his people may confide; that unchanging power, the wicked should fear.
His eyes behold the nations – All nations; all people. He sees all their conduct. They can conceal nothing from him. They should, therefore, stand in awe. The wicked have much to fear from One who sees all that they do, and who has power to crush and destroy them. Compare the notes at Psa 11:4.
Let not the rebellious exalt themselves – Be lifted up with pride, or feel secure. They cannot overcome an Almighty God; they cannot escape from his power. The word rebellious here has reference to those who are impatient under the restraints of the law of God, and who are disposed to east off his authority. The admonition is one that may be addressed to all who thus rebel against God, whether they are nations or individuals. Alike they must feel the vengeance of his arm, and fall beneath his power.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 66:7
He ruleth by His power for ever: His eyes behold the nations.
The nature and design of moral government
Everything around points us to a law or rule, by which creation is governed, and this implies a mind that cannot work in vain. But against this, the rebellious exalt themselves. And they do this because they are rebellious; atheism is of the heart more than of the reason.
I. Of the nature and design of moral government. And this government is–
1. Sovereign. This essential to the prevention of confusion.
2. Of irresistible power.
3. Universal in its extent.
4. Is, and must be, essentially benevolent.
Many object to this, and deny it. But let them remember the vast scale of Gods works, and how little we know. The next thing to be borne in mind is the tendency and purpose to bring all to a happy issue. This is an essential point in considering the moral government of God. All will end in the rectification of present disorders and in the bliss of creation.
II. Inferences from the foregoing.
1. Sin is the source of all misery.
2. The greatest benevolence consists in making God known.
3. We are unspeakably indebted to God for the revelation of His will, that in Christ all can have life eternal. (F. A. Cox, D. D. , LL. D.)
The government of God
I. The government of God is sustained by omnipotence. When revolutions rise, and changes take place in the empires of the world which affect the condition of millions now living, and which shape the destiny of coming generations, it is sheer folly to ascribe them solely or chiefly to the restlessness of the peoples, to the despotism of monarchs, or to the policy of statesmen. They are signs that the Divine power rules over, and that the Divine hand works out the destinies of men. He can curb the impetuous passions of men, or turn them into a channel in which they shall work out His great designs in complete, though unconscious, subservience to His will; He can put a hook in leviathans jaw, and cast down Antichrist from his seat; He can control the whirlwind in its stormy path, and check the mad fury of a long-oppressed people; He can arrest the lightning in its rapid flight and hush to silence the deep-voiced thunder; and He can stop the deadlier bolts of war and bid the angry nations be at peace.
II. The government of God is one of universal oversight. There is nothing, however great or trivial, which can transpire in His wide domain unobserved by Him. All events pass under His eye. All objects, the vast and the minute alike, are present to His view. He telleth the number of the stars. The very hairs of our head are all numbered. God is everywhere, omnipresence as well as omnipotence belongs to Him.
III. There are rebels against the divine government,
1. The exaltation of the creature may be through pride, through ambition, through vain desire, through unholy presumption, but whatever may be the secret feeling that prompts it, or whatever the form which it takes, the eye of God sees it, and His power can crush it when He will. It is vain for any of us, even in our most secret soul, to set ourselves against Him, for He track- the rebellious thought to its remotest hiding-place within us, nay, He knows it in its first formation in the chambers of the heart.
2. Mans opposition to His Maker is as unreasonable as it is futile and hopeless. Why should we set ourselves against His law? Is He not our best Friend, our constant Benefactor, our loving Father? Is not His rule the rule of righteous love? Is not His throne the throne of grace? Is not His law a law of liberty, and in keeping of it is there not great reward? (F. Stephens.)
