Psalm 66 is a psalm of praise and thanksgiving that bears no author's name in its heading. It does not say "Of David," nor "Of the sons of Korah," nor "Of Yeduthun" - but simply "To the chief Musician, a Song, a Psalm" (Lamnatzei'ach shir mizmor). Both Ibn Ezra and the Malbim take note of this fact, and from it the Malbim launches an innovative approach. As is well known, the Malbim was never afraid to blaze a new trail, and many of his interpretations are groundbreaking.
לַמְנַצֵּחַ שִׁיר מִזְמוֹר הָרִיעוּ לֵאלֹהִים כָּל־הָאָרֶץ׃ - For the Leader; a Song, a Psalm. Shout joyfully to God, all the earth!
Radak explains that the psalm speaks of the ingathering of the exiles of Israel: it is a song of praise to Hashem, blessed be He, for the time when He will gather our scattered ones. At that time, everyone will see the extraordinary wonders that Hashem will perform for us - "As in the days of your coming out of the land of Egypt, I will show him marvelous things" - and therefore all the earth will shout joyfully to God. Metzudat David also explains that these words refer to the coming of Mashiach: until now, each nation has its own futile beliefs, but when Mashiach gathers the dispersed of Israel and the redemption arrives, all nations will shout a royal fanfare to accept Hashem as God. "All the earth" - not only the people of Israel.
The Malbim explains that the author of the psalm is Menashe son of Chizkiyahu. Chizkiyahu was a righteous man, and he fathered two sons, Menashe and Ravshakeh. At first, he did not want to bring children into the world at all, because he knew through divine inspiration (Ruach HaKodesh) that they would be wicked. And indeed, they did not disappoint: when he carried them on his shoulders to the study hall (Talmud Torah), they began conversing between themselves that their father's head was well-suited for offering sacrifices to idols. Seeing this, the father cast them both down to the ground. One survived and the other passed away. The one who survived was Menashe.
Scripture records that Menashe engaged extensively in wickedness and filled Jerusalem with blood from end to end, and the verses mention several times that the exile was brought about because of the sins of Menashe. However, Menashe repented - and not merely at the very end of his life, but many years earlier, in the middle of his days.
The account of his repentance does not appear in the Book of Kings, but in Divrei HaYamim (Chronicles): the army commanders of the king of Assyria arrived, "and they captured Menashe with hooks, bound him with copper chains, and brought him to Babylon. And when he was in distress, he pleaded before Hashem his God and humbled himself greatly." Chazal in Ein Yaakov on Masechet Sanhedrin explain that they placed him inside a bronze cauldron and lit a fire beneath it. In such a desperate situation, a person realizes that his end is near, and he began calling upon all of his idols - and he had an ample collection of them: "God of Ammon, answer me! God of Dagon, answer me! God of the Philistines, answer me! God of Moav, answer me!" But no one answered. There was no one to talk to.
Then he remembered that when he was a child, his father had carried him on his shoulders and told him: "When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you... you will return to Hashem your God." He then audaciously turned toward Heaven and said: "Master of the Universe, if You exist, save me! And if not, You are no different than the other gods" - dust to his mouth. A person who sets such ultimatums deserved to be left there by the Holy One, blessed be He. Indeed, the ministering angels sought to block his prayer and shut the gates. Yet the Holy One, blessed be He, dug an opening for him beneath the Throne of Glory so people would not say that the door is bolted before penitents - that Menashe repented and was not received. Through this, He accepted his prayer and restored him to his kingdom.
Afterward, Menashe knew that Hashem is God; he restored the altar of Hashem, sacrificed peace offerings and thanksgiving offerings upon it, and commanded Judah to serve Hashem, the God of Israel. And in II Chronicles 33 it is written: "Now the rest of the acts of Menashe and his prayer to his God... and his prayer, and how God was entreated of him, and all his sin and his trespass... behold, they are written in the words of the seers (Chozai)." The Malbim asks: Where is his prayer written in the words of the seers? The answer is: right here. "To the chief Musician, a Song, a Psalm; shout joyfully to God, all the earth" is the prayer of Menashe that was recorded in the words of the seers, the possessors of divine inspiration. This is attested to by Ezra, who wrote the Book of Chronicles (the beginning, while Nehemiah completed the rest), as explained in the introductory lessons on Divrei HaYamim.
