Like one waking from a dream, so You, O Lord, awaken and despise their form.
Parallel translations
- WEB As a dream when one wakes up, so, Lord, when you awake, you will despise their fantasies.
- KJV As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.
- NKJV As a dream when one awakes, So, Lord, when You awake, You shall despise their image.
- NASB Like a dream when one awakes, Lord, when stirred, You will despise their image.
- NLT When you arise, O Lord, you will laugh at their silly ideas as a person laughs at dreams in the morning.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Like a dream that vanishes on waking, the Lord will dismiss the empty fantasies of the wicked.
Overview
The seemingly solid success of the wicked proves as insubstantial as a dream. When God acts in judgment, their pretensions evaporate. This image strips earthly prosperity of its illusion of permanence and fixes hope on the enduring reality of God himself.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Job 20:8He will fly away like a dream, never to be found; he will be chased away like a vision in the night.
- Ps 78:65Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a mighty warrior overcome by wine.
- Isa 29:7–8All the many nations going out to battle against Ariel—even all who war against her, laying siege and attacking her—will be like a dream, like a vision in the night,
- Ps 90:5You whisk them away in their sleep; they are like the new grass of the morning—
- Ps 39:6Surely every man goes about like a phantom; surely he bustles in vain; he heaps up riches not knowing who will haul them away.
- Ps 7:6Arise, O LORD, in Your anger; rise up against the fury of my enemies. Awake, my God, and ordain judgment.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 73:20 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.