God and the nations
The God of individuals is the God also of nations; the law of righteousness which applies to individuals applies also to nations; and nations are accountable to God, and must be judged by Him just as surely as individuals. Men are slow to believe this truth. They seem to think that there is one law for the individual and another law for the nation, and that it is vain to expect that a nation should be ruled by the teaching of the New Testament and the Sermon on the Mount. Great statesmen are not ashamed, even in Christian England, to go in direct opposition to that teaching, to appeal to the lowest, the most brutal, the fighting instincts of the people; to urge them to cherish and practise the spirit of retaliation, and to encourage them to hurl defiance against all the nations of the world. But surely the teaching of our Lord should rule nations as well as individual men; and nations should seek to be guided not by the old law, which says, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, but by the new and diviner law, which says that men should do unto others whatsoever they would that others should do to them. God sits on the throne of the universe. The sceptre of universal dominion is in the hands of righteousness. The eyes of the Lord keep watch on the nations, and nations must be judged by the righteous judgment of God. (G. Hunsworth, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 7. He ruleth by his power] His omnipotence is employed to support his followers, and cast down his enemies.
His eyes behold the nations] He sees what they purpose, what they intend to do; and what they will do, if he restrain them not.
Let not the rebellious exalt themselves.] They shall not succeed in their designs: they have their own aggrandizement in view, but thou wilt disappoint and cast them down.
Selah.] Mark this. It is true.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The same power which God had and put forth for his people in ancient time, he still hath in as great vigour as ever, and is not at all weakened by age, and is as able and ready to act for them now as ever he was; which he hath showed by this late and glorious instance.
His eyes behold the nations; he sees all their secret and subtle devices, and can and will defeat them, when he sees fit.
Let not the rebellious exalt themselves; lift up their hands against God, or against his people. Or, the rebellious (i.e. those people which rebel against this almighty God and his laws) shall not exalt themselves, as they vainly hope and design to do; but shall be brought down and destroyed, as is hereby implied.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. behold the nationswatchtheir conduct.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
He ruleth by his power forever,…. Christ is the Ruler in Israel, King over his holy hill of Zion; who must reign till all enemies are put under his feet. He rules in the kingdom of nature and providence by his power, and does whatsoever he pleases; nor can any stay his hand. He rules in the kingdom of grace, in the hearts of his people, by his efficacious grace; which makes them willing, in the day of his power, to be subject to him; and in the latter day he will take to himself his great power and reign, when he will be King for ever. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, it shall never be subverted nor usurped; nor will he in it be succeeded by another; he will reign to the end of the world, throughout the thousand years, with his saints on earth, and then with them in heaven for evermore. The Targum renders it,
“over the world;”
over the whole world; for Christ will be King over all the earth in the latter day, Zec 14:9;
his eyes behold the nations; the antichristian states. He sees all the idolatry and wickedness committed in them; and his eyes will be as flames of fire to destroy them, when the time is come. The allusion is to God’s looking through the pillar of fire and cloud upon the Egyptians in the Red sea, and troubling them, Ex 14:24;
let not the rebellious exalt themselves. That are rebels against Christ, would not have him to reign over them; antichrist, who exalts himself above all that is called God, and all his followers. Or, “they shall not exalt themselves” a: or, as the Targum,
“they shall not be exalted in themselves for ever;”
see Re 18:7.
Selah; on this word, [See comments on Ps 3:2].
a “haudquaquam sese exultabunt”, Tigurine version, Musculus, & Gejerus.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
7. He ruleth by his power over the world The Hebrew word עולם, olam, which I have translated the world, signifies occasionally an age, or eternity; (474) but the first sense seems to agree best with the context, and the meaning of the words is, that God is endued with the power necessary for wielding the government of the world. What follows agrees with this, that his eyes behold the nations Under the law, Judea was the proper seat of his kingdom; but his providence always extended to the world at large; and the special favor shown to the posterity of Abraham, in consideration of the covenant, did not prevent him from extending an eye of providential consideration to the surrounding nations. As an evidence of his care reaching to the different countries round, he takes notice of the judgments which God executed upon the wicked and the ungodly. He proves that there was no part of the human family which God overlooked, by referring to the fact of the punishment of evil-doers. There may be much in the Divine administration of the world calculated to perplex our conclusions; but there are always some tokens to be seen of his judgments, and these sufficiently clear to strike the eye of an acute and attentive observer.
