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Commentary on Psalms 68 verses 15–21
David, having given God praise for what he had done for Israel in general, as the God of Israel (Psa 68:8), here comes to give him praise as Zion's God in a special manner; compare Psa 9:11. Sing praises to the Lord who dwelleth in Zion, for which reason Zion is called the hill of God.
I. He compares it with the hill of Bashan and other high and fruitful hills, and prefers it before them, Psa 68:15, Psa 68:16. It is true, Zion was but little and low in comparison with them, and was not covered over with flocks and herds as they were, yet, upon this account, it has the pre-eminence above them all, that it is the hill of God, the hill which he desires to dwell in, and where he chooses to manifest the tokens of his peculiar presence, Psa 132:13, Psa 132:14. Note, It is much more honourable to be holy to God than to be high and great in the world. "Why leap you, you high hills? Why do you insult over poor Zion, and boast of your own height? This is the hill which God has chosen, and therefore though you exceed it in bulk, and be first-rates, yet, because on this the royal flag is hoisted, you must all strike sail to it." Zion was especially honourable because it was a type of the gospel church, which is therefore called Mount Zion (Heb 12:22), and this is intimated here, when he said, The Lord will dwell in it for ever, which must have its accomplishment in the gospel Zion. There is no kingdom in the world comparable to the kingdom of the Redeemer, no city comparable to that which is incorporated by the gospel charter, for there God dwells and will dwell for ever.
II. He compares it with Mount Sinai, of which he had spoken (Psa 68:8), and shows that it has the Shechinah or divine presence in it as really, though not as sensibly, as Sinai itself had, Psa 68:17. Angels are the chariots of God, his chariots of war, which he make use of against his enemies, his chariots of conveyance, which he sends for his friends, as he did for Elijah (and Lazarus is said to be carried by the angels), his chariots of state, in the midst of which he shows his glory and power. They are vastly numerous: Twenty thousands, even thousands multiplied. There is an innumerable company of angels in the heavenly Jerusalem, Heb 12:22. The enemies David fought with had chariots (Sa2 8:4), but what were they, for number or strength, to the chariots of God? While David had these on his side he needed not to fear those that trusted in chariots and horses, Psa 20:7. God appeared on Mount Sinai, attended with myriads of angels, by whose dispensation the law was given, Act 7:53. He comes with ten thousands of saints, Deu 33:2. And still in Zion God manifests his glory, and is really present, with a numerous retinue of his heavenly hosts, signified by the cherubim between which God is said to dwell. So that, as some read the last words of the verse, Sinai is in the sanctuary; that is, the sanctuary was to Israel instead of Mount Sinai, whence they received divine oracles. Our Lord Jesus has these chariots at command. When the first-begotten was brought into the world it was with this charge, Let all the angels of God worship him (Heb 1:6); they attended him upon all occasions, and he is now among them, angels, principalities, and powers, being made subject to him, Pe1 3:22. And it is intimated in the New Testament that the angels are present in the solemn religious assemblies of Christians, Co1 11:10. Let the woman have a veil on her head because of the angels; and see Eph 3:10.
