Psalm 68 (1928 BCP)

Psalm 68 (1928 BCP), Exsurgat Deus, is a long hymn of God's royal progress: God arises against evil, goes before his people in the wilderness, receives praise in the sanctuary, and summons the kingdoms of the earth to worship. In the American Book of Common Prayer (1928), it is appointed for Morning Prayer on the thirteenth day of the month. Its strong images of conflict must be heard alongside its explicit confession that God is “a Father of the fatherless” and defender of widows; the psalm's victory is the reign of the God who rescues, gives a home, and gives strength to his people.

Prayer Book text

The 1928 Psalter gives the whole psalm as the first psalm for Thirteenth-Day Morning Prayer. Its opening joins the ancient procession prayer of Numbers 10:35 to a summons for joy before the God whose holiness is not indifference to the vulnerable.

LET God arise, and let his enemies be scattered; * let them also that hate him flee before him.
2 Like as the smoke vanisheth, so shalt thou drive them away; * and like as wax melteth at the fire, so let the ungodly perish at the presence of God.
3 But let the righteous be glad, and rejoice before God; * let them also be merry and joyful.
4 O sing unto God, and sing praises unto his Name; magnify him that rideth upon the heavens; * praise him in his Name JAH, and rejoice before him.
5 He is a Father of the fatherless, and defendeth the cause of the widows; * even God in his holy habitation.
6 He is the God that maketh men to be of one mind in an house, and bringeth the prisoners out of captivity; * but letteth the runagates continue in scarceness.

The next movement recollects Sinai and the wilderness. The prayer does not make the past a museum piece: the God who led Israel, refreshed the weary, and prepared for the poor remains the God before whom the congregation prays.

7 O God, when thou wentest forth before the people; * when thou wentest through the wilderness,
8 The earth shook, and the heavens dropped at the presence of God; * even as Sinai also was moved at the presence of God, who is the God of Israel.
9 Thou, O God, sentest a gracious rain upon thine inheritance, * and refreshedst it when it was weary.
10 Thy congregation shall dwell therein; * for thou, O God, hast of thy goodness prepared for the poor.
11 The Lord gave the word; * great was the company of women that bare the tidings.
12 Kings with their armies did flee, and were discomfited, * and they of the household divided the spoil.
13 Though ye have lain among the sheep-folds, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove * that is covered with silver wings, and her feathers like gold.
14 When the Almighty scattered kings for their sake, * then were they as white as snow in Salmon.

At the centre is the ascent and the sanctuary procession. Ephesians 4:8 takes up verse 18 in speaking of Christ's ascension and gifts to the Church; that apostolic use authorizes a Christian reading without cancelling the Psalm's own memory of God's dwelling with Israel.

15 As the hill of Bashan, so is God's hill; * even an high hill, as the hill of Bashan.
16 Why mock ye so, ye high hills? this is God's hill, in the which it pleaseth him to dwell; * yea, the LORD will abide in it for ever.
17 The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels; * and the Lord is among them as in the holy place of Sinai.
18 Thou art gone up on high, thou hast led captivity captive, and received gifts from men; * yea, even from thine enemies, that the LORD God might dwell among them.
19 Praised be the Lord daily, * even the God who helpeth us, and poureth his benefits upon us.
20 He is our God, even the God of whom cometh salvation: * GOD is the Lord, by whom we escape death.

The final section moves from sanctuary music to a worldwide doxology. The 1928 wording preserves difficult historic terms, including “Morians' land”; the verse is not a permission for racial contempt, but names the farthest nations in the psalm's horizon as stretching out their hands to God. Its climax is praise, divine strength, and the blessing of God.

