Psalm LXVIII
To tho chief .Musician. A Psalm or Song of David.
1 Let God arise, let his enemies be scuttcred: let them also that hate hiui
flee before him.
2 As smoke is driven away, so drive them away:
As wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
3 But let the righteous be glad; let them rejoice before God: Yea, let them exceedingly rejoice.
4 Sing unto God, sing praises to his name:
Extol him that ridctii upon the heavens by his name JAH, and rejoice before him.
5 A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his huly
habitation.
6 God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound
with chains:
But the rebellious dwell in a dry land.
7 O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people, When thou didst march through the wilderness. Selah.
8 The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God: Even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.
n Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain,
Whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance, when it was weary.
10 Thy congregation hath dwelt therein:
Thou, O God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor.
11 The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it.
12 Kings of armies did flee apuce: and she that tarried at home divided the
spoil.
io Though ye have lien among the the pots,
Yet shall yc be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her fealhcvs with yellow gold.
14 When the Almighty scattered kings in it, it was white as snow in Salmon.
15 The hill of God is as the hill of Bashan; an high hill, as the hill of Bashan.
16 Why leap ye, ye high hills?
This is the hill which God desireth to dwell in j
Yea, the Lord will dwell in it for ever.
17 The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: The Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place.
18 Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: Thou hast received gifts for men;
Yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them.
19 Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, Even the God of our salvation. Selah.
20 He that is our God is the God of salvation;
And unto God the Lord belong the issues from death.
21 But God shall wound the head of his enemies.
And the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his trespasses.
22 The Lord said, I will bring again from Bashan,
I will bring my people again from the depths of the sea:
23 That thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies. And the tongue of thy dogs in the same.
24 They have seen thy goings, 0 God: even the goings of my God, my King,
in the sanctuary.
25 The singers went before, the players on instruments followed after; Among them were the damsels playing the timbrels.
26 Bless ye God in the congregations, even the Lord, from the fountain of
Israel.
27 There is little Benjamin with their ruler, the princes of Judah and their
council; The princes of Zebulun, and the princes of Naphtali.
28 Thy God hath commanded thy strength: Strengthen, O God, that which thou hast wrought for us.
29 Because of thy temple at Jerusalem shall kings bring presents unto thee.
30 Rebuke the company of spearmen,
The multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the people. Till every one submit himself with pieces of silver. Scatter thou the people that delight in war.
31 Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands
unto God.
32 Sing unto God, ye kingdoms of the earth; O sing praise unto the Lord
Selah.
33 To him that rideth upon the heavens of heavens, which were of old! Lo, he doth send out his voice, and that a mighty voice.
34 Ascribe ye sti-ength unto God:
His excellency is over Israel, and his strength is in the clouds.
35 O God, thou art terrible out of thy holy places!
The God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power unto his )>copIc. Blessed be God.
THE CHURCH FKOM THE WILDERNESS TO llEST. 201
Another “Psalm and Song,” by David, the sweet singer of Title and Israel. As David’s days of adversity furnished many occasions for appropriate Psalms, which the Son of David and his Church were afterwards to use in their times of trial, so the more prosperous season, when the Ark which had been removed in procession by David to Mount Zion, was and afterwards by Solomon carried up to Moriah, seems to have provided a fit occasion for this triumphant song. It has been called “The magnificent march.” Certainly it is throughout a tracing of the stately steps of the Lord in his goings forth for His Church, from the Wilderness onward to final rest.
The plan is as follows: — The vun.
Ver. ]-S. Prefatory strains, celebrating Jehovah as almighty to scatter foes, almighty to make friends exult with joy. Ver. 4-6. General characteristics of his ways — grace to the
helpless — to all that do not reject his help. Ver. 7-9. His ways, with Israel in the Wilderness — glorious
majesty and gracious bounty. Ver. 10-14. His ways, in bringing Israel into Canaan — the
irresistible might of a King in behalf of his own. Ver. ] 5-1 7. His ways, in fixing his seat on Zion, the ark
being carried up thither — sovereignty. Ver. 18-23. His ways, in the typical setting forth on Zion of an ascended Saviour, the savour of life to his own, though the savour of death to his rejecters. Ver. 24-31. His ways, in the Ark removed afterwards to the temple on Moriah — Israel gathered round it (ver. 26, 27), and the Gentiles flocking to Shiloh there (ver. 29, 31). All this typical of the Lord’s advent, as true Solomon. Ver. 32-35. The closing doxology to the King of kings on reviewing the whole, and seeing “the Kingdom Come.” Such seems to be the plan. It would carry us beyond our verse i limits to go into full details, since almost every verse is rich and laden with meaning. A few hints may be of use, however, on some of the more difficult clauses. Some render verse 1 “God shall arise,” q. d., it shall always be thus, as they sang Num. X. 35, and Judges v. 31.
