FOR THE DIRECTOR of music. Of David. A psalm. A song.
1May God arise, may his enemies be scattered;
may his foes flee before him.
2As smoke is blown away by the wind,
may you blow them away;
as wax melts before the fire,
may the wicked perish before God.
3But may the righteous be glad
and rejoice before God;
may they be happy and joyful.
4Sing to God, sing praise to his name,
extol him who rides on the clouds—
his name is the LORD—
and rejoice before him.
5A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
is God in his holy dwelling.
6God sets the lonely in families,
he leads forth the prisoners with singing;
but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.
7When you went out before your people, O God,
when you marched through the wasteland,
Selah
8the earth shook,
the heavens poured down rain,
before God, the One of Sinai,
before God, the God of Israel.
9You gave abundant showers, O God;
you refreshed your weary inheritance.
10Your people settled in it,
and from your bounty, O God, you provided for the poor.
11The Lord announced the word,
and great was the company of those who proclaimed it:
12“Kings and armies flee in haste;
in the camps men divide the plunder.
13Even while you sleep among the campfires,
the wings of my dove are sheathed with silver,
its feathers with shining gold.”
14When the Almighty scattered the kings in the land,
it was like snow fallen on Zalmon.
15The mountains of Bashan are majestic mountains;
rugged are the mountains of Bashan.
16Why gaze in envy, O rugged mountains,
at the mountain where God chooses to reign,
where the LORD himself will dwell forever?
17The chariots of God are tens of thousands
and thousands of thousands;
the Lord has come from Sinai into his sanctuary.
18When you ascended on high,
you led captives in your train;
you received gifts from men,
even from the rebellious—
that you, O LORD God, might dwell there.
19Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior,
who daily bears our burdens.
Selah
20Our God is a God who saves;
from the Sovereign LORD comes escape from death.
21Surely God will crush the heads of his enemies,
the hairy crowns of those who go on in their sins.
22The Lord says, “I will bring them from Bashan;
I will bring them from the depths of the sea,
23that you may plunge your feet in the blood of your foes,
while the tongues of your dogs have their share.”
24Your procession has come into view, O God,
the procession of my God and King into the sanctuary.
25In front are the singers, after them the musicians;
with them are the maidens playing tambourines.
26Praise God in the great congregation;
praise the LORD in the assembly of Israel.
27There is the little tribe of Benjamin, leading them,
there the great throng of Judah’s princes,
and there the princes of Zebulun and of Naphtali.
show us your strength, O God, as you have
done before.
29Because of your temple at Jerusalem
kings will bring you gifts.
30Rebuke the beast among the reeds,
the herd of bulls among the calves of the nations.
Humbled, may it bring bars of silver.
Scatter the nations who delight in war.
31Envoys will come from Egypt;
Cush will submit herself to God.
32Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth,
sing praise to the Lord,
Selah
33to him who rides the ancient skies above,
who thunders with mighty voice.
34Proclaim the power of God,
whose majesty is over Israel,
whose power is in the skies.
35You are awesome, O God, in your sanctuary;
the God of Israel gives power and strength to his people.
Praise be to God!
Original Meaning
PSALM 68 HAS been variously interpreted as a collection of psalm titles/incipits1 or a unified poem. Some see it as an adaptation of an original Baal hymn, or at least an adaptation of earlier Canaanite motifs (cf. esp. the concept of riding on the clouds in 68:4, 33).2 There is no question that the psalm is challenging and that a satisfying structure is difficult to delineate. However, there is a thematic cohesion to the piece that appropriately reflects the growing concern expressed in the extended group of Psalms 56–67. Clear within this otherwise difficult poem are Yahweh’s demonstration of his universal power and authority, the acknowledgment of that authority by the nations and their submission to it, and joyful praise for Yahweh’s righteous kingship by the whole earth. As a unified composition, then, Psalm 68 is a praise hymn celebrating the power of Yahweh to save.
The structure of this psalm is made complex by a lack of clarity about unifying principles. The following is an attempt to provide a sense of how the various segments of the psalm contribute to the thematic cohesion mentioned above. The psalm can be shaped around the following outline: desire that God will arise to scatter the enemies of the faithful (68:1–3), call to praise him for his protection of the defenseless (68:4–6), theophanic appearance of God as abundant rain (68:7–10), the divine word scattering the enemy (68:11–14), Yahweh’s coming to his sanctuary (68:15–27), the submission of the nations to God’s power (68:28–31), and concluding call for all kingdoms of the earth to praise God (68:32–35).