III. The glory of Mount Zion was the King whom God set on that holy hill (Psa 2:6), who came to the daughter of Zion, Mat 21:5. Of his ascension the psalmist here speaks, and to it his language is expressly applied (Eph 4:8): Thou hast ascended on high (Psa 68:18); compare Psa 47:5, Psa 47:6. Christ's ascending on high is here spoken of as a thing past, so sure was it; and spoken of to his honour, so great was it. It may include his whole exalted state, but points especially at his ascension into heaven to the right hand of the Father, which was as much our advantage as his advancement. For, 1. He then triumphed over the gates of hell. He led captivity captive; that is, he led his captives in triumph, as great conquerors used to do, making a show of them openly, Col 2:15. He led those captive who had led us captive, and who, if he had not interposed, would have held us captive for ever. Nay, he led captivity itself captive, having quite broken the power of sin and Satan. As he was the death of death, so he was the captivity of captivity, Hos 13:14. This intimates the complete victory which Jesus Christ obtained over our spiritual enemies; it was such that through him we also are more than conquerors, that is, triumphers, Rom 8:37. 2. He then opened the gates of heaven to all believers: Thou hast received gifts for men. He gave gifts to men, so the apostle reads it, Eph 4:8. For he received that he might give; on his head the anointing of the Spirit was poured, that from him it might descend to the skirts of his garments. And he gave what he had received; having received power to give eternal life, he bestows it upon as many as were given him, Joh 17:2. Thou hast received gifts for men, not for angels; fallen angels were not to be made saints, nor standing angels made gospel ministers, Heb 2:5. Not for Jews only, but for all men; whoever will may reap the benefit of these gifts. The apostle tells us what these gifts were (Eph 4:11), prophets, apostles, evangelists, pastors and teachers, the institution of a gospel ministry and the qualification of men for it, both which are to be valued as the gifts of heaven and the fruits of Christ's ascension. Thou hast received gifts in man (so the margin), that is, in the human nature which Christ was pleased to clothe himself with, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God. In him, as Mediator, all fulness dwells, that from his fulness we might receive. To magnify the kindness and love of Christ to us in receiving these gifts for us, the psalmist observes, (1.) The forfeiture we had made of them. He received them for the rebellious also, for those that had been rebellious; so all the children of men had been in their fallen state. Perhaps it is especially meant of the Gentiles, that had been enemies in their minds by wicked works, Col 1:21. For them these gifts are received, to them they are given, that they might lay down their arms, that their enmity might be slain, and that they might return to their allegiance. This magnifies the grace of Christ exceedingly that through him rebels are, upon their submission, not only pardoned, but preferred. They have commissions given them under Christ, which some say, in our law, amounts to the reversing of an attainder. Christ came to a rebellious world, not to condemn it, but that through him it might be saved. (2.) The favour designed us in them: He received gifts for the rebellious, that the Lord God might dwell among them, that he might set up a church in a rebellious world, in which he would dwell by his word and ordinances, as of old in the sanctuary, that he might set up his throne, and Christ might dwell in the hearts of particular persons that had been rebellious. The gracious intention of Christ's undertaking was to rear up the tabernacle of God among men, that he might dwell with them and they might themselves be living temples to his praise, Eze 37:27.
IV. The glory of Zion's King is that he is a Saviour and benefactor to all his willing people and a consuming fire to all those that persist in rebellion against him, Psa 68:19-21. We have here good and evil, life and death, the blessing and the curse, set before us, like that (Mar 16:16), He that believes shall be saved; he that believes not shall be damned.
1.Those that take God for their God, and so give up themselves to him to be his people, shall be loaded with his benefits, and to them he will be a God of salvation. If in sincerity we avouch God to be our God, and seek to him as such, (1.) He will continually do us good and furnish us with occasion for praise. Having mentioned the gifts Christ received for us (Psa 68:18), fitly does he subjoin, in the next words, Blessed be the Lord; for it is owing to the mediation of Christ that we live, and live comfortably, and are daily loaded with benefits. So many, so weighty, are the gifts of God's bounty to us that he may be truly said to load us with them; he pours out blessings till there is no room to receive them, Mal 3:10. So constant are they, and so unwearied is he in doing us good, that he daily loads us with them, according as the necessity of every day requires. (2.) He will at length be unto us the God of salvation, of everlasting salvation, the salvation of God, which he will show to those that order their conversation aright (Psa 50:23), the salvation of the soul. He that daily loads us with benefits will not put us off with present things for a portion, but will be the God of our salvation; and what he gives us now he gives as the God of salvation, pursuant to the great design of our salvation. He is our God, and therefore he will be the God of eternal salvation to us; for that only will answer the vast extent of his covenant-relation to us as our God. But has he power to complete this salvation? Yes, certainly; for unto God the Lord belong the issues from death. The keys of hell and death are put into the hand of the Lord Jesus, Rev 1:18. He, having made an escape from death himself in his resurrection, has both authority and power to rescue those that are his from the dominion of death, by altering the property of it to them when they die and giving them a complete victory over it when they shall rise again; for the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. And to those that shall thus for ever escape death, and shall find such an outlet from it as not to be hurt of the second death, to them surely deliverances from temporal death are mercies indeed and come from God as the God of their salvation. Co2 1:10.