21 God shall wound the head of his enemies, * and the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his wickedness.
22 The Lord hath said, I will bring my people again, as I did from Bashan; * mine own will I bring again, as I did sometime from the deep of the sea.
23 That thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies, * and that the tongue of thy dogs may be red through the same.
24 It is well seen, O God, how thou goest; * how thou, my God and King, goest in the sanctuary.
25 The singers go before, the minstrels follow after, * in the midst of the damsels playing with the timbrels.
26 Give thanks unto God the Lord in the congregation, * ye that are of the fountain of Israel.
27 There is little Benjamin their ruler, and the princes of Judah their council; * the princes of Zebulon, and the princes of Naphthali.
28 Thy God hath sent forth strength for thee; * stablish the thing, O God, that thou hast wrought in us,
29 For thy temple's sake at Jerusalem; * so shall kings bring presents unto thee.
30 Rebuke thou the dragon and the bull, with the leaders of the heathen, so that they humbly bring pieces of silver; * scatter thou the peoples that delight in war;
31 Then shall the princes come out of Egypt; * the Morians' land shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.
32 Sing unto God, O ye kingdoms of the earth; * O sing praises unto the Lord;
33 Who sitteth in the heavens over all, from the beginning: * lo, he doth send out his voice; yea, and that a mighty voice.
34 Ascribe ye the power to God over Israel; * his worship and strength is in the clouds.
35 O God, wonderful art thou in thy holy places: * even the God of Israel, he will give strength and power unto his people. Blessed be God.

Historical and theological reading

Alexander Maclaren describes the poem's governing movement as an entry of the conquering God into the sanctuary. His observation keeps together what a selective reading can divide: Exodus remembrance, worship at God's dwelling, deliverance, and the call of all nations to acknowledge God's reign.

This superb hymn is unsurpassed, if not unequalled, in grandeur, lyric fire, and sustained rush of triumphant praise. It celebrates a victory; but it is the victory of the God who enters as a conqueror into His sanctuary.

Maclaren also notices that the Psalm deliberately treats old acts of deliverance as disclosures of God's abiding character. That is a fruitful way to use Psalm 68 in the Daily Office: the congregation remembers God's mighty acts in order to ask for faithful confidence and obedient praise now, rather than to romanticize a vanished age.

The deeds of the past are revelations of permanent relations and activities. The ancient history glows with present life. Whatever God has done He is doing still.

Augustine offers an explicitly Christological and ecclesial interpretation of the Psalm's language of God arising. It is a patristic reading rather than a denial of the Psalm's Israelite setting: he connects the Psalm to Christ's resurrection and the Church's public witness.

“Let God rise up, and let His enemies be scattered” (ver. 1). Already this hath come to pass, Christ hath risen up, “who is over all things, God blessed for ever.”

His exposition of verses 5–6 turns the Psalm's social language into a searching account of the Church's unity. God is not enclosed by a building; his “holy place” is a people made one by grace. This supplements, rather than replaces, the Psalm's concrete care for the fatherless, widowed, imprisoned, and poor.

This is the holy place of the Lord, the thing that most men seek to have, a place where in prayer they may be hearkened unto.… God dwelleth not in all men that are in His house … but His holy place are they whom “He maketh to dwell of one mood,” or “of one manner, in a house.”

The Psalm's final invitation to “kingdoms of the earth” is thus a summons to worship the God whose strength is exercised in rescue and whose glory is known in holy community. Christians can pray it with the New Testament's witness to the risen and ascended Christ, while letting its care for the weak correct any triumphalism in their own speech or practice.

Liturgical use

The monthly Psalter assigns Psalm 68 by itself to the Thirteenth Day at Morning Prayer. Its position after Psalm 67's prayer for all nations to praise God and before the lament of Psalm 69 gives a full register of common prayer: praise, God's kingly action, concern for the poor, and the reality of conflict and suffering.

The Thirteenth Day. Morning Prayer. Psalm 68. Exsurgat Deus.

See Also

• The Psalter (1928 BCP)
• Daily Office (1928 BCP)
• Morning Prayer (1928 BCP)
• Psalm 67 (1928 BCP)
• Psalm 69 (1928 BCP)

External Links

• The 1928 U. S. Book of Common Prayer: The Psalter
• Maclaren, The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Psalms, vol. II
• Augustine, Exposition on Psalm LXVIII