Let us turn to our Bibles to Psalm 68, Psalm 68, so we sang Psalm 67, that was providential because we just go through the Psalms and try to pick relevant ones and we’re doing 68 tonight as well. Let us listen intensively to the Word of God, Psalm 68, this is a longer Psalm. Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered, let those who hate him flee before him, as smoke is driven away, so drive them away, as wax melts before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
Let the righteous be glad, let them rejoice before God, yes, let them rejoice exceedingly. Sing to God, sing praises to his name, extol him who rides in the clouds by his name, Yah, and rejoice before him. A father to the fatherless, a tender of widows is God in his holy habitation.
God sets the solitary families, he brings out those who are bound into prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a dry land. Oh God, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the wilderness, the earth shook, the heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God. Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.
You, oh God, sent a plentiful rain, whereby you confirmed your inheritance when it was weary, your congregation dwelt in it. You, oh God, provided from your goodness for the poor. The Lord gave the word, great was the company of those who proclaimed it.
Kings of armies flee, they flee, and she who remains at home devised to spoil. Though you lie down among the sheepfolds, you will be like the wings of a dove, covered with silver and her feathers with yellow gold. When the Almighty scattered kings in it, it was white as snow in Zalman.
A mountain of God is as the mountain of Bashan, a mountain of many peaks is the mountain of Bashan. Why do you fume with envy, you mountains of many peaks? This is the mountain which God desires to dwell in. Yes, the Lord will dwell in it forever.
The chariots of God are 20,000, even thousands of thousands. The Lord is among them as in Sinai in the holy place. You have ascended on high, you have led captivity captive, you have received gifts among men, even from the rebellious, that the Lord God might dwell there.
Blessed be the Lord who daily loads us with benefits, the God of our salvation. Our God is the God of salvation, and the God the Lord belongs, escapes from death. And God will wound the head of his enemies, the hairy scalp of the one who still goes on in his trespasses.
The Lord said, I will bring back from Bashan, I will bring them back from the depths of the sea, that your foot may crush them in blood, and the tongues of your dogs may have their portion from your enemies. They have seen your procession, O God, the procession of my God, my King, into the sanctuary. The singers went before, the players on instruments followed after.
Among them were the maidens playing timbrels. Bless God and our congregations, the Lord from the fountain of Israel. There is little Benjamin, their leader, the princes of Judah and their company, the princes of Zebulun, and the princes of Naphtali.
Your God has commanded your strength. Strengthen, O God, what you have done for us, because of your temple at Jerusalem. Kings will bring presents to you.
Rebuke the beasts of the reeds, the herds of the bulls, of the calves of the peoples. Tell everyone, submits himself with pieces of silver. Scatter the peoples who delight in war.
Envoys will come out of Egypt. Ethiopia will quickly stretch out her hands to God. Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth.
O sing praises to the Lord, to him who rides in the heaven of heavens, which were of old. Indeed, he sends out his voice, a mighty voice. Ascribe strength to God.
His excellence is over Israel. His strength is in the clouds. O God, you are more awesome than your holy places.
The God of Israel is he who gives strength and power to his people. Blessed be God. Amen.
Let us pray. Indeed, Lord, may this psalm, we pray, open up into our hearts, the beauty and the glory of you. And may it be our prayer to read in verse 1 of his desire.
Let God arise. Let him go forth and scatter the enemy and show us his great glory. And he gives us, we see in the rest of the psalm, different ways in which his glory is indeed revealed to his people and even to the world.
And Lord God, we know this revelation was limited in so far as of the past and not all the world had seen it. And our desire, God, is that more of the world will see the greatness of the majesty of the glory of who you are to be revealed fully when Christ Jesus shall return. Come quickly, Lord, we pray.
Amen. When we talk of the glory of God, it is but another way to describe what makes our Lord special, unique, and worthy of praise, honor, and adoration. Recall that the word glory means weight in the root of it.
