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Psalm 77:16

The waters saw you, God. The waters saw you, and they writhed. The depths also convulsed.

14You are the God who does wonders. You have made your strength known among the peoples.
15You have redeemed your people with your arm, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.
16The waters saw you, God. The waters saw you, and they writhed. The depths also convulsed.
17The clouds poured out water. The skies resounded with thunder. Your arrows also flashed around.
18The voice of your thunder was in the whirlwind. The lightnings lit up the world. The earth trembled and shook.
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← Psalm 77:15Psalm 77:17 →
Notice

The waters writhe at the sight of God, a startling picture that gives even the depths a response to his presence and strength.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

What changes in your reading when the waters are pictured as seeing God?

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How does the waters’ trembling shape your understanding of the redemption described just before it?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

7 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.

This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Exodus 14:21Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters …Both describe waters responding to God’s power: the psalm pictures them writhing, while Exodus records the sea being divided.
Psalm 114:3The sea saw it, and fled. The Jordan was driven back.Both portray water as able to see and react, using bodily movement to describe its response.
Joshua 3:15–16and when those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark had dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan …Both feature waters, though the supplied Joshua verse describes priests entering the flooded Jordan without yet describing the water’s response.
Habakkuk 3:15You trampled the sea with your horses, churning mighty waters.Both address God through pictures of turbulent water: the depths convulse in the psalm, and mighty waters churn in Habakkuk.
Habakkuk 3:8–10Was the LORD displeased with the rivers? Was your anger against the rivers, or your wrath against the sea, that you rode on your horses, on your chariots of …Both connect God’s presence with waters, though Habakkuk asks about anger against them while the psalm describes their trembling.
Ecclesiastes 12:2Before the sun, the light, the moon, and the stars are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain;The shared thread is nature imagery: Ecclesiastes describes darkened lights and returning clouds, while the psalm describes convulsing waters.
Psalm 104:32He looks at the earth, and it trembles. He touches the mountains, and they smoke.Both portray creation trembling before God: the depths convulse in Psalm 77, and the earth trembles under his gaze in Psalm 104.
Where this verse fits

Praise and worship. fear for the future. feeling distant from God.

What the Bible says about worship →What the Bible says about fear →What the Bible says about doubt →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Read Psalm 77:14–18 aloud, pausing at the repeated words

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Encouragement

These convulsing waters belong to a passage remembering God’s redemption of his people. Their force does not diminish his strength; even the depths tremble before him.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 77:16. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

Keep goingPsalm 77 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).