(474) Our English version renders the word in this last sense. Hammond, with Calvin, prefers reading, “over the world.” “That עולם,” says he, “ ἄιὼν, as the English age, signifies not only time and duration, but also the men that live in any time, there is no question. And then מושל עולם, must here most properly be rendered ruling the world, or over the world; and so the Chaldee certainly understood, who read, ‘who exerciseth dominion over the world;’ and so I suppose the LXX. their ‘ δεσπόξουτι τοῦ ἀιῶνος,’ ‘having dominion over the world,’ doth import.” The Vulgate, in this instance not following the Septuagint, has “ in aeternum,” “for ever.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(7) His eyes behold.Better, his eyes keep watch on the nations. God is, as it were, Israels outpost, ever on the alert to warn and defend them against surrounding nations.
Let not . . .Literally, the rebellious, let them not exalt for themselves, where we may supply horn as in Psa. 75:4-5, or head as in Psa. 3:3; Psa. 110:7. For the rebellious, comp. Psa. 68:6.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
7. His eyes behold His eyes watch. A police-watch is intended. Thus exact knowledge and perfect power leave no hope of impunity.
Nations The Hebrew word is almost exclusively used of the Gentiles, or heathen nations, throughout the Bible. It is to these he has chiefly addressed himself hitherto. Psa 66:8 opens a new division of the psalm, with new associations.
Let not the rebellious A caution to the haughty monarchs who contemned Israel. See Psa 2:3; Psa 2:12; 2Ki 18:29-35; Dan 3:15
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
c). A Warning To The Nations To Remember In The Light Of His Historic Activity That He Is Observing Them ( Psa 66:7 ).
Psa 66:7
‘He rules by his might for ever,
His eyes observe the nations,
Let not the rebellious exalt themselves. [Selah.’
And just as God observed what the Egyptians were seeking to do at the Red Sea, so are the nations to recognise that He observes their activity against His people as well. He rules the world by His power, and His eyes sees all that they do (compare Zec 4:10). Thus those who rebel against Him by exalting themselves over His people should watch their step. They should recognise that He is not unaware of what they do. Such exaltation of themselves by nations against His people, and the resulting repercussions, are echoed in Isaiah 36-37. Our God sees all.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Psa 66:7. Let not the rebellious exalt themselves The rebellious or refractory; i.e. Pharaoh, whose stubbornness and pride occasioned his ruin. But the caution was still as necessary as ever. God’s eyes were still looking up and down through the nations, to rescue his prisoners, how haughtily soever their persecutors might behave toward them. Mudge.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 66:7 He ruleth by his power for ever; his eyes behold the nations: let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah.
Ver. 7. He ruleth by his power ] As sole sovereign, universal monarch, , . Sesostris, king of Egypt, would needs be styled , emperor of the whole world (Herod. l. 2); he lived about the time of Samson, and perished by the hands of his own householdservants.
His eyes behold the nations
Let not the rebellious, &c.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Selah. Repeating the exhortation to praise, and connecting the two halves of the Psalm. (App-66.)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
ruleth: Psa 62:11, Dan 4:35, Dan 6:26, Dan 6:27, Mat 6:13, Mat 28:18
his eyes: Psa 11:4, Psa 33:13, 2Ch 16:9
let: Psa 2:10-12, Psa 52:1-5, Psa 73:3-12, Psa 75:4, Psa 75:5, Exo 18:11, Job 9:4, Isa 10:7-16, Isa 37:28, Isa 37:29, Dan 5:20-28
Reciprocal: Exo 14:29 – walked Psa 5:10 – let Psa 99:2 – high Isa 26:4 – in the
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 66:7. He ruleth by his power for ever The same power which God possessed and exerted for his people in ancient times, he still possesses in as great vigour as ever, and is as able and ready to act for them as ever he was: which he hath shown in this late and glorious instance. His eyes behold the nations He sees all their secret and subtle devices, and can and will defeat them, when he sees fit. Let not the rebellious exalt themselves Lift up their hands against God or his people. Or, the rebellious; that is, those that rebel against this Almighty God and his laws, shall not exalt themselves, as they vainly hope and design to do, but shall be brought down and destroyed, as is here implied.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
66:7 He ruleth by his power for ever; his eyes behold the nations: let not the rebellious {e} exalt themselves. Selah.
(e) He proves that God will extend his grace also to the Gentiles, because he punishes among them such as will not obey his calling.