The Heading (68:0)
NO NEW TERMS grace the heading of Psalm 68. The psalm is referred to “the director of music,” is attributed to David, and like Psalms 66–67 is described as both “psalm” (mizmor) and “song” (šir).3
Desire for God to Scatter His Enemies (68:1–3)
THE PSALMIST USES the imagery of the dissipation of smoke before a wind and the melting away of wax before a flame4 to describe the utter defeat of God’s enemies, who scatter and flee in total disarray before him (68:2–3). The NIV translates the imperfect verb forms in these verses as jussives even though the initial verb (yaqum) does not take the expected form of the jussive (yaqom) and the remaining verbs have forms in which jussive and imperfect are indistinguishable. The difference is between expressing the hope or desire that God will come (the jussive) and the prophetic envisioning of the present reality of God’s arising (the imperfect), that he is even now acting to exert his power and authority over the world and its nations.
While the wicked will perish when God comes (a natural result of the conflict between their sin and his holiness), the righteous have nothing to fear. Their response is emphatically positive and described with a series of joyful verbs: “be glad,”5 “rejoice,” “be happy.”
Praise for Protection of the Defenseless (68:4–6)
THE COMING OF God is an occasion for great joy, and the gathered worshipers are called to join in singing his praise (68:4). God appears in association with the power of the storm (cf. 68:33–34) and is proclaimed the one “who rides on the clouds”—an epithet also known to be applied to the Canaanite deity Baal.6 This may be the reason the divine name Yahweh is introduced at this point, so that no mistake can be made.7 Elsewhere in the psalms God is also associated with powerful storm phenomena (cf. esp. Ps. 29).
Father to the fatherless. The God who comes is not just a powerful judge deciding between the righteous and the wicked. The God whose power is unmistakably displayed in the storm imagery is also the compassionate deity concerned with the welfare of those who have little status or power in the patriarchal society of the ancient Near East.
In ancient male-dominated society, adult males represented the family and provided access to the resources the society offered. Those who had no male representative—especially orphans (NIV “the fatherless”) and widows, as here—were at a disadvantage, having no one to secure their rights or basic needs. Such persons were wholly dependent on their own ability to scratch out a meager existence on the margins of society or were dependent on acts of charity by compassionate individuals.8 Israelite law contained regulations to mitigate the circumstances of such defenseless persons by describing their plight, encouraging compassion toward them, and laying down commandments regarding their care and treatment by society at large.9 During the monarchy, it was the responsibility of the king and leaders of society to ensure justice for these persons and to oversee their welfare.10
The compassionate nature of Yahweh is exhibited in his taking on the responsibility that king and leaders have failed to assume: God becomes “father to the fatherless, a defender of widows” (68:5). In addition, God works to provide new families for those left alone and releases prisoners from the dungeons (so they can return to their unprotected families?).11
In his holy dwelling. God’s compassionate concern emanates from his divine residence. Often the dwelling of Yahweh is assumed to be the temple in Jerusalem. In other instances it is his heavenly dwelling that is in view. Which of the two is intended here is uncertain, since allusions to both appear in the remainder of the psalm. In 68:15–16 the mountains of Bashan gaze enviously at the “mountain where God chooses to reign, where the LORD himself will dwell forever”—a probable reference to Mount Zion in Jerusalem. In 68:17, Yahweh is described as having “come from Sinai into his sanctuary”—another reference to the Jerusalem temple (cf. 68:24b, 35). Verse 18 reports how victorious Yahweh “ascended on high . . . that you, O LORD God, might dwell there.” Here, what might be taken as a reference to the heavenly abode of Yahweh can also be understood as his ascent to the heights of Zion to be enthroned in the temple.
The rebellious. God’s compassionate care is poured out on those who acknowledge their need and find their refuge in him alone—an example of the appropriate attitude of “fear of Yahweh.” But those who refuse to acknowledge God’s power and their dependence on it are called the “rebellious” (Heb. “stubborn ones”), whose life is like a “sun-scorched land” (68:6).12
God Appears as Abundant Rain (68:7–10)
IN CONTRAST TO the environs experienced by the “rebellious” (68:6), the faithful experience Yahweh as refreshing showers that provide bounty even in the wasteland. In what appears to be an allusion to the Exodus and subsequent conquest of Canaan, God is described as going before his people and marching with them “through the wasteland” (68:7). This allusion is heightened in the following verses by the phrases “God, the One of Sinai” (68:8c), “inheritance” (68:9), and “settled in it” (68:10). In contrast, the references to the ground shaking (68:8a) and pouring rain (68:8b) are never used in association with the Sinai event but are used elsewhere to describe the theophanic appearance of God (cf. esp. Ps. 29). Here, however, phenomena that most often demonstrate the awesome power of God (e.g., the shaking of the earth and breaking of cedars in Ps. 29) are heralds of God’s gifts of abundance and bounty (68:9–10).
