Psalms 76:4

A difficult verse. Two renderings are grammatically possible: either, Illustrious art Thou, majestic, from the mountains of prey: or, more than the mountains of prey. The second rendering however appears to involve an unsuitable comparison, whether mountains of preyis explained to mean the strongholds of the invaders, or as a metaphor for the invaders themselves, and the first rendering is certainly preferable. It describes God either as issuing forth from mount Zion to spoil the foe (Psalms 68:35); or better, as a lion returning from the mountains where he has hunted his prey. Cp. Isaiah 14:25, "I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountainstread him under foot." The fierce lion of Assyria who "filled his caves with prey, and his dens with ravin" (Nahum 2:11 ff; Nahum 3:1) had met his match.

The LXX has, from the eternal mountains(cp. Habakkuk 3:6), a reading which is preferred by some commentators, and understood to mean the mountains of Zion, on which God has placed His throne.

The word rendered majestic(A.V. excellent) is applied to God in Isaiah 10:34: "Lebanon," the emblem of the Assyrians, "shall fall by a majestic one" :Isaiah 33:21, "There Jehovah will be with us in majesty" :cp. the cognate word in Exodus 15:11, "majestic in holiness."