The Malbim divides the song into four sections, based on his consistent rule: wherever the word "Selah" appears, a theme concludes and a new theme begins. In our psalm, the word "Selah" appears three times, indicating four distinct themes. The first part addresses Hashem's general providence through the laws of nature, concluding with the "Selah" in verse 4. The second part addresses His miraculous providence, concluding with the "Selah" in verse 7. The third part turns to the nations and describes what Menashe endured when he was imprisoned and the subsequent rescue, concluding with the "Selah" in verse 15. The fourth part, which extends to the end of the chapter, is an address to Israel. "Shout joyfully to God" signifies the acceptance of His sovereignty, as a trumpet blast (teru'ah) expresses the coronation of the King, declaring that Hashem is King over all the earth.
זַמְּרוּ כְבוֹד־שְׁמוֹ שִׂימוּ כָבוֹד תְּהִלָּתוֹ׃ - Sing the glory of His Name; make His praise glorious.
Notice that the letter chaf is soft in both words - chevod and chavod - because they are in the construct state. Rashi explains: Sing of the honor of His Name, or recount the glory of His Name through song and melody. The Radak explains: In your psalms and praises, declare that His Name is glorified through the redemption. For during the exile, His Name is blasphemed and degraded among the nations, who say, "Where is their God?" and "Let them rise up and help you." When Israel is downtrodden among the nations, the Name of Heaven is desecrated, as they say: Behold, their God is weak and incapable of saving them.
This was precisely Sancheriv's argument to Chizkiyahu: If you have a God, how is it that I conquered the Ten Tribes and all of Shomron? Your God did not stand before me, so why do you believe He will be able to do so now? Furthermore, he said to him: Even if I were to give you horses and chariots, you lack the men to mount them. He was certain that Yehudah would fall into his hands with ease, after Shomron, which was far larger, had already fallen. In the end, however, the Name of Heaven was sanctified, for when the Holy One, blessed be He, exacts retribution from the nations, His Name is sanctified. And this is the meaning of "Sing the glory of His Name; make His praise glorious": Give praise to Hashem, and through this His honor will be magnified, in contrast to how His Name was previously degraded, as it were, among the nations.
The Malbim explains that the recognition of Hashem comes from two perspectives. The first is through the general creation. Even the ancient philosophers recognized this reality through intellectual inquiry; the ancients were intelligent enough to understand that the world did not create itself, since wisdom is evident in every corner of reality. Therefore, even the nations believed in the "Cause of causes" - that there is a Prime Cause who is the Source of all causes, namely Hashem, may He be blessed. However, they claimed that because the Holy One, blessed be He, is so exalted and immense, He does not concern Himself with the lower realms, there are no divine commandments given to creatures, and He knows nothing of this lowly world. They therefore worshipped intermediaries, constellations, and subordinate forces, rather than the Cause of causes Himself.
From this, the Malbim explains, stems their philosophy: The Holy One, blessed be He, is worthy of honor, since He created the world - but He is not to be feared. Whom does one fear? One who can affect him right now. Whereas He, in their view, created the world, handed over the keys, and walked away. This is why the psalm opens with, "Sing the glory of His Name; make His praise glorious" - "His praise" refers to the honor due Him by virtue of being the Cause of all causes. On this there is no dispute; even the nations concede that Hashem is the cause of everything that exists in the world, and in that respect He is worthy of praise and acclaim.
אִמְרוּ לֵאלֹהִים מַה־נּוֹרָא מַעֲשֶׂיךָ בְּרֹב עֻזְּךָ יְכַחֲשׁוּ לְךָ אֹיְבֶיךָ׃ - Say to God, "How awesome are Your works! Through the greatness of Your power, Your enemies deny You."
The Malbim explains: From creation emerges not only honor, but also awe - "Say to God, 'How awesome are Your works!'" This stands in contrast to the heathen perspective that there is nothing to fear from Him; on the contrary, Your works demonstrate that You guide, supervise, and act according to Your will, even though "through the greatness of Your power, Your enemies deny You."
