9You shed abroad a plentiful rain, O God;
         You confirmed Your inheritance when it was parched.

10Your creatures settled in it;
         You provided in Your goodness for the poor, O God.

11The Lord gives the command;
         The women who proclaim the good tidings are a great host:

12“Kings of armies flee, they flee,
         And she who remains at home will divide the spoil!”

13When you lie down among the sheepfolds,
         You are like the wings of a dove covered with silver,
         And its pinions with glistening gold.

14When the Almighty scattered the kings there,
         It was snowing in Zalmon.

15A mountain of God is the mountain of Bashan;
         A mountain of many peaks is the mountain of Bashan.

16Why do you look with envy, O mountains with many peaks,
         At the mountain which God has desired for His abode?
         Surely the LORD will dwell there forever.

17The chariots of God are myriads, thousands upon thousands;
         The Lord is among them as at Sinai, in holiness.

18You have ascended on high, You have led captive Your captives;
         You have received gifts among men,
         Even among the rebellious also, that the LORD God may dwell there.

19Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden,
         The God who is our salvation.

20God is to us a God of deliverances;
         And to GOD the Lord belong escapes from death.

21Surely God will shatter the head of His enemies,
         The hairy crown of him who goes on in his guilty deeds.

22The Lord said, “I will bring them back from Bashan.
         I will bring them back from the depths of the sea;

23That your foot may shatter them in blood,
         The tongue of your dogs may have its portion from your enemies.”

24They have seen Your procession, O God,
         The procession of my God, my King, into the sanctuary.

25The singers went on, the musicians after them,
         In the midst of the maidens beating tambourines.

26Bless God in the congregations,
         Even the LORD, you who are of the fountain of Israel.

27There is Benjamin, the youngest, ruling them,
         The princes of Judah in their throng,
         The princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali.

28Your God has commanded your strength;
         Show Yourself strong, O God, who have acted on our behalf.

29Because of Your temple at Jerusalem
         Kings will bring gifts to You.

30Rebuke the beasts in the reeds,
         The herd of bulls with the calves of the peoples,
         Trampling under foot the pieces of silver;
         He has scattered the peoples who delight in war.

31Envoys will come out of Egypt;
         Ethiopia will quickly stretch out her hands to God.

32Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth,
         Sing praises to the Lord,

33To Him who rides upon the highest heavens, which are from ancient times;
         Behold, He speaks forth with His voice, a mighty voice.

34Ascribe strength to God;
         His majesty is over Israel
         And His strength is in the skies.

35O God, You are awesome from Your sanctuary.
         The God of Israel Himself gives strength and power to the people.
         Blessed be God!

Parallel Verses

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
The earth quaked; The heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God; Sinai itself quaked at the presence of God, the God of Israel.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
the earth quaked and the sky poured in the presence of the God of Sinai, in the presence of the God of Israel.

King James Bible
The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God: even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.

Douay-Rheims Bible
The earth was moved, and the heavens dropped at the presence of the God of Sina, at the presence of the God of Israel.

Darby Bible Translation
The earth trembled, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God, yon Sinai, at the presence of God, the God of Israel.

English Revised Version
The earth trembled, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God: even yon Sinai trembled at the presence of God, the God of Israel.

Webster's Bible Translation
The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God: even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.

World English Bible
The earth trembled. The sky also poured down rain at the presence of the God of Sinai-- at the presence of God, the God of Israel.

Young's Literal Translation
The earth hath shaken, Yea, the heavens have dropped before God, This Sinai -- before God, the God of Israel.

Cross References

Exodus 19:18 Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the LORD descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently.

Deuteronomy 33:2 He said, "The LORD came from Sinai, And dawned on them from Seir; He shone forth from Mount Paran, And He came from the midst of ten thousand holy ones; At His right hand there was flashing lightning for them.

Judges 5:4 "LORD, when You went out from Seir, When You marched from the field of Edom, The earth quaked, the heavens also dripped, Even the clouds dripped water.

Judges 5:5 "The mountains quaked at the presence of the LORD, This Sinai, at the presence of the LORD, the God of Israel.

2 Samuel 22:8 "Then the earth shook and quaked, The foundations of heaven were trembling And were shaken, because He was angry.

Psalm 18:7 Then the earth shook and quaked; And the foundations of the mountains were trembling And were shaken, because He was angry.

Psalm 18:9 He bowed the heavens also, and came down With thick darkness under His feet.

Psalm 77:18 The sound of Your thunder was in the whirlwind; The lightnings lit up the world; The earth trembled and shook.

Isaiah 45:8 "Drip down, O heavens, from above, And let the clouds pour down righteousness; Let the earth open up and salvation bear fruit, And righteousness spring up with it. I, the LORD, have created it.

