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Psalm 68:15-21

Listen to Psalm 68:15-21
15 A 1mountain of God is the mountain of Bashan; A mountain of many peaks is the mountain of Bashan.
16 Why do you look with envy, O mountains with many peaks, At the mountain which God has 2desired for His abode? Surely 3the LORD will dwell there forever.
17 The 4chariots of God are myriads, 5thousands upon thousands; The Lord is among them as at Sinai, in holiness.
18 You have 6ascended on high, You have 7led captive Your captives; You have received gifts among men, Even among the rebellious also, that the LORD God may dwell there.
19 Blessed be the Lord, who daily 8bears our burden, 9The God who is our salvation. Selah.
20 God is to us a 10God of deliverances; And 11to GOD the Lord belong escapes from death.
21 Surely God will 12shatter the head of His enemies, The hairy crown of him who goes on in his guilty deeds.

Psalm 68:15-21 Meaning and Commentary

To the chief Musician, A Psalm [or] Song of David. The Targum makes the argument of this psalm to be the coming of the children of Israel out of Egypt, and the giving of the law on Mount Sinai; in which it is followed by many of the Jewish interpreters: but Aben Ezra rejects such an interpretation of it, and thinks that David composed it, concerning the war he had with the uncircumcised nations, the Philistines and others, 2 Samuel 8:1, &c. And so the title of the Syriac version begins, "a psalm of David, when the kings prepared themselves to fight against him:" and Kimchi says it was composed on account of Sennacherib's army coming against Jerusalem, in the times of Hezekiah, and so delivered by David, under a spirit of prophecy concerning that affair; though he owns that some of their writers interpret it of the war of Gog and Magog, in the times of the Messiah they yet expect. But they are much nearer the truth, who take it that it was written on occasion of the ark being brought to the city of David; seeing it begins with much the same words that Moses used when the ark set forward in his times, Numbers 10:35; and the bringing of which was attended with great joy and gladness, 2 Samuel 6:14; such as the righteous are called upon to express in this psalm, Psalm 68:3. And this being a type of Christ, and of his ascending the holy hill of God, may be allowed of; for certain it is that this psalm treats of the coming of Christ, and of blessings by him, and of victory over his enemies; and particularly of his ascension to heaven, as most evidently appears from Ephesians 4:8; and from prophecies in it, concerning the calling of the Gentiles. Wherefore the latter part of the Syriac inscription of it is very pertinent; "also a prophecy concerning the dispensation of the Messiah, and concerning the calling of the Gentiles to the faith." Jarchi interprets Psalm 68:31 of the Messiah.
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Cross References 12

  • 1. Psalms 36:6
  • 2. Deuteronomy 12:5; Psalms 87:1, 2; Psalms 132:13
  • 3. Psalms 132:14
  • 4. 2 Kings 6:17; Habakkuk 3:8
  • 5. Deuteronomy 33:2; Daniel 7:10
  • 6. Psalms 7:7; Psalms 47:5; Ephesians 4:8
  • 7. Judges 5:12
  • 8. Psalms 55:22; Isaiah 46:4
  • 9. Psalms 65:5
  • 10. Psalms 106:43
  • 11. Deuteronomy 32:39; Psalms 49:15; Psalms 56:13
  • 12. Psalms 110:6; Habakkuk 3:13

Footnotes 6

  • [a] Or "mighty mountain is"
  • [b] Lit "twice ten thousand"
  • [c] Another reading is "The Lord came from Sinai into the sanctuary"
  • [d] Heb YAH
  • [e] Heb "YHWH," usually rendered LORD
  • [f] I.e. in view of; lit "for"
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.Lockman.org

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