Psalms 68:7 - Meaning and Application

The psalmist has just thanked God for the great things he had recently done for him and his people. From that, he turns back and praises God for what he had done for their fathers long ago. Fresh mercies should remind us of older mercies and stir up our gratitude again.

Let us never forget that God himself led Israel through the wilderness (Psalm 68:7). When he brought them out of slavery, he did not leave them alone in a dry land. He went ahead of them through the desert. It was not a casual trip, but a march, for they went like soldiers, like an army with banners. The Egyptians thought the wilderness had trapped Israel, but they were wrong. God’s people had him as their leader, so they crossed through the wilderness and were not lost in it. If God brings his people into a wilderness, he will also go before them there and bring them out of it.

We should also remember how God showed his glorious presence at Mount Sinai (Psalm 68:8). No other people ever saw the glory of God or heard his voice as Israel did (Deuteronomy 4:32, 33). No other people ever received such a good law, explained and enforced so fully. Then the earth shook, and nearby lands likely felt the shock. There were terrible thunderclaps, and probably thunder-showers too, as if the heavens were pouring down. At the same time, God’s teaching came down like rain (Deuteronomy 32:2). Even Mount Sinai itself, that huge mountain ridge, trembled at God’s presence (Judges 5:4, 5; Deuteronomy 33:2; Habakkuk 3:3). Such a fearful display of God’s majesty would fill them with awe, but it would also strengthen their faith and trust. If he could move Sinai itself, then no mountain of trouble in their path was too hard for him to remove.

God also cared for them very kindly in the wilderness and in Canaan (Psalm 68:9, 10). He sent plentiful rain and prepared for the poor from his goodness. This may refer to the manna in the wilderness, and also to the quails, which were sent down upon them like rain (Psalm 78:24, 27). It was a clear display of God’s generosity. It sustained Israel, his chosen inheritance, when they were weary and near collapse. It strengthened their faith and stood as a lasting proof of his power and goodness. Even in the wilderness, God gave Israel a comfortable home among his people.

Or this may point to the timely supply of rain in Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey, which drinks in the rain from heaven (Deuteronomy 11:11). When that fruitful land was sometimes in danger of becoming barren because of the people’s sin, God still remembered mercy and sent rain. He refreshed the land again, so that Israel’s assembly could live there and have enough food, even bread for the poor. This also points beyond Israel to God’s spiritual provision for his people. The Spirit of grace and the gospel of grace are like the plentiful rain by which God strengthens his inheritance, and from which their fruit is found (Isaiah 45:8). Christ himself is like that rain too, coming down as showers that water the earth (Psalm 72:6).

God also gave them victory over their enemies. Armies and kings came against them from the time they entered Canaan and through the days of the judges, until David’s time, but in the end they prevailed, first or last (Psalm 68:11, 12, 14). The Lord was their commander-in-chief. He gave the command, as the general over their armies. He raised up judges for them, gave them their orders, and promised success. God spoke in his holiness, and then Gilead belonged to him.

They also had prophets, as God’s messengers, to make his will known. God gave them his word, and then there was a great company of proclaimers, prophets and prophetesses, since the word here is feminine. When God has messages to send, he will not lack messengers. Or this may refer to the women singing in triumph after victory, as was common (Exodus 15:20; 1 Samuel 18:7). In their praise, they gave attention to God’s word and rejoiced in it as much as in his works.

Their enemies were put to flight and thrown into confusion. Kings with their armies fled, fled in great terror and haste. They did not fight and then flee. They simply ran away and never gathered themselves again. The people of God were also enriched by the spoil of the field. Even the woman who stayed at home divided the plunder. This does not mean only the soldiers at the camp, who were to share the spoil by law (1 Samuel 30:24), but even the women at home shared in it. That shows how much plunder there was.

These great acts of God also helped reform his people (Psalm 68:14). When the Almighty scattered kings for his people, the church was made white as snow in Salmon, purified and refined by God’s mercies. When the army went out against the enemy, they kept themselves from every wicked thing. Then they returned victorious, and Israel was strengthened in purity and godliness by the victory. This history of Israel’s victories also points to the victories won by the risen Redeemer for his people over death and hell. Through Christ’s resurrection, our spiritual enemies were forced to flee. Their power was broken, and they were forever unable to harm any of God’s people. This victory was first announced by the women to the disciples (Matthew 28:7), and through them it was preached to the whole world. Meanwhile, believers who stayed at home and did not contribute to the victory themselves still enjoyed its benefit and shared in the spoil.

From a low and despised condition, God had lifted them to honor and prosperity. When they were slaves in Egypt, and later when they were oppressed now by one powerful neighbor and now by another, they were like pots lying in the ashes, despised, broken vessels, or vessels nobody wanted. They were black, dirty, and stained. But at last God brought them out of the pots (Psalm 81:6), and in David’s day they were on their way to becoming one of the most prosperous kingdoms in the world. They were lovely in the sight of those around them, like the wings of a dove covered with silver (Psalm 68:13). And so, as Dr.```

Under Christ’s kingdom, the heathen idolaters, who had been brought down to the lowest and most shameful condition of any people, worshiping wood and stone and given over to the foulest lusts, would be lifted out of that hated state. They would be brought into the service of Christ and into the practice of all Christian virtues, the truest inward beauty in the world.

This may also be applied to the church’s rescue from a time of suffering, and to the comfort given to individual believers after seasons of discouragement and despair.