Thy God hath commanded thy strength: strengthen, O God, that which thou hast wrought for us.
-The glorious deliverances vouchsafed to His people, by God dwelling in Zion, give an earnest of the future subjugation of the whole world under Him.
Verse 28. Thy God hath commanded thy strength - i:e., hath by His eternal decree, made known by Moses, appointed and given it (Psalms 42:8).
Strengthen, O God, that which thou hast wrought for us - let thy strength be manifested in working for us this (emphatic in the Hebrew) which we cannot work for ourselves (Isaiah 26:12; Psalms 138:8; Philippians 2:13). See God's promise, Deuteronomy 33:25. As in the former clause he addresses the elect people, so in the latter he addresses God.
Verse 29. Because of thy temple at Jerusalem shall kings bring presents unto thee - rather, as the Septuagint, Chaldaic, and most versions, 'From thy temple:' connected with the previous Psalms 68:28, "strengthen, O God, that which thou hast wrought for us." Show thy power from thy palace hanging over Jerusalem (so the Hebrew for "at"), as the protecting guardian of the city: so shall kings bring presents unto thee (2 Chronicles 32:23; Isaiah 60:3) So Psalms 68:35, "thou art terrible out of thy holy places:" cf. Psalms 110:2. On the 'over.' see Psalms 68:34. The tabernacle on Zion was called "the temple" or palace of God even earlier than David's time (1 Samuel 3:3; 1 Chronicles 29:1). The temple of Solomon was the continuation of the tabernacle (Psalms 5:7; Psalms 48:9). The Hebrew for "presents" is only found elsewhere in Psalms 76:11; Isaiah 18:7.
Verse 30. Rebuke the company of spearmen - literally, of the reed; i:e., of the men armed with the reed-like spear. But perhaps, as Egypt is mentioned next verse, and in this verse "bulls" are used figuratively, it is better to translate, 'Rebuke (the prophetical word bringing to pass that which it foretells) the beast of the reeds' ( chayat (H2416) qaaneh (H7070)); i:e., the king of Egypt, often represented as a crocodile in the Nile. So Augustus, after the conquest of Antony and Cleopatra, depicted Egypt (Isaiah 19:6). So Ezekiel 29:3. Or, the 'beast of the reeds' is the hippopotamus, or behemoth, represented in Job 40:21 as "lying in the covert of the reed and fens," the second natural representative of Egypt.
The multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the people - literally, 'the multitude of the strong ones' (Psalms 22:12). Powerful kings are the bulls, and their subjects the calves. (Till every one) submit himself with pieces of silver - i:e., bring silver as tribute, in token of submission and allegiance. Compare Psalms 68:18, 'Thou hast received gifts among men' (Isaiah 60:9).
Scatter thou the people that delight in war. So the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic. х Bizar (H967)]. Rather, 'He scattereth the people,' etc. So the Chaldaic. The sudden change from the imperative to the indicative is not unusual in poetry. Wars shall cease under Messiah's coming reign (Isaiah 2:4; Hosea 2:18; Zechariah 9:10).
Verse 31. Princes - Hebrew, chashmaniym (H2831), rich nobles; whence the Maccabees took their name, Asmoneans.
Egypt, Ethiopia - representatives of the might of the world in David's days, before the rise of the Asiatic world-empires. Cush or Ethiopia, by its distance, represents the most distant lands.
Shall soon stretch out her hands unto God - literally, 'shall hasten with her hands (stretched out) toward God,' either in the attitude of prayer or presenting gifts (Isaiah 45:14; Zephaniah 3:10; Psalms 72:10). An earnest of this was given in the conversion of the eunuch of the Ethiopian queen Canduce, and in the ancient Egyptian church at Alexandria, where Athanasius was bishop.