This is a wonderful explanation by the Malbim, and a similar idea is brought in the work Sha'arei Simchah. There is a well-known expression: when an employee causes problems at work, he is given a higher title - this is known as "kicking someone upstairs." The promotion is not meant to advance him, but rather to spare everyone else from dealing with him. This is what the nations of the world effectively do to the Holy One, blessed be He: they exalt Him - Hashem is lofty, elevated, exalted - and tell you that you are belittling Him by imagining He concerns Himself with a thorn hurting your foot. But this exaltation does not stem from belief in the Creator's greatness; rather, it is for their own convenience: if He does not oversee the world, He does not punish, and there is nothing to fear. This is "through the greatness of Your power, Your enemies deny You": through the very loftiness of Your power, they deny Your providence, claiming that You know nothing of what takes place down here.
In contrast to this, the author of Sha'arei Simchah cites the verse, "Though Hashem is high, yet He regards the lowly." True, Hashem is high - yet along with His loftiness, He sees the lowly. A fundamental distinction exists between "Hashem is high above all nations" and "Great is Hashem, and highly to be praised." To the nations He is ram (high), but to us He is gadol (great). Ram denotes something elevated and distant: the moon is high, the sun is high, a hot-air balloon is high. But regarding the Eiffel Tower, one does not say it is "high" in that sense, but rather "tall" or "great", extending all the way from the ground to the top. When we say "Great is Hashem", it signifies that His greatness begins from below, that He oversees everything that transpires in the lower realms. The nations, by contrast, "kicked Him upstairs" in order to distance themselves from Him and do whatever is right in their own eyes.
This concept is discussed in the Kuzari: They argue against us that we diminish Hashem - would the Holy One, blessed be He, really concern Himself with your petty problems? He is occupied with immense matters, with the maintenance of the cosmos, not with someone's minor backache. In truth, the opposite is true: they are the ones who diminish Him, while we are the ones who magnify Him. Consider: What is the distance from here to infinity? Infinity. If one moves a thousand kilometers closer, what is the distance now? Infinity minus a thousand kilometers? That is absurd; infinity remains infinity. But if one is a trillion light-years away from a certain galaxy, and moves one hundred meters closer, the distance is indeed a trillion light-years minus one hundred meters. In a finite reality, near and far, large and small, are meaningful measurements. In the Infinite, however, there is no large and small.
It follows that whoever claims that before the Holy One, blessed be He, there are large matters and small matters, important things and less important things - he is the one who has limited the Master of the Universe. But we maintain that He is infinite, and in relation to the Infinite, everything is equal. If so, if Hashem takes interest in His world, He certainly takes interest in even the smallest things. To you this may seem belittling, but to the Holy One, blessed be He, on the contrary: "Who is like Hashem our God whenever we call upon Him?" The Holy One, blessed be He, wants you to turn to Him whenever you face a problem, to feel Him and connect with Him, and through this, it will be good for you. This connection is desired by Him, and the claim that "this belittles Hashem" stems from a desire to cast off responsibility: they exalt Him only so they will not have to serve Him.
Rashi explains: "How awesome are Your works" - how awesome is each and every one of Your deeds. "Through the greatness of Your power Your enemies will dissemble to You" - when You display Your power to the world through pestilence, the sword, famine, and lightning, the wicked, out of sheer dread, confess to their denial and the sins in their hands. That is, out of overwhelming terror, a person confesses the deceit and misdeeds he has committed.
And the Radak, consistent with his view that the psalm speaks of the ultimate redemption, explains: "Say to God, 'How awesome are Your works'" - You extracted a weak nation from among many mighty nations, and You are mightier than all of them, to the extent that "through the greatness of Your power Your enemies will dissemble to You" - the enemies will lie and claim: We never harmed Israel, we never did them any wrong. And when does a person lie? When he is afraid. The nations will see the might of Hashem, great dread will fall upon them, and they will come and claim: Everything we did was only for Israel's sake. The Persians will come and say: Master of the Universe, the nuclear bomb - for whom did we build it? Only for Israel! This is said somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but the point is clear: when they realize how dire their situation is, they will begin to lie, all to evade punishment. Then it will become clear "how awesome are Your works through the greatness of Your power."
