Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 78:65
Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, [and] like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.
65. While His people were at the mercy of their enemies He seemed to be asleep. Cp. Psa 44:23, note.
that shouteth &c.] Cp. Isa 42:13-14. “The daring figure of God’s awaking as from sleep, and dashing upon Israel’s foes, who are also His, with a shout like that of a hero stimulated by wine, is more accordant with Eastern fervour than with our colder imagination; but it wonderfully expresses the sudden transition from a period, during which God seemed passive and careless of His people’s wretchedness, to one in which His power flashed forth triumphant for their defence.” (Maclaren). Many modern commentators follow the LXX, Targ., and Jer., in rendering like a giant who has been overcome with wine. This gives a good parallelism to the preceding line, but the verb does not occur elsewhere in this sense, and bold as are the similes of the Psalmists, this would be scarcely seemly.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
65 66. At length Jehovah took pity on His people, and delivered them from their adversaries.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep – literally, as one sleeping; that is, as one who is asleep suddenly arouses himself. The Lord seemed to have slept, or to have been inattentive to what was occurring. Suddenly he aroused himself to inflict vengeance on the enemies of his people. Compare Psa 7:6, note; Psa 44:23, note.
And like a mighty man – The allusion is probably to a warrior.
That shouteth by reason of wine – The proper idea here is that of singing, or lifting up the voice in exultation and rejoicing; the idea of a man who sings and shouts as he is excited by wine, and as he presses onward to conflict and to victory. It is not uncommon in the Scriptures to compare God, as he goes forth to accomplish his purposes on his enemies, with a warrior. See Exo 15:3; Psa 24:8.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 65. Then the Lord awaked] He seemed as if he had totally disregarded what was done to his people, and the reproach that seemed to fall on himself and his worship by the capture of the ark.
Like a mighty man] kegibbor, like a hero that shouteth by reason of wine. One who, going forth to meet his enemy, having taken a sufficiency of wine to refresh himself, and become a proper stimulus to his animal spirits, shouts-gives the war-signal for the onset; impatient to meet the foe, and sure of victory. The idea is not taken from the case of a drunken man. A person in such a state would be very unfit to meet his enemy, and could have little prospect of conquest.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Awaked as one out of sleep; for God, by giving up not only his people, but his ark, to the contempt and insolency of the Philistines, might seem to be asleep, and insensible of his own honour and interest, till by a sudden and unexpected blow he convinced his enemies of the contrary.
Shouteth by reason of wine; whose spirit and courage is revived and inflamed by a liberal draught of generous wine; which comparison is no more injurious to the Divine Majesty than that of a thiefs coming in the night, to which Christs second coming is compared, 1Th 5:2.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
65. (Compare Psa 22:16;Isa 42:13).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep,…. He seemed to be asleep, while he suffered the ark to be taken, and the Israelites to be slain; and he may be said to awake when he exerted his power in smiting the Philistines, and causing their idol to fall before his ark; see Ps 7:6,
and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine; who having taken a free draught of generous wine, not to excess, goes forth with great courage and cheerfulness to meet his adversary, shouting as he goes, being sure of victory; which must be applied to God with decency, consistent with the glory of his majesty, and the perfections of his nature; and seems designed to express his power and readiness to help his people, and avenge himself on his enemies; see Isa 42:13.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
65. But the Lord awoke as one asleep. Some understand this as spoken of the Israelites, implying that the Lord awoke against them; and others, as spoken of their enemies. If the first sense is adopted, it need not excite our surprise, that the Israelites are termed, in the 66 verse, the enemies of God, even as they are so designated in Isa 1:24,
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Therefore, saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah! I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies.” (Isa 1:24)
And thus the meaning will be, that the Israelites paid dearly for abusing the patience of God, by taking encouragement from it to indulge to greater excess in the commission of sin; for awaking suddenly, he rushed upon them with so much the greater fury. But as we find the prophets drawing their doctrine from Moses, and also framing their language according to his as a standard, the opinion of those who understand this and the following verse, as referring to the Philistines, is no less probable. The prophet here appears to have borrowed this order, from the song of Moses, (Deu 32:27,) where God declares, that while he punished his own people, he, at the same time, did not forget to repress their enemies. Since it is a common proverb, that the issue of wars is uncertain, if, after the enemies of the chosen tribes had obtained the victory, no change had happened to them, it would not have been so manifest, that what befell his own people was a punishment inflicted upon them by God. But when God, after having afflicted and humbled the Israelites, made his judgments to fall on their conquerors, without the instrumentality of man, beyond all human expectation, and contrary to what happens in the ordinary course of events; — from this it is the more plainly manifest, that when the Israelites were laid in the dust, it was the work of God, who intended thus to punish them. The prophet, however, at the same time, gives us to understand, that God was constrained, as it were, by necessity, to punish them with greater severity; because, in afterwards inflicting his judgments upon the Philistines, he gave abundant evidence of his regard to his covenant, which the Israelites might be very apt to think he had quite forgotten. Although he had, so to speak, taken the side of the Philistines for a time, it was not his intention utterly to withdraw his love from the children of Abraham, lest the truth of his promise should become void.
