Ascribe ye strength unto God his excellency is over Israel, and his strength is in the clouds.
Psalm 68 ends by calling every kingdom on earth to sing. Two questions sit inside this closing verse: why should the nations credit their strength to God, and what does it mean that His strength is in the skies?
The call to praise goes out to every kingdom on earth, and the psalm gives its reason. God once rode over the Araboth, the desert plains; now He rides high above everything He made.
The psalm ends with a call to all the kingdoms of the earth to praise Him. As at the beginning He was seen riding on the Araboth, the places of man's need and extremity, so now He is seen riding on the heavens of heavens, high over all created things. Through all He sends out His voice of power, making Himself known in word and deed as Lord of all. All power belongs to Him whose majesty is seen over Israel, and His power in the lightest tracings of the ever-changing clouds.
Where the ESV reads "skies," older translations have "clouds," and the writers quoted here follow that wording. The word points to a place of authority, not to weather.
The clouds are the seat of heavenly authority (faithfulness and blessing). They are the place where the Lord rides and exercises power, the visible seat of authority.
This picture is not tied to one verse. The same cloud marks God's presence at other points in Scripture, past and future.
Verse 34. He has taken His place in the "cloud" again. The "cloud" shows His presence, the Shechinah and the pillar of cloud by day. And on the mount of transfiguration they "feared as they entered the cloud." Christ will come in the clouds.
Commentators differ here. One reads the clouds as authority on display. Another reads them as a cover over strength too great for people to measure.
"His strength is in the clouds," that is, His strength is so great that people can only partly see it. They know it, but it is far beyond their full knowledge.
The verse holds two things together: one nation on earth, and the heavens above it. One writer looks ahead to the day when the nations answer this call, and says what they will see in Israel.
When that day comes, people will fully answer the call to ascribe strength to God. They will see that His excellence is over Israel — the nation they will acknowledge as God's center of the earth.
Others see in the second half a glory that reaches beyond Israel.
Verses 32-35. The kingdoms of the earth will sing to God; they will ascribe strength to Him. In verse 34 the heavenly glory of Christ, as shown in and with the Church, appears to be involved. "His excellency is over Israel, and His strength is in the clouds" (margin, heavens). Surely His glory shall cover the heavens, when the earth is filled with His praise (Hab. 3:3). Creation groans as it waits for the sons of God to be revealed (Rom. 8:19).
The psalm opens with the words Moses used when the ark set out. It closes by giving God the credit for the strength that brings His people in. The setting changes; the Person does not.
It begins, not with the blessing of Aaron, but with the appeal of Moses (Num. 10:35), when the Ark of the Covenant went before His people "to search out a resting-place for them." It ends by ascribing to Him the strength that brings them in. ... The One who "rides in the deserts" (v. 4) is the same One who "rides on the heavens" (v. 33). ... The person is the same, and the power is the same. But He shows it differently in each setting, whether in the deserts or on the heavens.
The New Testament quotes this psalm. The public display is still ahead; the triumph behind it is not.
The quotation in Ephesians 4:8 is from Psalm 68. That psalm foretells God's victory over rebellious kings and all His enemies. This victory will bring in the glorious millennial age. The Apostle knew that the victory would be shown to the world then. But Christ had already won it in His death, His resurrection and His ascension.
- Ascribe — the verse asks one thing of the nations: give God the credit for all strength, and do not claim it for kings.
- Clouds — the clouds are the visible seat of authority, where the Lord rides and exercises power. Commentators differ on whether the clouds show that power or cover it.
- Same Person — the God who rode through the desert with Israel is the God who rides on the heavens. The power never changed, only the setting.
- Earth and heaven — His majesty rests over one nation on earth, His strength over the skies. Both glories meet in one Person.
- Already won — the psalm sings of a public triumph still to come. Christ won it already in His death, resurrection and ascension.
Terrible art thou, O God, out of thy sanctuaries, -- the God of Israel! He it is that giveth strength and might unto the people. Blessed be God!
Psalm 68 ends by turning back to look at God Himself. The final verse holds two things together that we tend to keep apart: a God awesome enough to be feared, and a God who gives strength to His people.
This closing verse is an answer, and it does not come from Israel alone.
The last verse is the response from all the earth. It acknowledges the Mighty One of Israel as awesome — the object of reverential fear — out of His sanctuaries, both heavenly and earthly. He gives power and might to His people.
A visitor to Jerusalem is struck by the temple. The psalmist looks past it.
One day Jerusalem will receive its honour of being called "the holy city." Visitors there will surely feel how awe-inspiring it is. They will feel it even more in the sanctuary of the temple and its holy place. But the psalmist looks higher than this. He speaks to God Himself as more awesome than His holy place — a God worthy of the deepest reverence and adoration (v. 35). He will then be known as truly "the God of Israel," who stoops in amazing grace to give "strength and power to His people." "Blessed be God!"
The ESV reads "his sanctuary," but the Hebrew word is plural. One writer follows that plural to where it points.
It is remarkable that this word "wonderful," or awesome, is the same word used of Israel in their restoration in Isaiah 18:7. In Hebrew, "sanctuary" is plural here, as in Psalm 73:17. From it comes the Greek word hagia, the place inside the veil — and that is how we know Him. He had now returned there in power on behalf of the children of Israel.
So the strength this verse speaks of comes from inside the veil — the place He returned to in power for His people.
The verse calls Him "the God of Israel" — "El of Israel" in Hebrew. One writer traces His names back through the psalm.
He who "rides in the deserts" (v. 4) is the same One who "rides upon the heavens" (v. 33). "Jah" (v. 4) — the One who simply is — is the "El of Israel," the strength of holiness reigning over evil (v. 35). The Person is the same and the power is the same. Only the way it shows changes with the circumstances, whether in the deserts or upon the heavens.
This verse looks ahead to a song. What makes it remarkable is who sings it.
What we have here is clearly a song of redeemed Israel. They praise the Rock of their salvation, fully recognising the Divine glory of His person. They enjoy strength and power (verse 35) and know it, because grace has lifted them out of their low place and brought them out of darkness into His marvellous light, to speak His eternal praise.
God gives the strength. That means it is never ours to hold.
So many Christians look for strength inside themselves, wanting to feel strong for the fight! Their search either ends in discouragement, or in something no better: self-satisfaction. Power is not there, it is in Christ, but in Christ for us. And why is it given to us? Is it to make us great in our own eyes, or to puff us up? Far from it; but to lead us into the path of obedience. It is little children who learn to obey. Strength makes us small.
- Awe first. "Awesome" means the object of reverential fear. God Himself is more awesome than His holy place.
- Awe becomes gift. That same God gives strength and power to His people. He stoops in amazing grace to do it.
- Gift has a name. He gives as "the God of Israel," the strength of holiness reigning over evil. He is the same Person with the same power in the desert as in the heavens.
- Gift reaches the low. The song belongs to people grace has lifted from a low place. He brought them out of darkness into His marvellous light, and now they enjoy His strength.
- Gift makes small, not proud. The power is not in us. It is in Christ for us, and He gives it to lead us into obedience. Strength makes us small — and the psalm ends by blessing God.