Thus, to give glory to the Lord is to recognize how weighty his person and power are and that we therefore give him the weightiest honor and praise above any and all. This psalm is a prayer, we see there in verse 1, a request that the Lord would so manifest himself that all would see his glory in various and sundry ways, but also offers a number of evidences that God has indeed already done this and returns back to blessing God for who he is and his wonderful glory there in verse 35. And so I’ve broken it up to make it a little easier because it is a long psalm into five parts here in which God’s glory is revealed.
God’s Glory Revealed
The first verses, verses 1 through 6, you can see that as more of a generic description of the greatness of God, although it does speak of enemies, but the context is not clear, that is enemies of the past, the present, of the future. We read here, like God arise, a glorious request of our Lord above, a prayer, a desire, a request, a call upon him that he would make his power known, his mercy known, his church would see therefore his goodness, his greatness, which all is encompassed in the word glory. The glory and the majesty and the awesomeness of God Almighty and indeed that the whole world would witness this because when he arises and his enemies are scattered, people will see it.
It’s an image here of getting up, of course, that is from a throne armed for warfare to terrorize his enemies as they flee. We read here, those who hate him. This isn’t people who long for Jesus in their heart of hearts somehow as we have been taught for a hundred years now in the American Christianity that people really just want God but they’ve just been hindered by these lies in the church.
We have this God-shaped hole in our heart, they say. There’s a sense in which that is true insofar as, of course, if you want peace, if you want redemption, if you want salvation, you got to have God. That’s true, but they don’t.
Unless the Spirit is working in them, they want nothing to do with him. They are those who hate him and they will flee as God arises, his enemies will flee from him and a thousand different directions as we say today. They flee before him as smoke has driven away.
We recently got a fan in our bathroom because the old one broke so I replaced it up on the ceiling. I can do a little bit of that and it was nice. So all the smoke can now go up there and everything else that needs to be dealt with.
That’s what it’s like here. It’s driven away, far, far away as wax melts before the fire. So he unpacks more imagery here to make it alive for us.
This is what his power is like. The world will indeed melt before him, the firmament of the fire as we read in Peter, and the whole world be transformed when Jesus Christ is fully revealed in a way that we cannot comprehend right now. It’s beyond our imagination.
And this prayer is backed up by proof of the Lord’s glory. A little later, verse 7 in the desert, and on the mount of the Lord, verses 15 and following. These are the sections I have broken up.
The glory of God is seen in the temple of the Lord, verses 22 and following. And at the end, of course, the nations will ultimately rejoice in God and his presence, whether they want to or not as we say. Let the righteous be glad, verses 3 through 6. But the righteous will be glad.
They shall be glad. Let them be glad. Let them rejoice before God.
Let them rejoice exceedingly. So his prayer, of course, is that we will rejoice in the greatness that is the Lord as well, all of us together, because of his power in what? Scattering his enemy, verses 1 and 2. Enemies against Israel. We know all the Old Testament stories there, both material and physical enemies, but especially the spiritual enemies as the Philistines, the Egyptians, the Assyrians, and now today even Americans and all kinds of Canadians and whatnot have false religions threatening the spirituality, our spiritual souls, our life in that sense.
And we rejoice that God has protected us from such lies. And we should rejoice and sing praises to God for his glorious works, to extol him, to give him honor, because he rides in the clouds. Here we read in verse 4, following, sing to God, sing praises to his name.
And this is a command often in the Psalms that we rejoice in what God has given us. The singing, you may not think of it this way, is but a form of prayer because it is to God. It’s for God.
It’s offering something to him that we acknowledge who he is, or we are thankful for him, or we have a request from him, all the things that you do in prayer, but now done to a tune. Extol him, right, lift him up, exalt him who rides on the clouds. That image there of the clouds, of riding on the clouds, is used of Baal and other gods, because he’s supposed to be the god of moisture and fertilization and rain and the like that you need for the land.
But of course we believe that God’s the true God, not Baal, and they’re Baal of, as you remember, all their gods are local gods that are just there in that little area, that little sliver of land. Ours is the God over all the clouds, over all the earth, over all the universe, and he is above all them, and therefore we rejoice in him. Yah, or you can have a J there, we have Jehovah, that’s short for Yahweh or Jehovah, I am that I am, the covenant keeping God that revealed himself to Moses.