The Exodus-Conquest motifs of desert wandering and entry into the land are artfully expanded in these verses by the inclusion of storm imagery, which both displays God’s power and affirms his concern to provide for his people. As in the preceding section, Yahweh is concerned to demonstrate his compassion for the defenseless of society (“fatherless” and “widows”)—here, his abundance provides ultimately for the “poor” (68:10).
The Divine Word Scatters the Enemy (68:11–14)
NOT ONLY DOES Yahweh provide bountiful crops for his people, turning the “weary inheritance” (68:9) into “a land flowing with milk and honey” (cf. Ex. 3:8, 17; Deut. 26:9, 15), but he also removes the enemies that threaten them. This passage is a difficult one, with several uncertain phrases,13 but the primary message is clear: Yahweh comes, and “kings and armies flee” (68:12a) and are scattered like snow on the mountaintops (68:14).14 The “word” that God pronounces at the beginning of this passage (68:11a) is possibly the announcement of his impending visit (cf. 68:17). Even the prospect of God’s coming is enough to send the “mighty” kings of the earth into a panic.
Yahweh Comes to His Sanctuary (68:15–27)
THE MOUNTAINS OF BASHAN. The psalmist contrasts the rugged grandeur of the mountains of Bashan, located to the northeast of the Jordan River, with the relatively insignificant topography of Zion—the rocky ridge on which Jerusalem and the temple stand. Yet the craggy mountains of Bashan15 gaze down with envy, not because of Zion’s great heights or rugged beauty but simply because it is the place “where God chooses to reign, where Yahweh himself will dwell forever” (68:16). The very presence of God gives this simple location stature.
The chariots of God. Yahweh comes like a victorious king supported by an army of massed chariotry. In 2 Kings 6:8–17, when Elisha’s servant reports to his master that they are surrounded by an army of horse-drawn chariots sent by the king of Aram intent on capturing Elisha, the prophet reveals a host of invisible flaming chariots sent by God to protect him.
Elsewhere the chariots of God depict judgment, as Isaiah proclaims: “See, the LORD is coming with fire, and his chariots are like a whirlwind; he will bring down his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire” (Isa. 66:15). Note also Habakkuk 3:8: “Were you angry with the rivers, O LORD? Was your wrath against the streams? Did you rage against the sea when you rode with your horses and your victorious chariots?” God’s claim of world authority is no empty posturing but is backed up with the power to bring down the armies of the kings of the earth.
From Sinai. God approaches from the southern deserts, where Mount Sinai is located. Again, this associates Psalm 68 with Exodus and Conquest memories. As Israel approached the land of promise from the experience of covenant-making at Sinai, so God comes to his people and his “sanctuary” from the same geographical direction and in response to the same covenant.
When you ascended on high. As a victorious king entered a city and sanctuary, God ascends the throne, from which he rules his kingdom. The victory procession of a returning king was common in the ancient Near East. Captives were paraded as a visible representation of the king’s far-flung conquests. As the victorious army returned home through various subject nations, the parade of captives drove home to any who might entertain notions of rebellion the power of the king and how he had defeated those who had resisted his authority. Even the “rebellious” (68:18; cf. 68:6) here will hurry with gifts to prove their loyalty to God.16
Our God is a God who saves. God’s presence in his sanctuary is a source of hope for his people. Yahweh is not an austere king who is aloof and unconcerned about his people. He “daily bears [their] burdens” (68:19b) and provides “escape from death” (68:20b). Therefore, God is acknowledged as “Savior” (68:19a) and is worthy of daily “blessing” (rather than the NIV’s “praise”).17 Yahweh’s “salvation” is seen in terms of his defeat of “his enemies”—the enemies of God rather than Israel’s opponents, although the two must often have coincided in Israel’s thinking. Here God’s enemies are those throughout the world who “go on in their sins.” The Hithpael participle mithallek (from hlk [“walk, go”]) describes repeated or habitual action. Those whom God condemns here are no casual sinners but those who make a habit of sin and rebellion.
