Ps. 76.7-9 (silence and deliverance)

 O You / You are / the Awesome One
who can stand / before you / when you are angry?
From the heavens / you caused judgment / to be heard
the earth feared / and was quiet, - when God rose / for justice,
to give deliverance / to all the oppressed. 

By this point in the psalm we are aware that the ‘magnitude’ of God’s authority—his ‘awesomeness’—is perceived by way of his warrior judgment. In this verse, the psalmist begins again the refrain to God in a way reminiscent of verse 1 (“The Renowned One…”) and verse 4 (“You are the Resplendent One…”). As with those verses as well, this verse focuses in on this initial description of astonishing power and then proceeds into its manifestation, its action. The first section (vs. 1-3) looked at his ‘shattering power’. The second section (vs. 4-6) on his power to utterly and terribly subdue his enemies. Here, the focus turns to explicit anger in the face of injustice. It is an anger that has been clear from the beginning. However, it is only here where we come to see clearly the source of God’s terrible face. Importantly, the flame of his anger begins in his concern for the “deliverance of all the oppressed”. Here is where the ‘den’ and ‘lair’ of Zion finds its source, that ‘shattering power’ that was explicitly aimed at the cessation of war. The terrible scene of verse 4-6 finds its reason-for-being in a judgment intended to release the oppressed. In other words, God’s terrible expression of his power is not simply that—the expression of power. Rather, it is the burning flame of love as it erupts in wrath toward those who perpetuate inequity and injustice. In the face of this anger “who can stand” (vs. 7). This anger is so profound that it is perceived as coming “from the heavens”. When it crashes to earth, a total and absolute silence ensues (vs. 8). The silence, however, is a prelude. It signals the ‘rising of God’ in judgment. It is the calm before the storm of his deliverance (vs. 9). In this way, we see here the totality of the earth’s subjugation to God when he rises. This silence indicates the utter powerlessness of the earth in the face of God. Further, this silence will also signal the stilling of the “rage of humankind” (vs. 10), what in other psalms is called the “clamor” of man. All of the disordered and mere ‘noise’ of the earth (that mock liturgy of chaos) is here silenced. And, as with the rest of psalm, it is terribly silenced. The sense here of overwhelming power coming down from heaven is clear. It is like a shout from God. This silence is the silence of a profound fear (vs. 8).