Who is our God? He is our King, Saviour, Father, and Shepherd. He is also our Warrior. Throughout the Bible, God is described as the One who victoriously leads His armies, both heavenly and earthly, into battle for the sake of His weak and defenceless people whom He loves (e.g. Exodus 15:3; 1 Samuel 17:45; Isaiah 42:13). We meet this Warrior God in Psalm 68.

The psalm begins with David remembering Israel's march to the promised land. The book of Numbers records the events that David refers to. It begins with a census of all the men eligible to fight in Israel's army as they enter Canaan. Whenever they set out on their military marches, Moses would say, ″Rise up, Lord, may your enemies be scattered; may your foes flee before you″ (Numbers 10:35). David recalls these words as he asks God for victory over his enemies (Psalm 68:1). The Warrior God is also the one who ″rides on the clouds″ and ″across the highest heavens″ (vv. 4, 33; see also Deuteronomy 33:26; Isaiah 19:1; Nahum 1:3). It's a picture of God leading His army across the heavens to save His people, a theme that runs throughout the psalm (Psalm 68:1-2, 14, 18, 20, 23, 30-31).

This Warrior God fights for His helpless people, the fatherless, the widows, the lonely, and the prisoners (vv. 5-6). On the one hand, these descriptions refer to the actual physical condition of the poor and needy in the society. In the ancient patriarchal society, the fatherless and widows have limited means to meet their financial needs. On the other hand, they are also pictures of a human being's spiritual condition. Jesus used similar metaphors to describe His people–they are the poor in spirit (Matthew 5:3) and they are the hungry and thirsty for righteousness (v. 6). He described His ministry as coming to proclaim good news to the poor and to set the prisoners free (Luke 4:18).

Apostle Paul quotes Psalm 68:18 when he writes to the church in Ephesus (Ephesians 4:8). He sees this psalm as a picture of Christ's victory for us and encouraged the Christians repeatedly to remember the mighty power of God available to them (1:19; 3:20-21; 6:10) in their struggle against ″the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms″ (6:12).

Indeed, there are so many similarities between Ephesians and Psalm 68 that one New Testament scholar, Clinton Arnold, suggests that, ″the entirety of this psalm may have been on Paul's mind as he penned Ephesians″.¹ Similarly, Tremper Longman III writes, that ″by the New Testament period Psalm 68 was read and applied to the work of Christ both in His first coming when He defeated Satan on the cross as well as His second coming when He will accomplish a final victory over all evil people and spiritual powers″.²

Psalm 68 ends on this note, ″the God of Israel gives power and strength to his people″ (Psalm 68:35). Christians have even greater reasons to sing and ″proclaim the power of God″ (v. 34) because Christ has come and He is coming again!