The figure of a drunken man may seem somewhat harsh; but the propriety of using it will appear, when we consider that it is employed in accommodation to the stupidity of the people. Had they been of a pure and clear understanding, (363) God would not have thus transformed himself, and assumed a character foreign to his own. When he, therefore, compares himself to a drunken man, it was the drunkenness of the people; that is to say, their insensibility that constrained him to speak thus: which was so much the greater shame to them. With respect to God, the metaphor derogates nothing from his glory. If he does not immediately remedy our calamities, we are ready to think that he is sunk into a profound sleep. But how can God, it may be said, be thus asleep, when he is superior in strength to all the giants, and yet they can easily watch for a long time, and are satisfied with little sleep? I answer, when he exercises forbearance, and does not promptly execute his judgments, the interpretation which ignorant people put upon his conduct is, that he loiters in this manner like a man who is stupified, and knows not how to proceed. (364) The prophet, on the contrary, declares, that this sudden awaking of God will be more alarming and terrible than if he had at the first lifted up his hand to execute judgment; and that it will be as if a giant, drunken with wine, should start up suddenly out of his sleep, while as yet he had not slept off his surfeit. Many restrict the statement in the 66 verse, concerning God’s smiting his enemies behind, to the plague which he sent upon the Philistines, recorded in 1Sa 5:12. The phrase, everlasting disgrace, agrees very well with this interpretation; for it was a shameful disease to be afflicted with haemorrhoids in their hinder parts. But as the words, They were smitten behind, admit of a more simple sense, I leave the matter undecided.
(363) “ S’il eust eu un entendement rassis et bien dispose a escouter.” — Fr. “Had they been possessed of a clear understanding, and disposed to listen.”
(364) “ Les gens stupides prenent cela comme s’il s’arrestoit ainsi qu’un homme estonne, qui ne scait par ou commencer.” — Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(65) That shouteth . . .For the boldness of the image which likens God to a giant warrior exhilarated with wine we may range this with the picture in Psalms 60 (See Notes.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
65. Then the Lord awaked He had suffered their irreverent conduct to proceed without check to this extremity, that he might punish both Israel and Philistia by the consequences of their irreligion.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 78:65 Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, [and] like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.
Ver. 65. The Lord awaked as one out of sleep ] Humanitus dictum; the Philistines haply had such bald conceits of him, that either he slept, or, if awake, that he was overcome with wine.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 78:65-72
65Then the Lord awoke as if from sleep,
Like a warrior overcome by wine.
66He drove His adversaries backward;
He put on them an everlasting reproach.
67He also rejected the tent of Joseph,
And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
68But chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion which He loved.
69And He built His sanctuary like the heights,
Like the earth which He has founded forever.
70He also chose David His servant
And took him from the sheepfolds;
71From the care of the ewes with suckling lambs He brought him
To shepherd Jacob His people,
And Israel His inheritance.
