The Conquering God and His Coming Kingdom Text: Psalm 68:28-31
Introduction: A Triumphant Procession
Psalm 68 is a great processional hymn, a victory march. It begins with the ancient cry of the wilderness wanderings, "Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered." It recounts God's triumphs from Sinai to Zion, celebrating His power to save His people and to obliterate His foes. This is not a quiet, sentimental psalm for private devotion in a padded room. This is a battle cry for the church militant. It is a song for a conquering God who leads His people from victory to victory.
We live in an age of evangelical retreat. We are accustomed to thinking of the faith in terms of beleaguered minorities and a losing cultural battle. We sing quiet songs about a gentle Jesus, meek and mild, and we hope the world will mostly leave us alone. But that is not the God of this psalm. The God of Psalm 68 is a warrior who rides on the clouds, who shatters the heads of His enemies, who leads captivity captive, and who establishes His kingdom with strength and power. This psalm is incorrigibly, unapologetically, and gloriously postmillennial. It anticipates the day when the kingdom of our God will fill the earth, when kings will bring tribute, and when the nations will stretch out their hands to God.
The portion of the psalm before us today is a prayer, but it is a prayer that flows directly from this triumphant confidence. It is a prayer that God would continue to do what He has always done. It is a prayer for God to flex His muscles, to show His strength, and to bring the nations into submission to His rule. This is not a prayer for escape, but a prayer for dominion. It is a prayer that the church today has largely forgotten how to pray, and we must learn it again if we are to be faithful in our generation.
The Text
Your God has commanded your strength;
Show Yourself strong, O God, who has worked on our behalf.
Because of Your temple at Jerusalem
Kings will bring gifts to You.
Rebuke the beast in the reeds,
The herd of bulls with the calves of the peoples,
Trampling under foot the pieces of silver;
He has cast out the peoples who delight in war.
Envoys will come out of Egypt;
Ethiopia will quickly stretch out her hands to God.
(Psalm 68:28-31 LSB)
God's Commanded Strength (v. 28)
The prayer begins with a declaration of what God has already ordained for His people.
"Your God has commanded your strength; Show Yourself strong, O God, who has worked on our behalf." (Psalm 68:28)
Notice the logic here. The psalmist does not begin by begging for something God is reluctant to give. He begins by stating a fact: "Your God has commanded your strength." God has decreed that His people will be strong. He has ordained it. Strength is not an optional extra for the Christian life; it is a divine command and a divine provision. This is the same logic Paul uses in the New Testament. We are commanded to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, precisely because He has made that power available to us.
This strength is not our own. It is not the product of positive thinking or self-improvement programs. It is the strength that God Himself commands and supplies. He is the one who works on our behalf. The prayer, then, is not that God would do something new or out of character. It is a prayer that God would manifest, in our time and place, the strength that He has already commanded and demonstrated in the past. "Show Yourself strong" is a plea for God to act consistently with His own character and His own decrees. It is asking God to be God, in public, where everyone can see.
We need to recover this confidence. We pray weak prayers because we have a weak view of God's intentions for His people. We think of ourselves as spiritual invalids, hoping to limp across the finish line. But God has commanded our strength. He intends for His church to be a mighty army, a conquering force in history. Our job is to believe His decree and to pray for its fulfillment. We are asking Him to finish the work He has already begun for us.
The Magnetic Temple (v. 29)
The focal point of this global victory is the place where God dwells with His people.
"Because of Your temple at Jerusalem Kings will bring gifts to You." (Psalm 68:29)
In the Old Covenant, the Temple in Jerusalem was the earthly center of God's presence. It was the place where heaven and earth met. And the prophetic hope was that this Temple would become a magnet for the nations. The glory of God dwelling there would be so manifest that the rulers of the earth would be compelled to come and pay homage. They would bring their wealth, their "gifts," and lay them at the feet of Israel's God. We see this promised in places like Isaiah 60, where the nations and their kings stream to the light of Zion.
Now, we must read this with New Covenant eyes. The Temple in Jerusalem was a type and a shadow. The ultimate Temple is the body of Jesus Christ (John 2:21). And by extension, the church is now the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16). The place where God dwells is not a building made of stone, but a people built of living stones. So where is this prophecy fulfilled? It is fulfilled as the church, filled with the glory of God, becomes the center of the world's attention.
