gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural absolute
send
תָּנִ֣יףta.Nif
H5130
to quiver (i.e. vibrate up and down · verb, hiphil imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
plentiful
נְ֭דָבוֹתNe.da.Vot
H5071
properly (abstractly) spontaneity · noun, common feminine plural absolute
rain
גֶּ֣שֶׁםGe.shem
H1653
a shower · noun, common masculine singular construct
confirm
כֽוֹנַנְתָּֽהּKho.nan.Tah
H3559
properly · verb, piel perfect, 2nd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
inheritance
נַחֲלָתְךָ֥na.cha.la.te.Kha
H5159
properly · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
weary
וְ֝נִלְאָ֗הve.nil.'Ah
H3811
to tire · conjunction + verb, niphal active participle, feminine singular absolute
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
Deuteronomy 11:14 That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and t…
Ezekiel 34:26 And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be s…
Psalms 65:9-13 Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: thou preparest them corn,…
Psalms 78:24-27 And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.
Deuteronomy 11:10-12 For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wa…
Psalms 77:16-17 The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled.
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…
a plentiful rain--a rain of gifts, as manna and quails.
John Gill on Psalms 68:9
Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain,.... Not of water literally taken, as when the Israelites passed through the sea, Psalm 77:17; or when the thunderings and lightnings were on Mount Sinai, at the giving of the law, which are commonly attended with rain, Exodus 19:16; or in the land of Canaan, which was the land that drank in the water of the rain of heaven, Deuteronomy 11:11; nor the rain of manna and of quails, as Arama, Exodus 16:4; but either the effusion of the Holy Spirit, ordinary or extraordinary; that, on the day of Pentecost, in consequence of Christ's ascension, prophesied of in this psalm, was a "plentiful" one indeed; when the disciples were filled with the Holy Ghost, and…
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
You will set apart a voluntary rain, O God, for your inheritance. He speaks of the law, which was given through Moses. And it was weakened, but you have perfected it. The law was weakened, because no one was able to fulfill it except the Lord, who said: "I have not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it." And according to the apostle: "For what was impossible for the law, in that it was weakened, God sent his own Son," and the rest.
Damasus cleansed not, Peter cleansed not, Ambrose cleansed not, Gregory cleansed not; for ours is the ministry, but the sacraments are yours. For human power cannot confer what is divine, but it is, O Lord, your gift and that of the Father, as you have spoken by the prophets, saying, "I will pour out of my Spirit on all flesh, and their sons and their daughters shall prophesy." This is that typical dew from heaven, this is that gracious rain, as we read: "A gracious rain, dividing for his inheritance." For the Holy Spirit is not subject to any foreign power or law but is the arbiter of his own freedom, dividing all things according to the decision of his own will, to each, as we read, individually as he wills.
And first we have had to be persuaded how much God loved us, lest from despair we should not dare to look up to Him. And we needed to be shown also what manner of men we are whom He loved, lest being proud, as if of our own merits, we should recede the more from Him, and fail the more in our own strength. And hence He so dealt with us, that we might the rather profit by His strength, and that so in the weakness of humility the virtue of charity might be perfected. And this is intimated in the Psalm, where it is said, "Thou, O God, didst send a spontaneous rain, whereby Thou didst make Thine inheritance perfect, when it was weary." For by "spontaneous rain" nothing else is meant than grace, not rendered to merit, but given freely, whence also it is called grace; for He gave it, not because we were worthy, but because He willed. And knowing this, we shall not trust in ourselves; and this is to be made "weak." But He Himself makes us perfect, who says also to the Apostle Paul, "My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness." Man, then, was to be persuaded how much God loved us, and what manner of men we were whom He loved; the former, lest we should despair; the latter, lest we should be proud.
Dictionary and topics
Emblems Of The Holy Spirit, The · Refreshing — Refreshing
Gift Of The Holy Spirit, The · Is abundant — Is abundant
Rain · Designed for: Refreshing the earth — Designed for: Refreshing the earth
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 68:9
Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain, whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance, when it was weary.
Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain. The march of God was not signalized solely by displays of terror, for goodness and bounty were also made conspicuous. Such rain as never fell before dropped on the desert sand, bread from heaven and winged fowl fell all around the host; good gifts were poured upon them, rivers leaped forth from rocks. The earth shook with fear, and in reply, the Lord, as from a cornucopia, shook out blessings upon it; so the original may be rendered. Whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance, when it was weary. As at the end of each stage, when they halted,…
