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As you can see on the screen, it is the first Sunday of the month, which is the time that we set aside our normal study that we've been going through Hebrews, and today we are going to look at Psalm 68. So if you will, take your copy of God's Word and open to the 68th Psalm. Psalm, Adam Clark in his commentary on this Psalm said this, quote, I know not how to undertake a comment on this Psalm, it is the most difficult in the whole Psalter, end quote. I thought sure Brian would take the Psalm, but alas, here I stand. There actually are plenty more commentators who say something along that line. William Van Gimmeren actually adds to the difficulty. He said this, quote, the variety in this psalm, he means, the variety has led some to treat this psalm as a collection of songs that have been brought together into one psalm, end quote. I think you'll see as we walk through this psalm, there is a lot going on. here, but there is much good here. Adam Clark, who spoke of the difficulty of the psalm, he did go on to say this, I thought this was worth reading, quote, yet of the composition itself I have the highest opinion. It is sublime beyond all comparison. It is constructed with an art truly admirable. It possesses all the dignity of sacred language." That's the guy who said it's the most difficult in the Psalter, so maybe that will encourage us as we begin to look at this not-so-easy-to-understand psalm. I do think some of the commentators are slightly overblowing things, because in the midst of what some of them call difficult, there is a clear, definite, messianic theme running in this psalm from the beginning to the end, one that I think that you will easily discern once we get started. Let me also mention this. The difficulty for some writers in this psalm is that it is very Israel-focused. And because they believe that the Old Testament pointed forth to the church, not to Israel. They struggle to make any actual application here. I mean, there are very vivid scenes that are difficult to explain away in some spiritual manner. I mean, they seem very literal. So we're going to take the psalm at face value, so hopefully we can get to the bottom of what David is saying. The psalm's obviously longer than many, but since they sang a psalm in one sitting in worship, we've been treating all of the psalms this way, so albeit speedily, we do plan to cover this entire psalm here. These verses are literally jam-packed with all kinds of imagery, but the images behind the imagery, the points, they're really not that difficult. So if you need to jot down some notes and go back and study for yourself, I would certainly encourage that. All right, let's begin here with the superscription. It reads, to the choir master, a psalm of David, A psalm. Well, there begins the difficulty, right? There's nothing really there. That's a very basic introduction, really similar to the previous psalms that we've looked at. There's no occasion here when David may have penned this psalm. But this psalm really is not about David in his life. It's not about anything particularly that He's going through. So, it's really not the biggest of deals that He doesn't give us a lot in the superscription. This is a royal psalm. It's related to Messiah and His kingdom, and that means it would also be proper to call this a messianic psalm. If I had to title this psalm, I would title it, The Conquering King. The Conquering King. This psalm really looks forward to the time of Messiah's appearing, what we call the Second Coming. Particularly, this psalm promises both the restoration of Israel and the subduing of the nations under Messiah's rule. Alright, let's fly through these verses, beginning with verse 1. God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered, and those who hate him shall flee before him. As smoke is driven away, so you shall drive them away. As wax melts before fire, so the wicked shall perish before God. But the righteous shall be glad, they shall exult before God, they shall be jubilant with joy. So let's remember, this is written during the time that David reigned as king over Israel, when many battles were won for God's people, the Jewish nation, Israel. And actually, it was during David's life that peace was achieved over which Solomon later reigned. And while David battled a number of enemies, not only enemies without, but enemies within, even we think of from his own son Absalom, I think you can see here a glance towards something much bigger than the battles that David and Israel fought when David was king. This points forth to a time when God shall arise, and His enemies will be scattered, and they will flee before Him. Now the Jews would immediately think of the words of Moses in the wilderness here, because in Numbers 10.35 it reads there, When the ark set out, Moses said, Arise, O LORD, and let your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate you flee before you. That's what Moses said in Numbers 10.35, and you can hear that here in this psalm. And so, as the promised land was conquered by Joshua and that generation, David calls on God to conquer all of his enemies. There's a prophetic dynamic here, really a foretelling of Messiah's coming. That's really without doubt. And how successful will Messiah be when he stands up against his enemies? Have you ever seen wind unable to drive smoke? Never. Have you ever seen fire struggle to melt wax? No. And in just the same way, according to David, Yahweh will have no difficulty when He stands up to His enemies. Just like the wind drives away the smoke, or the fire melts the wax. So that is to say, when Jesus returns, look, we call this the second coming. To David, this was just coming of Messiah. But now we know this is the second coming because the two separate comings of Christ weren't really viewed so much in the Old Testament. We