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Psalm 68

Praise and Thanksgiving

To the leader. Of David. A Psalm. A Song.

1

Let God rise up, let his enemies be scattered;

let those who hate him flee before him.

2

As smoke is driven away, so drive them away;

as wax melts before the fire,

let the wicked perish before God.

3

But let the righteous be joyful;

let them exult before God;

let them be jubilant with joy.

 

4

Sing to God, sing praises to his name;

lift up a song to him who rides upon the clouds—

his name is the L ord

be exultant before him.

 

5

Father of orphans and protector of widows

is God in his holy habitation.

6

God gives the desolate a home to live in;

he leads out the prisoners to prosperity,

but the rebellious live in a parched land.

 

7

O God, when you went out before your people,

when you marched through the wilderness, Selah

8

the earth quaked, the heavens poured down rain

at the presence of God, the God of Sinai,

at the presence of God, the God of Israel.

9

Rain in abundance, O God, you showered abroad;

you restored your heritage when it languished;

10

your flock found a dwelling in it;

in your goodness, O God, you provided for the needy.

 

11

The Lord gives the command;

great is the company of those who bore the tidings:

12

“The kings of the armies, they flee, they flee!”

The women at home divide the spoil,

13

though they stay among the sheepfolds—

the wings of a dove covered with silver,

its pinions with green gold.

14

When the Almighty scattered kings there,

snow fell on Zalmon.

 

15

O mighty mountain, mountain of Bashan;

O many-peaked mountain, mountain of Bashan!

16

Why do you look with envy, O many-peaked mountain,

at the mount that God desired for his abode,

where the L ord will reside forever?

 

17

With mighty chariotry, twice ten thousand,

thousands upon thousands,

the Lord came from Sinai into the holy place.

18

You ascended the high mount,

leading captives in your train

and receiving gifts from people,

even from those who rebel against the L ord God’s abiding there.

19

Blessed be the Lord,

who daily bears us up;

God is our salvation. Selah

20

Our God is a God of salvation,

and to G od, the Lord, belongs escape from death.

 

21

But God will shatter the heads of his enemies,

the hairy crown of those who walk in their guilty ways.

22

The Lord said,

“I will bring them back from Bashan,

I will bring them back from the depths of the sea,

23

so that you may bathe your feet in blood,

so that the tongues of your dogs may have their share from the foe.”

 

24

Your solemn processions are seen, O God,

the processions of my God, my King, into the sanctuary—

25

the singers in front, the musicians last,

between them girls playing tambourines:

26

“Bless God in the great congregation,

the L ord, O you who are of Israel’s fountain!”

27

There is Benjamin, the least of them, in the lead,

the princes of Judah in a body,

the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali.

 

28

Summon your might, O God;

show your strength, O God, as you have done for us before.

29

Because of your temple at Jerusalem

kings bear gifts to you.

30

Rebuke the wild animals that live among the reeds,

the herd of bulls with the calves of the peoples.

Trample under foot those who lust after tribute;

scatter the peoples who delight in war.

31

Let bronze be brought from Egypt;

let Ethiopia hasten to stretch out its hands to God.

 

32

Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth;

sing praises to the Lord, Selah

33

O rider in the heavens, the ancient heavens;

listen, he sends out his voice, his mighty voice.

34

Ascribe power to God,

whose majesty is over Israel;

and whose power is in the skies.

35

Awesome is God in his sanctuary,

the God of Israel;

he gives power and strength to his people.

 

Blessed be God!