I will bring them from Bashan . . . from the depths of the sea. The display of the conquered enemy in the victorious capital has been noted above. Yahweh, the king, intends to bring his conquered enemies to Jerusalem so that the people there can see and even share in the defeat of their opponents. The conquered come from Bashan, one of the chief cities of King Og defeated by the Israelites during their approach to the Promised Land (cf. Num. 21:33–35). Bashan and its majestic mountains (68:15a) lie to the northeast of Jerusalem and across the Jordan River. The “sea” mentioned as the source of additional defeated enemies (68:22b) is the Mediterranean, which borders Israel on the west. The effect of using these two geographical references creates a merism,18 which mentions two extremes as a way of describing all that lies between. Yahweh will bring all his enemies from east to west to demonstrate his power.
This is a particularly harsh passage. We know that some ancient peoples made public spectacles of their defeated enemies. The Philistines blinded Samson and put him on public display. The Romans used defeated enemies in gladiatorial contests while others were fed to wild animals or crucified as a public deterrent to rebellion. That Israel practiced this particularly violent form of public humiliation of enemies seems clear from such passages as Gideon’s execution of Zebah and Zalmunna (Judg. 8:13–21) and that of Agag king of Amalek by Samuel (1 Sam. 15:30–33). Whether Israel and Judah ever paraded their defeated enemies through the streets of Jerusalem before a public execution is not clear. We do know from Egyptian hieroglyphs and Mesopotamian relief carvings that the Judahites themselves had experienced such treatment at the hands of the Babylonians.
That you may plunge your feet. The harsh description reaches its climax with this picture of bloodletting. The scene depicts the execution of captives from the defeated nations in the streets of Jerusalem so that the general populace can participate in the humiliation of their enemies and know personally the great victory Yahweh has accomplished for them. Wading ankle deep in the blood of one’s defeated enemies is an image known from other texts both inside and outside the Bible.19 Dogs lapping the blood of the slain is found in the description of the deaths of King Ahab and his wife Jezebel (1 Kings 21:17–19; 22:34–38; 2 Kings 9:30–37).
Your procession has come into view, O God. The psalmist mixes the image of the victorious king entering his capital city—defeated enemies following in his train—with the cultic procession of celebrants to the Jerusalem temple. Perhaps the image is of the ark of the covenant—the sign of the invisible presence of Yahweh—carried through the streets to the gates of the temple compound. Psalm 24:7–10 contains what may be a liturgical snippet from such a processional moment, when the glorious divine king, fresh from victory over his enemies, demands entrance to his earthly dwelling place.
My God and King. Clearly the victorious king is Yahweh here. Just what part the earthly king played in these festivities—whether he stood in as the representative of Yahweh or took some more subordinate role—is not clear.
The great congregation. The scene takes place in the “great congregation . . . in the assembly of Israel”—a reference to God’s faithful people gathered for worship at the Jerusalem temple. The victorious king is surrounded by singers and musicians and is accompanied by representatives of all the tribes, although only four are mentioned: Benjamin20 and Judah (the two tribal members of the Davidic southern kingdom), and Zebulun and Naphtali (representatives of the northern tribes). These tribes at the geographical edges of the united Davidic kingdom form a merism, standing for the whole kingdom between these points.
The Nations Submit to God’s Power (68:28–31)
THE VICTORY OF Yahweh brings submission by the nations of the earth to his rule. Because of his “power” and “strength” (68:28), they hasten to bring gifts and tribute, acknowledging their allegiance to him (68:29–30).21 In imaginative language the humbled nations are described as “the beast among the reeds” (an allusion to Egypt in the southwest, where papyrus reeds grew in abundance in the Delta region) and “the herd of bulls among the calves of the nations” (probably another reference to Bashan—renowned for its cattle—to the northeast; cf. 68:15, 22). “Egypt” (along with “Cush,” i.e., Upper Egypt) is explicitly mentioned in 68:31 as sending envoys in order to submit to the authority of God and to entreat peace with him.
The Kingdoms of the Earth Praise God (68:32–35)
IN A REPRISE of earlier praises, the psalmist reissues the call to “sing to God,” first heard in 68:4. As there, God is associated with storm phenomena (particularly thunder, 68:33) and is described as the one “who rides [rkb] the ancient skies” (cf. 68:4).22 Here, however, it is the “kingdoms of the earth” (mamlekot haʾareṣ) who are called to join in the praise of God—those nations who have just been described as defeated and forced to submit to the rule of Yahweh.
