Psalms 72:18

My Notes

What Does Psalms 72:18 Mean?

The psalmist concludes Book II of the Psalms with a doxology: blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things.

Blessed be the LORD God — blessed (baruk) means praised, worthy of blessing. The declaration is not a request but a statement: the LORD is blessed — worthy of praise simply for who he is.

The God of Israel — the identification is covenantal. This is not a generic deity. He is the God of Israel — the one who chose Abraham, delivered from Egypt, gave the law, established the kingdom. The praise is directed to the specific God who has acted in specific history.

Who only doeth wondrous things — only (levad) means alone, by himself. No one else does what God does. The wondrous things (niphlaot — from pala, to be extraordinary, to be beyond comprehension) are works that exceed natural explanation. They are wonderful because they are beyond human capacity and understanding.

The word only is critical: God alone does these things. No angel. No human. No other power. The wondrous works are exclusively divine. The claim is not that God does wondrous things among many who do them. It is that God is the only one who does them at all.

Verse 19 continues: blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen. The doxology moves from the God of Israel to the whole earth — the God who acts wondrously for Israel is the God whose glory should fill every corner of creation.

The verse serves as a liturgical conclusion to the second book of Psalms (Psalms 42-72), but its theology is timeless: the God of the covenant is the God who alone does what no one else can do.

Reflection Questions

• 1.What does 'only' add to the declaration — and what does it exclude?
• 2.What wondrous things has God done in your life that exceeded natural explanation?
• 3.How does identifying God specifically as 'the God of Israel' make the praise concrete rather than abstract?
• 4.What is the right response to wonder — and how does this verse model it?

Devotional

Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel. Blessed — praised, honored, exalted. And the God being praised is specific: the God of Israel. Not a vague spiritual force. The God who made promises to Abraham, who parted the Red Sea, who spoke from Sinai. The God who acts in history, with specific people, for specific purposes.

Who only doeth wondrous things. Only. Alone. No one else does what God does. The wondrous things — the works that exceed explanation, that surpass human capacity, that leave you with no response except wonder — are his alone. No other being in the universe produces them.

Wondrous things. The parting of seas. The raising of dead. The transformation of hearts. The forgiveness of sins. The holding together of the universe. Every one of them is his work alone. No committee. No partnership. No assistance required. Only God does these things.

The word only should stop you. It means that every genuinely wondrous thing you have ever experienced — every moment that exceeded natural explanation, every provision that defied probability, every transformation that was beyond human engineering — was God. Only God. There is no other source of genuine wonder.

Blessed be his name. The only appropriate response to a God who alone does wondrous things is praise. Not analysis. Not comprehension. Praise. Because the things he does are too wonderful to understand — and the right response to wonder is worship.

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture