Lay terror upon them, O LORD; let the nations know they are but men. Selah
Parallel translations
- WEB Put them in fear, Yahweh. Let the nations know that they are only men. Selah.
- KJV Put them in fear, O LORD: that the nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah.
- NKJV Put them in fear, O Lord, That the nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah
- NASB Put them in fear, Lord; Let the nations know that they are merely human. Selah
- NLT Make them tremble in fear, O Lord. Let the nations know they are merely human. Interlude
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
David asks God to make the nations fear and know that they are only men. Human pride is answered by the reminder of human frailty before God.
Overview
The psalm closes by praying that the nations recognize their creaturely limits before God. To know they are 'only men' is to abandon the pride that defies the Creator. 'Selah' marks a pause to weigh this humbling truth, which all humanity must one day acknowledge before God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Isa 31:3But the Egyptians are men, not God; their horses are flesh, not spirit. When the LORD stretches out His hand, the helper will stumble, and the one he helps will fall; both will perish together.
- Jer 32:40I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never turn away from doing good to them, and I will put My fear in their hearts, so that they will never turn away from Me.
- Ps 62:9Lowborn men are but a vapor, the exalted but a lie. Weighed on the scale, they go up; together they are but a vapor.
- Ps 82:6–7I have said, ‘You are gods; you are all sons of the Most High.’
- Deut 2:25This very day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon all the nations under heaven. They will hear the reports of you and tremble in anguish because of you.”
- Acts 12:22–23And they began to shout, “This is the voice of a god, not a man!”
- Ps 76:12He breaks the spirits of princes; He is feared by the kings of the earth.
- Ezek 30:13This is what the Lord GOD says: I will destroy the idols and put an end to the images in Memphis. There will no longer be a prince in Egypt, and I will instill fear in that land.
- Ezek 28:9Will you still say, ‘I am a god,’ in the presence of those who slay you? You will be only a man, not a god, in the hands of those who wound you.
- Exod 23:27I will send My terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn and run.
- Ezek 28:2“Son of man, tell the ruler of Tyre that this is what the Lord GOD says: Your heart is proud, and you have said, ‘I am a god; I sit in the seat of gods in the heart of the sea.’ Yet you are a man and not a god, though you have regarded your heart as that of a god.
- Exod 15:16and terror and dread will fall on them. By the power of Your arm they will be as still as a stone until Your people pass by, O LORD, until the people You have bought pass by.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 9:20 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.