Psalm Chapter 68

Psalm 68: The God Who Rides the Heavens and Tends the Orphan

"Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered." So begins the most thunderous processional in the Psalter — a psalm that marches, shakes the earth, drops the heavens, and scatters kings like snowflakes on Mount Salmon. And yet, tucked into the opening verses, almost between the lines of this cosmic war anthem, is a portrait of God so tender it nearly stops you: "A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation. God setteth the solitary in families." The same God whose chariots number twenty thousand, who rides upon the heavens of heavens and sends out His voice in thunder — this God notices the lonely person and places them in a home. That is the paradox at the heart of this psalm, and perhaps at the heart of all theology worth having: the more powerful the God, the more astonishing His gentleness. He who leads captivity captive also receives gifts for the rebellious, "that the Lord God might dwell among them." He does not scatter His enemies in order to be left alone in His glory. He scatters them so that He might dwell — with us.

00:00 Let God Arise
01:00 A Father of the Fatherless
02:00 The Hill God Chose
03:00 The God of Salvation
04:00 Sing Unto God, Ye Kingdoms