Probably shortened for the poetry here, because this is again all poetry, right? All the Psalms are Hebraic poetry. It fits their way of putting poetry together. There’s more reasons to recognize his glory, verses 5 and following.
A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy habitation. He sets the solitary, that is the isolated and lonely, in families. That’s a thing that the Lord does for people.
He brings out those who are bound and into prosperity or bound in poverty and therefore into prosperity and blessings. On the flip side, of course, the rebellious dwell in a dry land. This is more evidence, although the details aren’t here, but the father of the fatherless and defending the helpless, not just the widows, the poor, not just the poor, the handicapped, not just the handicapped, anybody who is disadvantaged either physically or unfairly morally in our world, our fallen world.
Our God is for them, that is his people in particular who struggle with these things. But even those who are not in the church, God has his common grace upon them, that is he does shed goodness upon them and they have been taken care of and his providence and they should recognize that as well. Now the opening verses are a general description here up to verse 6. Of the Lord’s might, of his power, of his compassion, and of his care for the fatherless and defender of the widows.
He is both. And the glory, therefore, that comes from this. And now we come to verse 7.
God’s glory Revealed in the Desert
O God, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the wilderness, the earth shook, the heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God, and Sinai itself was moved, the presence of God, the God of Israel.
So now we shift to the image of them in the desert, the glory of God revealed in the desert, to verse 14. And he goes forth here in the picture, you went out before your people, and our mindset, you’re like, okay, so it’s like, you know, I guess the pastor going out before us, my father going out before us, me going out before my kids. No, it’s a picture of a king, a conquering king, leading his people to victory, either after the fact or into combat, one way or the other.
Because the kings are expected to fight with and for their people, unless they were handicapped or, you know, old, basically. It’s a display of his glory and of his wonder there in the desert, where God went forth and fought for his people and defended his people, and they marched through the wilderness. He preserved them in a hostile land, and the remaining verses here describe the Lord’s goodness therein, and the power and grace towards his people, and therefore what? The majesty and the glory, the great weights and honor that we ought to give to him, because of his wonderful works for his people.
Verses 8 and 9, the earth shook, right? That’s the picture of the Old Testament there at Mount Sinai. The heavens also dropped rain, the presence of God, and Sinai itself was moved from those earthquakes. Now we see here, you notice, the heavens also, what? Dropped at the presence of God or dropped rain is probably the idea there in contrast to verse 6 at the very end, but the rebellious, what? Dwell in a dry land.
They are not blessed by God with water, physical water, of course, but especially the spiritual water of redemption, salvation in our Lord and Savior for our soul. God’s goodness, we see in verses 9 through 10. You, God, sent a plentiful rain, so there we have the rain more explicitly there, whereby you confirmed your inheritance.
You showed and gave proof to them in the desert that they got the moisture they needed and the food to provide for God’s people therein. Your congregation dwelt in it, even when it was weary. You, O God, provided from your goodness for the poor.
Verse 10, that is the poor of his people, all of them. They were all certainly poor, even though they got a lot of riches from the Egyptians. You recall, they plundered the Egyptians.
They were like, here, take this stuff. Maybe your God would be happy with all this extra gold and all these goodies. Just leave us because you’re destroying our country with the ten plagues.
But what are you going to do with all that in the desert? You know, you could say you’re rich in one sense, but you’re really poor in another. Where’s your food? Where’s your shelter? Where’s your water? God was the source of all that. They were supposed to learn that lesson, and many did.
Unfortunately, many did not as well as we know. And God’s goodness here, another attribute of Him explicitly mentioned here, for God you provided from your goodness. One of the descriptions of the attributes of God, not just the sovereignty of God, is one of the attributes of God.
Not just the mercy of God and the justice, but also His goodness. Goodness even upon the unjust and those who hate Him. God’s Word is given, even in the midst of this difficult trial of the desert.
Verses 11 through 14, the Lord gave the Word. Great was the company of those who proclaimed it. Kings of the armies flee, and they flee.
They shall, and she who remains at home devised a spoil. But verse 11 there, the Lord gave the Word. The Lord gave the Word is to say the Lord gave revelation, information, truth that they needed there in the desert.
