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Commentary on Psalms 68 verses 1–6
In these verses,
I. David prays that God would appear in his glory,
1.For the confusion of his enemies (Psa 68:1, Psa 68:2): "Let God arise, as a judge to pass sentence upon them, as a general to take the field and do execution upon them; and let them be scattered, and flee before him, as unable to keep their ground, much less to make head against him. Let God arise, as the sun when he goes forth in his strength; and the children of darkness shall be scattered, as the shadows of the evening flee before the rising sun. Let them be driven away as smoke by the wind, which ascends as if it would eclipse the sun, but is presently dispelled, and there appears to remainder of it. Let them melt as wax before the fire, which is quickly dissolved." Thus does David comment upon Moses's prayer, and not only repeat it with application to himself and his own times, but enlarge upon it, to direct us how to make use of scripture-prayers. Nay, it looks further, to the Redeemer's victory over the enemies of this kingdom, for he was the angel of the covenant, that guided Israel through the wilderness. Note, (1.) There are, and have been, and ever will be, such as are enemies to God and hate him, that join in with the old serpent against the kingdom of God among men and against the seed of the woman. (2.) They are the wicked, and none but the wicked, that are enemies to God, the children of the wicked one. (3.) Though we are to pray for our enemies as such, yet we are to pray against God's enemies as such, against their enmity to him and all their attempts upon his kingdom. (4.) If God but arise, all his impenitent and implacable enemies, that will not repent to give him glory, will certainly and speedily be scattered, and driven away, and made to perish at his presence; for none ever hardened his heart against God and prospered. The day of judgment will be the day of the complete and final perdition of ungodly men (Pe2 3:7), who shall melt like wax before that flaming fire in which the Lord shall then appear, Th2 1:8.
2.For the comfort and joy of his own people (Psa 68:3): "Let the righteous be glad, that are now in sorrow; let them rejoice before God in his favourable presence. God is the joy of his people; let them rejoice whenever they come before God, yea, let them exceedingly rejoice, let them rejoice with gladness." Note, Those who rejoice in God have reason to rejoice with exceeding joy; and this joy we ought to wish to all the saints, for it belongs to them. Light is sown for the righteous.
II. He praises God for his glorious appearances, and calls upon us to praise him, to sing to his name, and extol him,
1.As a great God, infinitely great (Psa 68:4): He rides upon the heavens, by his name JAH. He is the spring of all the motions of the heavenly bodies, directs and manages them, as he that rides in the chariot sets it a-going, has a supreme command of the influences of heaven; he rides upon the heavens for the help of his people (Deu 33:26), so swiftly, so strongly, and so much above the reach of opposition. He rules these by his name Jah, or Jehovah, a self-existent self-sufficient being; the fountain of all being, power, motion, and perfection; this is his name for ever. When we thus extol God we must rejoice before him. Holy joy in God will very well consist with that reverence and godly fear wherewith we ought to worship him.
2.As a gracious God, a God of mercy and tender compassion. He is great, but he despises not any, no, not the meanest; nay, being a God of great power, he uses his power for the relief of those that are distressed, Psa 68:5, Psa 68:6. The fatherless, the widows, the solitary, find him a God all-sufficient to them. Observe how much God's goodness is his glory. He that rides on the heavens by his name Jah, one would think should immediately have been adored as King of kings and Lord of lords, and the sovereign director of all the affairs of states and nations; he is so, but this he rather glories in, that he is a Father of the fatherless. Though God be high, yet has he respect unto the lowly. Happy are those that have an interest in such a God as this. He that rides upon the heavens is a Father worth having; thrice happy are the people whose God is the Lord. (1.) When families are bereaved of their head God takes care of them, and is himself their head; and the widows and the fatherless children shall find that in him which they have lost in the relation that is removed, and infinitely more and better. He is a Father of the fatherless, to pity them, to bless them, to teach them, to provide for them, to portion them. He will preserve them alive (Jer 49:11), and with him they shall find mercy, Hos 14:3. They have liberty to call him Father, and to plead their relation to him as their guardian, Psa 146:9; Psa 10:14, Psa 10:18. He is a judge or patron of the widows, to give them counsel and to redress their grievances, to own them and plead their cause, Pro 22:23. He has an ear open to all their complaints and a hand open to all their wants. He is so in his holy habitation, which may be understood either of the habitation of his glory in heaven (there he has prepared his throne of judgment, which the fatherless and widow have free recourse to, and are taken under the protection of, Psa 9:4, Psa 9:7), or of the habitation of his grace on earth; and so it is a direction to the widows and fatherless how to apply to God; let them go to his holy habitation, to his word and ordinances; there they may find him and find comfort in him. (2.) When families are to be built up he is the founder of them: God sets the solitary in families, brings those into comfortable relations that were lonely, gives those a convenient settlement that were unsettled (Psa 113:9); he makes those dwell at home that were forced to seek for relief abroad (so Dr. Hammond), putting those that were destitute into a way of getting their livelihood, which is a very good way for man's charity, as it is of God's bounty.
