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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!

28. Thy God hath commanded thy strength Men are always disposed to arrogate to themselves the glory of what they may have done instead of tracing their success to God, and David reminds the people once more that they had not triumphed by their own strength, but by power communicated from above. If they had acquitted themselves with energy on the field, he would have them consider that it was God who inspired them with this valor, and would guard them against the pride which overlooks and disparages the Divine goodness. As a consideration which might farther tend to promote humility in their minds, he adverts to the dependence in which they stood of the future continuance of the same favor and protection; this being the great cause of presumptuous confidence, that we do not feel our own helplessness, and are not led under a sense of it to resort humbly to God for the supply of our wants. Another lesson which the passage teaches us is, that more is required than that God should visit us at first with his preventing grace; that we stand constantly in need of his assistance throughout our whole lives. If this be true in the literal warfare, where our conflict is with flesh and blood, it must be still more so in matters of the soul. It is impossible that we could stand one moment in the contest with such enemies as Satan, sin, and the world, did we not receive from God the grace which secures our perseverance.

What is said of the temple in the following verse is intended to carry out the same strain of sentiment which has been already expressed. It gives the reason why God had exerted his power in behalf of the Israelites rather than others; which was, that it might be displayed as coming forth from the sanctuary and the ark of the covenant. Hence the emphasis with which David calls him in a previous part of the psalm — the God of Israel. It was not in vain that God had erected his sanctuary, or promised his presence in connection with it; and his power is here represented as issuing from the temple, to denote that the only security for his favor was to be found in his gracious covenant and promises. Some read, From thy temple in Jerusalem — a frigid interpretation, and one which does not express the meaning of the Psalmist. His prayer is to the effect that the Divine power might be commanded from the sanctuary upon his chosen people, here denoted by a common figure of speech by Jerusalem. It may be asked how he speaks of the temple, when it had not been yet built. The word temple or palace may have been used to express the tabernacle. This, at least, I think more probable than that he should speak of the temple by anticipation, as some suppose; and there can be no doubt that the ark had already been placed in Zion. Having already traced all the honor of the recent victories to God, he next proceeds to vindicate his claim to reap the fruits of them, by asserting that the kings who had been subdued would acknowledge God to have been their conqueror, as well as yield themselves tributary to David and his successors, — a circumstance which should lay the people of God under an additional obligation to present him with their free-will offerings of praise.