God guided them and directed them from Mount Sinai, from the angels, from the cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night. And of course through His prophet Moses. And this is what we need through life’s hardship, is the Lord’s Word.
This too is more evidence of the greatnesses of our God and His majesty, because He given us not just general revelation, but the special revelation of Him speaking to us through the prophets of old and the Word of God established here in the New Testament era, so that we are guided in the midst of our wilderness and our travels of our life, brothers and sisters. And this too is a good thing we should rejoice in Him. Never take the Bible for granted.
It is a treasure given to us from on high. The four nations, however, in the desert, verses 12 and following, they flee, they flee. And then we read the rest of it, those who remain that divide the spoil.
Though you lie down, this is the church, among the sheepfolds, you’ll be like the wings of a dove, you will be at peace. But verse 14 and 12 kind of go together, where we read the kings of the armies flee. And then in 14, the Almighty scattered the kings in it.
So probably Egypt, one of those kings, and all the way through the desert up to into the promised land itself, where more of the kings of the pagans were scattered by God’s power and might. Defending His people is what God does, as we know here. That’s the description when they flee, because God is fighting them, and therefore, on the flip side, what? He’s defending His sheep.
He’s defending the Old Testament Church. And He defends us today, brothers and sisters, through the mediatorial office of Jesus Christ, as we heard a little bit about this morning, that His king and His rule are over all the earth now. And He guides the nations for the benefit of His church.
The blessings, I hinted at there in verses 12 to 13, they shall remain. She who remains at home divides the spoil, the spoil of war. Though you lie down among the sheepfolds, you will be like the wings of the dove covered with silver.
It’s a peaceful condition you find yourself in. And their lying in safety and peace that they have is white. And so the white brings to mind, perhaps, to the psalmist as he writes this, by the inspiration of spirit, of course, the white snow upon this tall mountain Zalmon.
God’s glory revealed in the holy mountain, verses 15 to 21, the third point. The mountain of God, the mountain of God. I don’t like doing this very often, as you know, but it just depends on what translation you use in this little regard.
The KJV says the hill of God, or mountain, I mean their hills, their mountains are still smaller than some of our hills, right, is as the hill of Bashan, a high hill as the hill of Bashan. And you have probably the NKJV, as I read here, the mountain of God is the mountain of Bashan. What they have in Hebrew, and they do a little bit of that in Greek at times, what they call a noun sentence, where there is no verb.
And so you have to supply the verb. And that’s why I mentioned this morning, you’ll see italicized, here is the is, I-S is italicized. That is not there, the translator put it there to make it clear to you, because you don’t read Hebrew, what’s going on.
And I think it’s better to say the mountain of God is as the mountain of Bashan, it’s a comparative. Because the mountain of God is what? Over and over again in the Old Testament. Mount Zion, Mount Zion, Mount Zion, not Bashan.
Bashan is elsewhere, it’s further over here. So it’s as, over and over again, Mount Zion is the mountain of God, the hill of Jerusalem, where the temple is. And in verse 16, this is the mountain which God desires to dwell in.
Yes, the Lord God will dwell in it forever. But we read elsewhere, what? It’s Mount Zion where he dwells in forever. Of course, that’s a picture.
He’s not there, he’s everywhere, he’s omnipresent, but that his special love and his covenantal mercies upon his people, as represented in the temple on that hill in Jerusalem, right? It’s a visible sign. But that’s done away with. What it’s saying, ultimately, as forever means he’s always with his people.
Wherever he is, that’s where Mount Zion is, to use Old Testament language. And it makes sense here, the mountains of many peaks is the mountains of Bashan. Why do you fume with envy, you mountains of many peaks? Bashan is described as a mountain of many peaks, and so with the comparative, it makes more sense, because the mountain of God is as the mountain of Bashan.
That is, yes, the mountain of God is smaller than the mountain of Bashan. The mountains of Bashan are like 5,000 feet. It’s almost a mile high.
That’s really tall over there. That’s where we walk. We walk a mile high.
That’s where we live right now. So that comparison is, you think this great, is wonderful and majestic with the white peaks, it’s so high up there, and it is. Like our Rocky Mountains, although not as rocky, but still beautiful back there and over there.
