Psalm 68

1 Or before God, even Sinai before God 2 Or your congregation 3 Or hunch-backed; also verse 16 4 Or has been 5 The Hebrew for you is plural here 6 By revocalization (compare Septuagint); Hebrew Your God has summoned your power 7 The meaning of the Hebrew verse is uncertain 8 Septuagint; Hebrew your

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I. (68:1–3) Gladness When God Arises. Verse 1 adapts the words of Numbers 10:35 (“Arise, O Lord, and let your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate you flee before you”), thus recalling the movement of the ark in the wilderness. (The major difference is that Num. 10:35 is in the form of a prayer, while the psalm offers a declaration using the future form.) From the perspective of the psalm the ark is headed to its destination on Zion. For the ark to take up residence in Zion is for God to be among his people where they now live, as Psalm 68:17 makes clear: “Sinai is now in the sanctuary.” That is, the ark is a “portable Sinai,” where God makes himself present with his people.

This expectation brings with it the happy promise (vv. 2–3) that “the wicked [those who reject God’s covenant] shall perish before God” while “the righteous [those who embrace the covenant] shall be glad,” because God is carrying out his purpose of reversing the effects of sin in the world. Verse 2 employs two images of things that last only a short while: “smoke [that] is driven away” and “wax [that] melts before the fire.” In the same way the wicked, whose threats loom so large in the present experience of God’s faithful, will vanish soon (as God defines “soon”). Verse 3 uses repetition to stress the joyful response of the faithful when God vindicates them: they “shall be glad.” Not only that—they “shall exult” and, even further, “be jubilant with joy”! Their happiness will overflow, so they can entrust themselves to the Lord in the midst of present threats.

II. (68:4–6) Exhortation to Sing to God. The song moves on to invite the faithful to “sing to God” because he has shown himself kind, especially to helpless people, such as the “fatherless” (or “orphans”), “widows” (cf. Deut. 10:18; Ps. 146:9; James 1:27), the “solitary,” and “prisoners.” The “rebellious” (those who set themselves against God’s gracious covenant), however, he exiles to a “parched land”—they may not dwell among his people.

The threefold joyful response of Psalm 68:3 finds an echo in the four descriptions of the invited response of verse 4: “sing,” “sing praises,” “lift up a song,” and “exult.” Verse 4 refers to the Lord as the one “who rides through the deserts.” Some translations (e.g., CSB, NIV) have “who rides on the clouds,” based on what some think to be a parallel expression for Baal in Ugaritic stories; the idea would then be that the Lord, not Baal, is the truly powerful one capable of smiting his foes. There are some linguistic problems with the supposed parallel, however, and the notion of God’s traveling through the desert with his people actually fits the context here (cf. v. 7).485

Verses 5–6 list four examples of people who are utterly vulnerable to exploiters and oppressors in the ancient world. The “fatherless” is just that, someone whose father has died, which would usually leave the family destitute. The ESV generally renders the term as “fatherless” and occasionally as “orphan,” the English word derived from the Greek equivalent (cf. John 14:18; James 1:27). The “widow” ordinarily does not have the means to sustain her family. The “solitary” (or “lonely”; Ps. 25:16) has no one to stand by him in times of trouble; probably here the idea is one without family to help him to marry (113:9). “Prisoners” here are especially those who have been captured and restrained unjustly (cf. 69:33; 79:11; 107:10); if they are men they cannot earn a living or support a family.486 The list is suggestive of all kinds of vulnerable people for whom God cares (and expects his faithful to care for as well).

III. (68:7–10) God’s March from Sinai. These verses recall the way in which God led his people “through the wilderness” (v. 7), from Sinai to his “inheritance” (i.e., Canaan, now the land of Israel), where God’s “flock” (his people) “found a dwelling.” Not only did God give Israel a place to live; he also made it fruitful (“Rain in abundance, O God, you shed abroad”).

Verses 7–8 echo Judges 5:4–5, a portion of Deborah’s Song that also describes God’s progress to the land with his people. The true God is “the One of Sinai,” who gave his revelation to Israel through Moses. Throughout the psalm the special place of Israel in God’s plan is stressed—without despising the Gentiles, who will ultimately be blessed (the final two stanzas).

IV. (68:11–14) Victory over Gentile Kings. This section describes what happens “when the Almighty scatters [Gentile] kings” on behalf of his people.