Isaiah 64:1 Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down, That the mountains might quake at Your presence--

Jeremiah 10:10 But the LORD is the true God; He is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth quakes, And the nations cannot endure His indignation.

Commentary

Matthew Henry's Whole Bible Commentary

Verses 7-14

The psalmist here, having occasion to give God thanks for the great things he had done for him and his people of late, takes occasion thence to praise him for what he had done for their fathers in the days of old. Fresh mercies should put us in mind of former mercies and revive our grateful sense of them. Let it never be forgotten,

I. That God himself was the guide of Israel through the wilderness; when he had brought them out of their chains he did not leave them in the dry land, but he himself went before them in a march through the wilderness, v. 7. It was not a journey, but a march, for they went as soldiers, as an army with banners. The Egyptians promised themselves that the wilderness had shut them in, but they were deceived; God's Israel, having him for their leader, marched through the wilderness and were not lost in it. Note, If God bring his people into a wilderness, he will be sure to go before them in it and bring them out of it. Cant. 8:5.

II. That he manifested his glorious presence with them at Mount Sinai, v. 8. Never did any people see the glory of God, nor hear his voice, as Israel did, Deu. 4:32, 33. Never had any people such an excellent law given them, so expounded, so enforced. Then the earth shook, and the neighbouring countries, it is likely, felt the shock; terrible thunders there were, accompanied no doubt with thunder-showers, in which the heavens seemed to drop; while the divine doctrine dropped as the rain, Deu. 32:2. Sinai itself, that vast mountain, that long ridge of mountains, was moved at the presence of God; see Jdg. 5:4, 5; Deu. 33:2; Hab. 3:3. This terrible appearance of the Divine Majesty, as it would possess them with a fear and dread of him, so it would encourage their faith in him and dependence upon him. Whatever mountains of difficulty lay in the way of their happy settlement, he that could move Sinai itself could remove them, could get over them.

III. That he provided very comfortably for them both in the wilderness and in Canaan (v. 9, 10): Thou didst send a plentiful rain and hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor. This may refer, 1. To the victualling of their camp with manna in the wilderness, which was rained upon them, as were also the quails (Ps. 78:24, 27), and it might be fitly called a rain of liberality or munificence, for it was a memorable instance of the divine bounty. This confirmed the camp of Israel (here called God's inheritance, because he had chosen them to be a peculiar treasure to himself) when it was weary and ready to perish: this confirmed their faith, and was a standing proof of God's power and goodness. Even in the wilderness God found a comfortable dwelling for Israel, which was his congregation. Or, 2. To the seasonable supplies granted them in Canaan, that land flowing with mild and honey, which is said to drink water of the rain of heaven, Deu. 11:11. When sometimes that fruitful land was ready to be turned into barrenness, for the iniquity of those that dwelt therein, God, in judgment, remembered mercy, and sent them a plentiful rain, which refreshed it again, so that the congregation of Israel dwelt therein, and there was provision enough, even to satisfy their poor with bread. This looks further to the spiritual provision made for God's Israel; the Spirit of grace and the gospel of grace are the plentiful rain with which God confirms his inheritance, and from which their fruit is found, Isa. 45:8. Christ himself is this rain, Ps. 72:6. He shall come as showers that water the earth.

IV. That he often gave them victory over their enemies; armies, and kings of armies, appeared against them, from their first coming into Canaan, and all along in the times of the judges, till David's days, but, first or last, they gained their point against them, v. 11, 12, 14. Observe here, 1. That God was their commander-in-chief: The Lord gave the word, as general of their armies. He raised up judges for them, gave them their commissions and instructions, and assured them of success. God spoke in his holiness, and then Gilead is mine. 2. That they had prophets, as God's messengers, to make known his mind to them. God gave them his word (the word of the Lord came unto them) and then great was the company of the preachers-prophets and prophetesses, for the word is feminine. When God has messages to send he will not want messengers. Or perhaps it may allude to the women's joining in the triumph when the victory was obtained, as was usual (Ex. 15:20, 1 Sa. 18:7), in which they took notice of the word of God, triumphing in that as much as in his works. 3. That their enemies were defeated, and put to confusion: Kings of armies did flee, did flee with the greatest terror and precipitation imaginable, did not fight and flee, but flee and flee, retired without striking a stroke; they fled apace, fled and never rallied again. 4. That they were enriched with the plunder of the field: She that tarried at home divided the spoil. Not only the men, the soldiers that abode by the stuff, who were, by a statute of distributions, to share the prey (1 Sa. 30:24), but even the women that tarried at home had a share, which intimates the abundance of spoil that should be taken. 5. That these great things which God did for them were sanctified to them and contributed to their reformation (v. 14): When the Almighty scattered kings for her (for the church) she was white as snow in Salmon, purified and refined by the mercies of God; when the host went forth against the enemy they kept themselves from every wicked thing, and so the host returned victorious, and Israel by the victory were confirmed in their purity and piety. This account of Israel's victories is applicable to the victories obtained by the exalted Redeemer for those that are his, over death and hell. By the resurrection of Christ our spiritual enemies were made to flee, their power was broken, and they were for ever disabled to hurt any of God's people. This victory was first notified by the women (the she-publishers) to the disciples (Mt. 28:7) and by them it was preached to all the world, while believers that tarry at home, that did not themselves contribute any thing towards it, enjoy the benefit of it, and divide the spoil.