And the hill of Mount Zion isn’t really like that. It’s smaller, but because it’s where God’s special presence is, the symbolism of the temple is there. It’s just as beautiful as that physical place.
That’s what he’s making the comparison. And that physical place, Bashan, which is described as what?
God’s Glory Revealed in a Holy Mountain
A mountain of many peaks, verse 15, is the mountain of Bashan. Why do you fume with envy, you mountains of many peaks? What? You fume with envy against the real mountain, this beautiful mountain, Mount Zion, where God dwells.
That’s the imagery going on here. It’s personifying the mountains of Bashan. You think you’re great and glorious.
That is, we think, the pagans and the Jews, think these are glorious mountains. These are glorious Rocky Mountains. They’re nothing in comparison to the Church of the living God, who is with God, who is Mount Zion.
Even today, wherever God’s people is more beautiful than the Rocky Mountains. That’s the way of saying it. And they’re envious.
So he flips it around there. It’s like they’re envious. The Rocky Mountains are envious of God’s people, and we are on his holy hill.
Verse 17, the chariots of God are 20,000, even thousands of thousands. What is this a picture of? That God’s dependent upon horses? We know it’s not. We know, again, he’s using the things of this world.
Earthly matters, earthly fighters and powers and swords and imageries, to show us a divine power, that he is a king who has thousands of thousands, not just 20,000, even thousands of thousands, or multiplied thousands upon thousands at his call and his command, in comparison to all the other false gods around them. The power of God, his almighty omnipotence, is what’s being highlighted here as a source of praise and adoration. His glory there, even thousands, the Lord is among them, that is his people, as in Mount Sinai, in the holy place.
Again, here’s a comparative, as of old Mount Sinai, God is there in Mount Zion, where the holy place of the temple is at the time of the writing of the psalmist, just as much as it was there at Mount Sinai, there in the desert. You say, how can that be? So when they go to the temple, and they go to Jerusalem, they see thunder and lightning, and there’s earthquakes and loud voices from heaven? No, the supernatural may not be there, in that sense, the outward manifestation of the form, but the presence and the love and the compassion, the symbolism of God is just as real there, as it was as Mount Sinai. That’s the idea.
And I think it’s almost a sermon in itself, that we don’t need to go back to the old forms, and say, Lord God, I wish I had more prophets, I wish I had more miracles, and tongue-speaking, and healings, that would be great. It’s like at Mount Sinai, or in the New Testament era, and God’s like, no, wherever I am, that’s sufficient, just as much as it was Mount Sinai. The gift of God, verses 18 to 19, you have ascended on high, you have left captivity captive, you have received gifts among men, even from the rebellious, that Lord God might dwell there.
That is, the Lord ascends on high as a conquering king. We have this partially quoted in Ephesians 4.8. Do you know that? Ephesians 4.8. Therefore, he says, when he ascended on high, he left captivity captive, and gave gifts to men. He goes on to describe those gifts as the pastors, the evangelists, the apostles, given to the church, for the good of the church, for the growth of the church.
It’s a picture here, as I said, of his military might, releasing us from the prison of Satan. You have left captivity captive, captive into his kingdom, as opposed to the kingdom of Satan. And the victory is so complete, that even the rebellious, even from the rebellious, you will have gifts from men, the latter part of verse 18.
They will submit and offer him such gifts of praise and honor. Every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess. God praised again for the Lord of the covenants, blessing poured upon us, who daily loads us with benefits.
Verse 19. Blessed be the Lord. Praise his name.
He’s a wonderful God, who daily loads us with benefits. Have you thought about that? You contemplated that? What does that look like? Not just occasionally, not just, oh, it comes Christmas time, it’s birthday time, and now I get all these gifts, with the rest of the week, rest of the year, and I may not see much of my parents, they don’t give me really anything. God daily gives us our needs and more.
His mercies are new every morning. Contemplate that. Write out a list.