72So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart,
And guided them with his skillful hands.
Psa 78:65-72 This concluding strophe describes how God turned from wrath to continue His redemptive purposes (see Special Topic: YHWH’s Eternal Redemptive Plan ).
1. God is described as a person who comes to his senses (see SPECIAL TOPIC: GOD DESCRIBED AS HUMAN (ANTHROPOMORPHISM) )
2. He defeats the adversaries of His people
3. He gives them an everlasting reproach
4. He reorients the order of the tribes as to places of leadership
a. rejects Joseph and Ephraim
b. chooses the tribe of Judah (cf. Gen 49:8-12; Deu 33:7)
5. He chooses to locate the temple in Judah on Mt. Moriah (called Zion)
6. He chooses David as His special leader (and his descendants, cf. 2 Samuel 7)
a. described as a shepherd
b. has a heart of integrity
c. has skillful hands
With the allusion to God’s rejection of the Northern Tribes and choice of Judah, it seems this Psalm’s final form was written after the fall of Israel/Ephraim/Samaria in 722 B.C. to Assyria.
This strophe is a good example of how God asserts His sovereignty. The cultural expectation is altered to show God’s control.
1. Judah not Ephraim
2. Zion not Shiloh
3. David not other sons of Jesse
This is similar theologically to the Patriarchs all marrying barren women. Their children were supernatural-natural gifts from God. He is in control of time, space, history, election, and salvation!
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
the LORD*. One of the 134 places where the Sopherim changed “Jehovah” to “Adonai”. See App-32.
as one out of sleep. Supply Ellipsis (App-6) = “as one [awaketh] out of sleep”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 78:65-72
Psa 78:65-72
GOD’S ANSWER TO THE SITUATION
“Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep,
Like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.
And he smote his adversaries backward:
He put them to a perpetual reproach.
Moreover he refused the tent of Joseph,
And chose not the tribe of Ephraim,
But chose the tribe of Judah,
The mount Zion which he loved.
And he built his sanctuary like the heights,
Like the earth which he hath established forever.
He chose David also his servant,
And took him from the sheepfolds:
From following the ewes that have their young, he brought him,
To be the shepherd of Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.
So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart.
And guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.”
“The Lord awaked” (Psa 78:65). This is another anthropomorphic metaphor. Of course, God had not been asleep.
These verses state the purpose of God to make David king and to establishing His kingdom “forever,” referring not alone to the fleshly line of David’s successors, but to the ultimate resurrection of Christ to sit upon that Greater Throne in Heaven, of which the Davidic throne was indeed a very dim and inadequate shadow.
There is a clue here to the time of this psalm.
“The shepherd of Jacob … and of Israel.” David ruled over all of Israel, not merely Judah; so the days of the divided kingdom had not yet come as this psalm was written. The division of the kingdom that resulted from the Ephraimitic rebellion against Rehoboam was to come some eighty years afterward. Not even the kingship of David appears to have been established at the time of this psalm, but only the statement of God’s intention to accomplish it.
“His sanctuary … like the earth which he established forever” (Psa 78:69). This was not a vain vision. God’s sanctuary, typified by the tabernacle on mount Zion, is indeed eternal. “Those who have truly become the subjects of the Christ, the King of Israel and of the world, and who dwell with God in his house (the church of the living God), by dwelling in Jesus, will not rebel against him anymore, nor ever forget his wonders, but will faithfully tell them to generations to come.
“He chose David” (Psa 78:70). “This election of David gives its impress to the history of salvation even on into eternity. It is genuinely Asaphic (that is, Asaph himself wrote it, not some of his descendants) in that it so designedly portrayed how the shepherd of the flock of Jesse became the shepherd of the flock of Jahve.
This great psalm reminds us of the speech of Stephen the Martyr in Acts 7, in that it recounts the terrible record established in the rebellious history of Israel.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 78:65-66. God will not always suffer his people to be mistreated by the enemy. He finally came to the rescue and delivered them. Smote . . . hinder parts indicates the enemies were on the run and were smitten as they fled.
