77:14 You are the God who does amazing things;
you have revealed your strength among the nations.
77:15 You delivered 1 your people by your strength 2 –
the children of Jacob and Joseph. (Selah)
77:20 You led your people like a flock of sheep,
by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
78:52 Yet he brought out his people like sheep;
he led them through the wilderness like a flock.
78:53 He guided them safely along,
while the sea covered their enemies.
For the music director; according to the shushan-eduth style; 4 a psalm of Asaph.
80:1 O shepherd of Israel, pay attention,
you who lead Joseph like a flock of sheep!
You who sit enthroned above the winged angels, 5 reveal your splendor! 6
106:9 He shouted at 7 the Red Sea and it dried up;
he led them through the deep water as if it were a desert.
63:12 the one who made his majestic power available to Moses, 8
who divided the water before them,
gaining for himself a lasting reputation, 9
63:13 who led them through the deep water?
Like a horse running on flat land 10 they did not stumble.
2:6 They did not ask:
‘Where is the Lord who delivered us out of Egypt,
who brought us through the wilderness,
through a land of desert sands and rift valleys,
through a land of drought and deep darkness, 11
through a land in which no one travels,
and where no one lives?’ 12
1 tn Or “redeemed.”
2 tn Heb “with [your] arm.”
3 sn Psalm 80. The psalmist laments Israel’s demise and asks the Lord to show favor toward his people, as he did in earlier times.
4 tn The Hebrew expression shushan-eduth means “lily of the testimony.” It may refer to a particular music style or to a tune title. See the superscription to Ps 60.
5 sn Winged angels (Heb “cherubs”). Cherubs, as depicted in the OT, possess both human and animal (lion, ox, and eagle) characteristics (see Ezek 1:10; 10:14, 21; 41:18). They are pictured as winged creatures (Exod 25:20; 37:9; 1 Kgs 6:24-27; Ezek 10:8, 19) and serve as the very throne of God when the ark of the covenant is in view (Ps 99:1; see Num 7:89; 1 Sam 4:4; 2 Sam 6:2; 2 Kgs 19:15). The picture of the Lord seated on the cherubs suggests they might be used by him as a vehicle, a function they carry out in Ezek 1:22-28 (the “living creatures” mentioned here are identified as cherubs in Ezek 10:20). In Ps 18:10 the image of a cherub serves to personify the wind.
6 tn Heb “shine forth.”
7 tn Or “rebuked.”
8 tn Heb “who caused to go at the right hand of Moses the arm of his splendor.”
9 tn Heb “making for himself a lasting name.”
10 tn Heb “in the desert [or “steppe”].”
11 tn This word is erroneously rendered “shadow of death” in most older English versions; that translation is based on a faulty etymology. Contextual studies and comparative Semitic linguistics have demonstrated that the word is merely another word for darkness. It is confined to poetic texts and often carries connotations of danger and distress. It is associated in poetic texts with the darkness of a prison (Ps 107:10, 14), a mine (Job 28:3), and a ravine (Ps 23:4). Here it is associated with the darkness of the wasteland and ravines of the Sinai desert.
12 sn The context suggests that the question is related to a lament where the people turn to God in their troubles, asking him for help and reminding him of his past benefactions. See for example Isa 63:11-19 and Ps 44. It is an implicit prayer for his intervention, cf. 2 Kgs 2:14.