Having been brought captive to Jerusalem, the nations witness the awesome power of Yahweh as he enters his sanctuary. Once having seen his glory, these rebellious nations are unable to resist the praise of God, who is king both in the heavens and on the earth (68:34). Yahweh’s power is manifest in his temple, and his presence in Israel imparts “power and strength to his people” (68:35). Thus, at the end—overwhelmed with the power and majesty of God as with the smashing thunder of the storm (68:33)—Israelite and non-Israelite alike can only respond: “Blessed be God! [NIV Praise be to God!].”23
COSMIC CONQUEROR. How do we deal with the violent language that stands at the center of this psalm? The psalmist expresses the certainty that “God will crush the heads of his enemies, the hairy crowns of those who go on in their sins” (68:21). He will bring captives to Jerusalem so that local citizens can join in the joyous bloodbath of their execution (68:22–23). We have encountered other psalms, and will again before we reach the end of the Psalter, where we have been challenged and discomfited by the violent language of judgment and vengeance.24 But in this case, another factor may be at work to help us understand the graphic language of destruction and conquest.
Part of the answer, I think, is involved in recognizing that the poet is adapting what appears to be ancient Canaanite mythological imagery to speak of the sovereignty of Yahweh over all the earth. We have been building up, as you will remember, over the last six or seven psalms an expanding thematic picture of God’s sovereignty over all the earth: the ultimate submission of all peoples, Israelite or non-Israelite, to the authority of God; the outbreak of divine blessing on the earth as a result of the restoration of divine sovereignty; the growing crescendo of praise from all flesh in response to God’s just rule and effective guidance of all who fear him. I went so far as to suggest the Psalms 60–67 form a sort of “evangelistic pamphlet” to encourage the non-Israelite nations to submit to Yahweh and to avail themselves of the blessings of his reign.
In this light, Psalm 68 is praising Yahweh’s defeat of his enemies and describing the submission of the nations to his sovereign rule. In the process the poet employs cosmic mythological imagery familiar to the worshipers of Baal and adapts it to reflect Yahweh’s defeat of his cosmic opponents. With language used of Baal in Canaanite myths, Yahweh is described as the “rider of the clouds” and is associated, like Baal, with the storm, thunder, and lightning.
In the Canaanite legend of Baal and Anat,25 Baal fights with Mot (“Death”) and is defeated and taken down to the underworld through Mot’s gullet. Baal’s sister, Anat, confronts Mot, defeats him in battle, and secures the release of her brother. In an earlier conflict, Baal struggles with the chaotic powers of the waters known as Judge Nahar (river) and defeats him by striking him on the head (qdqd), much as Yahweh crushes the heads (qodqod; NIV “crown”) of his enemies (68:21).26 The fact that Yahweh’s striking the heads of the enemies is immediately preceded by the affirmation that “our God is a God who saves; from the Sovereign LORD comes escape from death [mawet]” suggests a link with the mythological struggle of Baal and Mot.
The use of the imagery works in two ways. Mythological struggles have been provided a foothold in the real world of human experience by being connected with the defeat of God’s enemies here and now. At the same time, however, the introduction of cosmic struggle language seems to demand a sort of cosmic, eschatological fulfillment on a universal scale.
What this means in terms of our own response is that this violent language has been shifted out of our present context of treatment of our captive enemies into the eschatological conflict between Yahweh and his cosmic opponents. The violence has become a metaphor for the completeness of God’s power and the certainty of the defeat of his cosmic foes. On this level the language is no more offensive than the blood that flows from the winepress through the streets of the new Jerusalem in Revelation 14:20.27
Contemporary Significance
THE LANGUAGE OF THEOPHANY. Like the violent language discussed above, the language of theophany is language in the extreme. Human language is pressed into service to describe what it was never meant to describe: the very holiness of God arriving in the human world of our sinful experience. To describe God is to move firmly into the realm of hyperbole, that is, language stretched to its utmost—even beyond its utmost. You have only to read the tortured—though majestic and fascinating—vision of God in Ezekiel 1 to understand just how ill-suited human language is for describing the ineffable nature of God. It is perhaps understandable that the rabbis came ultimately to prohibit the public reading of Ezekiel 1 or to prohibit anyone who had not reached a mature age to study the passage.
We may think we do better when we use the language of philosophy or theology to talk about God. We can maintain our distance, so to speak, and organize our thoughts rationally and logically. But try comparing the passages on God from Aquinas’s Summa Theologica, Barth’s Kirchliche Dogmatik, or Shedd’s Systematic Theology and you will realize that something is lost in all the words, no matter how sublime they may be. There is passion in theophanic language—passion to lead the reader into an experience, not an understanding, of God.
