About this sermon
The imprecatory psalms belong to the setting of holy war, the cosmic conflict between God’s kingdom and Satan’s. Psalm 68 opens with Moses’s cry from Numbers 10, ‘Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered,’ and it praises God as the divine warrior who cares for the fatherless and the widow. God led his people through the wilderness, and Christ now leads his church through this present evil age toward the new heavens and new earth. Christ ascended on high, led captivity captive, and gave gifts to his people, and he will come again to finish the victory.
Sermon transcript
Please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word as we continue our study of the various psalms in the book of Psalms. This evening we’re going to consider the first part of a longer psalm, Psalm 68. We’re going to consider verses 1 through 18. Psalm 68, verses 1 through 18. Let’s hear God’s Holy Word. Psalm is entitled for the choir director of Psalm of David, a song. Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered and let those who hate him flee before him. As smoke is driven away, so drive them away. As wax melts before the fire, so let the wicked perish before God. But let the righteous be glad. Let them exalt before God. Yes, let them rejoice with gladness. Sing to God. sing praises to his name, lifts up a song for him who rides through the deserts, whose name is the Lord and exalts before him.
A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows is God in his holy habitation. God makes a home for the lonely. He leads out the prisoners into prosperity. Only the rebellious dwell in a parched land. Oh, God, when you went forth before your people, When you marched through the wilderness, Stele, the earth quaked. The heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God. Sinai itself quaked at the presence of God, the God of Israel. You shed abroad a plentiful rain, O God. You confirmed your inheritance when it was parched. Your creatures settled in it. You provided in your goodness for the poor, O God. The Lord gives the command. The women who proclaim the good tidings are a great host. Kings of armies flee, they flee, and she who remains at home will divide the spoil.
When you lie down among the sheepfolds, you are like the wings of a dove covered with silver and its pinions with glistening gold. When the Almighty scattered the kings there, it was snowing in Zalman. A mountain of God is the mountain of Bashan. A mountain of many peaks is the mountain of Bashan. Why do you look with envy, O mountains with many peaks, at the mountain which God has desired for his abode? Surely the Lord will dwell there forever. The chariots of God are myriads, thousands upon thousands. The Lord is among them as at Sinai in holiness. You have ascended on high. You have led captive your captives. You have received gifts among men, even among the rebellious also. that the Lord God may dwell there. May God add his blessing to this reading of his word.
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. You may be seated. I told my sermon this evening is God’s kingdom and the imprecatory Psalms were part five in studying the imprecatory Psalms or various imprecatory Psalms and the Theme tonight is the theme of holy war, and you’ll notice there’s quite a number of key words you can be listening for in my sermon tonight if that’s helpful to you. Well, dear ones, in recent weeks in our study and consideration of the book of Psalms, we’ve been focusing on various so-called imprecatory Psalms. Now, what is an imprecation? An imprecation, that’s a fancy word for basically a spoken curse. And so the imprecatory prayers and psalms of the Bible are prayers and psalms that call upon God to bring his righteous and holy judgment and his curse upon the unrepentant, settled enemies of God and God’s kingdom.
Now, as I’ve mentioned before, as we’ve considered various imprecatory psalms, Many Christians find these seemingly vindictive prayers of Scripture to be troubling, and this is true even among Bible believing Christians. They find these Psalms and prayers of Scripture to be troubling, especially since our Lord Jesus Christ has called us as his disciples to love even our enemies, to pray for those who persecute us, to be peacemakers, not warmongers, and to seek to overcome evil with good. That being the case, how can we take upon our own lips and use in our own prayers the various imprecatory Psalms and prayers of Holy Scripture. Now, as we’ve considered in past weeks, there is really no real contradiction when you when you dig beneath the surface and when you give it careful consideration. There’s no real contradiction between, for example, praying for the conversion and salvation of our enemies and of unbelievers in general.
On the one hand, and also praying for God, on the other hand, to remove obstacles to the advancement of his kingdom by destroying the schemes of the wicked and restraining the wicked and even bringing his judgments upon the settled, unrepentant enemies who persecute God’s church and oppose his kingdom. We’ve also seen that these imprecatory psalms are not prayers that are to be motivated or that are motivated by a spirit of personal vengeance against personal enemies. Rather, they represent Christ for God to bring justice to bear upon those who bring great suffering upon God’s people and who seek to overthrow the righteous rule of God’s kingdom. But dear ones, I want to suggest to you on this Lord’s Day evening that there’s one important theme of God’s Word that undergirds these imprecatory Psalms and that will aid us and help us to understand more clearly why it is that the Holy Spirit inspired these prayers of Scripture and therefore has included them as part of the canon of Scripture.
