What Does Psalm 76:7 Mean?
You, even you, are held in awe; and who can stand before your face in the burning of your anger?
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Thou, even thou, art to be feared: and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry?THE KEY
The verse joins awe of God with the question of who can remain standing when God’s anger rises.
THE MEANING
God’s presence meets you as awe, and God’s anger is not something you can simply outlast by will or status. The verse leaves its question open and piercing: who can hold their place before you when your anger rises?
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that anyone can remain self-grounded and secure before divine anger, as though God’s presence could be faced on one’s own terms.
THE ROOT
נוֹרָא
nora
GROWS FROM
ירא
To fear, revere, or stand in awe.
“held in awe” in this verse is nora. נוֹרָא names the one who evokes awe, so “feared” holds reverence and dread together. The verse sets that awe beside anger and asks who can remain standing in its presence.
ALSO GROWS
yare: To fear or stand in awe.
יָרֵא
The same root shows that the verse’s fear belongs to the language of awe before God.
yirah: Fear or awe.
יִרְאָה
This noun carries the same response named by נוֹרָא.
mora: Dread or awe.
מוֹרָא
This branch shows the weight of the response evoked by the presence described here.
יַעֲמֹד
ya'amod
GROWS FROM
עמד
To stand, remain, or take one’s position.
“stand” in this verse is ya'amod. The question reaches beyond bodily posture to whether anyone can maintain a position before this presence. The root’s sense of remaining makes the verse’s challenge one of holding one’s place when anger rises.
ALSO GROWS
amad: To stand or remain.
עָמַד
This is the verb’s basic sense in the question “who may stand?”
omed: Standing; one who stands.
עֹמֵד
This form keeps the focus on a person remaining in place.
ma'amad: Position or standing.
מַעֲמָד
This branch brings out the question of whether anyone can hold their position before God.
לְפָנֶיךָ
lefanekha
GROWS FROM
פנה
To turn or face toward.
“thy sight” in this verse is lefanekha. לְפָנֶיךָ draws on face-language: literally, “before your face.” The פנה family carries the motion of turning or facing, making the question one of standing directly in God’s presence, where anger is not distant or abstract.
ALSO GROWS
panim: Face; presence.
פָּנִים
This face-word underlies the phrase “before you” and makes the encounter immediate.
panah: To turn or face toward.
פָּנָה
The same consonantal family adds orientation to the phrase “in thy sight.”
pniyah: A turning or direction.
פְּנִיָּה
This branch preserves the family’s sense of facing toward someone or something.
THE PATTERN
When divine anger comes into view, the question of standing exposes whether anyone can hold their ground before it.
If you, LORD, mark crookednesses, O Lord, who can stand?Who stands before his seething? Who rises in the burning of his nostril? His heat is poured out like fire, and the rocks are torn apart by him.For the great day of their anger comes, and who is able to stand?THE THREAD
If you, LORD, mark crookednesses, O Lord, who can stand?Both verses use עמד (amad, עָמַד), the verb for standing or remaining. Psalm 76:7 asks who can stand before God’s anger; Psalm 130:3 asks who can stand if crookedness is marked, revealing the same exposure from two directions.
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