In verse 4 the justified ones, singing before their justifier, Verfe4. cry, “Make a iva.y for him that rideth tJivovijh the wilderness” {ry)2’)V or plain; the Angel of the Covenant that redeemed them from all evil. It is iheir King whom they thus honour, and so they raise the cry, “Prepare the way /” as in Isa. xl. 3, and as the Baptist did when he saw the King of the kingdom at hand. His name “Jah” rT* expresses the fulness of being and perfection; and Horsley would fain add beauty too.
In verse 5, Israel’s helpless case in Egypt, Earth’s helpless case since the Fall, the sinner’s state, “without strength,” may all be found here. The “widow’s judge,” implies his managing and ruling the affairs of such as have no other to interpose, like as Gideon, or any judge of Israel, put in order a disordered county, and bore the burden of its cares. And does not Jas. i. 21 refer to this verse, for we have “the fatherless,” “the widow,” and then the “holiness,” of the God we serve?
In verse 8 the ratifying of the covenant at Sinai, in circumstances of awful grandeur, is the theme; and verse 9 speaks of the “rain of gifts” (Hengst.) that attended Israel all through the Desert — manna, quails, water from the rock — when God’s heritage pitched their tents on the flinty and scorched soil of that weary wilderness.
Then, in verse 10, the host of Israel “settle down on It” i. e., the well-known, ever-in-view Land of Promise. The Lord “gave the word” — (as in Psa. cv. 19) — as if at every step there had been repeated, like Joshua vi. 16, “Shout, for the Lord has given you the land!” and responding multitudes, even of the women of Israel, proclaim the victory, and sing, as did Miriam at the Eed Sea,
“Kings of armies flee I ihey flee! And she that tarries at home divides the spoil.’” (Ver. 12.)
So easily does Jehovah conquer! And now, “Ye lie down amid the borders, and are as doves;” or rather, they who were “lying among the pots” are now like the dove that has washed itself in the streams, and is basking in the sun whose bright beams glance on its feathers with the sheen of silver and gold. Yes, it was easy for Jehovah to scatter kings. “There was snow on Zalmon.” They fell before him as snow disappears among the thick-wooded heights of Zahnon (Judg. ix. 48) in the day of tempest. *
Israel now at rest, where is the A rk of the Covenant? Not on Bashan, i. e., the range of Antihbamis, though that was a “hill of God,” such a hill as reminded one of the power of Him who setteth fast the hills by his might (Hengst.) — nor yet on other lofty hills such as Tabor, Lebanon, or Carmel. The more lowly Zion is selected, and thither the sovereign Lord comes with all his hosts. There he resides, as in a pavilion — in that Holy of Holies which combines the manifestation of justice and mercy at the mercy-seat — for “Sinai is in the sanctuary’’’ (^”lp4 “”^PJ- He is as much present here as when the law was given on Sinai. There, though unseen except by the eye of faith, he reigns, more mighty in his angelic heavenly hosts than ever was king with his chariots, so that Israel need no more fear a Jabin with his nine hundred chariots of iron (Judg. iv. 2). An anointed eye, (like his in 2 Kings vi. 27,) might see these hosts in Israel’s land at any moment, under the rule of Israel’s king.