learn more of that in the New. But when Jesus returns, He will demolish His enemies. John, in Revelation 19, describes Jesus' return saying, "...from His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty." Right? Jesus will conquer, and nobody can stand against Him. And when that happens, The righteous will be glad. That's what David says. The world will not be glad, but the righteous will be glad. So that leads directly into then verse 4. There's this call to praise. Sing to God. Sing praises to His name. Lift up a song to Him who rides through the deserts. His name is the Lord. Exalt before Him. Father of the fatherless, protector of widows is God in His holy habitation. God settles the solitary in a home. He leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched So again, this is a call to praise based on the fact that God is going to conquer His enemies. The psalmist says we should praise God for who He is and what He's going to do. And particularly you'll notice the people are called here to praise God's name, Yahweh. sing praises to His name, His name is, all caps there, the LORD, that's the Tetragrammaton, that's Yahweh, that's God's actual name. God, it says, rides through the deserts. He protects the fatherless and the widows, those that have been abandoned, those that are forsaken. In fact, there's actually a similar idea to the forsaken in the solitary whom God settles in a home. You know, if you're homeless and God settles you in a home, I would say that's something positive to look forward to. And even the prisoners, it says here, He, God, leads to prosperity. We think in our day and age, well, prisoners have it pretty good. They're given three square meals a day. Well, that's not exactly how it was back in this day. Prisoners weren't fed better than you and I eat. They weren't fed at all. But here, the prisoners, he leads out to prosperity. Now, this really describes Israel in Egypt and at other times during her history as well. Even really, this describes Israel today as we sit here now. Nevertheless, God, even in His holy habitation, which really just refers to wherever God dwells, His eye is on the nation of Israel for good. But those who oppose God and His people, the rebellious, they're called here by David, they will be cut off. And it mentions this parched land. This is obviously poetic language. I think you can see what is intended by the psalmist. The rebellious, those who oppose God and His people, they will ultimately find their eternal abode in hell and the lake of fire throughout eternity. Alright, let's move on. Verse 7, O God, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the wilderness, Selah, The earth quaked, the heavens poured down rain, before God the one of Sinai, before God the God of Israel. Rain in abundance, O God, you shed abroad, you restored your inheritance as it languished, your flock found a dwelling in it, in your goodness, O God, you provided for the needy." So here David, he looks back in history here. He looks back to the Exodus and the subsequent wilderness experience. Actually, the next section is going to look back as well. And the idea here is that you can build a confidence in the future because God has been faithful in the past, right? And that's one of the good reasons that we study biblical history. It's just interesting to note that Mount Sinai is mentioned here in verse 7, it's mentioned later in verse 17, and there are precisely in this altar two mentions of Mount Sinai, both of them here in this psalm. I'll work my way back to that here a little later when we begin to close things down. You can even see the reference to the quaking of the mountain there in verse 8, which we know is what occurred at Sinai. Once the land was conquered and the Canaanites were, at least for the most part, pretty wiped out, it says that God restored His inheritance. He restored His inheritance. We just read about this as we closed out Genesis just a few moments ago. This is without a doubt referring to actual land. This is referring to the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We read that exact phrase just a moment ago. And then God provided for them as they took over the land. It rained on them. They had plenty to eat there. They had flocks. They had all of the things that they needed. The next few verses move on from that exodus and wilderness experience actually to the conquest of Canaan. Look at verse 11. The Lord gives the word, the women, that's interesting, the women who announce the news are a great host. The kings of the armies, they flee, they flee. The women at home divide the spoil, though you men lie in the sheepfolds. The wings of a dove covered with silver, its pinions with shimmering gold, when the Almighty scatters kings there, let snow fall on Zalman. It's interesting here that it refers to the women announcing the news of victory. This would have been a big deal back in their day, maybe not so much in ours, but at this time, the women weren't the ones out announcing much of anything. And here's what they announce, the kings of the armies, they flee, they flee. Even the women back home. The ones that the men left to go out into war, it says here, they divide the spoil of victory. Why all this focus on the women? Why are the women being mentioned when the men were the ones fighting the army? Now, I know you women are recoiling, but we stayed home to clean and cook. Well, that's not what's going on here. They did do that, but that's not the point here. I think what David is describing is a complete annihilation of the enemy. The men returned home from war and their families took part in dividing the spoil. This is a nationwide victory. The entire nation of Israel was made happy by this military victory and all the people, the soldiers, their wives, and their children, all the people benefited from what they had accomplished on the war when