Psa 68:7-10 | TDavid | STEP | EXPOSITION Verse 7 . O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people. What a sweetly suitable association, "thou" and "thy people;" -- thou before, and thy people following! The Lord went before, and, therefore, whether the Red Sea or burning sand lay in the way, it mattered not; the pillar of cloud and fire always led them by a right way. When thou didst march through the wilderness. He was the Commander in chief of Israel, from whom they received all orders, and the march was therefore his march. "His stately step the region drear beheld." We may speak, if we will, of the "wanderings of the children of Israel," but we must not think them purposeless strayings, they were in reality a well arranged and well considered march. SELAH. This seems an odd place for a musical pause or direction, but it is better to break a sentence than spoil praise. The sense is about to be superlatively grand, and, therefore, the selah intimates the fact to the players and singers, that they may with suitable solemnity perform their parts. It is never untimely to remind a congregation that the worship of God should be thoughtfully and heartily presented. EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS None. HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS Verse 7-8 . God has his seasons for delivering his people from their troubles: When thou, etc. His deliverance is complete: The earth shook, etc.; all things gave way before him. The deliverance is greater for the delay. It is so in itself. It is more prized: as in the case of Job, Abraham, Israel at the Red Sea, Daniel, his three companions, etc. G. R. Verse 7-9 . The presence of God in his church. His preeminence: "before." As covenant God of Israel. As active and making active. His rule within: they follow. His design without: marching for war. The blessed consequences. The most stolid shake. The lofty bow. Difficulties removed: "Sinai." Blessings plenteous. Church revived.

Psalms 68:7-10

EXPOSITION Verse 7 . O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people. What a sweetly suitable association, "thou" and "thy people;" -- thou before, and thy people following! The Lord went before, and, therefore, whether the Red Sea or burning sand lay in the way, it mattered not; the pillar of cloud and fire always led them by a right way. When thou didst march through the wilderness. He was the Commander in chief of Israel, from whom they received all orders, and the march was therefore his march. "His stately step the region drear beheld." We may speak, if we will, of the "wanderings of the children of Israel," but we must not think them purposeless strayings, they were in reality a well arranged and well considered march. SELAH. This seems an odd place for a musical pause or direction, but it is better to break a sentence than spoil praise. The sense is about to be superlatively grand, and, therefore, the selah intimates the fact to the players and singers, that they may with suitable solemnity perform their parts. It is never untimely to remind a congregation that the worship of God should be thoughtfully and heartily presented. EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS None. HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS Verse 7-8 . God has his seasons for delivering his people from their troubles: When thou, etc. His deliverance is complete: The earth shook, etc.; all things gave way before him. The deliverance is greater for the delay. It is so in itself. It is more prized: as in the case of Job, Abraham, Israel at the Red Sea, Daniel, his three companions, etc. G. R. Verse 7-9 . The presence of God in his church. His preeminence: "before." As covenant God of Israel. As active and making active. His rule within: they follow. His design without: marching for war. The blessed consequences. The most stolid shake. The lofty bow. Difficulties removed: "Sinai." Blessings plenteous. Church revived.

EXPOSITION

Verse 8. The earth shook. Beneath the sublime tread the solid ground trembled.

The heavens also dropped at the presence of God, as if they bowed before their God, the clouds descended, and "a few dark shower drops stole abroad."

Even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God. Moses tell us, in Exodus 19, that "the whole mountain quaked greatly." That hill, so lone and high, bowed before the manifested God.

The God of Israel. The one only living and true God, whom Israel worshipped, and who had chosen that nation to be his own above all the nations of the earth. The passage is so sublime, that it would be difficult to find its equal. May the reader's heart adore the God before whom the unconscious earth and sky act as if they recognised their Maker and were moved with a tremor of reverence.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 8. The God of Israel. Sinai was the seat not only of God, but of the covenant God of the people of Israel; from which the law was proclaimed, and the covenant struck between God and his people. Hermann Venema.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 7-8. See Psalms on "Psalms 68:7" for further information.

