Psalm 68:13-23

13 When ye lie among the sheepfolds, [It is as] the wings of a dove covered with silver, And her pinions with yellow gold.

14 When the Almighty scattered kings therein, [It was as when] it snoweth in Zalmon.

15 A mountain of God is the mountain of Bashan; A high mountain is the mountain of Bashan.

16 Why look ye askance, ye high mountains, At the mountain which God hath desired for his abode? Yea, Jehovah will dwell [in it] for ever.

17 The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands upon thousands; The Lord is among them, [as in] Sinai, in the sanctuary.

18 Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led away captives; Thou hast received gifts among men, Yea, [among] the rebellious also, that Jehovah God might dwell [with them].

19 Blessed be the Lord, who daily beareth our burden, Even the God who is our salvation. [Selah

20 God is unto us a God of deliverances; And unto Jehovah the Lord belongeth escape from death.

21 But God will smite through the head of his enemies, The hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his guiltiness.

22 The Lord said, I will bring again from Bashan, I will bring [them] again from the depths of the sea;

23 That thou mayest crush [them], [dipping] thy foot in blood, That the tongue of thy dogs may have its portion from [thine] enemies.

Psalm 68:13-23 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.