Psalm 76:11–12: “Make vows to the LORD your God, and pay them; / Let all who are around Him bring presents to Him who ought to be feared. / He shall cut off the spirit of princes; / He is awesome to the kings of the earth.”

March 22nd, 2024 by Pastor Ed in devotional

When the psalmist said, “Make vows to the LORD your God, and pay them” he meant surrender your life into God’s hands. God had delivered Israel when they did not deserve it, turned their desperate situations around, and greatly blessed them. Because of these truths, the psalmist encouraged them to dedicate themselves to God. When he says, “He is awesome,” or as the Old King James says, “terrible,” it means we would be wise to fear God, but not because He is scary to those who know Him and love Him. In the New Testament when Jesus was transfigured, or metamorphosed, into His pre-incarnate form, His disciples fell down in fear and awe. But Jesus came and touched them, which He still desires to do today to anyone who will humble themselves before Him.

During the psalmist time and for 3 millenniums since, humans have continued to misunderstand the patience of God, mistaking it for indifference. There was a famous atheist named Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899), who was an Illinois lawyer and politician. He was also a gifted public speaker and delivered many lectures against God and the Bible to large crowds. One night after an inflammatory speech, in which he attacked faith in a Savior, he dramatically took out his watch and said, “I’ll give God a chance to prove that He exists and is almighty. I challenge him to strike me dead within 5 minutes!” First there was silence, then people became uneasy. Some left the hall unable to take the nervous strain of the occasion, and one woman fainted. At the end of the allocated time, the atheist exclaimed derisively, “See! There is no God. I am still very much alive!” After the lecture, a young man said to a woman he knew was a Christian, “Well, Ingersoll certainly proved something tonight!” Her reply was memorable: “Yes, he did. He demonstrated that even the most defiant sinner cannot exhaust the patience of God in just 5 minutes!”

“LORD, we thank You that Your mercy is enduring even down to this day. We never want to take Your mercy for granted but seek for You to lead our lives in Jesus’ name.”

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Psalms 76 KJV

¹ In Judah is God known: his name is great in Israel.  

² In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling place in Zion.

³ There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle. Selah.

⁴ Thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey.

⁵ The stouthearted are spoiled, they have slept their sleep: and none of the men of might have found their hands.

⁶ At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep.

⁷ Thou, even thou, art to be feared: and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry?

⁸ Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven; the earth feared, and was still,

⁹ When God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth. Selah.

¹⁰ Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.

¹¹ Vow, and pay unto the LORD your God: let all that be round about him bring presents unto him that ought to be feared. 

¹² He shall cut off the spirit of princes: he is terrible to the kings of the earth.