Psalms 68:4

GOD EXTOLLED AS THE HELPER OF THE HELPLESS

"Sing unto God, sing praises to his name:

Cast up a highway for him that rideth through the deserts;

His name is Jehovah; and exult ye before him.

A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows,

Is God in his holy habitation.

God setteth the solitary in families:

He bringeth out the prisoners into prosperity;

But the rebellious dwell in a parched land."

"For him that rideth though the deserts" (Psalms 68:4). This mighty one who rides through the deserts is God. "The Canaanite pagans called their deity Baal, `the rider of the clouds'; and the psalmist here may have borrowed the term and purged it to show that Yahweh and not Baal rules."[9]

"His name is Jehovah" (Psalms 68:4). As the marginal reading indicates, the word here is an abbreviated form of the name Jehovah, [~Yah]. It is repeated here in Psalms 68:18 and also occurs in Exodus 15:2 and Isaiah 26:4.

"In his holy habitation" (Psalms 68:5). This expression is a reference to Jerusalem toward which dwelling place of God the procession bearing the ark from Obed-Edom was moving. En route, this song extolling the help of God for prisoners, widows and orphans emphasizes that Jerusalem is to be the center from which this marvelous benefit will radiate.

"He setteth the solitary in families" (Psalms 68:6). The current translations make this remarkable assertion declare that God "puts the lonely single people in houses"; but we strongly prefer the text before us.

None of the scholars whose works we have had the privilege of consulting seems to have caught on to the magnificent proportions of what is declared here.

When a great diamond is found, it is always surrounded by a number of other large diamonds somewhat smaller; and this phenomenal fact in nature also recurs in God's creation of great men. Shakespeare was surrounded by men like John Milton, Christopher Marlow and others; George Washington was surrounded by Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and others. Jesus Christ was surrounded by Peter, James and John, John the Baptist, and the Apostle Paul. It is one of the most remarkable facts that, "God setteth the solitary in families"!

Other examples of this same principle is seen in Mount Everest and its surrounding peaks, and in the mighty family of the giant Redwoods of northern California.