Psalm 68

CLICK HERE to Print Notes

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. A Song.

 1-3     The Character of Our King

God shall arise, let His enemies scatter, and those who hate Him flee before him! ² As smoke is driven away, so You shall drive them away. As wax melts before fire, so the wicked perish before God! ³ But the righteous are happy; they rejoice before God and are jubilant with joy!

4-6      God Rescues His People

Sing to God! Sing praises to His name. Lift up a song to Him who rides through the aravot. His name is Yah; exult before Him! ⁵ Father of the fatherless and Protector of widows is God in His holy habitation. ⁶ God settles the solitary/lonely into a house [family]. He leads out the prisoners in prosperity / in fetters / in song (?), but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.

ערבה (aravah) = “deserts  / clouds”

  מעון (ma’on) = “dwelling”

 7-10    Victories in the Wilderness

O God, when You go out before Your people, when You march through the wilderness, Selah  ⁸ the earth quaked, the heavens poured down rain, before God, the One of Sinai, before God, the God of Israel. ⁹ Rain in abundance, O God, You shed abroad; You restored Your inheritance as it languished. ¹⁰ Your flock settled there. In Your goodness, O God, You provide for the needy.

11-14    The Victory of Deborah

My Lord gives the word; the [women] who announce the good news are a great host: ¹² “Kings of armies flee, they flee!” The beautiful woman (?) at home divides the spoil. ¹³ Were you men to lie among the sheepfolds – the wings of a dove covered with silver, its pinions with shimmering gold. ¹⁴ When Shaddai scatters kings there, let snow fall on Zalmon.

15-18    God’s Heavenly Army

The mountain of God is a lush mountain [lit. “mountain of Bashan”]; the many-peaked mountain is a lush mountain [lit. “mountain of Bashan”]! ¹⁶ Why do you look with hatred / … envy / exalt yourselves [?], O many-peaked mountains, at the mount that God desired for His abode, yes, where Adonai will dwell forever? ¹⁷ The chariots of God are twice ten thousand, thousands of thousands / angels [?]. The Lord is among them [at] Sinai in the sanctuary. ¹⁸ You ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train and receiving gifts among men, even among the rebellious, that Adonai God may dwell there.

19-23    Life in The Land

Blessed is the Lord, who day by day supplies us. God is our salvation. Selah  ²⁰ Our God is a God of salvations, and to Adonai, the Lord, belong deliverances from death [lit. “to death, goings out” / “has toward death many avenues”]. ²¹ But God will strike the heads of His enemies, the hairy crown of him who walks about in his guilt. ²² The Lord said, “I will bring them back from Bashan, I will bring them back from the depths of the sea, ²³ that you may strike your feet in their blood, that the tongues of your dogs may have their portion from the foe.”

24-27   The Victorious Procession

Your procession is seen, O God, the procession of my God, my King, into the sanctuary – ²⁵ the singers in front, the musicians last, between them virgins playing tambourines: ²⁶ “Bless God in the great congregation, Adonai, O you who are of Israel’s fountain!” ²⁷ There is Benjamin, the least of them, in the lead, the princes of Judah in their throng, the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali.

28-31    The Nations Acknowledge God

Summon Your power, O God, the power, O God, by which You have worked for us. ²⁹ Because of Your temple at Jerusalem kings shall bear gifts to You. ³⁰ Rebuke the beast that dwell among the reeds, the herd of bulls with the calves of the peoples. Trample underfoot those who lust after tribute; scatter the peoples who delight in war. ³¹ Nobles shall come from Egypt; Cush shall hasten to stretch out her hands to God.

32-35   Our Glorious King

O kingdoms of the earth, sing to God; sing praises to the Lord, Selah ³³ to Him who rides in the utmost heavens [lit.the heavens of the heavens]; behold, He sends out His voice, His mighty voice. ³⁴ Ascribe power to God, whose majesty is over Israel, and whose power is in the skies. ³⁵ Awesome is God from His sanctuary; the God of Israel – He is the one who gives power and strength to His people. Blessed be God!

---

REFERENCES:

Verse 1

Numbers 10:35  Then it came about when the ark set out that Moses said, “Rise up, Adonai! And let Your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate You flee before You.”

Exodus 14:25,27  And He caused their chariot wheels to drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for Adonai fights for them against the Egyptians.” … So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, Adonai threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea.

Verse 4

Joshua 3:16  The waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap very far away, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, and those flowing down toward the Sea of the Arabah (ערבה, arabah), the Salt Sea, were completely cut off…

Deuteronomy 33:26  “There is none like the God of Jeshurun, who rides the heavens to your help, and through the skies in His majesty.”

Exodus 15:2  Adonai (יה, Yah) is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise Him, my father’s God, and I will exalt Him.

Verse 5

James 1:27  Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Deuteronomy 26:15  “Look down from Your holy habitation (מעון, ma’on), from heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the ground that You have given us, as You swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.”

Psalm 26:8  O Adonai, I love the habitation (מעון, ma’on) of Your house and the place where Your glory dwells.

Psalm 90:1  Lord, you have been our dwelling place (מעון, ma’on) in all generations.

Psalm 91:9  Because you have made Adonai your dwelling place (מעון, ma’on) – the Most High, who is my refuge – …

Verse 11

1Samuel 18:6  As they were coming home, when David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with songs of joy, and with musical instruments.

Verse 13

Proverbs 8:10  Take my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold,

Proverbs 25:11  A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.

Verse 16

Psalm 125:2  As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so Adonai surrounds His people, from this time forth and forevermore.

Verse 18

Eph 4:8 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.”

Verse 21

Numbers 24:8  God brings him out of Egypt and is for him like the horns of the wild ox. He shall eat up the nations, His adversaries, and shall break their bones in pieces and pierce (מחץ, ma’chatz) them through with his arrows. [1^st app.]

Deuteronomy 32:39  “See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god beside Me. I kill and I make alive; I wound (מחץ, ma’chatz) and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of My hand.”

Isaiah 30:26  Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when Adonai binds up the brokenness of His people, and heals the wounds (מחץ, ma’chatz) inflicted by His blow.

Verse 23

1Kings 21:18-19  “Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who is in Samaria; behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone to take possession. And you shall say to him, ‘Thus says Adonai, “Have you killed and also taken possession?”’ And you shall say to him, ‘Thus says Adonai: “In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick your own blood.”’”