Psa 78:67. Joseph and Ephraim are used in the same sense since the one was the son of the other. The kingdom had not been divided when David lived, but he was a prophet and wrote of future events as if they had taken place.
Psa 78:68-69. Zion was the most important spot in Jerusalem. The city was in the possession of the tribe of Judah, hence that was the chosen religious headquarters.
Psa 78:70. David as an inspired writer spoke of David as a young man engaged in caring for sheep.
Psa 78:71. The young shepherd was called away from the work of caring for the literal flocks. The new work was to feed or tend the spiritual and national flock. That flock was the children of Israel, the name derived from their founder Jacob.
Psa 78:72. Integrity of his heart means his heart was entirely devoted to the welfare of his people. His skilfulness was made sure by the guidance of Him who had already declared him to be a man “after his own heart” (1Sa 13:14).
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Then: Psa 7:6, Psa 44:23, Isa 51:9
and like: Isa 42:13, Isa 42:14
Reciprocal: 1Ki 18:27 – must be awaked Neh 9:22 – thou Psa 47:5 – with a shout Psa 68:1 – God arise Psa 73:20 – when Psa 74:11 – pluck it out Isa 31:2 – arise Isa 33:10 – Now will I rise Jer 25:30 – give Zep 3:8 – rise Zec 2:13 – for Zec 9:15 – shall drink
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 78:65-66. Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, &c. While, by his permission, the Philistines were chastising his people for their sins, he held his peace, and seemed unconcerned as one asleep: but when due chastisement had brought the delinquents to themselves, the cries of penitent Israel awakened, as it were, and called forth the zeal of the Lord of hosts, to vindicate his honour, and deliver his servants; and then the vigour of his operations was such, as might be compared to the alacrity and courage of a mighty champion, when, refreshed and inspirited by wine, he attacks his adversaries, and bears all down before him. And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts With the disease of the emerods, which was both painful and shameful. He put them to a perpetual reproach He caused them to perpetuate their own reproach, by sending back the ark of God with their golden emerods, the lasting monuments of their shame.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
78:65 Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, [and] like a mighty man that {q} shouteth by reason of wine.
(q) Because they were drunk in their sins, they judged God’s patience to be slumbering, as though he were drunk, therefore he answering their beastly judgment, says, he will awake and take sudden vengeance.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The writer pictured God waking up, though He was always awake and aware of His people’s condition. He simply did not move to deliver them until David’s time. God rejected Joseph (i.e., the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh) and particularly Ephraim, the leader of the northern tribes, in the sense that He chose someone from Judah to lead Israel. He also chose Mt. Zion as the site of His sanctuary. David took it from the Jebusites. God’s provision of David, the shepherd king, was the writer’s climactic evidence of God’s grace to Israel.
"The one king whom the psalmists were interested in was David. For the most part the monarchy comes off very well in the Psalms because of the psalmists’ great respect for David and his line. This reverence climaxes Psalms 78, where God’s choice of David is a drastic change in history, a turn from the Rachel line, represented by Saul from the tribe of Benjamin, to the Leah line, represented by David from the tribe of Judah." [Note: Bullock, p. 115.]
Shepherding should always spring from personal integrity and wisdom (Psa 78:72). A person of integrity is one who practices what he preaches. What a person is determines what he does. Relationship with God shapes character. Wisdom involves taking what God has revealed into consideration as we live.
"Integrity and skill need each other, for no amount of ability can compensate for a sinful heart, and no amount of devotion to God can overcome lack of ability." [Note: Wiersbe, The . . . Wisdom . . ., p. 234.]
In view of all His blessings, God’s people should learn from history and remain faithful to the Lord who has been faithful to them (cf. 2Ti 2:13). [Note: See Allen, Lord of . . ., pp. 57-70.]
"If Israel’s record is her shame, God’s persistent goodness emerges as her hope (and ours) for the unfinished story." [Note: Kidner, Psalms 73-150, p. 286.]