3.As a righteous God, (1.) In relieving the oppressed. He brings out those that are bound with chains, and sets those at liberty who were unjustly imprisoned and brought into servitude. No chains can detain those whom God will make free. (2.) In reckoning with the oppressors: The rebellious dwell in a dry land and have no comfort in that which they have got by fraud and injury. The best land will be a dry land to those that by their rebellion have forfeited the blessing of God, which is the juice and fatness of all our enjoyments. The Israelites were brought out of Egypt into the wilderness, but were there better provided for than the Egyptians themselves, whose land, if Nilus failed them, as it sometimes did, was a dry land.
Who then is so profane and lacking in faith, who so insane by the fury of discord as either to believe that the unity of God, the garment of the Lord, the church of Christ can be torn asunder or to dare to do so? He warns us in the Gospel, and teaches, saying, “And there shall be one flock and one shepherd.” And does anyone think that there can be either many shepherds or many flocks in one place? Likewise the apostle Paul introducing this same unity to us beseeches and urges us in these words: “I beseech you, brothers,” he says, “by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all say the same thing, and that there be no dissensions among you but that you be perfectly united in the same mind and in the same judgment.” And again he says, “Bearing with one another in love, careful to preserve the unity of the Spirit, in the bond of peace.” Do you think that you can stand and live, withdrawing from the church and building for yourself other abodes and different dwellings, when it was said to Rahab, in whom the church was prefigured: “You shall gather your father and your mother and your brethren and the entire house of your father to your own self in your house, and it will be that everyone who goes out of the door of your house shall be his own accuser”;14 likewise, when the sacrament of the Passover contains nothing else in the law of the exodus than that the lamb that is slain in the figure of Christ be eaten in one house? God speaks, saying, “In one house it shall be eaten; you shall not carry the flesh outside of the house.” The flesh of Christ and what is holy to the Lord cannot be carried outside, and there is no other house for believers except the one church. This house, this hospice of unanimity, the Holy Spirit designates and proclaims, when he says, “God who makes those of one mind to dwell in his house.” In the house of God, in the church of Christ, those of one mind dwell; they persevere in concord and simplicity.
Such characters the Lord calls ravenous wolves that show themselves in sheep’s clothing. Avoid inconstancy and fickleness, pursue truth, sincerity, simplicity. The serpent is subtle and for that reason has been condemned to crawl. The just person is without pretense, such as was Jacob. Therefore, “the Lord makes the solitary to dwell in a house.” So in this great sea, which stretches wide its arms, “there are creeping things without number, creatures little and great.” Nevertheless, there is a certain wisdom among them and an orderly arrangement. Not only are we able to find fault with the fish, but there is also something worthy of imitation in them. How is it that all of the different species of fishes, having been allotted a place suitable for them, do not intrude on one another but stay within their own bounds? No surveyor apportioned the dwellings among them; they were not surrounded with walls or divided by boundaries; but what was useful for each was definitely and spontaneously settled. This bay gives sustenance to certain kinds of fish, and that one, to other kinds; and those that teem here are scarce elsewhere. No mountain extending upward with sharp peaks separates them; no river cuts off the means of crossing; but there is a certain law of nature that allots the habitat to each kind equally and justly according to its need.
What do I mean? If you ever wish to associate with someone, make sure that you do not give your attention to those who enjoy health and wealth and fame as the world sees it, but take care of those in affliction, those in critical circumstances, those in prison, those who are utterly deserted and enjoy no consolation. Put a high value on associating with these; for from them you shall receive much profit, you will be a better lover of the true wisdom, and you will do all for the glory of God. And if you must visit someone, prefer to pay this honor to orphans, widows and those in want rather than to those who enjoy reputation and fame. God has said, “I am the father of orphans and the protector of widows.” And again, “Judge for the fatherless, defend the widow. Then come and let us talk, says the Lord.”