V. That from a low and despised condition they had been advanced to splendour and prosperity. When they were bond-slaves in Egypt, and afterwards when they were oppressed sometimes by one potent neighbour and sometimes by another, they did, as it were, lie among the pots or rubbish, as despised broken vessels, or as vessels in which there was no pleasure-they were black, and dirty, and discoloured. But God, at length, delivered them from the pots (Ps. 81:6), and in David's time they were in a fair way to be one of the most prosperous kingdoms in the world, amiable in the eyes of all about them, like the wings of a dove covered with silver, v. 13. "And so," says Dr. Hammond, "under Christ's kingdom, the heathen idolaters that were brought to the basest and most despicable condition of any creatures, worshipping wood and stone, and given up to the vilest lusts, should from that detestable condition be advanced to the service of Christ, and the practice of all Christian virtues, the greatest inward beauties in the world." It may be applied also to the deliverance of the church out of a suffering state and the comforts of particular believers after their despondencies.

Calvin's Commentary

7. O God! when thou wentest forth before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness; Selah: 8. The earth was moved, the heavens also dropped at the presence of this God: Sinai at the presence of God, the God of Israel. [16] 9. Thou, O God! shalt make a liberal [17] rain to fall upon thine inheritance, and thou refreshest it when it is weary. 10. Thy congregation [18] shall dwell therein; thou, O God! wilt prepare in thy goodness for the poor.

7 O God! when thou wentest forth before thy people, etc. The Psalmist now proceeds to show that the Divine goodness is principally displayed in the Church, which God has selected as the great theater where his fatherly care may be manifested. What follows is evidently added with the view of leading the posterity of Abraham, as the Lord's chosen people, to apply the observations which had been just made to themselves. The deliverance from Egypt having been the chief and lasting pledge of the Divine favor, which practically ratified their adoption under the patriarch, he briefly adverts to that event. He would intimate that in that remarkable exodus, proof had been given to all succeeding ages of the love which God entertained for his Church. Why were so many miracles wrought? why were heaven and earth put into commotion? why were the mountains made to tremble? but that all might recognize the power of God as allied with the deliverance of his people. He represents God as having been their leader in conducting them forth. And this not merely in reference to their passage of the Red Sea, but their journeys so long as they wandered in the wilderness. When he speaks of the earth being moved, he would not seem to allude entirely to what occurred upon the promulgation of the law, but to the fact that, throughout all their progress, the course of nature was repeatedly altered, as if the very elements had trembled at the presence of the Lord. It was upon Mount Sinai, however, that God issued the chief displays of his awful power; it was there that thunders were heard in heaven, and the air was filled with lightnings; and, accordingly, it is mentioned here by name as having presented the most glorious spectacle of the Divine majesty which was ever beheld. Some read, This Sinai, etc., connecting the pronoun zh, zeh, with the mountain here named; but it is much more emphatical to join it with the preceding clause, and to read, the heavens dropped at the presence of This God; David meaning to commend the excellency of the God of Israel. The expression is one frequently used by the prophets to denote that the God worshipped by the posterity of Abraham was the true God, and the religion delivered in his law no delusion, as in Isaiah 25:9, "This, this is our God, and he will save us." To establish the Lord's people in their faith, David leads them, as it were, into the very presence of God; indicates that they were left to no such vague uncertainties as the heathen; and indirectly censures the folly of the world in forsaking the knowledge of the true God, and fashioning imaginary deities of its own, of wood and stone, of gold and silver.

