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The Wings of a Dove and Psalm 68

 

Psalm 68 reads as follows from the New King James version of the Bible:

1 Let God arise,
Let His enemies be scattered; 
Let those also who hate Him flee before Him.
2 As smoke is driven away,
So drive them away; 
As wax melts before the fire, 
So let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
3 But let the righteous be glad;
Let them rejoice before God; 
Yes, let them rejoice exceedingly. 

4 Sing to God, sing praises to His name;
Extol Him who rides on the clouds,
By His name YAH, 
And rejoice before Him. 

5 A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows,
Is God in His holy habitation.
6 God sets the solitary in families;
He brings out those who are bound into prosperity; 
But the rebellious dwell in a dry land.

7 O God, when You went out before Your people,
When You marched through the wilderness,  Selah  
8 The earth shook;
The heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God; 
Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.
9 You, O God, sent a plentiful rain,
Whereby You confirmed Your inheritance, 
When it was weary.
10 Your congregation dwelt in it;
You, O God, provided from Your goodness for the poor. 

11 The Lord gave the word;
Great was the company of those who proclaimed it:
12 "Kings of armies flee, they flee,
And she who remains at home divides the spoil.
13 Though you lie down among the sheepfolds,
You will be like the wings of a dove covered with silver, 
And her feathers with yellow gold."
14 When the Almighty scattered kings in it,
It was white as snow in Zalmon. 

15 A mountain of God is the mountain of Bashan;
A mountain of many peaks is the mountain of Bashan.
16 Why do you fume with envy, you mountains of many peaks?
This is the mountain which God desires to dwell in; 
Yes, the LORD will dwell in it forever. 

17 The chariots of God are twenty thousand,
Even thousands of thousands; 
The Lord is among them as in Sinai, in the Holy Place.
18 You have ascended on high,
You have led captivity captive; 
You have received gifts among men, 
Even from the rebellious, 
That the LORD God might dwell there.

19 Blessed be the Lord,
Who daily loads us with benefits,
The God of our salvation!  Selah  
20 Our God is the God of salvation;
And to GOD the Lord belong escapes from death. 

21 But God will wound the head of His enemies,
The hairy scalp of the one who still goes on in his trespasses.
22 The Lord said, "I will bring back from Bashan,
I will bring them back from the depths of the sea,
23 That your foot may crush them in blood,
And the tongues of your dogs may have their portion from your enemies." 

24 They have seen Your procession, O God,
The procession of my God, my King, into the sanctuary.
25 The singers went before, the players on instruments followed after;
Among them were the maidens playing timbrels.
26 Bless God in the congregations,
The Lord, from the fountain of Israel.
27 There is little Benjamin, their leader,
The princes of Judah and their company, 
The princes of Zebulun and the princes of Naphtali. 

28 Your God has commanded[c] your strength;
Strengthen, O God, what You have done for us.
29 Because of Your temple at Jerusalem,
Kings will bring presents to You.
30 Rebuke the beasts of the reeds,
The herd of bulls with the calves of the peoples, 
Till everyone submits himself with pieces of silver. 
Scatter the peoples who delight in war.
31 Envoys will come out of Egypt;
Ethiopia will quickly stretch out her hands to God. 

32 Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth;
Oh, sing praises to the Lord,  Selah  
33 To Him who rides on the heaven of heavens, which were of old!
Indeed, He sends out His voice, a mighty voice.
34 Ascribe strength to God;
His excellence is over Israel, 
And His strength is in the clouds.
35 O God, You are more awesome than Your holy places.
The God of Israel is He who gives strength and power to His people. 

Blessed be God

 

This psalm strongly images the presence of the Holy Spirit.

 

Verse 2 brings forth the image of the fire, which comes in the form of judgment and power, power for those who are within the blessings of the Holy Spirit and judgment for the enemies of the Holy Spirit. Of course a strong parallel in nature to this image is the sun, which is a burning star without which we could not subsist. So also the fire of the Holy Spirit is necessary, but this can form into a powerful judgment for the enemies against the ways of the Spirit, who melt like wax which in a figurative sense means they are getting nowhere, there plans will melt away into a nothingness before the power of the Spirit as it rises like fire against them.

