Devotionial Short Note of Psalm 76:
Asaph was a lover of eschatology and if he was a theologian in our days, he
would have been a Systematic Theologian specializing on eschatology. That said,
we need to take Koester seriously when he says that there is no occasion in the
history of mankind that we can connect this Psalm’s description to.
Hengstenberg, and other preterists all opt for the destruction of Sennacherib’s
army in 689 BCE outside the gates of Jerusalem. Well, one first have to prove
that Salem is Jerusalem (76:3a). Judges 19:10 says that Jerusalem’s name was
Jebus before. Does the God of the Old Testament, the God that we worship, live
in Palestine or Israel in Jerusalem that is called Zion, since there is today a
Zion’s gate? Absolutely not. Nations are as a speck of dust in a bucket for the
Lord (says Isaiah). Whether the USA, Russia, China, Iran or Israel. If you know
the prophetic charts very well the way Adventists know it and summaries of it
can be seen online in the work of Collier’s maps of Endtime events based on the
Bible and Spirit of Prophecy descriptions of Ellen White, you are on the right
track. The Psalm makes absolutely sense from verse 1 to 13. There is a word that is used frequently
throughout the Psalm which Hengstenberg should have used for starting the
exegesis of the Psalm. It is the word nora’ (2x in 76:8a and 76:13b) or one
time used as naor (76:5a). This word is well-known in the prophetic genre as the
Second Coming event. In Maleachi 3:23 “Behold I will send you Elijah the
prophet before the coming of the great and bright [nora’] day of the Lord”.
This is the Second Advent and before that the Third Elijah spirit will have the
Advent movement over the globe working and when the fourth Elijah comes, he
will be the alarmist that will wake up the church of Laodicea or ten virgins sleeping
as the late night caller announces the Coming of the Bridegroom (to put Jesus’
words in practice). Preterists missed all this. The nora’ brightness of the
Lord has not come yet. Christ came as King of Righteousness before He will come
as King of Glory or Brigthness (nora’) at the end of time. Asaph used the present form of the verb
which we call in Semitic grammars “perfect form”. Perfect means past
translation. It sounds like it happened already. Right? Well, there is a “prophetic
perfect” also. Scholars who do not like eschatology since it reveals their
church as part of the antichrist machines or tools of Satan, will deny the
prophetic perfect or prophetic past description mode in eschatological genres.
They also try to make eschatology late as if it never existed before but only
came after the Bible was finished, too late to be used and thus not relevant to
be considered. Wrong. Just because future description visions are common in
some periods does not mean that they were absent in other or previous periods.
Absence of data does not mean absence of knowledge about that data. Because in
a certain period people forgot the data, God through the Holy Spirit made it
alive and supplied detailed descriptions. No developmental theory here. That is
artificial Hegelianism. “A fear of making the future inheritance seem too
material has led many to spiritualize away the very truths which lead us to
look upon it as our home” (Ellen White, Great Controversy, 674, 675). At the Eschaton, says Asaph 76:2 in what
is now known as Judah near current Jerusalem God will be known. It literally
reads: “God is [niphal mode of the perfect form of the verb] known”. The whole
context will soon indicate that Asaph is no longer in his own time, so we may
as well turn the “is” into “will” = prophetic past. His name is great in
Israel, not of his own time but spiritual Israel throughout the ages. Salem is not Jerusalem and Hengstenberg
had to hesitantly admit: “In all the Old Testament, there is no such thing as
Salem near Jerusalem” (437). Hengstenberg can be downloaded for free from
archive.org. It is volume 2 of his English translation of his Psalms by
Fairbairn and Thompson and digitized by Hildebrandt 2007. It appears in Genesis
14:18 but the use of it in Genesis 33:18 is not about a city but about a
condition which Jacob was in “[in] peace/safe”. Hengstenberg is also correct
saying that Zion has no connection “whatsoever with any thing that occurred in
David’s time” (437). Zion is not on earth. It is the name of the New Jerusalem
in Heaven, it is the current dwelling place of God where His heavenly sanctuary
is, it is the “Mount of God” where His throne is that Satan wished to attach
during the Rebellion in Heaven motif as one can see in Isaiah 14:12-14. Thus,
getting back to Salem. Salem is Zion and Zion is the Heavenly Sanctuary and
Zion will be the New Jerusalem or “Mighty Fortress is our God” in Psalm 46 and
the seven Zions used by the prophet Joel in his book. Stop playing any
geomorphological games searching on earth for this place or that with any of
the above names. Eschatology is not an imagination of the poet or prophet
getting entangled in a series of hyperbolies. It is real and coming and in fact
from our point of view, almost happening. At the Second Coming a shophar will
be sounded from the Sanctuary in Heaven says Joel 2:1. When the fire of Joel 2
comes there is no remnant. Why? They are save in heavenly Zion which is the New
Jerusalem. According to Joel 2:5 it is not people or earthly soldiers here but the
angels are “like a mighty people arrayed for battle”. Chariots cannot ride on mountains
as is portrayed here in Joel 2. The Warrior Messiah is cited (Selah)
(76:4) as breaking bows. Isaiah 14:5 is relevant for this war with the evil by
God. This battle will not happen in history but outside of it after the Second
Coming. Of course at the Second Coming the remnant will be rescued “during a
time of Trouble” Daniel 12:1-2. Hengstenberg wanted to spiritualize Psalm 76:4
making God fighting every day on every front with the evil in our lives. We
call this hermeneutics style “Idealism”. It is making the Bible similar as
William Shakespear’s works. Not so at all. Shakespear et al created with human
mind gymnastics tapped into a mixture of human (also pagan) and divine (also
the Bible) sources but the Holy Spirit enlightened the biblical writers with
realities certainly to come. God will be glorious “from the mountains
of prey” (76:5). In Joel 2:5 the angels at the Second Coming will leap on the
mountains “like horsemen so do they run”. Habakkuk 3 the chariots of angels at
the Second Coming are rolling over the mountains. The evil will “sleep their sleep” (76:6a).
