World English Bible
- For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. A song. Let God arise! Let his enemies be scattered! Let them who hate him also 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.
- But let the righteous be glad. Let them rejoice before God. Yes, let them rejoice with gladness.
- Sing to God! Sing praises to his name! Extol him who rides on the clouds: to the LORD, his name! Rejoice before him!
- A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.
- God sets the lonely in families. He brings out the prisoners with singing, but the rebellious dwell in a sun-scorched land.
- God, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the wilderness… Selah.
- The earth trembled. The sky also poured down rain at the presence of the God of Sinai— at the presence of God, the God of Israel.
- You, God, sent a plentiful rain. You confirmed your inheritance when it was weary.
- Your congregation lived therein. You, God, prepared your goodness for the poor.
- The Lord announced the word. The ones who proclaim it are a great company.
- “Kings of armies flee! They flee!” She who waits at home divides the plunder,
- while you sleep among the camp fires, the wings of a dove sheathed with silver, her feathers with shining gold.
- When the Almighty scattered kings in her, it snowed on Zalmon.
- The mountains of Bashan are majestic mountains. The mountains of Bashan are rugged.
- Why do you look in envy, you rugged mountains, at the mountain where God chooses to reign? Yes, the LORD will dwell there forever.
- The chariots of God are tens of thousands and thousands of thousands. The Lord is among them, from Sinai, into the sanctuary.
- You have ascended on high. You have led away captives. You have received gifts among people, yes, among the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell there.
- Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burdens, even the God who is our salvation. Selah.
- God is to us a God of deliverance. To GOD, the Lord, belongs escape from death.
- But God will strike through the head of his enemies, the hairy scalp of such a one as still continues in his guiltiness.
- The Lord said, “I will bring you again from Bashan, I will bring you again from the depths of the sea,
- that you may crush them, dipping your foot in blood, that the tongues of your dogs may have their portion from your enemies.”
- They have seen your processions, God, even the processions of my God, my King, into the sanctuary.
- The singers went before, the minstrels followed after, among the ladies playing with tambourines,
- “Bless God in the congregations, even the Lord in the assembly of Israel!”
- There is little Benjamin, their ruler, the princes of Judah, their council, the princes of Zebulun, and the princes of Naphtali.
- Your God has commanded your strength. Strengthen, God, that which you have done for us.
- Because of your temple at Jerusalem, kings will bring presents to you.
- Rebuke the wild animal of the reeds, the multitude of the bulls with the calves of the peoples. Trample under foot the bars of silver. Scatter the nations who delight in war.
- Princes shall come out of Egypt. Ethiopia shall hurry to stretch out her hands to God.
- Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth! Sing praises to the Lord— Selah—
- to him who rides on the heaven of heavens, which are of old; behold, he utters his voice, a mighty voice.
- Ascribe strength to God! His excellency is over Israel, his strength is in the skies.
- You are awesome, God, in your sanctuaries. The God of Israel gives strength and power to his people. Praise be to God!
Psalm 67 taught us that God’s blessing is meant to reach the nations. Psalm 68 shows how it reaches them: not by a quiet idea, but by the living God himself moving through history.
This psalm is wild. It does not read like a tidy outline. It comes in flashes—wilderness, storm, scattered enemies, singing women, trembling Sinai, envying mountains, and finally a sanctuary filled with praise. That is not disorder. It is procession. The poem moves the way Israel’s memory moved when the ark went forward (see Numbers 10:35): “Let God arise.” The Lord is not static. He advances.
And here is the first surprise: the divine warrior is also the guardian of the abandoned. In the middle of battle language comes this tender line: “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows” (New International Version). In the ancient world, widows and orphans were not a sentimental image; they were the people most likely to be crushed because they had no protector. Psalm 68 says that God’s holiness is not cold distance. His holiness burns against whatever devours the vulnerable. James 1:27 is already here in seed form.
A western reader may also miss how boldly the psalm speaks against the gods of the nations. Verse 4 uses the striking phrase rokeb ba’arabot—often rendered “rider on the clouds.” Texts found at Ugarit gave that title to Baal, the storm-god. Psalm 68 takes the title away and hands it to the Lord. This is not literary decoration. It is spiritual warfare. The psalm announces: every false power that claimed the sky was always a fraud. Israel’s God rides there.
Then comes another holy reversal. The mountain of Bashan, with its towering heights and old reputation for strength, looks down on little Zion. Yet God chooses Zion. Not the impressive summit, but the small hill of his presence. This is a theme running through all Scripture: God loves to shame human measurements. He chooses Sarah’s barrenness, David’s youth, Bethlehem’s smallness, Nazareth’s obscurity, and at last a crucified Messiah. Calvin saw in this psalm the wonder that God’s majesty does not seek what looks great to men; it makes a place great by dwelling there.
Verse 18 lifts the psalm into the New Testament: “You ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train” (English Standard Version). Paul hears Christ here in Ephesians 4:8–10. Augustine said Christ captured the captivity that held us. That is the deepest victory: not merely that enemies fall, but that rebels are remade into gifts for the church. Psalm 68 even dares to say that the rebellious may dwell with God. Grace is not a reward for the harmless. It is God’s triumph over the impossible.
So after thunder, chariots, and conquest, the psalm settles into one of its gentlest lines: “Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up” (English Standard Version). The God who rises also carries. His march is not away from us, but toward us—and, in Christ, with us.
Suggested cross-references: Numbers 10:35; Deuteronomy 33:26; James 1:27; Ephesians 4:8–10; Hebrews 12:18–24
A hymn for today: A Hymn of Glory Let Us Sing
Lord of Sinai and Zion, rise in your power against all that oppresses, and draw near in your mercy to all that is wounded in us. Carry us today, and make your church a home for the lonely, the weary, and the once-rebellious. Through Christ our ascended King, amen.