Obviously, the time to pray is when we are all praying. Of course, you may pray privately whenever and as often as you choose. But do not, under the pretext of prayer, miss the lesson. You can always pray whenever you will, but you cannot always have a lesson at hand. Do not imagine that there is little to be gained by listening to the sacred lesson. The fact is that prayer is improved if our mind has been recently fed on reading and is able to roam among the thoughts of divine things that it has recently heard. The word of the Lord assures us that Mary, the sister of Martha, chose the better part when she sat at the feet of Jesus, listening intently to the word of God without a thought of her sister. We need not wonder, then, if the deacon in a clear voice like a herald warns all that, whether they are praying or bowing the knees, singing hymns or listening to the lessons, they should all act together. God loves “people of one manner” and, as was said before, “makes them to dwell in his house.” And those who dwell in this house are proclaimed by the psalm to be blessed, because they will praise God forever and ever. Amen.
Lastly, there follows, "And let just men be joyous, and exult in the sight of God, let them delight in gladness" [Psalm 68:3]. For then shall they hear, "Come, you blessed of My Father, receive ye the kingdom." "Let them be joyous," therefore, that have toiled, "and exult in the sight of God." For there will not be in this exultation, as though it were before men, any empty boasting; but (it will be) in the sight of Him who unerringly looks into that which He has granted. "Let them delight in gladness:" no longer exulting with trembling, as in this world, so long as "human life is a trial upon earth."
“As smoke vanishes, so may they vanish! As wax flows from the face of the fire, so may sinners perish from the face of God!” In those two verses, through a double simile, the punishment of sinners is foretold. The smoke is a dark gathering of mass that arises under that destructive flame. The higher the smoke rises up, the thinner it becomes throughout the void. Sinners are deservedly likened to smoke inasmuch as they produce smoke-bearing deeds from the flame of their wickedness. Although these deeds arise to heights, as their arrogance ensures, they must needs vanish like smoke by their own conceit. The other comparison to sinners follows. Wax is a soft and pliable substance gathered from honeycombs. It is dissolved by the heat of the fire so that its bodily nature is taken away from within. The image of wax is aptly applied to sinners because at the judgment sinners will be undone in this way before the face of God himself, just as the delicacy of wax is consumed by a nearby fire. And see that here he does not say that sinners, who must be tortured with everlasting fire, can be consumed here in their own substance (just as some of those in error attempt to say), but he says that they will perish before the face of God because they will never come to his grace and kindness. And note that the figure of speech in these verses is a parable, that is, a comparison of items dissimilar in kind, for smoke and wax are recognized to have been compared to sinners.
Concerning you, the defenders of idolatry, were these words spoken by the prophet. For a very, very little while and your place shall not be found, but “just as the smoke vanishes, and just as wax melts near a fire, so you will fail.” But, as touching the divine wisdom of the gospel, the Lord says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” And again the psalmist says, “You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the work of your hands. They shall perish, but you endure; and they all will wax old as does a garment, and you will fold them up as a vestment, and they shall be changed, but you are the same, and your years will not fail!” And those divine preachers of the coming of Christ, those wise fishers of the world, whose nets drew all people from the depths of deceit, whom you, in your wickedness and bondage to sin, do vilify, did by signs and wonders and manifold powers shine as the sun in the world, giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, motion to the lame and life to the dead. Their shadows alone healed all the ailments of humankind. The devils, whom you dread as gods, they not only cast forth from people’s bodies but even drove out of the world itself by the sign of the cross, whereby they destroyed all sorcery and rendered witchcraft powerless. And these men, by curing every human disease by the power of Christ, and renewing all creation, are rightly admired as preachers of truth by all persons of sound mind.