2.Those that persist in their enmity to him will certainly be ruined (Psa 68:21): God shall wound the head of his enemies, - of Satan the old serpent (of whom it was by the first promise foretold that the seed of the woman should break his head, Gen 3:15), - of all the powers of the nations, whether Jews or Gentiles, that oppose him and his kingdom among men (Psa 110:6, He shall wound the heads over many countries), - of all those, whoever they are, that will not have him to reign over them, for those he accounts his enemies, and they shall be brought forth and slain before him, Luk 19:27. He will wound the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his trespasses. Note, Those who go on still in their trespasses, and hate to be reformed, God looks upon as his enemies and will treat them accordingly. In calling the head the hairy scalp perhaps there is an allusion to Absalom, whose bushy hair was his halter. Or it denotes either the most fierce and barbarous of his enemies, who let their hair grow, to make themselves look the more frightful, or the most fine and delicate of his enemies, who are nice about their hair: neither the one nor the other can secure themselves from the fatal wounds which divine justice will give to the heads of those that go on in their sins.
Secondly, in the expression, "Mountain of God, Mountain full of curds," Mountain "fruitful," let no one dare from this to compare the Lord Jesus Christ with the rest of the Saints, who are themselves also called mountains of God....For there were not wanting men to call Him, some John Baptist, some Elias, some Jeremias, or one of the Prophets; [Matthew 16:14] He turns to them and says, "Why do ye imagine mountains full of curds, a mountain," he says, "wherein it has pleased God to dwell therein"? [Psalm 68:16]. "Why do ye imagine?" For as they are a light, because to themselves also has been said, "You are the Light of the world," [Matthew 5:14] but something different has been called "the true Light which enlightens every man," [John 1:9] so they are mountains; but far different is the Mountain "prepared on the top of the mountains." [Isaiah 2:2] These mountains therefore in bearing that Mountain are glorious: one of which mountains says, "but from me far be it to glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom to me the world has been crucified, and I to the world:" [Galatians 6:14] so that "he has glories, not in himself, but in the Lord may glory." [1 Corinthians 1:31] "Why" then "do ye imagine mountains full of curds," that "Mountain wherein it has pleased God to dwell therein"? Not because in other men He dwells not, but because in them through Him. "For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead," [Colossians 2:9] not in a shadow, as in the temple made by king Solomon, [1 Kings 8:27] but "bodily," that is, solidly and truly...."For there is One God, and One Mediator of God and men, the Man Christ Jesus," [1 Timothy 2:5] Mountain of mountains, as Saint of saints. Whence He says, "I in them and You in Me." [John 17:23] "Why then do ye imagine mountains full of curds, the mountain wherein it has pleased God to dwell in Him?" For those mountains full of curds that Mountain the Lord shall inhabit even unto the end, that something they may be to whom He says, "for without Me nothing you are able to do." [John 15:5]
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SUMMARY
Psalms 68:16 is a profound poetic declaration asserting God's sovereign and affectionate choice of Mount Zion as His eternal dwelling place, contrasting it sharply with other, perhaps more physically imposing, mountains. This verse, embedded within a grand triumphal psalm, celebrates the Lord's victorious procession, His establishment of His presence among His people, and His enduring commitment to reside in the place He has chosen, not based on worldly grandeur but on divine desire and faithfulness.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
The verse employs several powerful literary devices. Foremost is Personification, where the "high hills" are given human-like qualities, depicted as "leaping" or watching with a sense of agitation, envy, or awe. This vivid imagery makes the landscape an active participant in God's divine drama. The opening Rhetorical Question, "Why leap ye, ye high hills?", directly engages the reader and highlights the unexpected nature of God's choice, drawing attention to the divine preference over natural superiority. There is a clear Contrast established between the "high hills" (representing worldly impressiveness and natural grandeur) and "this hill" (Mount Zion, representing God's humble, sovereignly chosen dwelling). Finally, the concluding phrase, "yea, the LORD will dwell in it for ever," serves as a strong Affirmation and Emphasis, solidifying the eternal and unwavering nature of God's divine intent and presence.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Psalms 68:16 profoundly illustrates the theological principle of divine election, where God's choices are not predicated on human standards of grandeur or worldly impressiveness. Just as God chose a relatively modest hill like Zion over more majestic peaks, He often chooses the humble, the overlooked, or the seemingly less significant to display His glory and establish His presence. This verse connects directly to the broader biblical theme of God's desire to dwell among His people, a desire first expressed in the command to build the Tabernacle in the wilderness, then realized in the Temple on Mount Zion, and ultimately fulfilled in Christ and His Church. The permanence of God's dwelling, "for ever," points to His enduring faithfulness and the eternal nature of His covenant with humanity, a promise that transcends physical locations and culminates in a spiritual reality.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Psalms 68:16 offers a powerful reminder that God's favor, presence, and blessing are not contingent on outward appearances, worldly impressiveness, or human merit. He delights in choosing the humble, the overlooked, and the seemingly insignificant to manifest His glory. For believers today, this principle resonates deeply: God, through the Holy Spirit, delights to dwell in the hearts of His people, making each believer a "temple of God" (1 Corinthians 6:19). This challenges us to consider where we seek God's presence and how we value His dwelling. Do we chase after external grandeur, or do we recognize that God's deepest desire is to be intimately present with us, even in our humble circumstances? The promise of God's eternal dwelling, first in Zion and ultimately in the new heaven and new earth (Revelation 21:3), provides immense assurance of His unwavering commitment to fellowship with His people, a reality that will be fully realized in its most glorious sense.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why is Mount Zion described as less impressive than other hills in this context?
