Psalm 68:5-15

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!

Psalm 68:5-15 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.

Footnotes

• [a] Or [company of the women]
• [b] Traditional rendering of Heb [Shaddai]