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68. Psalm 68

¹ May God arise, may his enemies be scattered;
   may his foes flee before him.
² May you blow them away like smoke—
   as wax melts before the fire,
   may the wicked perish before God.
³ But may the righteous be glad
   and rejoice before God;
   may they be happy and joyful.

    ⁴ Sing to God, sing in praise of his name,
   extol him who rides on the clouds Or name, / prepare the way for him who rides through the deserts;
   rejoice before him—his name is the LORD.
⁵ A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
   is God in his holy dwelling.
⁶ God sets the lonely in families, Or the desolate in a homeland
   he leads out the prisoners with singing;
   but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.

    ⁷ When you, God, went out before your people,
   when you marched through the wilderness, The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here and at the end of verses 19 and 32.
⁸ the earth shook, the heavens poured down rain,
   before God, the One of Sinai,
   before God, the God of Israel.
⁹ You gave abundant showers, O God;
   you refreshed your weary inheritance.
¹⁰ Your people settled in it,
   and from your bounty, God, you provided for the poor.

    ¹¹ The Lord announces the word,
   and the women who proclaim it are a mighty throng:
¹² “Kings and armies flee in haste;
   the women at home divide the plunder.
¹³ Even while you sleep among the sheep pens, Or the campfires; or the saddlebags
   the wings of my dove are sheathed with silver,
   its feathers with shining gold.”
¹⁴ When the Almighty Hebrew Shaddai scattered the kings in the land,
   it was like snow fallen on Mount Zalmon.

    ¹⁵ Mount Bashan, majestic mountain,
   Mount Bashan, rugged mountain,
¹⁶ why gaze in envy, you rugged mountain,
   at the mountain where God chooses to reign,
   where the LORD himself will dwell forever?
¹⁷ The chariots of God are tens of thousands
   and thousands of thousands;
   the Lord has come from Sinai into his sanctuary. Probable reading of the original Hebrew text; Masoretic Text Lord is among them at Sinai in holiness
¹⁸ When you ascended on high,
   you took many captives;
   you received gifts from people,
even from Or gifts for people, / even the rebellious—
   that you, Or they LORD God, might dwell there.

    ¹⁹ Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior,
   who daily bears our burdens.
²⁰ Our God is a God who saves;
   from the Sovereign LORD comes escape from death.
²¹ Surely God will crush the heads of his enemies,
   the hairy crowns of those who go on in their sins.
²² The Lord says, “I will bring them from Bashan;
   I will bring them from the depths of the sea,
²³ that your feet may wade in the blood of your foes,
   while the tongues of your dogs have their share.”

    ²⁴ Your procession, God, has come into view,
   the procession of my God and King into the sanctuary.
²⁵ In front are the singers, after them the musicians;
   with them are the young women playing the timbrels.
²⁶ Praise God in the great congregation;
   praise the LORD in the assembly of Israel.
²⁷ There is the little tribe of Benjamin, leading them,
   there the great throng of Judah’s princes,
   and there the princes of Zebulun and of Naphtali.

    ²⁸ Summon your power, God Many Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint and Syriac; most Hebrew manuscripts Your God has summoned power for you;
   show us your strength, our God, as you have done before.
²⁹ Because of your temple at Jerusalem
   kings will bring you gifts.
³⁰ Rebuke the beast among the reeds,
   the herd of bulls among the calves of the nations.
Humbled, may the beast bring bars of silver.
   Scatter the nations who delight in war.
³¹ Envoys will come from Egypt;
   Cush That is, the upper Nile region will submit herself to God.

    ³² Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth,
   sing praise to the Lord,
³³ to him who rides across the highest heavens, the ancient heavens,
   who thunders with mighty voice.
³⁴ Proclaim the power of God,
   whose majesty is over Israel,
   whose power is in the heavens.
³⁵ You, God, are awesome in your sanctuary;
   the God of Israel gives power and strength to his people.

Praise be to God!

16. Why leap ye, ³²³²     The word here rendered leap ye “occurs only here,” observes Hammond, “and is by guess rendered to leap, or lift up, or exalt one’s self; but may best be interpreted, not leap as an expression of joy, but lift up, or exalt yourselves, as an effect of pride;” and he understands the meaning to be, Why do ye lift up or exalt yourselves, ye high hills, God not having chosen any of the highest hills to build his temple on, but the hill of Zion, of a very moderate size, lower than the hill of Hermon, and at the foot of it, (Psalm 133:3.) Some Jewish commentators, founding their opinion on the cognate Arabic word רצר, would render it, to look after This gives the same sense. What look ye for? what expect ye, ye high hills, to be done to you? Ye are not those which God has chosen to beautify with his glorious presence, but mount Zion is the object of his choice. Aquila and Jerome read, “Why contend ye?” Dr Chandler renders it, “Why look askance?” i e., “with jealous leer malign,” as Milton expresses it. “Why are ye jealous?” Horsley, following Jerome, has, “For what would ye contend?” ye high hills? In this verse there is no obscurity or ambiguity. David having said that there was only one mountain in all the world which God had chosen, calls upon the highest hills to yield it the pre-eminency. As he repeats in the plural number what had been said immediately before of Bashan, this leads me to think that he intended first to oppose that mountain, and then all other high mountains generally, to Zion. ³³³³     “The Psalmist,” says Horsley, “having settled the Israelites between their hills, proceeds to the circumstance of God’s choice of a hill for the site of his temple. He poetically imagines the different hills as all ambitious of the honor, anxiously waiting God’s decision, and ready to enter into a jealous contention; watching each other with an anxious eye. The lofty hill of Bashan first puts in his claim, pleading his stately height —
   The hill for God is the hill of Bashan;
A hill of lofty brows is the hill of Bashan.
   The Psalmist cuts short the contention —
   For what would ye contend, ye hills of lofty brows?
This is the hill desired of God for himself to dwell in;
Yea, Jehovah will dwell in it for ever.” Mountains are here to be understood figuratively, and the great truth conveyed is, that the kingdom of Christ, which God had begun to shadow forth in the person of David, far excels all that is reckoned glorious by the world. The reproof which the Psalmist administers, in order to humble the proud boasting of the world, is justified by that contempt which we know that carnal and ungodly persons entertain of Christ’s kingdom, devoted as they are to their own pleasures or wealth, and unable to appreciate spiritual blessings. The lesson will be felt to be the more useful and necessary, if we consider that this vain pride of man rises to an additional height, when the slightest occasion is afforded for its exercise. When we see those indulging it who have no grounds to do so, we need not wonder at the arrogance of such as are possessed of wealth and influence. But the Lord’s people may afford to leave them to their self-complacency, resting satisfied with the privilege of knowing that God has chosen to take up his habitation in the midst of them. They have no reason to repine at their lot so long as they have union with God, the only and the sufficient source of their happiness.