Introduction
To the chief Musician, A Psalm or Song of David.
It is not necessary to follow the discursive paths of modern criticism in attempting to fix the date, occasion, and authorship of this majestic and incomparable lyric. Two thoughts chiefly pervade it: the ark of God as the abode of the divine majesty, and the transcendent power of God as displayed in the victories of Israel over his enemies. The language is exceedingly rich, exhaustive of all the grandest conceptions of the older Hebrew poetry and the chief wonders of Israel’s providential history, carrying with it an outlook upon the future submission of the nations, and, as is usual in the highest flights of the prophetic rhapsody, a foregleam of Messiah. The reference to Egypt and Ethiopia (Psalms 68:31) as the ruling foreign nations known to Israel, with the absence of all allusion to Assyria and the East, indicate that the psalm dates before Israel came in contact with the eastern monarchies. Expositors have not always paid due regard to the vast moral and national importance of two events as furnishing subjects for the lyric muse, namely, the recovery of the ark from the power of God’s enemies, and its removal to Zion instead of Shiloh, under the strong protection of David’s government. Our psalm is of earlier date, but of the same general occasion, as Psalms 78:0, (which see,) the latter a maschil, or instructive psalm, the former a triumphal ode of the primitive type. See the notes for further proof. Hitzig calls this psalm “a Titan which it is not easy to master;” and Delitzsch says, “It is in the style of Deborah, (Judges 5:0,) stalking along upon the highest pinnacles of hymnic feeling and recital.”
The psalm celebrates the sovereignty of God in Israel’s history, and his future rule over the nations. The prophetic outlook is grandly evangelical. The strophic divisions may be thus given: Psalms 68:1-6 extol the righteousness of God as the deliverer of his people and the punisher of the wicked; Psalms 68:7-14 are a retrospection of God’s providence over Israel in earlier days; Psalms 68:15-18 celebrate Zion as the hill of God where the ark should rest, which is the central idea of the psalm; Psalms 68:19-28 must be construed prospectively, as a celebration of victories yet to be given as the completion of the divine plans concerning Israel; Psalms 68:29-31 are a prediction of the moral effect of the divine judgments in the conversion of the nations to the true worship; Psalms 68:32-34, a call upon all nations to join in praising God for his power, majesty, and grace; Psalms 68:35 an epode of devout ascription to God as terrible to Israel’s enemies and mighty to save his people.
On the Psalm or Song in the title see the preceding psalm and Psalms 30:0
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