One important theme of God’s Word that undergirds these so-called disturbing prayers of Scripture is the theme of holy war. The imprecatory psalms and prayers of the Bible were written in the context of what we might call holy war. Now, what do I mean by holy war? Well, the ultimate holy war represents a cosmic spiritual struggle. It represents the cosmic spiritual warfare where God is called upon to go forth as the mighty divine warrior to fight for his people by conquering all of his and our enemies, and by vindicating his oppressed, suffering people. Now, in Old Testament times, under the Old Covenant, this principle of holy war was operating on the level of what we would call typology. In other words, God in the Old Testament, under the Old Covenant, God gave us earthly pictures of his cosmic, heavenly warfare against the forces of Satan and Satan’s pseudo kingdom.
In the Old Covenant era, God actually brought physical and indeed national judgments upon the enemies of God’s people, the Israelites, including the judgment of military conquest. Think, for example, of the great judgments that God poured out upon the mighty King Pharaoh and the Egyptians who had enslaved and oppressed the people of God for centuries. Think about those mighty plagues that he poured out upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Those plagues not only impacted Pharaoh and the Egyptians and brought God’s judgment upon them, but ultimately those plagues, the spiritual background of those plagues was God’s judgment upon the so-called gods of Egypt. The plagues were ultimately judgments of God against the so-called gods of the Egyptians. Or think, for example, think as well of God’s military conquest and destruction of the Gentile peoples who had inhabited the promised land before God, through Joshua, led Israel into that land to conquer that land.
These physical judgments and military conquests were ultimately pictures or types of the great cosmic spiritual conflict, the great holy war between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. And these judgments give a foretaste of the ultimate final judgment that God will bring upon the world of the unrepentant wicked on the final day of judgment. There’s a sense in which these actions, for example, the conquest of the Canaanites by the Israelites and the fact that God called them, the Israelites, to go in with the sword and actually slaughter these pagan peoples and to commit them to God, to put them under the ban, to destroy them. The fact that God did that, that is actually sort of a picture of the final judgment, what God will do in the final judgment. And so this is typology.
That’s what we mean when we talk about typology. These are pointers or types to that ultimate judgment that God will bring upon his people on that final day. But things have changed with the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. With the coming of Christ and the New Covenant, we no longer conduct holy war against Satan’s servants by taking up a sword of steel in order to slaughter and kill and destroy them. Rather, we engage, we do indeed continue to engage in holy war under the New Covenant. But we do so by taking up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, in order to convert the enemies of God, and in order to take every thought captive to the obedience of Jesus Christ. And so, for example, the Apostle Paul speaks in this manner of our warfare in 2 Corinthians 10, verses 3 through 6.
I know I’ve read this passage in past sermons when we’ve considered the imprecatory Psalms, but let’s review this real quickly. 2 Corinthians 10, verses 3 through 6, Paul writes For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war. See, there’s there’s holy war still even under the new covenant. Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. And we are taking every thought captive. to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience whenever your obedience is complete. And so, dear ones, our passage for this Lord’s Day evening helps to highlight this principle of holy war by focusing on the theme of God as the divine warrior who fights for his people.
Now, in terms of the original setting of this psalm and the historical circumstances that the Holy Spirit used to inspire David to write this psalm, it is likely that this psalm represents a processional liturgy. Perhaps this psalm was penned for the occasion of the bringing back of the Ark of the Covenant from the Philistines back to its back to the tabernacle in the days of David. The NIV Bible study note introducing this psalm says the following. It says of this psalm that it is a processional liturgy celebrating the glorious and triumphant rule of Israel’s God. Verses 1 through 18 contain many clear references to God’s triumphal march from Mount Sinai in the days of Moses to Mount Zion in the days of David. The events at Mount Sinai marked the birth of the kingdom of God among his people.
The establishing of the Ark of the Covenant, symbol of God’s throne in Jerusalem, marked the establishment of God’s redemptive kingdom in the earth with Jerusalem as its royal city. The early church, taking its cue from Ephesians 4, 8 through 13, understood this psalm to foreshadow the resurrection, ascension, and present rule of Christ and the final triumph of the Church over the hostile world. With all of this in mind, let’s dive into our passage for this evening, and I need to credit Dr. Willem van Gemmeren for the basic structuring and ideas for my main points. First of all, in the first three verses of this passage, we see here a cry for God to arise as the divine warrior. We see here a cry for God to arise as the divine warrior of his people. Verse one, let God arise.