9. Thou, O God! shalt make a liberal rain to fall [19] upon thine inheritance Mention is made here of the continued course of favor which had been extended to the people from the time when they first entered the promised land. It is called the inheritance of God, as having been assigned over to his own children. Others understand by the inheritance spoken of in the verse, the Church, but this is not correct, for it is afterwards stated as being the place where the Church dwelt. The title is appropriately given to the land of Canaan, which God made over to them by right of inheritance. David takes notice of the fact, that, from the first settlement of the seed of Abraham in it, God had never ceased to make the kindest fatherly provision for them, sending his rain in due season to prepare their food. The words translated a liberal rain, read literally in the Hebrew a rain of freenesses, and I agree with interpreters in thinking that he alludes to the blessing as having come in the exercise of free favor, [20] and to God, as having of his own unprompted goodness provided for all the wants of his people. Some read a desirable rain; others, a rain flowing without violence, or gentle; but neither of these renderings seems eligible. Others read a copious or plentiful rain; but I have already stated what appears to me to be the preferable sense. It was a proof, then, of his Divine liberality, that God watered the land seasonably with showers. There is clearly a reference to the site of Judea, which owed its fertility to dews and the rains of heaven. In allusion to the same circumstance, he speaks of its being refreshed when weary. The reason is assigned -- because it had been given to his chosen people to dwell in. On no other account was it blessed, than as being the habitation of God's Church and people. The more to impress upon the minds of the Jews their obligations to Divine goodness, he represents them as pensioners depending upon God for their daily food. He fed them upon the finest of the wheat, giving them wine, and honey, and oil in abundance -- still he proportioned the communication of his kindness so as to keep them always dependent in expectation upon himself. Some, instead of reading, Thou wilt prepare with thy goodness, etc., render it, Thou wilt prepare with rich food; but, without absolutely objecting to this translation, I rather think that he adverts to the circumstance of God's being led to provide for his people entirely by his own good pleasure.

Footnotes:

[16] This verse and the preceding scem to be copied from the Song of Deborah, Judges 5:4, 5.

[17] "C'est, par ta volonte et liberalite." -- Fr. marg. "That is, by thy free will and liberality."

[18] Thy congregations, or company. This is the reading adopted also by Dathe, Berlin, and De Rossi; and it "is a much better exposition than those of the two latest English translators, Bishop Horsley and Mr Fry: -- Thy flocks dwelt in the mansion which thou preparedst.' -- Horsley. Thy food settled upon it.' -- Fry." Rogers' Book of Psalms in Hebrew, etc., volume 2, Page 220.

[19] Heb. Shall shake out, i.e., from the clouds, a liberal rain.

[20] Ainsworth reads, "a rain of liberalities." Horsley, "a shower of unmerited kindnesses;" "literally," says he, "a plentiful rain, rain being used here metaphorically."

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Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

Memoir of John Bunyan
THE FIRST PERIOD. THIS GREAT MAN DESCENDED FROM IGNOBLE PARENTS--BORN IN POVERTY--HIS EDUCATION AND EVIL HABITS--FOLLOWS HIS FATHER'S BUSINESS AS A BRAZIER--ENLISTS FOR A SOLDIER--RETURNS FROM THE WARS AND OBTAINS AN AMIABLE, RELIGIOUS WIFE--HER DOWER. 'We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.'--2 Cor 4:7 'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.'--Isaiah 55:8. 'Though ye have lien among the …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Nature of the Renderings
From the text we now turn to the renderings, and to the general principles that were followed, both in the Old and in the New Testament. The revision of the English text was in each case subject to the same general rule, viz. "To introduce as few alterations as possible into the Text of the Authorised Version consistently with faithfulness"; but, owing to the great difference between the two languages, the Hebrew and the Greek, the application of the rule was necessarily different, and the results …
C. J. Ellicott—Addresses on the Revised Version of Holy Scripture

The Christ Crowned, the Fact
"When God sought a King for His people of old, He went to the fields to find him; A shepherd was he, with his crook and his lute And a following flock behind him. "O love of the sheep, O joy of the lute, And the sling and the stone for battle; A shepherd was King, the giant was naught, And the enemy driven like cattle. "When God looked to tell of His good will to men, And the Shepherd-King's son whom He gave them; To shepherds, made meek a-caring for sheep, He told of a Christ sent to save them. …
by S. D. Gordon—Quiet Talks on the Crowned Christ of Revelation

Of the Last Resurrection.
1. For invincible perseverance in our calling, it is necessary to be animated with the blessed hope of our Savior's final advent. 2. The perfect happiness reserved for the elect at the final resurrection unknown to philosophers. 3. The truth and necessity of this doctrine of a final resurrection. To confirm our belief in it we have, 1. The example of Christ; and, 2. The omnipotence of God. There is an inseparable connection between us and our risen Savior. The bodies of the elect must be conformed …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

Mothers, Daughters, and Wives in Israel
In order accurately to understand the position of woman in Israel, it is only necessary carefully to peruse the New Testament. The picture of social life there presented gives a full view of the place which she held in private and in public life. Here we do not find that separation, so common among Orientals at all times, but a woman mingles freely with others both at home and abroad. So far from suffering under social inferiority, she takes influential and often leading part in all movements, specially …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life