the earth (at large · noun, common feminine singular absolute
shook
רָעָ֨שָׁהra.'A.shah
H7493
to undulate (as the earth · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
heavens
שָׁמַ֣יִםsha.Ma.yim
H8064
the sky (as aloft · noun, common masculine plural absolute
dropped
נָטְפוּ֮na.te.Fu
H5197
to ooze · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
presence
מִפְּנֵ֪יmi.pe.Nei
H6440
the face (as the part that turns) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
God
אֱלֹ֫הִ֥ים'E.lo.Him
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural absolute
Sinai
סִינַ֑יsi.Nai
H5514
Sinai · proper noun, a place name
itself
זֶ֥הzeh
H2088
the masculine demonstrative pronoun · demonstrative particle
presence
מִפְּנֵ֥יmi.pe.Nei
H6440
the face (as the part that turns) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
God
אֱ֝לֹהִ֗ים'E.lo.Him
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural absolute
God
אֱלֹהֵ֥י'e.lo.Hei
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural construct
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵֽלYis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Exodus 19:18 And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furn…
Exodus 19:16 And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voic…
Deuteronomy 5:23-25 And it came to pass, when ye heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, (for the mountain did burn with fire,) that ye came near unto…
Judges 5:4-5 LORD, when thou wentest out of Seir, when thou marchedst out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, the clouds a…
Hebrews 12:26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
Psalms 41:13 Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting, and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen.
Psalms 68:35 O God, thou art terrible out of thy holy places: the God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power unto his people. Blessed be God.
Psalms 77:18 The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 68:7-14
The psalmist here, having occasion to give God thanks for the great things he had done for him and his people of late, takes occasion thence to praise him for what he had done for their fathers in the days of old. Fresh mercies should put us in mind of former mercies and revive our grateful sense of them. Let it never be forgotten,
I. That God himself was the guide of Israel through the wilderness; when he had brought them out of their chains he did not leave them in the dry land, but he himself went before them in a march through the wilderness, Psa 68:7. It was not a journey, but a march, for they went as soldiers, as an army with banners. The Egyptians promised themselves that the wildern…
even Sinai itself--literally, "that Sinai," as in Jdg 5:5.
John Gill on Psalms 68:8
The earth shook,.... Not only about Sinai, but in other places; see Psalm 114:1. It may also design the dread and trembling of the inhabitants of the earth, when they heard of the wonderful things God did for his people, Exodus 15:14;
the heavens also dropped at the presence of God; the Targum supplies, dew; to which may be added, quails and manna: though it rather seems to design a large shower of rain, which followed the lightning and thunder, when the law was given;
even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel: it is said to quake greatly, Exodus 19:18. The words of this verse and Psalm 68:7 seem to be borrowed out of the song of Deborah, Judges 5:4. Like effect…
Psalm 68:7-10
7. O God! when thou wentest forth before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness; Selah: 8. The earth was moved, the heavens also dropped at the presence of this God: Sinai at the presence of God, the God of Israel. [16] 9. Thou, O God! shalt make a liberal [17] rain to fall upon thine inheritance, and thou refreshest it when it is weary. 10. Thy congregation [18] shall dwell therein; thou, O God! wilt prepare in thy goodness for the poor.
7 O God! when thou wentest forth before thy people, etc. The Psalmist now proceeds to show that the Divine goodness is principally displayed in the Church, which God has selected as the great theater where his fatherly care…
The Church Fathers
The earth was moved, for the heavens dripped down from before the face of the God of Sinai. The heavens dripped down: that is, the manna. Sinai is interpreted as "temptation." Therefore God dwells in those who are tempted and overcome; but in those who are among delights, he does not dwell.
Again, Aeschylus the tragedian, setting forth the power of God, does not shrink from calling him the Highest, in these words:Place God apart from mortals; and think not That he is, like yourself, corporeal. You know him not. Now he appears as fire, Dread force; as water now; and now as gloom; And in the beasts is dimly shadowed forth, In wind, and cloud, in lightning, thunder, rain; And minister to him the seas and rocks, Each fountain and the water's floods and streams. The mountains tremble, and the earth, the vast Abyss of sea, and towering height of hills, When on them looks the Sovereign's awful eye: Almighty is the glory of the Most High God. Does he not seem to you to paraphrase that text, "At the presence of the Lord the earth trembles"?
"When You went by in the desert, the earth was moved" [Psalm 68:8]. A desert were the nations, which knew not God: a desert they were, where by God Himself no law had been given, where no Prophet had dwelled, and foretold the Lord to come. "When," then, "You went by in the desert," when You were preached in the nations; "the earth was moved," to the faith earthly men were stirred up. But whence was it moved? "For the heavens dropped from the face of God." Perchance here some one calls to mind that time, when in the desert God was going over before His people, before the sons of Israel, by day in the pillar of cloud, by night in the brightness of fire; [Exodus 13:21] and determines that thus it is that "the heavens dropped from the face of God," for manna He rained upon His people: [Exodus 16:15] that the same thing also is that which follows, "Mount Sina from the face of the God of Israel," "with voluntary rain severing God to Your inheritance" [Psalm 68:9], namely, the God that on Mount Sina spoke to Moses, when He gave the Law, so that the manna is the voluntary rain, which God severed for His inheritance, that is, for His people; because them alone He so fed, not the other nations also: so that what next he says, "and it was weakened," is understood of the inheritance being itself weakened; for they murmuring, fastidiously loathed the manna, longing for victuals of flesh, and those things on which they had been accustomed to live in Egypt. [Numbers 11:5-6] ... Lastly, all those men in the desert were stricken down, nor were any of them except two found worthy to go into the land of promise. [Numbers 14:23-24] Although even if in the sons of them that inheritance be said to have been perfected, we ought more readily to hold to a spiritual sense. For all those things in a figure did happen to them; [1 Corinthians 10:11] until the day should break, and the shadows should be removed. [Song of Songs 2:17]
Dictionary and topics
Earthquakes · .At Sinai — .At Sinai
Sinai · .The law — .The law
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
In Psa 68:7. the poet repeats the words of Deborah (Jdg 5:4.), and her words again go back to Deu 33:2, cf. Exo 19:15.; on the other hand, our Psalm is the original to Hab. 3. The martial verb יצא represents Elohim as, coming forth from His heavenly dwelling-place (Isa 26:21), He places Himself at the head of Israel. The stately verb צעד represents Him as He accompanies the hosts of His people with the step of a hero confident of victory; and the terrible name for the wilderness, ישׁימון, is designedly chosen in order to express the contrast between the scene of action and that which they beheld at that time. The verb to זה סיני is easily supplied; Dachselt's rendering according to the accen…
The earth trembled as in an earthquake (see Exod 19:18). • the heavens poured down rain: Wells in the desert and rain showers in Canaan supplied an abundance of water.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 68:8
The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God: even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.
The earth shook. Beneath the sublime tread the solid ground trembled. The heavens also dropped at the presence of God, as if they bowed before their God, the clouds descended, and "a few dark shower drops stole abroad." Even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God. Moses tell us, in Exodus 19, that "the whole mountain quaked greatly." That hill, so lone and high, bowed before the manifested God. The God of Israel. The one only living and true God, whom Israel worshipped, and who had chosen that nation to be his own above all the nations of the earth.…