Psalms 68:10 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Thy congregation Thy people Israel, who are all united in one body, under thee their head and governor. It is true, the word חיה, chajab, here rendered congregation, primarily signifies life, living creature, or animal, and is often put for beast, and wild beast; but, as the best lexicographers observe, it also frequently means cœtus, or caterva, a company or troop of men, as in Psa 68:30 of this chapter, and 2 Samuel 23:13, compared with 1 Chronicles 11:15, and Psalms 74:19. But, retaining the proper signification of the word, the clause may be rendered, as it is by the LXX., τα ζωα σου, thy living creatures, or thy flock, that is, thy people, the sheep of thy pasture, hath dwelt therein, ישׁבו בה, jashebu bah, have dwelt in it, namely, in the inheritance mentioned in the preceding verse, to which the preposition, with the feminine affix, בה, in it, can only properly refer. God often compares himself to a shepherd, and his people to sheep; and he is particularly said to have led his people like a flock, by the hand of Moses and Aaron, Psalms 77:20, namely, in the wilderness; and consequently he may be here said to have brought his sheep into, and to have made them dwell in, Canaan, as in a green and good pasture; see Psalms 23., where God speaks of his people under this very metaphor. This interpretation, evidently adopted by our translators, seems much more easy and natural, and more agreeable to the Hebrew text, than that of Dr. Chandler and some others, who would render the word above mentioned, (which we translate thy flock, or thy congregation,) thy food, or the support of thy life; and who thus interpret the clause: thy food, or, as to thy food, the food which thou, O God, gavest them, they dwelt in the midst of it: which is surely a very unnatural and forced exposition. Thou hast prepared of thy goodness, &c. Dr. Chandler, in consistency with his above-mentioned interpretation of the preceding clause, understands this of the provision made miraculously by God for his people in the wilderness: but, according to our translation, it speaks of the provision made for them in Canaan; the good land which God prepared for his people, by expelling the old inhabitants, sending frequently refreshing and fertilizing rains upon it, making it fruitful by his special blessing, and furnishing it with all sorts of provisions: and all this of his goodness, that is, by his free, unmerited, and singular goodness: and that both as to the cause and measure of this preparation. God did it; not for their righteousness, as he often told them, but of his mere mercy; and he increased the fruits of the earth very wonderfully, that they might be sufficient for the supply of such a numerous people, which, without his extraordinary blessing, would not have been the case, as appears by the state of that land at this day, which is well known to be very barren. For the poor Thy people of Israel, whom he calls poor, partly to repress that pride and arrogance to which they were exceedingly prone, and to remind them of their entire dependance on God for all they had or hoped for; and partly because they really were poor when God undertook the conduct of them into Canaan, and such they would have been still if God had not provided for them in a singular manner.