Let his enemies be scattered and let those who hate him flee before him. Notice the parallelism there. The author of this Psalm, David, saying basically the same thing in a slightly different way. In the second line, asking for God to arise and causes enemies to be scattered. Let those who hate him flee before him. That’s to be scattered. And then verse two, as smoke is driven, so drive them away as wax melts before the fire. So let the wicked perish before God, but let the righteous be glad. Let them exult before God. Yes, let them rejoice with gladness. Now, verse one is is very significant and very interesting as well, because what we have in verse one are echoes of numbers 10 Let’s go back to the book of Numbers. Look at Numbers chapter 10, beginning at verse 35, Numbers 10, verse 35.
And this is what Moses would say every time when the people of Israel were journeying through the wilderness. They were led by the pillar of cloud by day, the pillar of fire by night. Whenever they had to break up camp, Moses would say these words, it says this verse 35. Then it came about when the ark set out that Moses said, Rise up, O Lord, and let your enemies be scattered and let those who hate you flee before you. When it came to rest, he said, Return, O Lord, to the myriad thousands of Israel. Notice again the military language there. Moses, whenever the pillar of cloud and fire lifted up, indicating to the people it’s time to pack up the tabernacle and move on to the next encampment, Moses would say these words. And these words indicate that God is indeed the divine warrior who scatters the enemies of his people before them, and that he dwells amongst the myriad thousands of Israel.
Israel being his army, his people. So here we have echoes of numbers 1035 in particular. I’ll think about our passage for this evening as it reflects that language from from the book of Numbers. When David says, let God arise, let his enemies be scattered. Why is that important? Why is that significant? Well, you think about it this way. If God’s enemies are scattered, They cannot be unified, they cannot solidify their power and their schemings against God’s people, so I think this is implied here in this request. Let God’s enemies be scattered, let them be defeated before the Lord, the divine warrior, and let them be scattered as well by implication so that they cannot consolidate their power and use that power against the people of God. And then, David continues along this theme using, as is typical of the Psalms, using some very picturesque language here.
As smoke is driven away. Again, we can all picture smoke being driven away by the wind, for example. As smoke is driven away, so drive them away. And then he gives us another image. As wax melts before the fire. We’ve all seen the candle melt down. We know what it’s like for wax to melt before the fire. So we have this picturesque language of God defeating his enemies as the divine warrior for his people. But in contrast, verse three says, but let the righteous be glad. Let them exalt before God. And one of the reasons why the righteous, those who are in right relationship with God by his grace, one of the reasons that we are glad is when we see God restraining and conquering all of his and our enemies. And so we have, in verse three, the righteous contrasted with the wicked.
Let the righteous be glad. Let them exult before God. Yes, let them rejoice with gladness. Again, it starts off with a very solemn note calling upon God to disperse and scatter his enemies, but then bringing a note of joy into this. Let the righteous be glad. Let them exult and rejoice before God. with gladness. Beloved, praise God that he is our divine warrior who fights our battles for us. And the imprecatory prayers and Psalms of Scripture help to underscore this truth. Though they are shocking sometimes in the language that they use, they remind us that our God is a just and a holy and a righteous God, a God who fights against Satan and Satan’s kingdom and Satan’s servants. He subdues them before him. He is a God who is all powerful and we can rest in him.
He fights our battles for us. Indeed, in Christ, our Savior, the victory has been won. Sin and death and the devil have already been conquered. And therefore, in Christ, we are more than conquerors through him. So let us praise God. that God is indeed our divine warrior. But as we move on to the next section of our psalm for this evening, and we focus next on verses four through six, we should praise God for his vindication of and care for his needy people. What we have here in these verses is praise for God’s vindication of and care for his needy people. Verse four, sing to God, sing praises to his name, lift up a song for him who rides through the deserts. He rides through the deserts. He was with his people journeying with them through the deserts, through the wilderness.
Whose name is the Lord and exalts before him. Why should we do that? What is the occasion or cause or incentive to praise God other than the fact that he that he deserves our praise and our worship. Well, notice verses five and six. Though Yahweh, the Lord, is indeed the divine warrior of his people, he is also described in tender language as well. Notice verses five and six. A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows is God in his holy habitation. His holy habitation there in Old Testament terminology would be the place of his dwelling. It would be in the tabernacle and later on in the temple, where the Ark, which was a symbol of God’s throne and God’s presence and reign amongst his people, where God dwelt among his people. God who dwells among his people, who fights for them as their divine warrior, is a loving heavenly father.
