Charles Spurgeon

Why do You withdraw Your strong right hand? Stretch it out to destroy them!

“Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? Wherefore this inaction, this indifference for thine own honour and thy people's safety? How bold is the suppliant! Does he err?”

Yet God is my King from ancient times, working salvation on the earth.

“For God is my King of old. How consoling is this avowal! Israel in holy loyalty acknowledges her King, and claims to have been his possession from of old, and thence she derives a plea for defence and deliverance.”

Do not let the oppressed retreat in shame; may the poor and needy praise Your name.

“O let not the oppressed return ashamed. Though broken and crushed they come to thee with confidence; suffer them not to be disappointed, for then they will be ashamed of their hope. Let the poor and needy praise thy name.”

Rise up, O God; defend Your cause! Remember how the fool mocks You all day long.

“Arise, O God, plead thine own cause. Answer thou the taunts of the profane by arguments which shall annihilate both the blasphemy and the blasphemer. God's judgments are awful replies to the defiance of his foes.”

Do not disregard the clamor of Your adversaries, the uproar of Your enemies that ascends continually.

“Forget not the voice of thine enemies. Great warrior let the enemy's taunt provoke thee to the fray. They challenge thee; accept thou the gage of battle, and smite them with thy terrible hand.”

We give thanks to You, O God; we give thanks, for Your Name is near. The people declare Your wondrous works.

“Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks. Not to ourselves, for we were helpless, but to Elohim who heard our cry, and replied to the taunt of our foes.”

“When I choose a time, I will judge fairly.

“When I shall receive the congregation I will judge uprightly. This is generally believed to be the voice of God, who will, when he accepts his people, mount his judgment seat and avenge their cause in righteousness.”

When the earth and all its dwellers quake, it is I who bear up its pillars. Selah

“The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved. When anarchy is abroad, and tyrants are in power, everything is unloosed, dissolution threatens all things, the solid mountains of government melt as wax; but even then the Lord upholds and sustains the right.”

I say to the proud, ‘Do not boast,’ and to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up your horn.

“I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly. The Lord bids the boasters boast not, and commands the mad oppressors to stay their folly. How calm is he, how quiet are his words, yet how divine the rebuke.”

Do not lift up your horn against heaven or speak with an outstretched neck.’”

“Lift not up your horn on high. For their abounding pride there is a double rebuke. A word from God soon abases the lofty.”

For exaltation comes neither from east nor west, nor out of the desert,

“For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. There is a God, and a providence, and things happen not by chance.”

but it is God who judges; He brings down one and exalts another.

“But God is the judge. Even now he is actually judging. His seat is not vacant; his authority is not abdicated; the Lord reigneth evermore. He putteth down one, and setteth up another. Empires rise and fall at his bidding.”

For a cup is in the hand of the LORD, full of foaming wine mixed with spices.

“For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup. The punishment of the wicked is prepared, God himself holds it in readiness; he has collected and concocted woes most dread, and in the chalice of his wrath he holds it.”

But I will proclaim Him forever; I will sing praise to the God of Jacob.

“But I will declare for ever. Thus will the saints occupy themselves with rehearsing Jehovah's praises, while their foes are drunken with the wine of wrath.”

“All the horns of the wicked I will cut off, but the horns of the righteous will be exalted.”

“All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off. Power and liberty being restored to Israel, she begins again to execute justice, by abasing the godless who had gloried in the reign of oppression. Their power and pomp are to be smitten down.”

God is known in Judah; His name is great in Israel.

“In Judah is God known. If unknown in all the world beside, he has so revealed himself to his people by his deeds of grace, that he is no unknown God to them. His name is great in Israel.”

His tent is in Salem, His dwelling place in Zion.

“In Salem also is his tabernacle. In the peaceful city he dwells, and the peace is perpetuated, because there his sacred tent is pitched.”

There He shattered the flaming arrows, the shield and sword and weapons of war. Selah

“There brake he the arrows of the bow. Without leaving his tranquil abode, he sent forth his word and snapped the arrows of his enemies before they could shoot them. The idea is sublime, and marks the ease, completeness, and rapidity of the divine action.”

You are resplendent with light, more majestic than mountains filled with game.

“Thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey. Far more is Jehovah to be extolled than all the invading powers which sought to oppress his people, though they were for power and greatness comparable to mountains.”

The valiant lie plundered; they sleep their last sleep. No men of might could lift a hand.

“The stouthearted are spoiled. They came to spoil, and lo! they are spoiled themselves. Their stout hearts are cold in death, the angel of the pestilence has dried up their life blood, their very heart is taken from them. They have slept their sleep.”

At Your rebuke, O God of Jacob, both horse and rider lie stunned.

“At thy rebuke. A word accomplished all, there was no need of a single blow. O God of Jacob. God of thy wrestling people, who again like their father supplant their enemy; God of the covenant and the promise, thou hast in this gracious character…”

You alone are to be feared. When You are angry, who can stand before You?

“Thou, even thou, art to be feared. Not Sennacherib, nor Nisroch his god, but Jehovah alone, who with a silent rebuke had withered all the monarch's host.”

From heaven You pronounced judgment, and the earth feared and was still

“Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven. So complete an overthrow was evidently a judgment from heaven; those who saw it not, yet heard the report of it, and said, "This is the finger of God."”

when God rose up to judge, to save all the lowly of the earth. Selah

“When God arose to judgment. Men were hushed when he ascended the judgment seat and actively carried out the decrees of justice. When God is still the people are in tumult; when he arises they are still as a stone.”

Even the wrath of man shall praise You; with the survivors of wrath You will clothe Yourself.

“Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee. It shall not only be overcome but rendered subservient to thy glory. Man with his breath of threatening is but blowing the trumpet of the Lord's eternal fame.”