To do this borders on violence, because to experience God in this way is to experience him with all the guards let down and the boundaries removed. It is to know the terrible, awesome, fearsome, threatening being of the one who created us and yet is now unleashed among us to challenge our sinful beings to provide any justification for our continued existence. Isaiah’s response to such a theophany (Isa. 6:1–9) shows us just how scary that kind of experience can be! That is why the rabbis wanted to restrict access to Ezekiel’s theophanic vision, for they feared that the untutored public or an immature student might be caught up in a partial understanding of God’s glory and so act in ways that would bring harm—even destruction—on themselves and their community.
Just to talk about theophany is to lessen its power and impact. Nevertheless, we do talk about it to enable those to whom the language is alien (and therefore suspect) to understand it and hopefully to enter into it as it was intended. But it is really not enough to stand back and look at theophany. This language is intended to draw the reader in—to open the eyes, and ears, and nose, and heart to the very presence of God. Note how Isaiah (Isa. 6:1–9) uses sight, sound, feeling, and smell to envelop the reader into the experience of God. Here are just a few comments about theophanic language intended to provide access rather than to explain it fully.28
(1) Excessive. Theophany is excessive. It uses the language of hyperbole. God is, of course, larger than life and requires a vocabulary on the edges of language’s capabilities to encapsulate his description. When God comes, big things happen: The earth shakes (68:8); rains pour down in the desert (68:8); tens of thousands of divine chariots light up the sky (68:17); representatives of all the nations of the earth bring gifts to him (68:18); the hometown crowd wade ankle deep in the blood of their executed enemies (68:23). This is language out of the ordinary, but so is the God it seeks to describe.
(2) Violent. As violent as it is excessive, theophany often offends our modern sensibilities. When God comes, the mountains smoke (Ex. 19:18; Ps. 104:32) or melt away (Ps. 97:5; Mic. 1:4; Nah. 1:5); the wicked blow away like smoke or melt like wax before a fire (Ps. 68:2); the bodies of defeated kings lie like snow on the hills (68:14); God drags his defeated enemies from town to town for public display (68:18); he crushes the heads and hairy crowns of those who oppose him (68:21); the people dance in the blood of their enemies (68:23; cf. 58:10).
These images of violence are excessive. They describe actions of God whose powers outstrip and ultimately nullify even the most violent efforts human beings can sum up (and we are pretty good at violence!). Thus, God’s theophanic violence is on the one hand a negating response to human violence, which it overcomes. God responds in kind; our violence calls forth a response of divine violence.
On the other hand, however, the violence of theophany is the natural consequence of a holy God entering an unholy world. It is the necessary result of God’s incompatibility with evil that when he encounters wickedness and sin, he judges and destroys it. Theophanic depictions of divine violence, then, are examples of the unsettling “otherness” of God raised to their highest quotient. God is so other that even his coming into our world with saving intent is a threat to our sinful selves. Like Isaiah, we fall prostrate before the glory of holy God, fully expecting the destruction we deserve, only to be mystified by the experience of divine grace and forgiveness.
(3) Progressive. Finally, the theophany in Psalm 68 is also progressive. The coming of Yahweh into the world has a beginning and an end. Many have noted the movement in this psalm from Sinai (68:8) to the Jerusalem temple (68:35).29 In this view, the first half of the psalm (68:1–17) describes the rising of Yahweh to deliver his people from Egypt, the passage through the desert, the struggle with the nations along the way, and the establishment of the temple in Jerusalem as the place where God will continue to dwell among Israel. The second half of the psalm (68:18–35) depicts the continued residency of God in Jerusalem and the consequent submission of the nations to his power.
The purpose of God’s coming in the Exodus event was to bring his people to a new place of covenant relationship, a land in which they would dwell as the holy nation of God in whose midst Yahweh himself was pleased to dwell in the temple. The theophanic approach of God in Psalm 68 traces the same steps but raises the experience to the eschatological extreme. This time, when Yahweh establishes his throne in his sanctuary, his kingdom will include the whole earth. The kings of the nations will submit to him and bring him gifts of submission and praise.
The path of God’s conquest in our lives ought to follow the same path: From the desert of our sin to the fruitful land of the kingdom of God, from the battles of evil within and without to the destruction of the foes and submission to God’s sovereignty, from the isolation of self-concern to the communal gathering of praise in the sanctuary, God is leading his children along.