God gave them victory. Verse 14 says, "...when the Almighty scatters kings there, let snow fall on Zalmon." You really don't quite catch what's being said at one reading. This is likely metaphorical language referring to the bodies of enemy soldiers lying on the ground like snow. Van Gameron again writes, "...the corpses of the victims and their weaponry are lying like scattered snowflakes on the mountain." That is the way that Joshua and his generation conquered Canaan. annihilated the enemies. They had major victories. They should have completely driven the Canaanites out and they did not do that. But when they went to war, they won and it wasn't even close. And so, as God has been faithful in the past, historically, we can be confident that He will be faithful in the future as well. That's the point. That's why He's quoting this stuff from the past. And then on the heels of that history, The psalmist begins to move into a more prophetic view in the upcoming verses. Notice verse 15. O mountain of God, mountain of Bashan, O many-peaked mountain, mountain of Bashan, why do you look with hatred, O many-peaked mountain, at the mount that God desired for His abode? Yes, where the Lord will dwell forever." You see the future idea there. The chariots of God are twice ten thousand, thousands upon thousands. The Lord is among them. Sinai is now in the sanctuary. You ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train, and receiving gifts among men, even among the rebellious, that the Lord God may dwell there." Again, as I read this, you can see that David is pointing to something more in the future, a grand victory that we have not yet seen. It is to come. And so the idea again is, God has done what He has promised to do, and therefore we can be confident that He will do what He has promised to do. I hope you see the point that has been made. And when this occurs, when Messiah comes and reigns in Jerusalem, as it says here, on the mount that God desired for His abode, then the high mountains of the pagans will be envious. Envious. That's the idea here. Why do you look with hatred, O many-peaked mountain, at the mount that God desired for His abode? There's this idea of envy from mountains here. This is obviously, again, imagery that we are being given. Jesus is destined to dwell in Jerusalem and reign from David's throne. And once He does, there will be no one to challenge His right to rule. And who will stand against the one anyway commanding twice 10,000 chariots and thousands upon thousands of chariots? Who? Nobody. That's the point. This is an innumerable number of warriors Verse 18 refers to complete domination on Messiah's part, the sharing of the spoils with His people. It's actually a really amazing thought as you read this psalm that the God-man, the Messiah Himself, the second person in the Trinity, the great Son of Man, right? That when He conquers the world, He will share the spoils of war with those He has redeemed. That's mind-blowing, really. Remember what Daniel saw in vision form in Daniel 7. He said, here in what we're studying in Psalm 68, but Daniel goes on to add, "...but the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever." So the same idea is going on here in this Psalm. Messiah is the conqueror, but He shares the spoils of war with His people. That should humble fallen sinners, right? Paul actually quotes verse 18 in Ephesians 4. And he really emphasizes Jesus' victory and His sharing of gifts with His people. Now Paul's point in Ephesians is that even now, in the church age, as we anticipate the coming kingdom age, which Paul also wrote about, But the Lord is even now sharing gifts with His people, gifting members in the church differently so that we can carry stuff on, we can do work. But while the enemies of God were disarmed at the cross, We still await the time that Jesus returns and completely takes over this planet. We are still looking for that. One day when Jesus returns and sets on His glorious throne, gifts and banquets will be shared far and wide as the conquering Messiah shares the spoils of war with His people. And for that, He deserves praise. He deserves praise. In fact, that's the very next thing that we see in this psalm. Look at verse 19. Our God is a God of salvation, and to God... Notice right there, by the way, that's the Tetragrammaton, even though the ESV translates it the way they do. You can see it. It's all caps. It's not capital L-O-R-D, but it's capital G-O-D. That's the Tetragrammaton. That's Yahweh. In fact, if you're using an LSB, you'll see Yahweh right there. Yahweh, the Lord, to Him belong deliverances from death. But God will strike the heads of His enemies, the hairy crown of Him who walks in His guilty ways. The Lord said, I will bring them back from Bashan, I will bring them back from the depths of the sea, that you may strike your feet in their blood, and the tongues of your dogs may have their portion from the foe." This is pretty heavy, I would say. Well, first of all, David says that God is to be praised for salvation. Blessed be the Lord God who daily bears us up. God is our salvation. Selah. Our God is a God of salvation, he says here. Now this would certainly speak of spiritual salvation, the salvation of the soul, but there's more going on here than that. This speaks even of the recovering of the planet. Taking it back from the old usurper, Satan. And to David, this primarily pointed to the land of Israel. As Messiah conquers all enemies permanently. And he reigns from Jerusalem. Notice verse 21. But God will strike the heads of his enemies. God will win. God will win. It's hard not to think of Genesis 3.15 where it says that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent, right? And God will strike the head of His enemies. And captives, Jewish captives even, will be recovered. The righteous will be delivered and they will strike their