Psalm 68:34

Ascribe ye strength unto God: his excellency is over Israel, and his strength is in the clouds.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Psalm 68:34. Ascribe ye strength unto God — Acknowledge that he is mighty, and able to do whatsoever he pleaseth for his people, or against his or their enemies. His excellency is over Israel — His excellent power and goodness; Hebrew, גאותו, gaavatho, his highness, or majesty; this dwells among them, and is employed for them, as occasion requires. He is indeed the universal Lord of the whole heaven and earth, but in a special and excellent manner he is the God of Israel, and his kingdom is particularly exalted over them. He hath taken them for his peculiar inheritance; and by them alone he is adored and worshipped as the universal Creator, the supreme Lord of heaven and earth. His strength is in the clouds — Hebrew, בשׁחקים, in the heavens, or skies. He hath two dwellings and thrones, the one in his church and among his people, and the other in heaven, and in both these he manifests his power; redeeming, preserving, and sanctifying the former, and directing and governing the mighty orbs of the latter in all their motions, and from thence upholding and influencing the whole universe, animate and inanimate, rational and spiritual, and sending forth both the thunder of his power, and the great and small rain of his strength.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

68:32-35 God is to be admired and adored with reverence and godly fear, by all that attend in his holy places. The God of Israel gives strength and power unto his people. Through Christ strengthening us we can do all things, not otherwise; therefore he must have the glory of all we do, with our humble thanks for enabling us to do it, and for accepting the work of his hands in us.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Ascribe ye strength unto God - literally, "give." That is, Acknowledge him as a God of power. Recognise his omnipotence in your worship. See the notes at Psalm 29:1.

His excellency is over Israel - His majesty; his glory; his protecting care. The idea is, that his glorious character - his majesty - was manifested particularly in his protection of his people.

And his strength is in the clouds - Margin, "heavens." The Hebrew word rather means "clouds." The idea is, that while his character as Protector was evinced particularly in his care of his people, his "power" was particularly seen in the clouds - the storm - the thunder - the lightning. Thus, all the manifestations of his character, alike in nature, and toward his people, are adapted to produce a deep and solemn impression in regard to his majesty and glory, or to lay the just foundation of praise.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

32-36. To Him who is presented as riding in triumph through His ancient heavens and proclaiming His presence—to Him who, in nature, and still more in the wonders of His spiritual government, out of His holy place (Ps 43:3), is terrible, who rules His Church, and, by His Church, rules the world in righteousness—let all nations and kingdoms give honor and power and dominion evermore.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Ascribe ye strength unto God; acknowledge that he is mighty and able to do whatsoever he pleaseth for his people, or against his and their enemies.

His excellency; his excellent power and goodness.

Is over Israel; dwells among them, and is employed for them, as occasion requires. He is indeed the universal Lord of the whole heaven and earth, but in a special and excellent manner he is the God of Israel.

In the clouds; or, in the heavens, He hath two dwellings and thrones, the one in his church and people, and the other in heaven. See Isaiah 57:15.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Ascribe ye strength unto God,.... The Messiah; by asserting him to be the mighty God, even the Almighty; by attributing works of strength and power to him: such as the creation of all things; upholding all things in their being; the redemption and preservation of his people; the resurrection of the dead, &c. by applying to him, and exercising faith on him for spiritual strength, and giving him the glory of it: so the Targum,

"give the glory of strength to God.''

Moreover, this may be understood of ascribing dominion and power to him by the kingdoms of the earth, who are here addressed, when they shall be converted to him; and who, upon this enlargement of his kingdom, will be congratulated by his people, for taking to himself his great power and reigning, Revelation 11:15;

his excellency is over Israel; the spiritual Israel, such who are Israelites indeed. Over these his glorious Majesty in his kingdom rules; they are subject to him, and acknowledge him for their King; and among them is his Shechinah, or divine Presence. Or over Israel, literally understood; when they shall, as at this time the prophecy refers to, be all called, converted, and saved: they shall seek the Lord their God, and David their King, and he shall be Prince over them;

and his strength is in the clouds; which are round about him, the chariots in which he rides, and in which he shows his strength; by sending forth from thence the rain of his strength, the terrible lightning and thunder. In these he went up to heaven, and in these he will come again to judgment. They may be mystically understood of the ministers of the Gospel, especially in the latter day, who may be compared to clouds for their numbers, they will then be many; for their swiftness in moving to and fro, and spreading the Gospel; and for their being full of the doctrines of grace, comparable to rain; see Isaiah 5:6. And the Lord's strength will be seen in them, who will greatly strengthen them to do their work; his strength will be made perfect in their weakness; the excellency of the power attending their ministrations, to the large conversion of sinners, will appear to be of God, and not of man.

