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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comTreasury of David - Psalms 68:11 - 68:11
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
11 The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it.
12 Kings of armies did flee apace: and she that tarried at home divided the spoil.
13 Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold.
14 When the Almighty scattered kings in it, it was while as snow in Salmon.
Psa 68:11
In the next verses we do not sing of marching, but of battle and victory “The Lord gave the word.” The enemy was near, and the silver trumpet from the tabernacle door was God's mouth to warn the camp; then was there hurrying to and fro, and a general telling of the news; “great was the company of those that published it.” The women ran from tent to tent and roused their lords to battle. Ready as they always were to chant the victory; they were equally swift to publish the fact that the battle-note had been sounded. The ten thousand maids of Israel, like good handmaids of the Lord, aroused the sleepers, called fin the wanderers, and bade the valiant men hasten to the fray. O for the like zeal in the church to-day, that, when the gospel is published, both men and women may eagerly spread the glad tidings of great joy.
Psa 68:12
“Kings of armies did flee apace.” The lords of hosts fled before the Lord of Hosts. No sooner did the ark advance than the enemy turned his back: even the princely leaders stayed not, but took to flight. The rout was complete, the retreat hurried and disorderly; - they “did flee, did flee;” helter skelter, pell-mell, as we say.
“Where are the kings of mighty hosts?
Fled far away, fled far and wide.
Their triumph and their trophied boasts
The damsels in their bowers divide.”
“And she that tarried at home divided the spoil.” The women who had published the war-cry shared the booty. The feeblest in Israel had a portion of the prey. Gallant warriors cast their spoils at the feet of the women and bade them array themselves in splendour, taking each one “a prey of divers colours, of divers colours of needlework on both sides.” When the Lord gives success to his gospel, the very least of his saints are made glad and feel themselves partakers in the blessing.
Psa 68:13
“Though ye have lien among the pots.” Does he mean that the women at home, who had been meanly clad as they performed their household work, would be so gorgeously arrayed in the spoil, that they would be like doves, of silver wing and golden plumage? Or, would he say that Israel, which had been begrimed in the brick-kilns of Egypt, should come forth lustrous and happy in triumph and liberty? Or, did the song signify that the ark should be brought from its poor abode with Obed-edom into a fairer dwelling-place? It is a hard passage, a nut for the learned to crack. If we knew all that was known when this ancient hymn was composed, the allusion would no doubt strike us as being beautifully appropriate, but as we do not, we will let it rest among the unriddled things. Alexander reads it, “When ye shall lie down between the borders, ye shall be like the wings,” etc., which he considers to mean, “when settled in peace, the land shall enjoy prosperity;” but this version does not seem to us any more clear than our authorised one. Of making many conjectures there is no end; but the sense seems to be, that from the lowest condition the Lord would lift Up his people into joy, liberty, wealth, and beauty. Their enemies may have called them squatters among the pots - in allusion to their Egyptian slavery; they may have jested at them as scullions of Pharaoh's kitchen; but the Lord would avenge them and give them beauty 'for blackness, glory for grime. “Yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold.” The dove's wing flashes light like silver, and anon gleams with the radiance of “the pale, pure gold.” The lovely, changeable colours of the dove might well image the mild, lustrous beauty of the nation, when arrayed in white holiday-attire, bedecked with their gems, jewels, and ornaments of gold. God's saints have been in worse places than among the pots, but now they soar aloft into the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Psa 68:14
“When the Almighty scattered kings in it, it was white as snow in Salmon.” The victory was due to the Almighty arm alone; he scattered the haughty ones who came against his people,' and he did it as easily as snow is driven from the bleak sides of Salmon. The word white appears to be imported into the text, and by leaving it out the sense is easy. A traveller informed the writer that on a raw and gusty day, he was the side of what he supposed to be Mount Salmon suddenly swept bare by a gust of wind, so that the snow was driven hither and thither into the air like the down of thistles, or the spray of the sea: thus did the Omnipotent one scatter all the potentates that defied Israel. If our authorized version must stand, the conjectures that the bleached bones of the enemy, or the royal mantles cast away in flight, whitened the battle-field, appear to be rather too far-fetched for sacred poetry. Another opinion is, that Salmon was covered with dark forests, and appeared black, but presented quite another aspect when the snow covered it, and that by this noteworthy change, from sombre shade to gleaming whiteness, the poet sets forth the change from war to peace. Whatever may be the precise meaning, it was intended to pourtray the glory and completeness of the divine triumph over the greatest foes. In this let all believers rejoice.