Psalm 68:5-15

5 (67-6) Who is the father of orphans, and the judge of widows. God in his holy place:

6 (67-7) God who maketh men of one manner to dwell in a house: Who bringeth out them that were bound in strength; in like manner them that provoke, that dwell in sepulchres.

7 (67-8) O God, when thou didst go forth in the sight of thy people, when thou didst pass through the desert:

8 (67-9) The earth was moved, and the heavens dropped at the presence of the God of Sina, at the presence of the God of Israel.

9 (67-10) Thou shalt set aside for thy inheritance a free rain, O God: and it was weakened, but thou hast made it perfect.

10 (67-11) In it shall thy animals dwell; in thy sweetness, O God, thou hast provided for the poor.

11 (67-12) The Lord shall give the word to them that preach good tidings with great power.

12 (67-13) The king of powers is of the beloved, of the beloved; and the beauty of the house shall divide spoils.

13 (67-14) If you sleep among the midst of lots, you shall be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and the hinder parts of her back with the paleness of gold.

14 (67-15) When he that is in heaven appointeth kings over her, they shall be whited with snow in Selmon.

15 (67-16) The mountain of God is a fat mountain. A curdled mountain, a fat mountain.

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.