In verse 11 “the Lord gives the word”—which probably refers to God’s governing of things according to his will, which ensures the deliverance this section celebrates. The “women who announce the news” are probably groups of women who sing the exciting news of the victory (cf. Ex. 15:20–21; 1 Sam. 18:6–7).

The psalm gives us a picture of such a great victory that there is plenty of spoil for the people of Israel to distribute, even to those who did not participate directly in the battle, such as “the women at home” and those men who “lie among the sheepfolds” (either as those who avoided the hardships of war, as in Judg. 5:16, or those who stayed home to mind the livestock; cf. 1 Sam. 30:24–25). An example of the kind of wealth collected in the spoil would be “the wings of a dove covered with silver, its pinions with shimmering gold” (Ps. 68:13)—an extravagantly valuable item.

The location of “Zalmon” (v. 14) is uncertain; it might be the place mentioned in Judges 9:48. It would be a mountain in any case, since the text invites snow to fall on it.

V. (68:15–18) The Mountain of God’s Abode. The previous section ended by referring to a mountain (Zalmon), and now this section compares God’s mountain to the larger “mountain of Bashan” (in the north part of Israel, east of the Jordan).487 Had physical impressiveness been the decisive criterion for choosing the “mount that God desired for his abode” (v. 16), Mount Hermon would have been preferred. Hence we have a portrayal of the larger hills as if they resented the chosen hill, thus stressing God’s freedom to choose according to his own purposes (much as he chose Israel; cf. Deut. 7:6–11). God’s chosen location is the place where he “will dwell forever,” particularly dwell among his people. His “chariots,” numerous as they are (Ps. 68:17), are normally unseen (cf. 2 Kings 6:17).

The ark has proceeded from Mount Sinai, through the desert, into the Promised Land, and finally to Mount Zion. The stanza expects that the singing congregation knows the story and can fill in the blanks with their imagination.

Sinai, where God made his presence known to Israel after they left Egypt, is “now in the sanctuary” on Mount Zion (Ps. 68:17). The ark of the covenant is a kind of portable Sinai, conveying God’s presence to his people. It is not enough to call the ark a “symbol” of God’s presence; the Lord dwells in the place where his ark does and is specially present there (cf. Josh. 3:11 and ESV mg.). In public worship the faithful “appear before God” (Ps. 42:2), “gaze upon the beauty of the Lord” (27:4), “look upon God,” and “behold his power and glory” (63:2; cf. comment on 63:1–2). Amid the worshiping assembly God is “enthroned on the praises of Israel” (22:3). His presence among his people is a gift for which they are to be enduringly grateful.

Psalm 68:18 presents special challenges, largely because of how it is used in Ephesians 4:8. In the context of the psalm the verse describes God’s ascent to Mount Zion as if it were to a high location of prominence, where a conqueror displays his rule; even the (formerly?) “rebellious” pay him homage and join those who present him with gifts and tribute. The quotation in Ephesians does not quite match the LXX (which follows the Hebrew); Paul says that “he gave gifts to men” rather than “receiving gifts among men.” The difference, however, is only superficial; the verb “receive” can have the idea of “receive in order to give” or “fetch” (e.g., Gen. 18:4–5; “bring”). Further, after a conquest the spoils were distributed among the leader’s men. Thus the psalm focuses on the conqueror who acquired the spoils from the defeated, while Paul’s adaptation of the truth of the psalm focuses on how that conqueror distributed the spoils to his own. Paul goes on to describe the “gifts” God distributed, namely, apostles, prophets, and so on (v. 11)—the gifts are the different ways members serve the well-being of the whole body. This “body” is the new temple, the dwelling place for God (Eph. 2:19–22), which is the main reason Paul uses this text. In Ephesians the one who “ascended” is Christ (Eph. 4:9–10); Paul’s application of these words to Christ show that he is to be worshiped as divine.488

VI. (68:19–23) God Protects His People from His (and Their) Enemies. This section celebrates how God “daily bears us [Israel] up” and is “salvation” for his people (v. 19). The particular kind of salvation, or “deliverances from death” (v. 20), here is protection from enemies, which means military victories over them, as indicated by the expressions “strike the heads of his enemies” and “strike your feet in their blood.”