This is death as a sleep. The Old Testament knew nothing of an immortality
inside humans and death outside. It knew of death inside humans and immortality
options outside of the body in Christ only. Isaiah spoke about the same as
Asaph in Isaiah 14:8-9 that at the eschaton the evil will be in Sheol “Sheol
from beneath is excited over you to meet you when you come” and later in verse
11 “have been brought down to Sheol”. This is a song that the resurrected is going
to sing at the Second Coming as they go to heaven which is described by Isaiah 14
and there is later also a side-reference to Satan who will also stay in the
pit. Revelation says that Satan will be bound at the Second Coming for a
millennium or a 1000 years in a state of loneliness. Also 76:7 says the “coma” (nirdam,
the sleep Adam slept when Christ the Surgeon did His surgery on him creating
Eve) will be on the riders and horses, the military hardware at the End Time. As was well-known by the prophets like
Joel 2:11 “The Lord gave forth His voice before His army for His Camp is great
for the Lord is great and very awesome, who can abide?” so also Asaph in 76:8b
is asking at the Second Coming “who may stand before You when thus is Your
anger?” There will be a voice from Heaven at the
Second Coming. The earth will fear and be still/quiet (76:9b). In Revelation 8:1
when the Second Coming takes place just before Christ comes, there will be a
silence for half an hour which is 360 days in a year, 360 divided by 24 hours
equals 15 days per hour, thus 7 and a half day silence in heaven. The trumpets
from Revelation 8:2ff. should not confuse the reader since it is the nature of
prophetic description to describe periods and then stop, go for a lunch and
come back starting all over with another description after a new vision from
8:2ff. In Revelation 6:12 it is the Second Coming and notice that 6:17 used the
same language as here in Psalm 76 “great day of their wrath has come…” See
76:11 speaking of the wrath of Second Coming. God will rise for Judgment just as
Christ will rise after the Investigative Judgment to come at the Second Coming
to Resurrect in Daniel 12:1. Get the order of events straight: Defection, Latter
Rain, Small time of Trouble, Mercy Door closes in heaven, Sealing completed,
Time of Trouble, Michael stands up/rise , Second Coming, Resurrection,
Translation to Heaven, 1000 years in heaven, Hell or Executive Judgment. “In
the standing up of God to Judge to save all the humble of the earth” Selah.
(76:10). Christ sit during the Investigative Judgment or the Judging God, in
which only the saints are judged since 1844 until the close of the Door of
Mercy. When Christ or Michael will stand up to Resurrect on earth (Daniel 12:1),
He will come with His angels at the Second Coming “to save all the humble of the
earth” (Psalm 76:10b). Isaiah 2:21b and 2:19e as well as 2:21c says that Christ
“arises to make the earth tremble”. Also Habakkuk in “…with wrath You trample
nations” (Habakkuk 3:12). At the Second Coming people will bring
presents to Christ (76:12). Asaph is using an Akkadian relative pronoun in
76:12b “that is…”. Asaph is not hinting to Sennacherib using his relative
pronoun that God will be the same as he always was to other nations. This is
cosmic. “All people around Him” (76:12b) will bring presents. Isaiah 18
explains that at the Second Coming the people “from beyond the rivers of Kush”
(Isaiah 18:1) thus people below the Kushite empire of Isaiah’s day that spread
over current Sudan, Ethiopia including Somalia, people south of this, will
bring presents to the Lord “a gift to the Lord of Hosts” (Isaiah 18:7a). Why
hosts? His angels are with Him at the Second Coming. Choirs may be their gift
they want to bring to Christ because every bird on earth was given by the
Creator a special musical instrument in the throat and the Southern Africans
was given by their Creator also an exceptional musical instrument! Choir music
will sing to the Lord of Hosts (Isaiah 18:7b-e) because Christ will be now in
their midst in the New Jerusalem (Isaiah 18:7f).
Asaph ended this glorious description with
a smile on his face and joy in his heart. No matter how life is in his own day,
that day, the Second Coming day, “He will cut the spirit of princes. He is
bright (nora’) to the kings of the earth”. Revelation 14:18-19 speaks the same referring
to the Second Harvest (of the evil weeds to be destroyed) and Hengstenberg 441
also connected the two references.