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[1] “Selah,” occurs 71 times in the Psalter; 39 out of the 150 Psalms contain the term. It is uncertain what “Selah” means but here (as also in Psalm 61) it may serve as a structural divider. |
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[2] This is the language of Israel’s first song, “Who
is like You among the gods, O Yahweh?
Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome/fearful in praises, working wonders?”
(Exodus 15:11). |
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[3] Based upon Hebrew parallelism, this verse is contrasting the throat (top of the body) and the feet. God keeps our throat above the floodwaters (so we do not drown and lose our breath [cf. v.6]) and God also keeps our feet so that we do not stumble to our destruction. That the throat/breath is in view is also confirmed for us in Psalm 69:2 where the same imagery is found, “Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck (nāpaš ) [נָפַשׁ]” (NIV). The Hebrew word, nāpaš (נָפַשׁ) not translated by the NASB95 has the sense of breathe or refresh. It is used of the Sabbath Day (Exodus 23:12; 31:17). The anticipated sense of v.9 is that the God who redeemed His people from slavery also leads them into His Sabbath rest/refreshment. Based upon the structure of Exodus and the building of the tabernacle, the tabernacle was the place wherein God’s people entered God’s rest. “Instructions for building the tabernacle…unfold through seven speeches from God to Moses, each one distinguished by the introductory formula “THE LORD said (dābar) [or] spoke (˒āmar) to Moses” (25:1; 30:11,17,22,34; 31:1,12). The seventh speech (31:12-17) culminates the instructions for the tabernacle with the divine plans for the sabbath day, just as in the seven speeches in the creational account of Genesis 1:1-2:4a” (Samuel Balentine, The Torah’s Vision of Worship p.138). Psalm 66 also follows his paradigm of redemption (vv.6,10-12) and entrance into God’s house (v.13). Verse 9 uses the exact same word for rest/throat/refresh as Ex.31:17. |
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[4] The Hebrew word for “abundance” is רְוָיָה (rĕwāyâ). “This noun is… used in highly poetic contexts, occurs in only two passages in the Psalms… A literal translation is, “You have anointed my head with unguent, filled my cup to saturation” (Ps 23:5); “But thou did bring us to saturation” (Ps 66:12)” (Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament p.835). |
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[5] Psalm 66 shares with Psalm 68 the progression of
God and His people from Egypt to God’s house. |
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[6] Chapter 22 of the Westminster Confession of Faith uses vv.13-14 when defining a vow, “A vow is of the like nature with a promissory oath, and ought to be made with the like religious care, and to be performed with the like faithfulness (Isa. 19:21, Eccl. 5:4–6, Ps. 61:8, Ps. 66:13–14)” (paragraph 5). |
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[7] This is the same word used in v.9. The word is probably better translated here
as “breath.” God saved the Psalmists
throat/breath so that God would be extolled by the Psalmist’s tongue (cf.
v.17). |
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[8] Psalm 66 ends with “Blessed be God”; 67 begins and
ends with blessing, Psalm 68 ends with “Blessed be God!”; Psalm 72:17-19 ends
with four mentions of blessing. |
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[9] That Psalm 66 should end with an exclamation point
see Luis Alfonso Schokel, A Manual of
Hebrew Poetics, p.154. |