You’ve heard it before, and it’s the simple exercise of the physical blessings that you have, the food, the variety of food, the access to food, you’re not living five hours away from a grocery store, the peace and prosperity we have in our community, in our society, that’s just the physical part. Then you name the spiritual blessings that are given to us day by day. When we struggle with such hardships, dwelling upon and meditating upon the good things that God has given us in Christ Jesus, the wonderful blessings daily he bestows upon us, is a wonderful way to grow.
The God of salvation, verses 20 to 21. Our God is the God of salvation, the God of the Lord belongs, and to God, excuse me, the Lord belongs, escapes from death, and to God the Lord belongs, escapes from death. That is, we can escape from death itself when I held and behold him by it, for his power is greater than all.
From bloodthirsty kings and empires, salvation from the kingdom of Satan and lies of the world, even salvation from death and death’s sting itself. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? We have victory through Christ our Lord and Savior over these things. Our salvation involves deliverance from enemies, to be sure, who are not saved but continued in the rebellion, and will be judged by God for their obstinance and wickedness, as we read here in verses 21 to 22 and 23.
The Lord will bring back from Bashan, and the Lord God, we’ll read into the next section, from the depths of the sea. The Lord will wound the head of these enemies, and the hairy scalp of the one who still goes on and trespasses. Read there, it’s an unrepentant sinner.
They’re just persistent, they don’t want to submit, they will not repent, and they will not submit, and God will judge them.
God’s Glory Revealed in a Holy Temple
Fourth point, verses 22 to 31. I read a little bit here of verses 22.
The Lord said, I will bring back from Bashan, I’ll bring them back from the depths of the sea. So I see here a picture of two parts, Bashan being one of the taller mountain regions there, the mountains of Bashan. He speaks of it as collective there.
The highest parts, no matter where you’re separated, to the lowest parts, the depths of the sea, and matters not. God Almighty will draw you unto him, and protect you, and preserve you, and bring you to Christ into heaven. No matter the height, no matter the depth, God will be there for his people.
That’s the idea. Nothing can separate us, therefore, for the love of Jesus Christ. Verse 24, they have seen your procession, O God, the procession of my God, my King, into the sanctuary, a description of God’s crushing justice.
Never forget, we pray for God’s glory to be revealed, and that glory is not just in salvation of the church, but also in the victory over the enemies, and his strength, exercise therein. We see a little bit of that in verse 23, your foot may crush the enemies in blood, and the dog shall have their portion from your enemies. But in particular here, this procession, a clearly a military procession, in which God marches before his people, we have down to verse 29, this description of the military procession, the Lord finishing his battle for his people, after he rises up, verse 1, let God arise, let his enemies be scattered, and now they’re coming back into Jerusalem, and rejoicing, and coming to the temple itself.
That’s why I described this praise of God’s power and glory in the temple. You’ll see that there in verse 29, where it speaks of the temple. But this procession, this long march of rejoicing before God, led before our great King, and Lord, and Master, and ultimate Jesus Christ, has singers with instruments leading the way with public praise, a common practice back then.
Verse 27 describes the smallest tribe, Benjamin, right? There is little Benjamin, what? There’s little Benjamin in the midst of the procession, their leader, the princes of Judah, and their company, Judah being on the other hand, what? The largest tribe, from the smallest to the largest, and Zebulun, and Naphtali, and everything in between. They’re all marching with honor and glory to God Almighty, for the victory they have in Christ Jesus. And they honor him and exalt him publicly as well, not just privately.
In verse 26, bless God and the congregations, the Lord from the fountain of Israel, for Lord God is the fountain of Israel itself, in fact, and he is the fountain of all our strength and mercy. His strength in fighting and preserving for his people is expressed there in verse 28. Your God has commanded your strength.
Strengthen, O God, that you have done for us what you have done, because of your temple at Jerusalem, kings will bring presents to you. And so there the glory of God is revealed to his people, in the strength that he has given them, and that God’s strength there, and the procession leading up to Jerusalem itself, that even the kings themselves, because of your temple at Jerusalem, kings will bring presents to you. Temple, presents, what presents? Presents of sacrifices and offerings to the altar at the temple.