לְכוּ וּרְאוּ מִפְעֲלוֹת אֱלֹהִים נוֹרָא עֲלִילָה עַל־בְּנֵי אָדָם׃ - Come and see the works of God, awesome in His deeds toward mankind.
The Radak explains that this is what they will say to one another when the redemption arrives: "Come and see." And "awesome in His deeds" - awesome in what He brings about upon human beings, as in the phrase "the designs of man's steps"; Hashem deals with them as He wills in order to bring them to fear Him. Rashi explains "awesome in deed" (in Old French, *jaroy*, meaning feared) - that the dread of Him is in their hearts, and they fear Him lest He find guilt in them, since all their deeds are revealed before Him. In other words, all the actions and steps of a person are before Hashem's eyes, and this inspires awe in man. The word *alilot* (deeds) is akin to *ma'alalav* - his actions.
The Malbim adds: from the natural order alone, the nations do not recognize the hand of Hashem, since nature conveys physicality and an existence seemingly devoid of God. Therefore, the verse tells them: "Come and see the works of God" - through the deeds Hashem performs for the sake of man, you will understand that He is "awesome in deed," and that it is not enough merely to honor Him, but one must also fear Him. Why? Because He has the power to alter nature, to overturn reality in a single moment, and to perform awesome wonders.
To take a contemporary example: we witnessed how within a single month the entire world was turned upside down because of something that only a handful of people had ever seen. None of us saw the coronavirus, Covid-19; only researchers and technicians in laboratories saw it under a microscope - yet look at how an invisible particle upended the entire globe. This is "awesome in His deeds toward mankind": even from what cannot be seen, one can recognize that the Holy One, blessed be He, is present in His world and can overturn the laws of nature. Therefore, one must revere Him and not merely honor Him, for in a single moment He can transform everything.
In his textual analysis, the Malbim explains that *alilot* (deeds) refers to actions that stem from a moral attribute: Hashem acts, orchestrates, and brings about deeds in His world out of a desire to set the world straight, to establish justice, and to prevent wickedness and wrongdoing.
There is a well-known Midrash in Tanchuma (Vayeishev) on the verse "And Joseph was brought down to Egypt," which opens: This is what Scripture says: "Come and see the works of God, awesome in His deeds toward mankind." Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korchah said: Even the awesome decrees that You bring upon us - You bring them through a pretext. And what is this pretext? Come and see: When the Holy One, blessed be He, created the world, on the very first day He created the Angel of Death. From where is this derived? Rabbi Berechiah said: Because it is said, "and darkness was upon the face of the deep" - this refers to the Angel of Death, who darkens the faces of humanity. Yet Adam was created on the sixth day, and a pretext was hung on him that he brought death into the world, as it is said, "for on the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."
*Alilah* here is related to *ilah* - a pretext and a cause: Hashem, as it were, hung the decree on a cause - you ate from the Tree of Knowledge, and because of you death will enter the world. Yet the Angel of Death had already been created on the first day, represented by the darkness. It follows that the Holy One, blessed be He, had already created the Angel of Death ready for his task, but activated him through the deeds of man.
And the Midrash brings an interesting parable: To what is this comparable? To a man who wished to divorce his wife. What did he do? He had a scribe write a get (bill of divorce), entered his home with the get in hand, and sought a pretext to give it to her. He said to her, "Pour me a cup to drink." She poured for him. As soon as he took the cup from her hand, he said to her, "Behold, this is your get." She asked him, "What is my transgression?" He said to her, "Leave my house, for you poured me a cup of lukewarm water." That clever woman said to him, "Did you already know that I was destined to pour you a lukewarm cup, such that you had the get written and brought it in your hand?" In other words: one who wants to divorce seeks a pretext.