Ascended to Zion, no more wandering from place to place, the Ark is the centre of blessing to Israel — there worshippers get gifts; there daily benefits are dispensed. And in this was typified the Saviour, no more a wanderer on earth from place to place, seated at the Father’s right hand, and showering down his gifts on man — the antitype infinitely greater than the type, and his gifts infinitely more spiritual and plentiful (Eph. iii. 8). Here is (ver. 7) a “Selah,” the mark of solemn thought; for herein is a great mystery of love (ver. ] 9). The words are literally rendered, “Thou hast received gifts among men.” Here is a constr. proegn. for “received, and given out among inen (Eph. iv. 18), even among the rebels.” And then follows, ‘^ At the tabernacling of J ah Elohim” (as ver. 16), that is, at the time when he pitched his tabernacle. But, there is refe-
* Zalmon is mentioned rather than Hermon, or any other of that northern range, because it is so nearly in the heart of the Land, and near Shechcm (Josh. xxiv. 1), where some of the earliest gatherings of Israel took place. Tholuck thinks the allusion to the snow is to its flakes falling on the ground. So fell the ranks of the foe, and their silver ornaments glittered white as they fell.
rence 1. To the type on Zion; 2. To the days of his First Coming; 3. To the still future Tabernacling, Rev. xxi. 3.
But again let the harp sing of Him who is thus exalted, mighty to save, and mighty to overcome his enemies. Jehovah is “God of our salvation,” and “Selah” calls onus to ponder. Then it is repeated,
“The God (of Israel) is God to us, as to salvations. (/liylQ^) And to Jehovah belong the issues, as to the death” (r)Qb)- (Ver. 21.)
He dashes his foes in pieces, cleaving their hairy scalp from the head from which the helmet has been struck off. Yes, says the Lord,
“I will turn him (the foe) back from Bashan, I will turn him back from the depths of the sea.’’ (Ver. 22.)
Though they were to make lofty Bashan their fortress, or hide in the caverns of the deep. (See Amos vii. 3; Obad. 4.)
But all is not yet over. The Ark moves again! It moves to Moriah — to Solomon’s temple. Then see the royal procession (ver. 24), and hear the songs of happy thousands under the reign of that Prince of Peace —
“Bless ye God in the congregations, TJie Lord (in the congregations that are), /rom the fountain of Israel.” There the gathered tribes are seen; the south sends Benjamin, once “their ruler,” (as it sent Saul, 1 Sam. xiv. 7, and so became the conquering tribe) and Judah, their prince, or perhaps “their bulwark.”* The north is represented by Zebulon and Naphtali. Thus God has provided strength to them. And Gentiles, too, are there (ver. 29). What a type of the latter days, when the true Solomon, Prince of Peace, has come from the Father’s right hand to his own throne — from Zion to Moriah! Then, more fully than in the first Solomon’s days, it will be sung —
“He lias rebuked the Beast of the Reed,
(The hippopotamus, who, like leviathan, is the type of Antichrist.) The assembly of mighty ones (bulls, Psa. xxii. 12), With cahes of the nations’’ (Ver. 30.) These mighty kings and their subjects — bulls and Jcalves — with their leader, are rebuked and destroyed; and along with * I’arkhurst refers to Homer’s “iy.oc Xyaiorj,” <is parallel.
these, the mammon-worshipper, “who crouches with pieces of silver;” or rather,
“He tJmt prostrates himself on pieces of silver.” The nations that delight in war are scattered, for it is the reion of the Prince of Peace. Egypt sends princes to Zion, and Ethiopia hastens to submit to God. And thus we are led on to the closing strain — the shout of joy over earth now delivered and put under Jehovah’s sway —” Ye kingdoms ofeaiih, sing ye to God I Chant ye to the Lord I
Who rideth in the heaven of ancient heaven.’ (0^p ‘^12’^), (i. e., Who claims as his domain the inmost recess of the eternal heaven.) “Lo! he uttereth a mighty voice when he .ipeaketh.” (Ver. 33.) He calls on the universe for praise in verse 34. But even in that universal hallelujah there is prominence given to Israel — “His majesty is over Israel” (ver. 84), as if Israel’s land were the spot of the universe where his manifested glory is to be seen in its peculiar radiance —
“God of Israel! thou are a terrible God from thy holy places!”
(Ver. 36.) “Giving strength and might to the (peculiar) ^eqp?e / Blessed be God /” Let every soul cry, “Blessed be God!” Let that be the heartcry of earth for evermore. And let it not fail to be ours, while we trace in such a record as this,
Messiah’s leadings of Israel and the Church from the Wilderness into final