That’s what it’s talking about. That’s what they’re doing. They’re showing obeisance, they’re showing submission, they’re showing humility before God Almighty, the kings of the earth, and therefore the nations they represent, and the armies that follow the kings.
It’s never in, except in case, of course, of actual historical events of speaking of one king, but in the literature of the poets and of the Psalms, when it speaks of kings doing this, and kings doing that, submitting to the Lord, or flaying before him, it’s never just the king as a king, but the king representing the nation. The whole nation’s being swept away, and the armies are following after the kings. And that’s what we read here.
The kings will bring presents to you, and we’ve seen that in the New Testament Church. England and France and others who profess the king’s dead, their allegiance to Jesus. They even swear on the Bible.
I’m telling you, brothers and sisters, this is like a prophecy, and we’ve seen part of it fulfilled here and now, and in the New Testament era. And we need to pray for more of this, perhaps even in our own lifetime. And so, the procession, as well, it was supposed to go to and honor God at the temple with sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving.
That’s what’s behind this picture. So, the temple, a reminder, is a central physical sign of God’s gracious presence in the Old Testament. One of the greatest signs, because it’s so visible and large.
It’s a huge edifice. The outward evidence of what? His glory and His majesty. And they speak of the temple that way, to represent God’s glory.
And all will submit, verse 30 and following, rebuke the beasts of the reeds, the herds, of the bulls, of the calves, of the people, the animals, or perhaps they represent the kings. Till everyone, we read the end of verse 30, halfway through 30, submits himself with pieces of silver. Jesus will reign and rule on this earth until every knee shall bow and every tongue can confess.
And that’s when he returns. Scatter the peoples who delight in war. So, on the flip side, those who refuse to submit will be scattered, and not scattered in a good way, but towards ultimate judgment, as we know.
Verses 32 and following. Well, verse 31 here, it slides in like poetry does. You can’t always give a clear demarcation to the verses.
Sometimes you see the idea sliding from one verse to another, to a new idea. And so, in verse 31, envoys will come out of Egypt, that is, envoys of peace and submission and adoration to the God of Israel. And Ethiopia will quickly stretch out her hands, her hands for mercy and glory to God Almighty. That’s the picture here.
God’s Glory Revealed in the Nations
And we move, therefore, to verse 32, where God’s glory is revealed to the praise of the nations. The goyim, the non-Jews, the Gentiles, sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth.
What? You Egypt, you Ethiopia, oh, sing praises to the Lord God. And that’s us. We are goyim.
We are the Gentiles. We are the nations. We have been blessed, not to be those who delight in war, and therefore are scattered, verse 30, but rather those who come and reach out our hands toward him, an empty hand of faith, saying, Lord, have mercy upon us, for I am a sinner.
To him who rides in the heaven of heavens, which were of old, indeed, he sends out his voice with a mighty voice. The praise of God’s strength is a picture here, verses 33 and following, especially seen in creation and redemption. His strength ascribed to God is excellence over Israel.
His strength is in the clouds. Clouds, picture of creation. Israel, picture of redemption.
And so both in creation and redemption, God’s power and might is exercised, as we know there in Genesis 1 and again in John 1. It was almighty power in creating all things for his own glory and bringing us into existence. The praise to his glorious grace. And redemption, of course, bringing us from spiritual death, out of the iron grasp of Satan’s kingdom, into his glorious light.
And he concludes this psalm in verse 35, O God, you are more awesome than your holy places, than the temple itself, or the high places they went to before they had the temple. The God of Israel is he who gives strength and power to his people. The power of salvation, the strength of new life, of regeneration, of new desires.
The God of Israel is our God. Blessed be God. His, the psalmist here, and our prayer should be that more of God’s glory and grandeur would be seen and revealed in our lives and the lives of the world around us, just as we’ve seen it, seen it in our hearts.
Let us pray. Lord Jesus, God Almighty, bring deliverance and salvation, draw and call more people into the church, our Lord, that more would see and contemplate upon creation to be sure. See the wonders of how you’ve designed and form and hold all things together, as we understand in science, our God, but especially in redemption.
May your power and your majesty and your glory be seen and revealed and shown to all the earth, we pray, by the blood of Christ. Amen.