Misinterpretations often take the imagery literally, anticipating a future cataclysm where physical mountains dissolve like wax during end-times events, ignoring the psalm's hyperbolic poetic style meant to exalt God's glory rather than predict geology; others reduce it to mere judgment symbolism, overlooking the surrounding verses' emphasis on joy, light dawning for the upright, and the call to worship the sovereign Lord.
Psalms 97:5
King James Version (1769)
5 The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.
This verse uses vivid poetic imagery to convey the awesome power and majesty of the Lord, whose presence causes even the sturdiest hills to melt like wax, underscoring His supreme sovereignty as the Lord of the whole earth and evoking profound reverence and worship among His people in the context of Psalm 97's celebration of God's righteous kingship over creation.