And he is a father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows. And in ancient society, in the context here, The most vulnerable members of society included orphans and widows, the fatherless and widows. God is concerned for the most vulnerable and needy and lowest among society, and he takes up their cause. He is a father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows is God in his holy habitation. And then he mentions others. Verse six, God makes a home for the lonely. He leads out the prisoners into prosperity. Only the rebellious dwell in a parched land. When it comes to those who are rebellious against God and against his covenant, against his rule and reign, they dwell in a parched land. But God leads out his needy, abandoned, imprisoned people into a place of prosperity and blessing indeed.
Not only is God a divine warrior, He is also a compassionate God who cares for the most vulnerable among his people. The imprecatory prayers of scripture reveal how God actually shows care for his needy people. One of the ways that God shows his tender care for the widows and the orphans, for the lonely and the imprisoned, for those who are unjustly persecuted among his people, is by taking up their cause as their divine warrior. and conquering and restraining all of their enemies and his enemies and friends relating this to Christ. Praise God that in Christ we have been and will be vindicated. God cares for us. He fights for us. He is a father to us. And he puts us in the family of God. He puts the lonely in families. Praise God for that.
We see next in this longer and final section we’re considering tonight in verses 7 through 18, we see here a reflection upon God’s mighty actions for his people as their divine warrior. We’ve spoken about the theme of holy war, but we see holy war in action and a reflection upon how God has acted as the divine warrior in engaging in holy war in verses seven through 18. It says this, Oh, God, when you went forth before your people, when you marched through the wilderness, Selah, the earth quaked, the heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God. Sinai itself quaked at the presence of God, the God of Israel. You shed abroad a plentiful rain, Oh, God. God provides his people with rain in the wilderness. He provides for their thirst for their needs. You shed abroad a plentiful rain, O God, you confirmed your inheritance when it was parched, your creatures settled in it, you provided in your goodness for the poor, O God.
These verses recall how God led his people out of Egypt. Not only had he redeemed them from slavery and freed them from their slavery in Egypt, He led them out of Egypt. He led them through the wilderness. He led them to Mount Sinai, where he revealed his law, his word to them. And thus, and he leads them ultimately to the promised land where he settles them in their new home in the promised land. Not only does God fight for his people as their divine warrior, he also journeys with them and leads them in their pilgrimage to the promised land. And this is a picture of what the Lord continues to do for us. We have been rescued from slavery worse than the Israelite slavery to Pharaoh and the Egyptians. We have been rescued through Christ from slavery to sin.
Christ has rescued us, redeemed us, and taken us to be his own. And he is leading us through the wilderness of this present evil age. He’s leading us through this wilderness to the ultimate promised land, the new heavens and the new earth, wherein righteousness dwells. And he goes before us. He fights our battles for us. He journeys with us through our trials, through our pains, through our tribulations, and through our blessings. He guides and directs us by his word and spirit in our pilgrimage. And so Not only does God fight for his people as their divine warrior, he journeys with them and brothers and sisters, he journeys with you and with me as we make our pilgrimage to the promised land of the new Canaan, the ultimate Canaan, the new heavens and the new earth where in righteousness dwells.
And then in verses 11 through 14, it says the Lord gives the command. The women who proclaim the good tidings are a great host. Kings of armies flee, they flee. And she who remains at home will divide the spoil. When you lie down among the sheepfolds, you are like the wings of a dove covered with silver and its pinions with glistening gold. When the Almighty scattered the kings there, it was snowing in Zalman. We have a picture here of dividing the spoils from battle, and the women are depicted as as proclaiming the good news. Kings of armies, they flee, they flee. These verses recall God’s conquest of the promised land and his subjugation of the peoples of that land, and how God enabled his people to be victorious and to not only get a foothold in the land, but eventually to take the land and subdue it.
And then in verses 15 through 18, we get some very, oh, and by the way, let me just back up a minute. Now, verse 13 is a little bit challenging. translation-wise, but when it refers to the wings of a dove covered with silver and its pinions with glistening gold, this perhaps is language that describes some of the spoil. Doves covered with silver, pinions with glistening gold, these were ornaments apparently that had been taken as spoil. And when it says the Almighty scattered the kings there, again, Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered. We have here a picture of military conquest. And wherever Zalman is, it appears to have been a high mountain because there is snow on the mountain. Well, that leads to the next section, which also refers to mountains in verses 15 through 18.
A mountain of God is the mountain of Bashan. A mountain of many peaks is the mountain of Bashan. Why do you look with envy, O mountains with many peaks, at the mountain which God has desired for his abode? What’s going on here? Well, we have a bit of personification going on here, as the mountains of Bashan were apparently high and lofty mountains, especially when compared to Mount Zion, where God had chosen to make his abode in the tabernacle and later the temple. Yet God Even though the mountains of Bashan, in terms of physical grandeur, were high and lofty and lifted up, yet humbler Mount Zion was yet greater, because God chose to make Mount Zion the place of his sanctuary. And thus, the mountain of Bashan is personified as being jealous of Mount Zion. You’re a smaller mountain than me.
