Bible Strands
Psalms 68:7
O God, when You went out before Your people, when You marched through the wasteland, Selah
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses God directly, recalling a past divine intervention. This statement sits between a description of God settling the lonely and leading prisoners out, and an account of the earth shaking and heavens pouring rain at Sinai.
The words — The Hebrew צֵאתְךָ (tze'tekha) literally means "your going out," and צַעְדְּךָ (tza'dekha) means "your marching." These terms establish the verse's focus on God's active movement.
The thread — This imagery of divine procession parallels Exodus 13:21, where the Lord guides Israel through a pillar of cloud and fire, and Judges 5:4, which describes God marching from Edom while the earth trembles.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition of God as a warrior-leader who actively guides His people through desolation. It requires the reader to acknowledge divine presence in historical movement rather than abstract theology.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness; Selah:
Cross-references
- Exodus 13:21 And the LORD went before them in a pillar of cloud to guide their way by day, and in a pillar of fire to give them light by night, so that they could travel by day or night.
- Judges 5:4 O LORD, when You went out from Seir, when You marched from the land of Edom, the earth trembled, the heavens poured out rain, and the clouds poured down water.
- Judges 4:14 Then Deborah said to Barak, “Arise, for this is the day that the LORD has delivered Sisera into your hand. Has not the LORD gone before you?” So Barak came down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him.
- Habakkuk 3:12 You marched across the earth with fury; You threshed the nations in wrath.
- Deuteronomy 4:34 Or has any god tried to take as his own a nation out of another nation—by trials, signs, wonders, and war, by a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors—as the LORD your God did for you in Egypt, before your eyes?
- Psalms 114:1 When Israel departed from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,
- Micah 2:13 One who breaks open the way will go up before them; they will break through the gate, and go out by it. Their King will pass through before them, the LORD as their leader.