This is a picture of the success of the Great Commission. As the gospel goes forth, it doesn't just save individual souls in a corner. It transforms cultures. It brings kings, presidents, and parliaments to bow before Jesus Christ. This is not about a political takeover in the carnal sense. It is about the irresistible glory of God in His people becoming so bright that the world cannot help but acknowledge it. When the church is healthy, vibrant, and full of God's strength, it becomes a magnetic force. The world's rulers will bring the glory and honor of their nations into the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:24). This is our future, and we should be praying for it.
Rebuking the Beasts (v. 30)
But the advance of the kingdom is not unopposed. There are enemies, and they must be dealt with. The prayer turns from confident expectation to sharp imprecation.
"Rebuke the beast in the reeds, The herd of bulls with the calves of the peoples, Trampling under foot the pieces of silver; He has cast out the peoples who delight in war." (Psalm 68:30)
This is martial poetry. The "beast in the reeds" is a clear reference to Egypt, symbolized by the crocodile or hippopotamus of the Nile. Egypt represents a powerful, pagan, oppressive empire. The "herd of bulls with the calves of the peoples" refers to the rulers and their subjects, the powerful and the masses, who are aligned against God's kingdom. These are the proud, arrogant powers of the world who trample on justice, who are motivated by greed ("pieces of silver"), and who "delight in war."
What are we to do with such enemies? The prayer is blunt: "Rebuke" them. This is a prayer for God to put them down, to thwart their plans, to break their power. This is an imprecatory prayer, and it is fully in line with the New Testament. We are to love our personal enemies, but we are to pray for the defeat of God's enemies. When nations set themselves against the Lord and His Christ, we are to pray that God would scatter them. When ideologies arise that delight in war, oppression, and the murder of the unborn, we are to ask God to rebuke them and bring them to nothing.
This is not a prayer of personal vindictiveness. It is a prayer for the establishment of God's righteous rule. For peace to flourish, those who "delight in war" must be scattered. For justice to be established, the proud bulls who trample the weak must be rebuked. This is a prayer for God to clear the way for His kingdom by dealing decisively with those who stand in opposition to it.
The Submission of Nations (v. 31)
The psalm ends this section with a glorious vision of what happens when the beasts are rebuked. The result is not annihilation, but conversion.
"Envoys will come out of Egypt; Ethiopia will quickly stretch out her hands to God." (Psalm 68:31)
This is breathtaking. Egypt, the great beast of the reeds, the archetypal enemy of God's people, will send ambassadors to worship the true God. Ethiopia, representing the farthest and most remote nations of the known world, will eagerly submit to Him. The very powers that were just being rebuked are now seen bringing their allegiance to Zion.
This is the goal of all of God's judgments in history. The scattering of those who delight in war is for the purpose of bringing in a kingdom of peace. The rebuke of the proud is the necessary prelude to their humble submission. God's power is demonstrated not just in destroying His enemies, but in converting them. He turns crocodiles into envoys. He takes the most distant and pagan nations and causes them to race to submit to Him.
This is the heart of our postmillennial hope. The gospel is the power of God for salvation, and it is powerful enough to do this. It is powerful enough to take the persecuting Roman empire and turn it into Christendom. It is powerful enough to take pagan northern Europe and make it a center of gospel light. And it is powerful enough to take the secular, hostile nations of our day and do the same thing. The vision of this psalm is the future of the world. Egypt and Ethiopia, symbols of all the nations, will come. They will stretch out their hands to God, not in a fist of defiance, but with an open palm of submission and worship.
Conclusion: Praying for Victory
This psalm teaches us how to think and pray about the world. We are not to be discouraged by the roaring of the beasts and the bellowing of the bulls. We are to see them as God sees them: temporary obstacles to be rebuked and scattered.
Our God has commanded our strength. The victory is not in doubt. The question is whether we will have the faith to pray in accordance with God's declared purpose. We must pray for God to show Himself strong. We must pray for the church to be that glorious temple that draws the nations in. We must pray for the rebuke of wickedness in high places. And we must pray with confident expectation for the day when the envoys from our modern Egypts and Ethiopias will come streaming in, stretching out their hands to God.
The triumph of the gospel is not a pipe dream. It is the decreed plan of Almighty God. This world will be evangelized. The nations will be discipled. Jesus shall have dominion from sea to sea. Therefore, let us pray these prayers with confidence, and let us work for their fulfillment with all our might, knowing that our labor in the Lord is not in vain.