Psalms 77:14

Psa 77:14 Thou [art] the God that doest wonders: thou hast declared thy strength among the people.

Ver. 14. Thou art the God that doest wonders] In the daily defence and government of thy Church. Thou art the great Thaumaturgus, or wonder worker.

Thou hast declared thy strength among the people] As among the Egyptians, Canaanites, Philistines, &c. Vere magnus est Dens Christianorum, said one Calocerius, a heathen.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psa 77:14-15. Thou hast declared thy strength among the people — By the mighty acts of it here following. Thou hast redeemed thy people — Namely, out of Egypt, after a long and hard bondage; which he here mentions to strengthen his faith in the present trouble. The sons of Jacob and Joseph — The people of the Jews are very properly styled the sons of Joseph, as well as of Jacob. For as Jacob was, under God, the author of their being, so was Joseph the preserver of it. The Chaldee paraphrast appears to have understood the words thus, rendering them, The sons which Jacob begat and Joseph nourished. Joseph was indeed a kind of second father, and they might well be called his sons; without whose care, humanly speaking, there had been no such redemption, nor people to be redeemed.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15. (Psa 77:14). Thou (art) the Almighty doing wonders; thou hast made known in the nations thy strength. Thou art the true Almighty as distinguished from all counterfeits. Doing, i.e. habitually, characteristically, doing wonders. The next word has the singular form but a collective meaning, as in Psa 77:11 above. In the nations, not only to them, but among them, in the midst of them, and in their own experience. The display of God's omnipotence had not been confined to his own people, but extended to surrounding nations, This is particularly mentioned in the history of the exodus from Egypt. See Exo 9:16; Exo 15:14.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 14. Thou - doest wonders] Every act of God, whether in nature or grace, in creation or providence, is wondrous; surpasses all power but his own; and can be comprehended only by his own wisdom. To the general observer, his strength is most apparent; to the investigator of nature, his wisdom; and to the genuine Christian, his mercy and love.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

14. Thou art the God that doest wonders. The Psalmist confirms the preceding sentence, proving the greatness of God from the wonderful character of his works. He does not speak of the hidden and mysterious essence of God which fills heaven and earth, but of the manifestations of his power, wisdom, goodness, and righteousness, which are clearly exhibited, although they are too vast for our limited understandings to comprehend. Literally, the words are, Thou art the God that doest a Wonder; but the singular number is here evidently put for the plural, an instance of which we have seen before. From this we learn that the glory of God is so near us, and that he has so openly and clearly unfolded himself, that we cannot justly pretend any excuse for ignorance. He, indeed, works so wonderfully, that even the heathen nations are inexcusable for their blindness. For this reason it is added, Thou hast made known thy strength among the peoples. This has an immediate reference to the deliverance of the Church; but, at the same time, it shows that the glory of God, which he had clearly and mightily displayed among the nations, could not be despised without the guilt of grievous impiety having been incurred.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

14. Thou art the God &c.] The true El, the living, Almighty God (Psa_5:4; Psa_42:2). The epithet that doest wonders is borrowed from Exo_15:11. Cp. Isa_25:1.

thou hast declared &c.] Render, Thou didst make known thy strength among the peoples. Cp. Exo_15:13-14; Exo_9:16.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Thou art the God that doest wonders,.... In nature, providence, and grace; it seems chiefly to regard what was done for the Israelites in Egypt, and in the wilderness, see Psa 78:12,

thou hast declared thy strength among the people; the nations of the world, who heard what the Lord did for Israel by his mighty power, and with an outstretched arm, as follows.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Thou art the God that doest wonders - It is, it must be, the characteristic of God, the true God, to do wonderful things; things which are suited to produce amazement, and which we can little hope to be able to understand. Our judgment of God, therefore, should not be hasty and rash, but calm and deliberate.

Thou hast declared thy strength among the people - Thou hast manifested thy greatness in thy dealings with the people. The word “people” here refers not especially to the Hebrew people, but to the nations - the people of the world at large. On a wide scale, and among all nations, God had done that which was suited to excite wonder, and which people were little qualified as yet to comprehend. No one can judge aright of what another has done unless he can take in the whole subject, and see it as he does who performs the act - unless he understands all the causes, the motives, the results near and remote - unless he sees the necessity of the act - unless he sees what would have been the consequences if it had not been done, for in that which is unknown to us, and which lies beyond the range of our vision, there may be full and sufficient reasons for what has been done, and an explanation may be found there which would remove all the difficulty.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

By the mighty effects of it here following.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 14. Thou art the God that doest wonders. Thou alone art Almighty. The false gods are surrounded with the pretence of wonders, but you really work them. It is thy peculiar prerogative to work marvels; it is no new or strange thing with thee, it is according to thy wont and use. Herein is renewed reason for holy confidence. It would be a great wonder if we did not trust the wonder working God.

Thou hast declared thy strength among the people. Not only Israel, but Egypt, Bashan, Edom, Philistia, and all the nations have seen Jehovah's power. It was no secret in the olden time and to this day it is published abroad. God's providence and grace are both full of displays of his power; he is in the latter peculiarly conspicuous as "mighty to save." Who will not be strong in faith when there is so strong an arm to lean upon? Shall our trust be doubtful when his power is beyond all question? My soul see to it that these considerations banish thy mistrusts.

Whole Psalm. See Psalms on "Ps 77:1" for further information.

Ver. 14. The God that doest wonders. If he said, Thou art the God that hast done wonders, it would be plain that he spake only of those ancient miracles which were wrought in former days: but now that he saith, Thou art the God that doest wonders, he evidently refers to those wonderful works, which he is doing now, and shall not cease to do even to the end of the world. Gerhohus.

Ver. 14. Thaumaturgeis, or the Great Wonder worker.

Psalms 77:15*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Thou art the God that doest wonders. The gods of the heathen could do nothing. They were weakness, vanity, nothingness. Jehovah alone was powerful. tie could work, and could "work wonders." This clause prepares the way for the magnificent description of the deliverance of Israel at the Red Sea, which occupies vers. 16-19. Thou hast declared thy strength among the people; rather, among the peoples i.e. in the sight of many heathen nations. (comp. Exo_15:14-16)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Your way is in sanctity Your manner is to sanctify Your name in the world, to execute justice upon the wicked.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.