feet in the blood of the enemy. By the way, in saying that God would bring them back from Bashan, and saying that He would bring them back from the depths of the sea, that's just another way in poetic language to say God's going to bring them back from anywhere and everywhere they happen to be. God's going to recover them. Now this is vivid language here. The NIV actually says that your feet may wade in the blood of your foes. while the tongues of your dogs have their share." So even the dogs of the righteous will have their share in the victory over Israel's enemies, Messiah's enemies. The enemies of Israel and of God will be completely humiliated and the saints will take the kingdom in every possible way to the point that even their animals will have part in the victory. This is a victory like we've never seen victory. And as every military victory is followed by a victory march, So we see that very thing in verse 27. Your procession is seen, O God, the procession of my God, my King, into the sanctuary. The singers in front, the musicians last. Between them, virgins playing tambourines. God, or excuse me, blessed God in the great congregation, the Lord, Yahweh, O you who are of Israel's fountain. There is Benjamin, the least of them and the lead, the princes of Judah and their throng, the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali. So this verse again really describes a victory march, this procession into Zion, or we would say Jerusalem. And Messiah, the King, Jesus, He leads the way for the procession. He is the victor. The singers and the musicians lead in a song of praise. Bless God in the great congregation they sing. The Lord, Yahweh, O you who are of Israel's fountain. And this procession of victory, this victory march, will involve all of the tribes of Israel. From Benjamin and Judah in the south, to Zebulun and Naphtali in the north, all of the restored land of Israel will celebrate Messiah's victory over His and their enemies. That's what's being described here in verses 24-27. And then look at verse 28, "...summon your power, O God, the power, O God, by which you have worked for us, because of your temple at Jerusalem kings shall bear gifts to you." Rebuke the beasts that dwell among the reeds, the herd of bulls with the calves of the people. Trample underfoot those who lust after tribute. Scatter the peoples who delight in war. Nobles shall come from Egypt. Cush shall hasten to stretch out her hands to God." This is just a glorious look forward in time. We've never seen a day like this. It's a look forward in time to that day when Jesus, the new and better Adam, to that day when He reigns over this earth from David's throne in Jerusalem. It's really just so crystal clear. This is one of the reasons, by the way, that our replacement friends, those who do not believe in a future kingdom of God headquartered in Jerusalem, this is one of the reasons that they struggle to interpret this psalm right here. But God's immediate presence in the person of the Son, the second person in the Trinity, Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of Man, God's immediate presence in Christ will be centered in Jerusalem, and the kings of the earth in that day will bring Him gifts. Real, actual, tangible gifts. Tribute, we might say. This actually will be an eternal setup. This will actually be going on throughout eternity. In other words, the promise of Jesus reigning from Jerusalem and the nation's kings bringing Him tribute, that's not only going to happen during the millennium. That will take place throughout the eternal ages. Listen to Revelation 21. This is describing the New Jerusalem in the eternal ages. Revelation 21-24, "...by its light," that's the New Jerusalem, "...by its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day, and there will be no night there." This is an eternal setup. This is not just a kingdom. I think it does great damage to the idea that Israel and the Jews hold no prominent place in the future. I would say this seems clear to me that they do. God says that the kings of the nations will bring their glory, again, tribute we might call it, into the New Jerusalem. And that's not only speaking of the Kingdom Age, but eternity as well. That is the expectation once Israel repents of their mistreatment of Messiah. That's what we expect to happen. In fact, that's precisely what Peter told them in Acts 3. Repent, turn back, your sins will be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, that He may send the Christ appointed to you. This is after Jesus is carried up into heaven in the ascension. Peter's saying that Christ is still appointed to the nation of Israel, whom heaven must receive, listen to this, until the time for restoring all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets long ago. As literalists, which we're pre-millennialists, but as literalists, we expect the unfulfilled prophecies in the Old Testament, including what we find here in Psalm 68, will be fulfilled just as they're written. Peter expected it. That's what he preached in Acts 3. So I think we're only consistent with apostolic teaching if we expect what Peter expected. It seems we would be out of step with the apostles if we preached something else. And again, even Revelation 21, a passage obviously describing the eternal ages, harmonizes with what we find here in Psalm 68. When Jesus reigns as King, the Prince of Peace, Those who lust after tribute, speaking of nations, nations who lust after tribute, and the peoples who delight in war, they will be rebuked. That will be stopped. Such nations are actually in this passage likened to beasts and bulls. They will be broken much like a wild horse must be broken before someone can ride that horse. The people of the nations, even the respected people, nobles it says there, they shall hasten to stretch out her hands to God. And again, that's speaking of