You divided the sea by Your strength; You smashed the heads of the dragons of the sea;
Parallel translations
- WEB You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.
- KJV Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.
- NKJV You divided the sea by Your strength; You broke the heads of the sea serpents in the waters.
- NASB You divided the sea by Your strength; You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.
- NLT You split the sea by your strength and smashed the heads of the sea monsters.
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
Asaph recalls that God split the sea by His strength and crushed the heads of the sea monsters, proving His power over chaos and enemies.
Overview
In a psalm lamenting the temple's destruction, Asaph rallies hope by remembering God's past acts of power. The dividing of the sea echoes the Exodus deliverance at the Red Sea, while the sea monsters picture the forces of chaos and hostile nations subdued by God. The same God who conquered the deep can rescue His people again, a hope ultimately secured in Christ's victory over every power.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Exod 14:21Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove back the sea with a strong east wind that turned it into dry land. So the waters were divided,
- Ps 78:13He split the sea and brought them through; He set the waters upright like a wall.
- Isa 51:9–10Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD. Wake up as in days past, as in generations of old. Was it not You who cut Rahab to pieces, who pierced through the dragon?
- Ezek 29:3Speak to him and tell him that this is what the Lord GOD says: Behold, I am against you, O Pharaoh king of Egypt, O great monster who lies among his rivers, who says, ‘The Nile is mine; I made it myself.’
- Ezek 32:2“Son of man, take up a lament for Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him: ‘You are like a lion among the nations; you are like a monster in the seas. You thrash about in your rivers, churning up the waters with your feet and muddying the streams.’
- Ps 66:6He turned the sea into dry land; they passed through the waters on foot; there we rejoiced in Him.
- Ps 136:13–18He divided the Red Sea in two His loving devotion endures forever.
- Neh 9:11You divided the sea before them, and they crossed through it on dry ground. You hurled their pursuers into the depths like a stone into raging waters.
- Isa 11:15–16The LORD will devote to destruction the gulf of the Sea of Egypt; with a scorching wind He will sweep His hand over the Euphrates. He will split it into seven streams for men to cross with dry sandals.
- Ps 106:8–9Yet He saved them for the sake of His name, to make His power known.
- Exod 14:28The waters flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had chased the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.
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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 74:13 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
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