24. They have seen thy goings, O God! This verse may refer to processions of a warlike kind, or to such as are made in times of peace by those who give thanks for victory. It is customary for the people of God, on occasions of the latter description, to go forth and present peace-offerings in the temple. This has led some to understand by the goings of God, 4646     “This doubtless refers to the order of the procession then on its march, and to that of religious processions in general. In the religious and festal processions of the Hindoos there is the same order and classes of performers. The singers, men and women, precede, singing songs appropriate to the occasion; and then the players on instruments follow after.” — Illustrated Commentary upon the Bible. the crowds of his people when they proceed to the temple. But I am disposed to think that God himself is here represented as a king leading and marshalling forth his armies. Accordingly, it is added, in the sanctuary, under which expression there is an apt allusion to the visible symbol of the Divine presence. The great reason why God undertakes the guardianship of his people, and goes before them to repel the attacks of the enemy, is his having promised that he will hear their prayers in the sanctuary. He is therefore described as if he were seen coming out of his holy habitation, that he might conduct his people to victory. David calls him his King, to divert the attention of the people from himself, and lead them to view a name which belonged to a frail mortal man such as he was, in its higher application to the supreme Head of all. He speaks, it is true, in the name of the people, but not to the exclusion of himself.

25. The singers went before It is evident that he does not now speak of an army in battle array, but of a solemn assembly held for offering up thanksgivings to God for victory. God had openly shown that he was their leader in war, and to him the song of triumph is with propriety addressed. Mention is made of distinct choirs employed in his service, and particularly of such as played upon the timbrel; for, absurd as the practice may appear to us, it was then customary for the women to play upon that instrument. By the fountain 4848     “A metaphor denoting the posterity of Israel, springing, as it were, from a common source or fountain.” — Mant Bishop Hare’s conjectural emendation gives a good sense; but it seems unnecessary. Instead of ממקור, mimmekor, he proposes to read מקור, mekor; and then the passage would run thus: —
   “The fount whence blessings spring to Israel’s race.”

   Horsley reads, “The Lord of the stock of Israel;” and explains it of the Messiah, who was of the stock of Israel according to the flesh. Fry conceives that the reading more strictly may be, “from the quarry of Israel; dug, as it were, from this pit, hewn from this rock. See Isaiah 51:1.”