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SUMMARY
Psalms 68:3 issues a vibrant, escalating call for the righteous to experience and express profound, overflowing joy in the very presence of God. Following a powerful declaration of divine judgment against the wicked, this verse pivots to highlight the distinct and blessed experience of those in right standing with the Almighty, whose gladness is not merely an internal state but an exuberant, outward celebration rooted in God's victorious character, His secure presence, and their covenant relationship with Him.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Psalms 68:3 masterfully employs several literary devices to convey its powerful message. The most prominent is Contrast, as the verse immediately follows a vivid depiction of the wicked perishing at God's presence Psalms 68:1-2. This sharp juxtaposition highlights the distinct destinies and experiences of the ungodly versus "the righteous," emphasizing the blessedness of those in covenant with God. The verse also uses Imperative or Exhortation ("let them be glad," "let them rejoice"), which functions as a command or strong invitation, urging the righteous to actively embrace and express this joy. Furthermore, the progression from "be glad" to "rejoice" and then "exceedingly rejoice" exemplifies a powerful form of Parallelism, specifically Synonymous Parallelism with an escalating intensity. Each phrase reiterates the theme of joy but amplifies its depth and outward expression, creating a crescendo of jubilation that underscores the profound and overflowing nature of the gladness available to the righteous in God's presence.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
The joy described in Psalms 68:3 is not a superficial emotion but a profound theological reality rooted in God's character and His relationship with His people. It signifies that true and lasting gladness is found in God's presence and is a hallmark of righteousness. This joy is intimately connected to God's victory over evil; the righteous rejoice because their God is triumphant, and His justice prevails. It underscores that God's presence brings not only security but also an overflowing delight, serving as a powerful motivation for worship and a testament to the blessedness of a life lived in accordance with His will. This divine joy transcends circumstances, offering an enduring source of strength and hope that is independent of external conditions.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Psalms 68:3 serves as a timeless invitation for believers to cultivate a deep, active, and expressive joy in their relationship with God. In a world often characterized by sorrow, anxiety, and fleeting pleasures, this verse reminds us that true and enduring gladness is found not in circumstances or material possessions, but "before God"—in His presence, in His character, and in His victorious works. It challenges us to consider if our worship is truly marked by such exuberance and if our lives reflect the profound blessedness of being in right standing with the Almighty. This joy is both a gift and a command, urging us to consciously choose to rejoice, to express our gratitude, and to celebrate the God who triumphs over all opposition. It calls us to allow our inner state of gladness to overflow into outward expressions of praise, making our lives a testimony to the boundless delight found in Him.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Who are "the righteous" in Psalms 68:3?
Answer: In the Old Testament context, "the righteous" (Hebrew: tsaddîyqîm) refers to those who are in a right covenant relationship with God, living in accordance with His laws and commands. It describes individuals whose lives are characterized by integrity, justice, and obedience to God's revealed will. They are not sinless, but their general direction of life is one of seeking God and striving to please Him. Their righteousness is often seen as a reflection of their faith and trust in God, distinguishing them from "the wicked" who reject God's ways, as seen in Psalms 1:5-6. This righteousness is the basis for their blessedness and their capacity to experience profound joy in God's presence.
Is the joy described in Psalms 68:3 a feeling or a command?
Answer: It is both. The Hebrew verbs used ("be glad," śāmach; "rejoice," sûws) describe genuine emotional states of happiness and exultation. However, the grammatical form is imperative ("let them be glad," "let them rejoice"), functioning as a command or an exhortation. This implies that while joy is a natural byproduct of being in God's presence and witnessing His triumph, it is also a deliberate act of worship and faith. Believers are called to actively choose to rejoice, even when circumstances might suggest otherwise, recognizing God as the ultimate source of their gladness and strength. This aligns with New Testament exhortations to "rejoice in the Lord always," as found in Philippians 4:4.
How does this verse relate to the Christian understanding of joy amidst suffering?
Answer: Psalms 68:3, with its emphasis on rejoicing "before God" and in His triumph, provides a foundational understanding for Christian joy, even in suffering. While the psalm celebrates God's victory over external enemies, the New Testament expands this to include Christ's victory over sin, death, and all spiritual adversaries. Christian joy is not the absence of pain or hardship, but a deep-seated gladness rooted in the unshakeable truth of God's sovereignty and His redemptive work in Christ. Believers can "exceedingly rejoice" because their ultimate hope is secure in God, who works all things for good for those who love Him Romans 8:28. This joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit Galatians 5:22, enabling believers to find gladness even in trials, knowing that their ultimate triumph is guaranteed through Christ and that suffering produces perseverance, character, and hope James 1:2-4.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Psalms 68:3 finds its ultimate and most profound fulfillment in Jesus Christ. He is the perfectly "righteous" one, whose life of absolute obedience and sacrificial death perfectly pleased God, making it possible for all who believe in Him to be declared righteous before God Romans 3:22. The triumphant God who scatters His enemies in Psalms 68 is fully revealed in Christ, who, through His death and resurrection, decisively triumphed over sin, death, and the powers of darkness, leading a glorious procession of captives Colossians 2:15. Therefore, the call for the righteous to "be glad" and "rejoice before God" is most fully realized in the believer's experience of salvation and new life in Christ. Our joy is not merely in a past victory, but in the living presence of the resurrected Lord, who promises His disciples a joy that no one can take away John 16:22. The "exceedingly rejoice" of the psalm foreshadows the overflowing, eternal joy that awaits the redeemed in the presence of the Lamb of God, who has made us righteous and brought us into His glorious kingdom, culminating in the marriage supper of the Lamb Revelation 19:7. In Christ, the gladness of the righteous is made perfect, eternal, and inexhaustible.