The second major image of the Holy Spirit in this psalm is the wings of a dove.

This is symbolic of the just right touch of the Holy Spirit and does not contradict the image of fire. The sun for example has to come through with just the right touch upon the earth, too much and the very seas will boil over and too little everything will become a frost across all of the earth.

We see throughout this psalm that the Holy Spirit brings just the right touch to any possible situation, plans, and movements.

The wings of a dove also have the image of carrying. You are carried in the blessings on the wings of a dove.

Related to this image of flight also is the presence of angels, also strongly imaged in this psalm.

Verse 17 says,

17 The chariots of God are twenty thousand,
Even thousands of thousands; 
The Lord is among them as in Sinai, in the Holy Place.

There are " thousands of thousands" of angels that accompany the presence of the Holy Spirit.

This is part of the presence and part of the gift that we can call upon for both ourselves and others. We can call for the presence of angels at all times and every day.

Verse 19 and 20 say,

19 Blessed be the Lord,
Who daily loads us with benefits,
The God of our salvation!  Selah  
20 Our God is the God of salvation;
And to GOD the Lord belong escapes from death.

The attendance of the Holy Spirit is a daily benefit, as is the attendance of legions of angels. They do not take a day off and can be found even on a bad day so to speak. Escape from all difficulties belongs to the Lord.

It says to God  to the Lord belongs escapes from death but this is not only talking about death in a literal sense but also the death of hopes, dreams, practical needs, and so on.

There is that expression "you can die a thousand deaths" and that is talking about those little deaths of things gone wrong and the Lord is also the escape from those deaths as well as the well spring and source of all life and all ultimate salvation.

Verse 18 says,

18 You have ascended on high,
You have led captivity captive; 
You have received gifts among men, 
Even from the rebellious, 
That the LORD God might dwell there.

This verse was quoted by Paul in the letter to the Ephesians in Chapter 4 and he refers this to the specific gifts of the Holy Spirit given to the members of the church in rich and varied forms.

The psalm is speaking to the just and how the Holy Spirit will establish the just.

In the earlier verses it speaks of the Lord gathering those who are alone and bringing them into homes. Those such as orphans, widows who seen and known as alone by the Lord.

In Genesis it says that it is not good that man be alone.

That was not just a one time statement but an active word of the Lord that is spoken over and over again in manifold ways and the Holy Spirit will move in directions daily that remedy according to that statement that " it is not good that man be alone".

Verses 9 and 10 says,

9 You, O God, sent a plentiful rain,
Whereby You confirmed Your inheritance, 
When it was weary.
10 Your congregation dwelt in it;
You, O God, provided from Your goodness for the poor.

 

The plentiful rain, a daily benefit or a benefit found within the day itself, was a response of the Lord to the weary, he responded with plenty. It wasn't just drips and drabs but plenty in response to the weary and there are endless ways in which someone can be weary and the symbolism here is that the Holy Spirit will respond with plenty towards what is dragging someone down.

Verse 10 is very key and goes to the image of the dove, the congregation will dwell in it, meaning that the plenty is livable and inhabitable. Even if gold rained from heaven, this would actually be dangerous in that if someone didn't get to shelter, they would be hit by the strong metal. The Lord will provide what is needed with just the right touch and bring about livable and workable answers within the movements of the Spirit.

Saul offered David his armor when he was to fight Goliath, but the armor wouldn't have fit properly, it would have weighed him down and this one great event in history is symbolic, that most importantly the Lord enables us to move freely and comfortably as it says in this psalm he sets the prisoners free.

1 Samuel Chapter 17 verses 18 through 20 say,

 

38 Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. 39David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. 
"I cannot go in these," he said to Saul, "because I am not used to them." So he took them off. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.

The smooth stones are symbolic here. The Holy Spirit will give answers and ways to go that are smooth paths that fit and get you through the rocky pathways that have so much trouble.

