Psalms 68:22

22 The Lord said, I shall turn (again) from Bashan; I shall turn (again) into the depth of the sea. (The Lord said, I shall return from Bashan; I shall return from the depths of the sea./The Lord said, I shall bring back my people from Bashan; I shall bring them back from the depths of the sea.)

Psalms 68:22 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 68:22

The Lord said
Within himself, in his own heart; he resolved upon it in his mind; or he said it in council and in covenant; he undertook and engaged to do what follows; or he spoke of it in promise and in prophecy, as what would be done;

I will bring again from Bashan;
as he delivered his people from Og king of Bashan formerly, ( Numbers 21:33-35 ) ; so he purposed and promised to ransom them out of the hands of him that was stronger than they; to recover them from the strong man armed, and deliver them from the power of darkness, and translate them into his own kingdom, and save them from all the bulls of Bashan; see ( Psalms 22:12 ) ; to which text Jarchi refers in the exposition of this; though some understand it of the fat and great ones of the earth, of the conversion of kings and princes, ( Psalms 22:29 ) ;

I will bring [my people] again from the depths of the sea;
out of the most wretched and desperate condition, out of the depths of sin and misery; out of an helpless and hopeless state, in which they were through the fall, and their actual transgressions: the allusion is to the bringing of the children of Israel through the Red sea, and out of the depths of it, unto dry land: the Targum interprets the whole of the resurrection of the righteous, whether devoured by wild beasts, or drowned in the sea; see ( Revelation 20:13 ) ; some interpret the passage of the Lord's gathering of his people, in the effectual calling, from the east and from the west; from the east, signified by Bashan; and from the west, by the depths of the sea; see ( Isaiah 43:5 ) .

Psalms 68:22 In-Context

20 Our God is God to make men safe; and out-going from death is of the Lord God. (Our God is the God who saveth people; and our escape from death is by the Lord God.)
21 Nevertheless God shall break the heads of his enemies; the top of the hair of them that go in their trespasses. (But God shall break the heads of his enemies; yea, the top of their hair who go in their trespasses.)
22 The Lord said, I shall turn (again) from Bashan; I shall turn (again) into the depth of the sea. (The Lord said, I shall return from Bashan; I shall return from the depths of the sea./The Lord said, I shall bring back my people from Bashan; I shall bring them back from the depths of the sea.)
23 That thy foot be dipped in blood; the tongue of thy dogs be dipped in (the) blood of the enemies of him. (So that thy feet can be dipped in the blood of thy enemies; and so that the tongues of thy dogs can also be dipped in their blood.)
24 God, they saw thy goings in; the goings in of my God, of my king, which is in the holy (place). (God, they saw thy procession; yea, the procession of my God, of my King, who is in the holy place, or in the sanctuary.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.