Verse 7-9. See Psalms on "Psalms 68:7" for further information. EXPOSITION Verse 9 . Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain. The march of God was not signalized solely by displays of terror, for goodness and bounty were also made conspicuous. Such rain as never fell before dropped on the desert sand, bread from heaven and winged fowl fell all around the host; good gifts were poured upon them, rivers leaped forth from rocks. The earth shook with fear, and in reply, the Lord, as from a cornucopia, shook out blessings upon it; so the original may be rendered. Whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance, when it was weary. As at the end of each stage, when they halted, weary with the march, they found such showers of good things awaiting them that they were speedily refreshed. Their foot did not swell all those forty years. When they were exhausted, God was not. When they were weary, He was not. They were his chosen heritage, and, therefore, although for their good he allowed them to be weary, yet he watchfully tended them and tenderly considered their distresses. In like manner, to this day, the elect of God in this wilderness state are apt to become tired and faint, but their ever loving Jehovah comes in with timely succours, cheers the faint, strengthens the weak, and refreshes the hungry; so that once again, when the silver trumpets sound, the church militant advances with bold and firm step towards "the rest which remaineth." By this faithfulness, the faith of God's people is confirmed, and their hearts established; if fatigue and want made them waver, the timely supply of grace stays them again upon the eternal foundations. EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS Verse 9 . The Thou in the Hebrew is emphatic: Thine inheritance , even when it was wearied (i.e., worn out) thou didst confirm; or, "fortify it." Thou who alone couldest strengthen one worn out, didst so for thy people. A. R. Fausset. Verse 9 . A liberal rain . The words translated a liberal rain, read literally in the Hebrew a rain of freenesses; and I agree with interpreters in thinking that he alludes to the blessing as having come in the exercise of free favour, and to God, as having of his own unprompted goodness provided for all the wants of his people. Some read, a desirable rain; others a rain flowing without violence, or gentle; but neither of these renderings seems eligible. Others read, a copious or plentiful rain; but I have already stated what appears to me to be the preferable sense. John Calvin. Verse 9 . A gracious rain; that is , of manna. Edmund Law (1703- 1787), quoted by Richard Warner in loc., 1828. Verse 9 . Rain . One fountain, says Cyril, waters thy paradise, and the rain that falls upon all the world is the same; it is white in the bloom of the hawthorn, red in the rose, purple in the hyacinth, and diverse kinds, and all in all; yet it itself is the same and of the same kind... So also the Holy Spirit, though he is one and the same and not divisible, yet to every one he divideth grace according as he wills. Thomas Le Blanc. Verse 9 . A plentiful rain . Thy love has been as a shower! The returns, but a dew drop, and that dew drop stained with sin. James Harrington Evans, 1785-1849. HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS Verse 9 . God's mercy compared to a shower. It is direct from heaven; not through priests. It is pure and unmixed. No one has a monopoly of it. There is no substitute for it. It is sovereignly dispensed, as to time; place; manner; and measure. It works efficiently. Isa 55: Prayer can get it. There are seasons when these showers fall. In the house of God. In the means of grace. In prayer. In affliction. When saints are weary through working; through sickness; through non success. By the Holy Spirit refreshing the heart. These showers are meant to "confirm God's people." IV. They are wanted now. Verse 9 . The church is God's inheritance. Chosen. Purchased. Acquired. Though his inheritance, at times it may be weary. When weary, it will be refreshed by him. G. R. EXPOSITION Verse 10 . Thy congregation hath dwelt therein. In the wilderness itself, enclosed as in a wall of fire, thy chosen church has found a home; or, rather, girdled by the shower of free grace which fell all around the camp, thy flock has rested. The congregation of the faithful find the Lord to be their "dwelling place in all generations." Where there were no dwellings of men, God was the dwelling of his people. Thou, O God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor. Within the guarded circle there was plenty for all; all were poor in themselves, yet there were no beggars in all the camp, for celestial fare was to be had for the gathering. We, too, still dwell within the circling protection of the Most High, and find goodness made ready for us: although poor and needy by nature, we are enriched by grace; divine preparations in the decree, the covenant, the atonement, providence, and the Spirit's work, have made ready for us a fulness of the blessing of the Lord. Happy people, though in the wilderness, for all things are ours, in possessing the favour and presence of our God. EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS Verse 10 . Thy congregation . The words are choice and expressive. Addressing God, (the poet) intentionally and emphatically calls the people of Israel $tyx thy combined congregation, in contrast to former divisions and various dissensions, to signify, that the people was now welded together, formed into one society, and united at the same time, that it was well ordered, and constituted as the society of God, wherein his laws flourished and were wont to be observed. Hermann Venema. Verse 10 . Thy congregation . Or, Thy living creatures, $tyh, ta zwa, LXX animalia, Vulgate; probably a reference to the immense number of quails which were miraculously brought to the camp of the Israelites, and, in a manner, dwelt around it. Note in the "Congregational Bible." Verse 10 . Thy congregation . Or, Thy living creatures. That desolate place, where only wild beasts before could live, was now by those showers of manna ( Psalms 68:9 ) enabled to sustain a multitude of other tamer living creatures, even of men and all their flocks and herds. Henry Hammond. Verse 10 . (first clause) . Rather: -- "As for thy food (manna and quails), they dwelt in the midst of it." Edmund Law. Verse 10 . (first clause) . As to thy food, they dwelt amidst it. The ambiguity of the word hyx has occasioned various renderings of this line. Parkhurst considers the radical sense of hyx is "to be vigorous, strong;" hence the noun denotes force, a body of men ( 2 Samuel 23:13 ); and also that which gives strength, the means of support, or food ( Judges 6:4 17:10); and compare Nehemiah 9:6 . Our translators took the term in the first sense; I take it in the second, because the connection seems to require it, and because (tyx) refers always to a body of men, as soldiers, as actually engaged in some kind of warfare. Hence what is called the troop of Philistines ( 2 Samuel 23:13 ) is called the camp of the Philistines. 1Ch 11:15. And, lastly, because the common version has no antecedent to which hk, in it, or amidst it, can refer; but this version has one in the noun food. I think there is then a reference not only to the manna, but to the quails, which God brought in abundance around the camp. Exodus 16:13 Numbers 11:31 . Thus he prepared in his goodness for the poor. Benjamin Boothroyd. Verse 10 . Thou hast prepared in thine own sweetness for the poor , O God. In thine own sweetness, not in his sweetness. For the needy he is, for he hath been made weak, in order that he may be made perfect: he hath acknowledged himself indigent, that he may be replenished. Augustine. HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS Verse 10 . (second clause). Special goodness, for a special people, specially prepared. Verse 10 . (second clause). It is spoken in reference to the poor, because, They are the larger mass of mankind; and, whatever pride may think, in the eye of reason, policy, and revelation, by far the most important, useful, and necessary part. They would be more peculiarly affected by deficiency. To encourage those in humble and trying life to depend upon him. To enforce our attention to them from the divine example. W. Jay.