Put them in fear, O LORD: [that] the nations may know themselves [to be but] men. Selah.
Ver. 20. Put them in fear, O Lord] Strike them with a panic terror, as once the Canaanites, Philistines, 1 Samuel 5:1,12; Syrians, 2 Kings 7:6,7; Germans, in the war against the Hussites, &c. Some read it, Put a law upon them, bridle them, bound them, as thou hast done the sea, Job 38:11. The Greek and Syriac favour this reading.
That the nations may know themselves to be but men] And not gods, as that proud prince of Tyrus, Ezekiel 27:1,36, and Antiochus, who would needs be styled Yεος, to such a height of pride will persecutors grow, if they prosper, and he not taken a link lower, as we say. Homo, id est fracti, saith R. Obad. on this text; men, that is, broken, cracked creatures, morbis mortiquo obnoxii, woeful wights, sorry and sickly captives. This to know savingly is the beginning of true humility, saith Augustine here.