The psalm assumes that the “enemies” here are those who oppose God’s purposes, as evidenced from the words “walks in his guilty ways” (v. 21). The guilt goes well beyond the ordinary failings of those who commit sins to a stubborn and preeminent repudiation of God’s rule that leads to oppressing the faithful, whether by members of God’s own people or by Gentiles (cf. Ezra 9:6–7). It is the duty of those planning and leading worship to ensure that the psalm is applied properly.

Psalm 68:15 had personified Bashan as a mountainous region potentially resentful of God’s choice of Zion. Here in verse 22 the place is portrayed as a place of exile, from which God will “bring them back”; what is more, even if they are exiled to the “depths of the sea” God will do so. There is nowhere the faithful are out of God’s reach, no place from which he cannot bring them back to Zion to fulfill their ultimate purpose of shining God’s light for the whole world (cf. v. 32).

In spite of God’s ultimate purpose of blessing the world, in the near term the oppressors must be stopped. Verse 23 is strikingly realistic in its depiction of the tragic violence that results from human opposition to God: the ground is covered in shed blood, in which the people must step, and dogs (commonly wild or semiferal in the biblical world) will scavenge among the corpses and lick up the blood (1 Kings 21:19; 22:38).

VII. (68:24–27) The Procession. These verses describe a “procession” of Israelites, which consists of “singers” (cf. Ezra 2:41) followed by “virgins playing tambourines” (cf. Ex. 15:2), with “the musicians last” (Ps. 33:3), as they enter “into the sanctuary” in a worship setting. Included in the procession are “princes” from the various tribes; the specific tribes mentioned (Benjamin, Judah, Zebulun, and Naphtali) probably represent the whole of Israel.489

Psalm 68:26 is apparently a summary of their song. The expression “you who are of Israel’s fountain” is obscure. But it makes sense if we think of it as a designation of God’s people: it is they who derive their life and light from God (“with you is the fountain of life”; 36:9).

VIII. (68:28–31) The Gentiles Will Come to the True God. The song now proceeds to pray for God to show his power in the defeat of the enemies. The enemies are here described as fierce wild animals in order to convey how they “lust after tribute” and “delight in war” (v. 30). Such a defeat would be a good thing, both because the enemies’ designs are greedy and bloody and because as a result they and others will come to worship the true God (vv. 29, 31).

The kings who “shall bear gifts” to God are Gentile kings (cf. Isa. 60:7; Hag. 2:7; Zech. 6:15). The prophets fostered the expectation that people from Egypt and Cush (Nubia, the region south of Egypt, called “Ethiopia” by ancient writers; they are the biblical exemplar of remote peoples) would someday come to know God (Ps. 87:4; Isa. 45:14). Further, God’s presence in his “temple at Jerusalem” (Ps. 68:29) will draw Gentiles to the light (1 Kings 8:41–43). Isaiah’s oracle foretells the Gentiles’ coming to worship at God’s temple “in the latter days” (Isa. 2:1–5).490

IX. (68:32–35) Closing Call to Praise. After all the prayers and reflections in the psalm, the call goes out to all the Gentile “kingdoms of the earth,” urging them to “sing to God” now—that is, why should they wait for the messianic era?

In Psalm 68:32 the Gentiles are to “sing” and “sing praises,” echoing the words used in verse 4 that called the faithful in Israel to sing and sing praises. Further, in verse 4 God is the one who “rides through the deserts,” evoking his care for his particular people as they traveled from Egypt to the Promised Land (by way of Sinai and the desert). Now in verse 32 God is the one who “rides in the heavens, the ancient heavens”—the God who cared for this one people actually has a plan that encompasses all peoples under all the heavens, and he has had such a plan from long before Israel existed. Similarly, in verse 34 the Gentiles are to “ascribe power to God,” that is, to express this in their praise (cf. 29:1). God’s majesty is “over Israel”—it is particular—and at the same time his “power is in the skies”—it is universal.

For Gentiles to worship properly they should recognize Israel’s unique role as God’s own people, among whom he has set his “sanctuary,” to whom he “gives power and strength” (68:35), and through whom the world is to receive the revelation of God’s light. As Jesus said, “Salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22). The psalm closes with the wish “Blessed be God,” a sentiment that the Gentiles should acknowledge and one that the singing congregation has now been prepared to feel.