It is like the famous story: there were bullies who sought to harass their neighbor. They came and seized him, saying, "Why are you walking without a yarmulke?" - and slapped him. The next day they said, "We need to find something new. Let us ask him for a cigarette; if he asks, 'With a filter or without a filter?', we will say without, and he will hand us one with a filter, and we will slap him." They approached and asked for a cigarette. He asked them, "What would you like, with a filter or without?" They replied, "But why do you not have a yarmulke?" - and slapped him. This is an alilah (a pretext): no matter what, if you do not find it in one thing, you find it in another. In a similar vein, the media often searches for a pretext. It is often remarked: see how much the media loves us; it does not love the Arabs as it loves us. Among them there are terrible riots and mass funerals, and no one cares. But regarding our community - how painful it is to them if a single Jew, one soul of Israel, should perish! Therefore, they are constantly stationed with cameras in Bnei Brak, Jerusalem, Meah Shearim, and Beit Shemesh, inspecting and reporting. How moving it is to see such concern and desire for our well-being, though sometimes we fail to appreciate it enough.
And the Midrash continues: So did Adam say before the Holy One, blessed be He: "Master of the Universe, two thousand years before You created Your world, the Torah was nurtured alongside You, as it says, 'Then I was beside Him, as a nursling... and I was His delight day by day' - and our Sages say that a day of the Holy One, blessed be He, is a thousand years, which shows that the Torah preceded the world. And it is written in it: 'This is the law: when a man dies in a tent.' Had You not already instituted death for the creatures, would You have written this in it? Rather, You came to seize upon me with a pretext, to say that I brought death upon the world, whereas in Your Torah, two thousand years before I was created and sinned, it was already written, 'When a man dies in a tent' - meaning the concept of death already existed in the world." Thus: "Awesome in pretext upon the children of man."
Some resolve this by explaining: there certainly would have been a reality of death in the world even had Adam HaRishon not sinned. For if a person were to take his fellow and crush him - could he survive? What, then, is the meaning of "there was no death in the world"? That there was no natural death - no reality of a person aging and dying. As discussed previously, human beings were not naturally destined to die of old age. The reason is simple: cells die and regenerate constantly, and the human body perpetually renews itself, making it theoretically possible to live for thousands of years. Why, then, is there aging? Because there is a specific gene responsible for aging: for the drying of the skin, the weakening of the body, bone density loss, and the like. Researchers are even studying how to isolate this gene so that man might live forever, though they have yet to find a cure. At any rate, we understand that man could naturally have lived forever, but this does not mean that one who is murdered would remain alive.
The author of Siftei Chaim, Rav Friedlander, elaborates on this very concept in Pirkei Emunah VeHashgachah (Part 1, page 235), citing additional Midrashim and examples of events brought about through an alilah. For instance, the episode with which the Midrash begins - Yosef: for the value of two sela'im of fine wool, a meager striped tunic, our forefathers descended into exile in Egypt. That sparked the jealousy, and from there events unfolded. Yet in truth, upon deeper reflection, this was not the true cause of the exile, for the exile had already been foretold to Avraham: "And they shall serve them, and they shall afflict them... in a land that is not theirs." Thus, it was an alilah - a pretext. To define it: an alilah is the "starter" that triggers the mechanism. The event was destined to occur regardless, but its catalyst happens to be you. Rav Friedlander explains there at length, based on the teachings of the Ramchal, the interplay between the Hanhagah of Mishpat (judgment) and the Hanhagah of Mazal, which will not be elaborated upon here as the subject is broad; one who wishes may study this in the shiurim delivered on the Siftei Chaim.
Psalm 66 opens with a call to all the earth to shout in joy to God - according to the Radak and Metzudat David, regarding the ingathering of the exiles and the future redemption, while according to the Malbim, it is the prayer of Menashe, who repented in the midst of distress, and it is "his prayer that is written in the words of the seers." The Malbim divides the psalm into four sections based on the three occurrences of the word "Selah": natural guidance, miraculous guidance, an appeal to the nations describing the distress and the salvation, and an appeal to Israel. In the verses studied, it was clarified that honoring the Creator merely as the "First Cause" is not enough; awe is also required. The nations "exalt" Hashem in order to exempt themselves from His Providence - "Through the greatness of Your power Your enemies shall feign submission to You" - whereas the truth is that "Hashem is exalted, yet He sees the lowly," and precisely one who attributes even the smallest detail to Him magnifies His glory. And from "Come and see the works of God," we learned that He is "awesome in His deeds toward the children of man" - the Holy One, blessed be He, orchestrates the world through causes and pretexts, guiding events through human actions, and has the power to transform all of reality in a single moment. From this realization, one must revere Him and recognize His Providence in every single detail.