Psalm 68:30

Psalm 68:30

The beast among the reeds

What a verse! What does it mean? How does this fit into the preceding and subsequent messages of this Psalm? 

Firstly, let’s literally translate what is being written by David, bearing in mind that this is a prayer to the Lord. After taking us up to the heady heights of Zion and calling upon God to show His strength and summon His power, the Psalm now obviously identifies the enemies who need to be overcome. David uses animal imagery here and he invites us to imagine a bull or terrible wild beast. This ferocious and fearsome animal is in the thickets or reeds. (The Hebrew literally suggests a company of spearmen, their weapons obviously looking like reeds or canes.) The wild bulls are the aggressive military forces and their leaders accompanied by their calves or their people. This army of brutal and terrifying strength will be humbled and bring talents of silver to the Lord. “Scatter the nations who delight in war,” says David.

There are a number of applications here; Egypt continued to be a fearsome enemy of Israel and Pharaoh fits the description of the beast amongst the spearmen. There would be a succession of “beasts” including Babylon, Greece and Rome, all of them creations of the evil mastermind himself – the Satan. In truth, so long as there are a chosen people of God, there will be virulent opposition to them. So long as there is a created world, God’s enemy will seek to destroy it. 

The church will never be free of beasts and bulls and their calves until Jesus Christ Himself comes to reign upon the earth. Indeed, the most fearsome beast of all is yet to be revealed, for Satan will embody himself in a man of wickedness such as the world has never seen. 

Meanwhile, as the nations continue to arm themselves and invent even more devastating weaponry, let us pray that the Lord God will scatter them and continue to rebuke the “beasts among the reeds.”

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