The march of the Lord is away from the roughshod of the deser

6 God sets the solitary in families;
He brings out those who are bound into prosperity; 
But the rebellious dwell in a dry land.

The march into prosperity is ultimately where the Lord will lead you.

The rebellious will stay in the dry land, outside of the Garden of Eden like settings that the Lord will provide. Ultimately the lead is towards Eden and this is with others, as it was for Adam as he was to be in Eden with others.

There is a unity showed here in the procession of the tribes of Israel and this also goes to a unity of praise.

This psalm points to the power of praise, and the ability to sincerely praise the Lord for his gifts is a great power and we can praise the Lord for his gifts not only to us but to others as well eve as we are called to give thanks for both ourselves and others.

Verses 3 and 4 say,

t let the righteous be glad;
Let them rejoice before God; 
Yes, let them rejoice exceedingly. 

4 Sing to God, sing praises to His name;
Extol Him who rides on the clouds,
By His name YAH, 
And rejoice before Him.

Exceeding means you can't really overdo going into the presence with the Lord in praise, thanksgiving, song, meditation and prayer.

When it says, " and rejoice before him" this shows the relational aspect of prayer and how is it before the Lord.

There are other symbols of the Holy Spirit in this psalm. Throughout the ages of the church the Holy Spirit has been associated with the images of women and is interesting that there are two direct references to women in this psalm with the singer girls and the women who divide the spoil.

While they will divide the spoil, the enemies who are trying to get away with spoil will not.

Verse 22 says, 2 The Lord said, "I will bring back from Bashan,
I will bring them back from the depths of the sea."

There is the expression with friends like this, who needs enemies and someone today would rather not have the enemies or would rather have them stay in the depths of the sea and disappear.

If the Lord can bring " them back " as far as enemies go for punishment, he can also bring friends back.

But what this verse is saying is that all of the spoils will go to the women in this psalm, symbolically to all who are in the ways of the Lord.

The enemies for pressing against the Lord's people will suffer the consequences for that as they are directly in line with the Lord's wrath mentioned in the second verse of this psalm. 2

This verse also relates to prayer and psalm 18 in particular.

Psalm 18 verse 7 says.

7Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth.

In psalm 18 in response to a single prayer from David, the Lord shook the very foundations of the earth.

In this psalm in a response to prayer, he goes to the very depths of the seas to bring about an answer and this is particularly strong imagery of just how the Spirit will reach into the depths of the very earth itself to bring about your answer.

Finally the presence of the Holy Spirit is many sided.

People of course as they said tend to think in the box but in dealing with prayer and the Holy Spirit you have to expect things to arrive from possibly many directions and in many and varied ways so the expectations need to float along to possibilities that you would have never arrived at in your own thinking.

Those who are playing war games are attempting to usurp the authority of the Lord for which they will be rebuked and scattered.

0 Rebuke the beasts of the reeds,
The herd of bulls with the calves of the peoples, 
Till everyone submits himself with pieces of silver. 
Scatter the peoples who delight in war.

Everyone is to submit to the presence of the Lord and this goes also to prayer in that there is a call to intercede for everyone.

1 Timothy Chapter 2 verses 1 and 2 say:

1 Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, 2 for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence

The call is to peace, quiet and tranquility in the presence of the Holy Spirit and this is a spiritual state.

Verse 15 says:

15 A mountain of God is the mountain of Bashan;
A mountain of many peaks is the mountain of Bashan.

The Holy Spirit will be operating on many fronts and there is the call to pray, pay attention and be open and aware through all the channels including meditation.

People aren't all that privy to angels and this is one important area to be aware of on a daily basis and there is the need to always call upon the presence of angels, who are thousands upon thousands according to this psalm.

In this way and all ways, there is more, always more and that is what the concluding verse of this psalm is revealing.

35 O God, You are more awesome than Your holy places.
The God of Israel is He who gives strength and power to His people. 

Blessed be God!

 

 

 

 

 

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