Psalms 75:3
in Psalms 75When the earth and all its dwellers quake, it is I who bear up its pillars. Selah
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I have set up the pillars of it. [Selah
KJV
The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I bear up the pillars of it. Selah.
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This verse in Psalms 75
Commentary
11 notes on this verseThe earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved,.... Or "melted" (p); the inhabitants, through fear and dread of the righteous Judge, appearing in the clouds of heaven, and of the wrath that is coming on they are deserving of; and the earth, through fire, when the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, the elements melt with fervent heat, and the earth and the works therein shall be burnt up, 2Pe 3:
This site's exposition
When I choose a time
on Psalms 75:2-3
God himself speaks from here through verse 5. The Hebrew word for the time is mo'ed, an appointed time, so the judging waits on a date God sets. The earth and its dwellers quake while he holds up its pillars, and Selah marks a pause in the singing.
This site's exposition
it is I who bear up its pillars
Spurgeon read the quaking earth as a land in anarchy, where the proud and the wicked rule. God answers that He Himself bears up its pillars. While the pillars stand, the house outlasts the storm.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
But now what? "The earth has flowed down" [Psalm 75:3]. If the earth has flowed down, whence has it flowed down except by sins? Therefore also they are called delinquencies. To delinquish is as it were by a kind of liquidity to slip down from the stability of firmness in virtue and righteousness. For it is through desire of lower things that every man sins: as he is strengthened by the love of higher things, so he falls down and as it were melts away by desire of lower things. This flux of things by the sins of man the merciful forgiver observing, being a merciful forgiver of sins, not yet an exactor of punishments, He observes and says: The earth herself indeed has flowed down by them that dwell in her. That which follows is an exposition, not an addition. As though thou were saying, in what manner has the earth flowed down? Have the foundations been withdrawn, and has anything therein been swallowed up in a sort of gulf? What I mean by earth is all they that dwell therein. I have found, he says, the earth sinful. And I have done what? "I have strengthened the pillars thereof." What are the pillars which He has strengthened? Pillars He has called the Apostles. So the Apostle Paul concerning his fellow-Apostles says, "who seemed to be pillars." [Galatians 2:9] And what would those pillars have been, except by Him they had been strengthened? For on occasion of a sort of earthquake even these very pillars rocked: at the Passion of the Lord all the Apostles despaired. Therefore those pillars which rocked at the Passion of the Lord, by the Resurrection were strengthened. The Beginning of the building has cried out through the pillars thereof, and in all those pillars the Architect Himself has cried out. […]
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
But Christ bore up the pillars of it; he saved the whole world from utter ruin by saving his people from their sins, and into his hand the administration of the kingdom of Providence is committed, for he upholds all things by the word of his power, Heb. i.
This agrees with David's resolutions, Ps. ci. Herein David was a type of Christ, who with the breath of his mouth shall slay the wicked, but shall exalt with honour the horn of the righteous, Ps. cxii.
Dissolved - Or, destroyed; by intestine divisions and wars. I hear - I support it, by maintaining religion and justice, by setting up good magistrates, and encouraging good ministers, and good men, who are indeed the pillars of a nation.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
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 bear up the pillars of it. Hence, there is no real cause for fear. While the pillars stand, and stand they must for God upholds them, the house will brave out the storm.
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
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 bear up the pillars of it. Hence, there is no real cause for fear. While the pillars stand, and stand they must for God upholds them, the house will brave out the storm. In the day of the Lord's appearing a general melting will take place, but in that day our covenant God will be the sure support of our confidence. Selah. Here may the music pause while the sublime vision passes before our view; a world dissolved and an immutable God uplifting all his people above the terrible commotion.
The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved - They all depend on me; and whenever I withdraw the power by which they exist and live, they are immediately dissolved. I bear up the pillars of it - By the word of my power all things are upheld, and without me nothing can subsist. Those who consider this Psalm to have been written by David before he was anointed king over All Israel, understand the words thus: “All is at present in a state of confusion; violence and injustice reign: but when ‘I shall receive the whole congregation,’ when all the tribes shall acknowledge me as king, I will reorganize the whole constitution. It is true that the land and all its inhabitants are dissolved - unsettled and unconnected by the bands of civil interest. The whole system is disorganized: ‘I bear up the pillars of it;’ the expectation of the chief people is placed upon me; and it is the hope they have of my coming speedily to the throne of all Israel that prevents them from breaking out into actual rebellion.”
