John Calvin Commentary Psalms 76:8

"Thou didst cause sentence to be heard from heaven; The earth feared, and was still," — Psalms 76:8 (ASV)

From heaven you have made your judgment to be heard. By the name of heaven, the Psalmist strongly suggests that the judgment of God was too clear to be attributed either to chance or to human strategy. Sometimes God executes his judgments obscurely, so that they seem to proceed from the earth.

For example, when he raises up a godly and courageous prince, the holy and lawful administration that will flourish under the reign of such a prince will be the judgment of God, but it will not be vividly seen to proceed from heaven. Therefore, as the assistance spoken of was of an extraordinary kind, it is distinguished by special commendation.

The same remarks apply to the hearing of God’s judgment, of which the Psalmist speaks. It is more significant for divine judgments to sound aloud like a peal of thunder, stunning the ears of everyone with their noise, than if they were merely seen with the eyes.

There is here, I have no doubt, an allusion to those mighty thunderclaps by which people are struck with fear. When it is said, the earth was still, this properly refers to the ungodly, who, being panic-struck, yield the victory to God and no longer dare to rage as they had been accustomed to do.

It is only fear that has the effect of bringing them to subjection; accordingly, fear is justly represented as the cause of this stillness. It is not meant that they restrain themselves willingly, but that God compels them whether they want to or not.

The point is that whenever God thunders from heaven, the tumults that the insolence of the ungodly stirs up, when things are in a state of confusion, come to an end. We are, at the same time, warned of what people may expect to gain by their rebellion; for whoever despises the paternal voice of God which is loudly uttered, must be destroyed by the bolts of his wrath.