Psalms 68:7

Context

68:7 O God, when you lead your people into battle,¹

when you march through the desert,² (Selah)

Psalms 68:19-23

Context

68:19 The Lord deserves praise!³

Day after day⁴ he carries our burden,

the God who delivers us. (Selah)

68:20 Our God is a God who delivers;

the Lord, the sovereign Lord, can rescue from death.⁵

68:21 Indeed God strikes the heads of his enemies,

the hairy foreheads of those who persist in rebellion.⁶

68:22 The Lord says,

“I will retrieve them⁷ from Bashan,

I will bring them back from the depths of the sea,

68:23 so that your feet may stomp⁸ in their blood,

and your dogs may eat their portion of the enemies’ corpses.”⁹

[68:7] ¹tn Heb “when you go out before your people.” The Hebrew idiom “go out before” is used here in a militaristic sense of leading troops into battle (see Judg 4:14; 9:39; 2 Sam 5:24).

[68:7] ²sn When you march through the desert. Some interpreters think that v. 7 alludes to Israel’s exodus from Egypt and its subsequent travels in the desert. Another option is that v. 7, like v. 8, echoes Judg 5:4, which describes how the God of Sinai marched across the desert regions to do battle with Sisera and his Canaanite army.

[68:19] ³tn Heb “blessed [be] the Lord.”

[68:19] ⁴tn It is possible to take this phrase with what precedes (“The Lord deserves praise day after day”) rather than with what follows.

[68:20] ⁵tn Heb “and to the Lord, the Lord, to death, goings out.”

[68:21] ⁶tn Heb “the hairy forehead of the one who walks about in his guilt.” The singular is representative.

[68:22] ⁷tn That is, the enemies mentioned in v. 21. Even if they retreat to distant regions, God will retrieve them and make them taste his judgment.

[68:23] ⁸tc Some (e.g. NRSV) prefer to emend מָחַץ (makhats, “smash; stomp”; see v. 21) to רָחַץ (rakhats, “bathe”; see Ps 58:10).

[68:23] ⁹tn Heb “[and] the tongue of your dogs from [the] enemies [may eat] its portion.”