Why has God chosen you? Again, God often chooses the foolish things of this world to shame the wise, the weak things of this world to shame the strong. And he doesn’t need to choose the highest loftiest mountain peak for the place of his dwelling amongst his people, because he is sovereign. He is God. And in verse 17, we also see images that reflect upon God as the divine warrior who fights for his people in engaging in holy war against the enemies of his people, the enemies of his kingdom rule. We see references to chariots. Verse 17, the chariots of God are myriads, thousands upon thousands. Perhaps this is a reference to the heavenly hosts, the mighty angels that are behind the scenes, engage in spiritual warfare. The Lord is among them as at Sinai in holiness.
God is dwelling among his people like he did at Sinai. And remember the great the great theophany and revelation of God at Mount Sinai, the thunders, the thunderings, the lightnings, the mountain, the smoke of the mountain thick as the smoke of a kiln, as if the mountain itself was on fire with the glorious presence of God, and there was an earthquake, and God’s voice thundered forth from Mount Sinai. We, the readers of this psalm, are to have those images and those pictures come into our mind as we reflect upon the presence and holiness of God, the divine warrior who goes out amongst his people and sends forth his chariots. And then verse 18, a very significant verse because it is quoted by and alluded to by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians chapter 4, and Paul applies this passage to the ascension of Christ.
You have ascended on high. You have led captive your captives. Now, in the original setting, this ascension on high would be the ascension of the Ark of the Covenant, God’s throne, to Mount Zion, where his tabernacle was. But that was a type, a picture, an anticipation of our Lord Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead and ascension into heaven, and the giving of the pouring out of the gifts of the Spirit upon his church. So again, verse 18, you have ascended on high. You have led captive your captives. You have received gifts among men, even among the rebellious, also that the Lord God may dwell there. Here, Yahweh entering his sanctuary on Mount Zion ultimately points to and is fulfilled in Christ’s ascension. And again, I would I would read to you briefly as we as we wrap up our time in the word this evening from Ephesians chapter four. and verses seven through ten.
The Apostle Paul here has been exhorting the Ephesians to to walk in unity to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, and he reminds them of of the gifts of grace that God has given to him to them that they are meant to use in service to one another. Verse seven. But to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore, it says, When he ascended on high, he led captive a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. And then Paul explains. Now this expression, he ascended, what does it mean except that he also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? This is a reference to our Lord’s incarnation and ultimately his death and burial. He who descended is himself also he who ascended far above all the heavens. so that he might fill all things.
Christ rose from the dead and he ascended into heaven. And so our victorious King, the Lord Jesus Christ, the ultimate divine warrior, has conquered death and he has ascended on high. He has led captivity captive and he has received gifts that he might give the gift of his Holy Spirit to his people. And so, friends, What is the conclusion to all of this? Well, the imprecatory prayers and Psalms of Scripture again are written in a context of holy war. They remind us of that ultimate spiritual warfare between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. And they do also warn us that those who persist unrepentant in opposing God in his kingdom will indeed experience, will taste the judgment that these prayers call down upon those who persist in their impenitence. But all of this also points to Christ.
Christ is the Prince of Peace who is also the Divine Warrior. He has conquered in the Holy War, the ultimate Holy War. The victory has been won. This present age is simply the outworking of the implications of that victory. And that victory will be consummated when our Lord Jesus Christ returns from his throne of glory, comes back to this earth at his second advent, and ushers in the new heavens and the new earth. Let us praise God that Christ has gone before us and that he is coming back for us. And let us engage in spiritual holy warfare by the word of God, by praying for our enemies, loving and praying for our enemies, and praying for the mission of Christ’s church to go forth. Amen. Let us pray. Gracious Lord and Father in heaven, we thank you and praise you, O God, for your word, and we thank you for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus, we thank you that you are our victor, that we are more than conquerors through you, for you have loved us and laid down your life for us, and you’ve been raised for us You reign at the right hand of the Father where you intercede for us and you will come for us again. Lord, we ask that you would give us grace to live out the implications of your lordship in our lives. And we pray that we might indeed take up the full armor of God and do battle against the world, the flesh and the devil, not with carnal weapons, but with the spiritual weapons. bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Jesus Christ for it is in his name that we pray and all of God’s people said. Amen.
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