Psalms 68:1-18

For the director of music. Of David. A psalm. A song.

1 ^[a]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^[b] ; 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,^[c]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,^[d]

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,^[e]the wings of my dove are sheathed with silver, its feathers with shining gold.”

14 When the Almighty^[f] 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.^[g]

18 When you ascended on high, you took many captives; you received gifts from people, even from^[h] the rebellious— that you,^[i]LORD God, might dwell there.

Psalms 68:1-18 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.

Cross References

• 1. Psalms 12:5; Psalms 132:8
• 2. Psalms 18:14; Psalms 89:10; Psalms 92:9; Psalms 144:6
• 3. Numbers 10:35; Isaiah 17:13; Isaiah 21:15; Isaiah 33:3
• 4. S Psalms 37:20; Hosea 13:3
• 5. S Psalms 22:14; Isaiah 9:18; Micah 1:4
• 6. S Numbers 10:35; Psalms 9:3; Psalms 80:16
• 7. Psalms 64:10; Psalms 97:12; Psalms 32:11
• 8. S 2 Samuel 22:50; Psalms 7:17; S Psalms 30:4; Psalms 66:2; Psalms 96:2; Psalms 100:4; Psalms 135:3
• 9. ver 33; S Exodus 20:21; S Deuteronomy 33:26
• 10. S Exodus 6:3; Psalms 83:18
• 11. Psalms 10:14
• 12. S Exodus 22:22; S Deuteronomy 10:18
• 13. S Deuteronomy 26:15; Jeremiah 25:30
• 14. Psalms 25:16
• 15. Psalms 113:9
• 16. Psalms 79:11; Psalms 102:20; Psalms 146:7; Isaiah 61:1; Luke 4:18; Acts 12:6
• 17. Psalms 107:34; Isaiah 35:7; Isaiah 49:10; Isaiah 58:11
• 18. S Exodus 13:21; Judges 4:14
• 19. Psalms 78:40; Psalms 106:14
• 20. S 2 Samuel 22:8
• 21. S Judges 5:4; 2 Samuel 21:10; Ecclesiastes 11:3
• 22. S Deuteronomy 33:2; Exodus 19:16,18
• 23. S Judges 5:5
• 24. S Deuteronomy 32:2; S Job 36:28; S Ezekiel 34:26; Deuteronomy 11:11
• 25. S Deuteronomy 28:12
• 26. Psalms 65:9; Psalms 74:19
• 27. Luke 2:13
• 28. Joshua 10:16
• 29. S Judges 5:30
• 30. S Genesis 49:14
• 31. 2 Samuel 22:15; Joshua 10:10
• 32. Judges 9:48
• 33. ver 22; Numbers 21:33; Jeremiah 22:20
• 34. S Psalms 36:6
• 35. Deuteronomy 12:5; S Psalms 2:6; Psalms 132:13
• 36. Psalms 132:14
• 37. S 2 Kings 2:11; Isaiah 66:15; Habakkuk 3:8
• 38. Deuteronomy 33:2; Daniel 7:10
• 39. S Psalms 47:5
• 40. Psalms 7:7
• 41. Judges 5:12
• 42. Ephesians 4:8*
• 43. S Numbers 17:10

Footnotes

• [a]. In Hebrew texts 68:1-35 is numbered 68:2-36.
• [b]. Or "name," / "prepare the way for him who rides through the deserts"
• [c]. Or "the desolate in a homeland"
• [d]. The Hebrew has "Selah" (a word of uncertain meaning) here and at the end of verses 19 and 32.
• [e]. Or "the campfires;" or "the saddlebags"
• [f]. Hebrew "Shaddai"
• [g]. Probable reading of the original Hebrew text; Masoretic Text "Lord is among them at Sinai in holiness"
• [h]. Or "gifts for people," / "even"
• [i]. Or "they"