Misinterpretations often take the imagery literally, ascribing human emotions and sentience to waters and seas as if they independently fear God, overlooking the anthropomorphic poetry that illustrates divine majesty in the Exodus context; others detach it from the psalm's theme of recalling God's saving acts amid personal lament, reducing it to a generic praise of nature's submission, or misuse it to deny scientific explanations of natural events by insisting on supernatural fear in every instance.
Psalms 77:16
King James Version (1769)
16 The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled.
This verse poetically captures the terrifying awe of creation before God's presence, specifically evoking the Red Sea's waters parting in fear during the Exodus to deliver Israel, emphasizing God's sovereign power over nature and His faithful intervention in history to affirm that the same divine might remains available for those in distress who remember His deeds.