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved - The word rendered “dissolved” means properly to melt, to flow down; then, to melt away, to pine away, to perish. Isa 64:7; Job 30:22; Nah 1:5; Psa 107:26. Here it means that there was, as it were, a general breaking up of things; or that none of the institutions of the land seemed to have any stability. There seemed to be no government, but universal anarchy and confusion. I bear up the pillars of it - Of the earth; of society. The earth here is compared with an edifice supported by pillars. Compare Jdg 16:26; 1Sa 2:8; 1Ti 3:15. As applied to a prince or ruler, this means that the permanent structure of the state, the welfare of society, depended on his administration. If, according to the view of others, it is applied to God, the meaning is, that as he upholds the world, there cannot be permanent misrule; that amidst all the commotions of earth, and all that seemed to threaten ruin, his hand sustained all, and he would not allow things to proceed to permanent disorder. In the former case, the assertion would be true if a prince felt that he had power to support the government, and to restore order; in the latter case, it must be true, for God sustains the earth, and as he can check disorder when he shall judge it best to interpose, so he will not permit it ultimately to prevail. Selah - A musical pause. See the notes at Psa 3:2.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
When I take a festive day When we have a festival, we do not engage in obscenity and levity, as [do] all the nations.
2 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
We have thanked You, O God for the good; we have thanked also for the evil. and..is near Your name is always near in our mouth.
When the earth and all its inhabitants were melting away, etc.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| נְֽמֹגִ֗ים | nemogim | [are] melting away | H4127 → | 17 times |
| אֶ֥רֶץ | ʾeretz | [the] earth | H776 → | 2504 times |
| וְכָל־ | vekhol | and all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| יֹשְׁבֶ֑יהָ | yosheveiha | inhabitants its | H3427 → | 1079 times |
| אָנֹכִ֨י | ʾanokhi | I | H595 → | 359 times |
| תִכַּ֖נְתִּי | tikanti | I put in order | H8505 → | |
| עַמּוּדֶ֣יהָ | ʾamudeiha | pillars its | H5982 → | |
| סֶּֽלָה׃ | selah | Selah | H5542 → | 74 times |
נְֽמֹגִ֗ים[are] melting away
nemogimH4127 →17 times
אֶ֥רֶץ[the] earth
ʾeretzH776 →2504 times
וְכָל־and all
vekholH3605 →5413 times
יֹשְׁבֶ֑יהָinhabitants its
yosheveihaH3427 →1079 times
אָנֹכִ֨יI
ʾanokhiH595 →359 times
תִכַּ֖נְתִּיI put in order
tikantiH8505 →
עַמּוּדֶ֣יהָpillars its
ʾamudeihaH5982 →
סֶּֽלָה׃Selah
selahH5542 →74 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Hebrews 1:3The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature, upholding all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the…
it leads to
- Colossians 1:15–17
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
- Revelation 4:11
“Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things; by Your will they exist and came to be.”
- John 14:9–10
Jesus replied, “Philip, I have been with you all this time, and still you do not know Me? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the…
- John 1:14
The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
- 2 Corinthians 4:4
The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
- Colossians 1:15–17
Through
Isaiah 49:8This is what the LORD says: “In the time of favor I will answer You, and in the day of salvation I will help You; I will keep You and appoint You to be…
it leads to
- 2 Corinthians 6:2
For He says: “In the time of favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” Behold, now is the time of favor; now is the day of salvation!
- Isaiah 42:6
“I, the LORD, have called you for a righteous purpose, and I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and appoint you to be a covenant for the people and a…
- 2 Corinthians 6:2
Through
1 Samuel 2:8He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. He seats them among princes and bestows on them a throne of honor. For the foundations of the earth…
it leads to
- Psalms 113:7–8
He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the dump
- Psalms 113:7–8
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Psalms
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 75; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 3; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.