Answer: Geographically, Mount Zion (part of Jerusalem) is not the highest or most imposing mountain in the region compared to peaks like Mount Hermon or Mount Bashan, which are mentioned in the psalm. The verse highlights this disparity not to diminish Zion, but to magnify God's sovereign choice. It emphasizes that God's selection of a dwelling place is not based on human standards of grandeur or physical impressiveness, but solely on His divine will and desire. This underscores His independence and the principle that His favor is not earned by outward magnificence, but is an act of pure grace and election, as seen in His choice of Israel itself as His people (Deuteronomy 7:7-8).
What does "leap ye" mean when applied to mountains in this verse?
Answer: The phrase "Why leap ye, ye high hills?" uses personification, a literary device where inanimate objects are given human qualities. The Hebrew word for "leap" (רָצַד, râtsad') can convey a sense of watching with envy, trembling, or even looking askance. In this context, it vividly portrays the other, taller mountains as being agitated, perhaps with awe, jealousy, or even humble submission, as they witness God's unexpected and sovereign choice of the comparatively modest Mount Zion as His eternal dwelling place. It's a poetic way to express the unique privilege bestowed upon Zion, implying that even creation acknowledges God's unique and surprising choices.
How does God "desire to dwell" in a specific place like Mount Zion? Does this imply a need on God's part?
Answer: The Hebrew word for "desireth" (חָמַד, châmad') implies a deep delight, pleasure, or strong affection. It signifies God's profound satisfaction and sovereign choice, not a need. God, being omnipresent and transcendent, is not confined to any physical location (1 Kings 8:27). However, He graciously condescends to establish a special, localized presence among His people as a tangible sign of His covenant relationship, His faithfulness, and His desire for fellowship. His "dwelling" in Zion symbolizes His commitment to Israel and His intention to be accessible to them, providing a focal point for worship and a place where His glory could be manifested, demonstrating His immanence without compromising His transcendence.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Psalms 68:16, with its declaration of God's sovereign choice of Mount Zion as His eternal dwelling, finds its ultimate and glorious fulfillment in Jesus Christ. While Zion was the earthly locus of God's presence, it was always a foreshadowing of a greater reality. In the New Testament, Jesus is revealed as the true and ultimate dwelling place of God among humanity, for in Him "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:9). He is Immanuel, "God with us," the Word who "became flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:14, literally "tabernacled" among us), making God's presence tangible and personal. Furthermore, this truth expands to include the Church, the body of Christ, which is described as God's "holy temple in the Lord" (Ephesians 2:21) and the dwelling place of God by the Spirit (Ephesians 2:22). Believers themselves are individual "temples of the Holy Ghost" (1 Corinthians 6:19). The New Testament also reinterprets Zion not merely as a physical mountain but as the "heavenly Jerusalem," to which believers have come through Christ (Hebrews 12:22-24). The eternal promise of God's dwelling "for ever" culminates in the vision of the new heaven and new earth, where the "tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them" (Revelation 21:3), signifying the perfect and eternal communion between God and His redeemed people, fully realized in Christ.