(To the chief Musician. On stringed instruments. A Psalm of Asaph a Song.) In Judah is God known, his name is great in Israel;
Psalm 76 names two places where God has made Himself unmistakable: Judah and Israel. The verse raises a question — what does it mean for God to be known there, and not just believed in?
Psalm 75 and Psalm 76 belong together. Reading them in order shows what stands behind this opening line.
Psalms 75 and 76 are as close in spiritual relation as they are in number. In the first, confidence in God in the face of imminent danger rests on this: His intervention is near. In the second, that same intervention is remembered with thanks, as an event just now experienced.
The verse does not say God rescued Judah. It says He is known there. Darby presses that difference.
It is not only that Israel is delivered, but that God is known. Not only that Jehovah is faithful — that note comes in here and there in this class of Psalms — but God known in contrast with all else. He does show Himself as the God of Jacob; but this is their great glory, that God shows Himself as the God of Jacob.
Judah and Israel had been a divided kingdom. Naming them in one line is itself part of the good news.
The first section shows us the inauguration of the reign of peace. God is known in Judah, the worshipper-tribe, and His Name is great in Israel. The once-divided kingdom is now, by implication, united and at rest, obeying Him. To serve Him that way brings a person into harmony with all His universe.
The second half of the verse moves from known to great. That greatness lands among people whose own ancestors had pushed God away.
This verse declares that national blessing has come in full. The name of God is great in ISRAEL, as well as known in Judah. Those whose fathers pushed Him far away now receive Him and boast in Him. Their fathers pierced the hand and the heart that had borne with them and fed them from long ago.
Commentators differ on whether the psalm records a past rescue or previews a future one. Some link it to the great rescue God worked in the days of King Hezekiah:
This probably had a first, partial fulfilment in the great deliverance God worked in the days of Hezekiah. Its complete fulfilment will come in the coming day.
Others read the psalm as looking past Hezekiah's day, and keep that rescue only as an illustration:
The signs are too sure and clear that these psalms point to the future — to the hope and celebration of a still greater deliverance. As an illustration, though, that earlier intervention of God for His people has great value and force here.
Zion is the hill in Jerusalem where God's King is to reign. One writer ties this verse to Israel's refusal of that King.
Israel had rejected Him, and so His kingdom was not now from here. Nor could it be. Zion is the appointed place for the King of the whole earth to sit and rule, and the unbelief of Zion's people must keep the King of the earth away.
Being the place where God was known never meant hoarding Him. It made Judah a source.
He brought them out of Egypt, so that He might dwell among them... Yet they were to be the centre from which blessing should flow out to the nations, who might there learn that He was God.
- Known by His rescue — the verse celebrates something just done. God stepped in, and by that act He became known, not just hoped for.
- Known, not just kind — the glory is not only that the people were rescued. It is that God Himself stood out "in contrast with all else."
- Known by a reunited people — Judah and Israel, long divided, stand side by side under one reign of peace.
- Known where He was refused — the children of those who pushed Him away now boast in Him.
- Known so that others learn — where God is known, blessing flows out from that centre to the nations.
And in Salem is his tent, and his dwelling-place in Zion.
Psalm 76 celebrates God's rescue of His people, and verse 2 names the place He acts from — one city under two names. Salem and Zion are both Jerusalem: Salem speaks of peace, and Zion is where God has made His home.
"Salem" points back to the city's earliest days, and to one particular ruler:
One of the earliest rulers of Jerusalem was likely Melchizedek. Genesis 14:18 introduces him as king of Salem. The reason for the link is that Psalm 76:2 speaks of Salem as the tabernacle of God, whose "dwelling place is Zion." Hebrews 7:2 gives the meaning of King of Salem as King of peace.
Jerusalem's history has been anything but peaceful. That is why the old name matters here. One reference work notes that the city "is apparently symbolically called SALEM, 'peace,' in Ps. 76:2." The temple stood there, and Mount Zion formed part of the city. That made Jerusalem a picture of the place of blessing on earth, "as it certainly will be in a future day, when Israel is restored."
Israel did not gain Zion at the height of their success. They won it only after everything else had collapsed:
They were lifted up from the depth of ruin, and only after that was Zion won. The kingdom was set up in power after the people had been completely ruined. After all this Zion was won, and not until then. Now there is nothing that shows grace so beautifully; for it is not only great activity of goodness, but perfect goodness displayed after all had been lost. This is grace.
The second half of the verse leads straight into verse 3, where the weapons are broken. One writer links God's rest to the end of war, and points back to Melchizedek:
His tabernacle is at Salem. Jerusalem has gone back to the meaning of its older name as Melchizedek's city — "Peace." Another Melchizedek now rules in her, "Priest of the Most High God" in full reality. In Zion is His "fixed" home (meonatho), "His rest." And because He is to be at rest, He has broken up all the instruments of war together.
The word behind "dwelling place" carries the sense of a fixed home: God settles there and stays.
Verse 1 names Judah and Israel; verse 2 names Salem and Zion. One writer sees the divided nation and the despised city restored together in the millennium — the coming age of blessing on earth:
The reuniting of Judah with Israel is beautifully seen here… And Jerusalem is called "Salem" once again, which means "peace," the place of God's dwelling. It is also named "Zion" here. "Zion" means "sunny," a name given to Jerusalem because it is greatly blessed in the millennium.
The psalm celebrates more than a rescue. As one writer puts it: "It is not merely that Israel is delivered, but that God is known… Salem and Zion resume their place."
The psalm has a setting: enemy kings marching on Jerusalem. The place where God dwells becomes the place where their advance ends.
Psalm 76 is very simple in its application to the judgment of the kings. They come up against Jerusalem in their pride, and find the Lord Himself there, where they never expected Him… The long-despised Zion is more glorious than the mountains of prey, the high places of human violence.
Commentators differ on the history behind the psalm. Some see a first, partial fulfilment when God rescued Jerusalem from Sennacherib's invading armies in Hezekiah's day. One writer denies that this is the psalm's direct subject, since "the marks of their application to the future… are too certain and evident." Another allows it as "a preliminary fulfilment," with "its exhaustive fulfilment… in the coming day."
If Zion is God's dwelling, why is the King not seated there? One writer traces the delay to Israel's rejection of Him:
Israel had rejected Him, and His kingdom was therefore not now from here. Nor indeed could it be; for it is written that God is known in Judah, that His name is great in Israel, and that His tabernacle is in Salem and His dwelling place in Zion… Zion is the appointed place for the King of the whole earth to sit and rule; and the unbelief of the daughter of Zion must keep the King of the earth away.
- Peace named. Salem is Jerusalem's older name, the city of Melchizedek. Hebrews 7:2 gives it as "King of peace."
- Grace chosen. Israel won Zion only after everything had collapsed. God showed perfect goodness once all was lost.
- Rest settled. A dwelling place means God is at rest; because He rests there, He breaks the weapons of war in the next verse.
- Nation restored. Judah and Israel appear together, the split kingdom reunited around the city God inhabits.
- King awaited. Zion is the appointed seat of the King of the whole earth; unbelief has kept Him away, and His return is what the psalm celebrates.