   “They blessed Elohim in the congregations,
The Lord from the stock of Israel, (or from the quarry of Israel.)”
from which they are called upon to bless God, some understand the heart, as it is known that those praises which proceed from the lips merely, and are hypocritical, meet with the Divine reprobation. But I conceive the true meaning to be, that all are summoned to praise the Lord who could deduce their origin from the patriarch Jacob. Many might not sustain the character which answered to their high vocation; but, as the whole race had been chosen of God, the Psalmist very properly invites them to engage in this devotional exercise. At the same time, I see nothing objectionable in the opinion, if any persist in preferring it, that the term is here used to distinguish the true saints of God from those who vainly boasted of being the posterity of Abraham, while they had degenerated from his spirit. Those only who walk in the footsteps of his faith are reckoned to be his children. It has caused some surprise that, in a general description of the sacred assemblies of the people, precedence should have been given to the tribe of Benjamin According to certain interpreters, this is owing to the position which it occupied, as being next to David; and honor is put upon the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali, 4949     Zebulun and Naphtali were in Galilee, divided from the country of the half-tribe of Manasseh; the former by the Jordan, the latter by the Lake of Gennesareth. which, though they lay at a great distance, were in a particular manner friendly and attached to him. Others think that the whole nation is represented under the tribes specified, which were at once the nearest and most distant. 5050     Why these tribes in particular? May it be, Judah (having, instead of Reuben, succeeded to the blessing which conveyed the privilege of having the Chief Ruler and Messiah of his line) and Benjamin (צעיר) the youngest? or Judah and Benjamin, as two of the tribes most southern and nearest to Jerusalem; and Zebulun and Naphtali, as two of the most northern and most remote? as another way of expressing ‘from Dan to Beersheba,’ to include them all.” — Dr Lowth These conjectures 5151     Of other conjectures the following are a specimen: “As for Zebulun and Naphtali, why their names are here added rather than any of the other tribes, the reason may, perhaps, best be taken from what we find prophesied of those two (Genesis 49 and Deuteronomy 33 and Judges 5.) by Jacob and Moses and Deborah, that learning and knowledge should be most eminent in those two tribes. Of Naphtali it is said, (Genesis 49:21,) ‘Naphtali is a hind let loose; he giveth goodly words;’ and of Zebulun, (Judges 5:14,) ‘They shall handle the pen of the writer.’” — Hammond. “It then specifies the tribes of Judah, Zebulun, and Naphtali, not as if they were the only tribes present, but as occupying, perhaps, the foremost ranks of the procession, and followed by all the other tribes.” — Walford. are probable enough, but the point is one which may be left in uncertainty, as there may have been some other reason, which it is impossible for us to discover. It has been suggested that Benjamin is called little on account of the smallness of its numbers, the tribe having been nearly exterminated for the crime of the men of Gibeah, (Judges 19:20;) but David would not probably have adverted to any reproach of this kind in calling them to take so prominent a part in the praises of God. 5252     “Car David appelant yci ceux qui devoyent faire le plus grand devoir et estre les premiers a annoncer les louanges de Dieu, n’eust pas fait mention de ceste acte qui estoit ignominieux, et tendoit grandement a leur deshonneur.” — Fr. The inspired writers, in speaking of the tribes, often allude to the patriarchs from whom they respectively took their origin; nor is it surprising that the posterity of Benjamin, who was the youngest of Jacob’s children, 5353     The Septuagint has, “There is Benjamin the younger.” He was the son of Jacob’s old age; and to this there is an allusion in the name, which is compounded of בן, ben, a son, and יםין, yamin, of days, (according to the Chaldee plural termination, ין, yin,) intimating that he was the son of his father’s old age, (Genesis 44:20,) and not, as is commonly said, the son of my right hand Bythner should receive the designation here given to them; and the truth is, that even antecedently to the heavy stroke which befell them, they were not numerous. Interpreters, by general consent, have considered that Benjamin is called ruler, as Saul, who was first made king in Israel, belonged to this tribe; but I cannot bring myself to think it probable that David would have made such an unseasonable allusion to Saul’s memory, whose government is everywhere represented in Scripture as pregnant with disaster, and which was to be buried in that of his successor, whose reign is so prominently brought forward in this psalm. The more likely conjecture is, that this title of dignity is applied in order to put honor upon a tribe, which some might despise for its smallness, and to intimate that the Benjamites, though few in numbers, and not possessed of great influence, formed one head in Israel as well as the rest. 5454     “Caput tamen unum efficere.” — Lat. “Font toutesfois un chef comme les autres lignees.” — Fr. Others may be disposed to think that there must have been some illustrious individual in this and the two tribes mentioned along with it, or that the whole tribe had signalised itself in a recent battle. Though honorable mention is made of these tribes, yet the chief place in the numbers assembled together at this time is assigned to the princes of Judah. Some think that the copulative is understood, and read, the princes of Judah and their congregation The Hebrew word which we translate congregation is by others translated stoning. 5555     The word רגמתם, rigmatham, here translated congregation or assembly, signifies, according to Parkhurst, a heap of stones for defence, a bulwark of stones; and he considers it to be here applied metaphorically to the princes of Judah, who, so to speak, were the bulwark of Israel. Horsley adopts the same reading: “The princes of Judah their bulwark.” Hammond, after stating that the word signifies a stone, observes, that it “is here used in a metaphorical sense for a ruler or governor, as a foundation-stone which supports the whole building may fitly be applied to a commonwealth, and then signify the prince thereof.” In this sense the LXX., no doubt, understood רגמתם, rigmatham, who render it ἡγεμόνες αὐτων, “their governors.” “It may mean,” says Pike, in his Hebrew Lexicon, “their supreme authority, signified by stoning, a capital punishment among the Israelites, in the same manner as it was represented among the Romans by the Fasces and Securis, the instruments of punishment carried before the Consuls.” Jerome, however, has taken it for another word nearly similar to it in its letters, signifying purple, — “in purpura sua;” — but this comes to the same thing as the Septuagint translation. Dathe has “agmen,” “a troop;” and according to Gesenius, it signifies “a multitude, crowd, band.” But it seems preferable to construe the words as implying that this tribe presided over the assembly which marched under its auspices in war. The power of summoning the people together is thus asserted as belonging to Judah, and it is represented as honored with the government and primacy of the kingdom.


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