Geneva Study Bible

Ascribe ye strength unto God: his excellency is over Israel, and his strength is in the clouds.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

34. Ascribe &c.] Lit. as in Psalm 29:1, give. Acknowledge by the tribute of your praises the power which is His and which He exercises in the world.

His excellency, or majesty, is over Israel to protect and bless, and his strength is in the skies, supreme not on earth alone, but throughout the universe. This and the last verse are based upon Deuteronomy 32:26,

“There is none like God (El), O Jeshurun,

Who rideth upon the heavens as thy help,

And in his excellency on the skies.”

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 34. - Ascribe ye strength unto God; or, "might," "power" - that which makes him Shaddai, "the Almighty." His excellency is over Israel; or, "his majesty" (Kay). And his strength is in the clouds. Not in earth only, but in heaven also. Psalm 68:34

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The poet stands so completely in the midst of this glory of the end, that soaring onwards in faith over all the kingdoms of the world, he calls upon them to render praise to the God of Israel. לרכב attaches itself to the dominating notion of שׁירוּ in Psalm 68:33. The heavens of heavens (Deuteronomy 10:14) are by קדם described as primeval (perhaps, following the order of their coming into existence, as extending back beyond the heavens that belong to our globe, of the second and fourth day of Creation). God is said to ride along in the primeval heavens of the heavens (Deuteronomy 33:26), when by means of the cherub (Psalm 18:11) He extends His operations to all parts of these infinite distances and heights. The epithet "who rideth along in the heavens of heavens of the first beginning" denotes the exalted majesty of the superterrestrial One, who on account of His immanency in history is called "He who rideth along through the steppes" (רכב בּערבות, Psalm 68:5). In יתּן בּקולו we have a repetition of the thought expressed above in Psalm 68:12 by יתּן אמר; what is intended is God's voice of power, which thunders down everything that contends against Him. Since in the expression נתן בּקול (Psalm 46:7; Jeremiah 12:8) the voice, according to Ges. 138, rem. 3, note, is conceived of as the medium of the giving, i.e., of the giving forth from one's self, of the making one's self heard, we must take קול עז not as the object (as in the Latin phrase sonitum dare), but as an apposition:

(Note: The accentuation does not decide; it admits of our taking it in both ways. Cf. Psalm 14:5; Psalm 41:2; Psalm 58:7; Psalm 68:28; Proverbs 13:22; Proverbs 27:1.)

behold, He maketh Himself heard with His voice, a powerful voice. Thus let them then give God עז, i.e., render back to Him in praise that acknowledges His omnipotence, the omnipotence which He hath, and of which He gives abundant proof. His glory (גּאוה) rules over Israel, more particularly as its guard and defence; His power (עז), however, embraces all created things, not the earth merely, but also the loftiest regions of the sky. The kingdom of grace reveals the majesty and glory of His redemptive work (cf. Ephesians 1:6), the kingdom of nature the universal dominion of His omnipotence. To this call to the kingdoms of the earth they respond in v. 36: "Awful is Elohim out of thy sanctuaries." The words are addressed to Israel, consequently מקדּשׁים is not the heavenly and earthly sanctuary (Hitzig), but the one sanctuary in Jerusalem (Ezekiel 21:72) in the manifold character of its holy places (Jeremiah 51:51, cf. Amos 7:9). Commanding reverence - such is the confession of the Gentile world - doth Elohim rule from thy most holy places, O Israel, the God who hath chosen thee as His mediatorial people. The second part of the confession runs: the God of Israel giveth power and abundant strength to the people, viz., whose God He is, equivalent to לעמּו, Psalm 29:11. Israel's might in the omnipotence of God it is which the Gentile world has experienced, and from which it has deduced the universal fact of experience, v. 36b. All peoples with their gods succumb at last to Israel and its God. This confession of the Gentile world closes with בּרוּך אלהים (which is preceded by Mugrash transformed out of Athnach). That which the psalmist said in the name of Israel in Psalm 68:20, "Blessed be the Lord," now re-echoes from all the world, "Blessed be Elohim." The world is overcome by the church of Jahve, and that not merely in outward form, but spiritually. The taking up of all the kingdoms of the world into the kingdom of God, this the great theme of the Apocalypse, is also after all the theme of this Psalm. The first half closed with Jahve's triumphant ascension, the second closes with the results of His victory and triumph, which embrace the world of peoples.