stretching out their hands to Jesus. He is the Messiah. In Him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily. I'm sure all of you are thinking, oh yeah, Zechariah 8, Zechariah 8, right? Because we just preached through that a few months ago. But just in case you forgot, Zechariah 8 says, Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to entreat the favor of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts in those days, Ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you. There is this future look to Jerusalem as the place where Messiah will reign. It seems to be clearly, that is Zechariah 8, seems to clearly be describing the very same thing that we find here in Psalm 68. The kingdom age when Jesus reigns from David's throne over this planet in righteousness and He takes the dominion that Adam was supposed to take. But He failed to take and He actually failed, casting us all into this lost world that we see now. Look again, if we take Scripture literally, that's where we're going to wind up. This is future. If we want to spiritualize it all away and make this all about spiritual blessings in the church, then the sky is the limit in interpretation. And most of this doesn't mean much of anything at all. I'm just unwilling to look at Scripture that way. I think it means what it says and says what it means. If God meant something else, He certainly could have told us. God is a master at language, not us. All right, let's finish up verse 32. O kingdoms of the earth, sing to God, sing praises to the Lord, Selah. To him who rides in the heavens, the ancient heavens, behold, he sends out his voice, his mighty voice. Ascribe power to God, whose majesty is over Israel, whose power is in the skies. Awesome is God from his sanctuary, the God of Israel. He is the one who gives power and strength to his people. be God. So David here calls for the kingdoms of the earth to sing praises to God. This is future. This is something that we anticipate, that we look forward to. This includes Hindu nations, Muslim nations, Buddhist nations, the so-called Christian nations, humanist nations, communist nations, capitalist nations, all of them are going to bow the knee to Jesus one day and they're going to say that He is Lord. You can just see the description of God here in this text. The One with all power. We don't give Him power. We ascribe power to Him. We say He has power. We don't give Him power. We just admit it that He's all-powerful. He has all power, all ability. He is sovereign over everything that He has made. Obviously, why would He not be? He's Creator. Guys, I don't know if you've noticed it, but in this Psalm, the hope of Israel is not that America and President Trump will make a peace treaty with the Palestinians. That's never going to work. The hope of Israel is that they will repent of their mistreatment of Messiah and Jesus returns and smushes all the enemies of Israel under His feet and then reigns over the nations of the earth and then shares the spoils of war with them and us ultimately. That's the hope of Israel. You would think that this psalm would have been one to turn Israel's hope from Mount Sinai. It's mentioned a couple of times here. You would think this psalm would have been enough to turn Israel's hope from Moses and the Law to Jesus and the New Covenant. It's so clear if you see that here. It seems clear to us, but of course we have the benefit of hindsight, which according to Pat Dye is 50-50. As I said earlier, Paul quotes this psalm in Ephesians 4. So look, making a connection to Jesus here is not only right, It's inspired. Paul was inspired to make a messianic connection here. He put Jesus here, or I should say he told us Jesus was here. We're not going too far in seeing Jesus in this psalm. This psalm is not merely messianic, it's prophetic. Much of it is still future even in our day. Look, the hope presented in this psalm is the reign of Messiah. That's Israel's hope. That ought to be our hope today in the midst of greatly tumultuous times. What did Jesus tell the disciples to pray? Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. But this just oozes of that here in Psalm 68. This psalm, like so many other passages in Scripture, helps us see that our circumstances, whatever we may be going through today, they're just temporary, and the future is bright for the people of God. Not for the enemies of God, but for the people of God, they are bright with anticipation. God has been faithful to His Word, always. And so God will certainly be true to His Word in the future. You can see that also all through this psalm. We should take note of that. I'm really not sure what the post-millennial guy does with this psalm. The post-millennialist is the guy who believes that the church is ultimately going to win the world to Jesus and then Jesus returns. I'm just not sure what he does with this psalm. I mean, other than tear it apart and say it don't mean what it clearly says. The hope of David here is not that righteous men will win the world. That's not the hope. No, on the contrary, David's great hope is the coming of Messiah and His reigning over the nations of the world. Should we be doing what the Lord has told us to do? Absolutely. But the victory is only going to be won when Jesus returns. We're not the ones to win it. So if that is David's hope, the coming of Messiah and His reigning as King over the nations of the earth, that should be our hope every day as well. Psalm 68. Stand with me. Let's sing.
Psalm 68
Serie Psalms
This psalm looks forward to the time of Messiah's appearing—to what we call the second coming of Jesus—particularly promising both the restoration of Israel and the subduing of the nations.
Predigt-ID | 46252345341172 |
Dauer | 42:23 |
Datum | |
Kategorie | Sonntag Morgen |
Bibeltext | Psalm 68 |
Sprache | Englisch |
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