The poet stands so completely in the midst of this glory of the end, that soaring onwards in faith over all the kingdoms of the world, he calls upon them to render praise to the God of Israel. לרכב attaches itself to the dominating notion of שׁירוּ in Psalm 68:33. The heavens of heavens (Deuteronomy 10:14) are by קדם described as primeval (perhaps, following the order of their coming into existence, as extending back beyond the heavens that belong to our globe, of the second and fourth day of Creation). God is said to ride along in the primeval heavens of the heavens (Deuteronomy 33:26), when by means of the cherub (Psalm 18:11) He extends His operations to all parts of these infinite distances and heights. The epithet "who rideth along in the heavens of heavens of the first beginning" denotes the exalted majesty of the superterrestrial One, who on account of His immanency in history is called "He who rideth along through the steppes" (רכב בּערבות, Psalm 68:5). In יתּן בּקולו we have a repetition of the thought expressed above in Psalm 68:12 by יתּן אמר; what is intended is God's voice of power, which thunders down everything that contends against Him. Since in the expression נתן בּקול (Psalm 46:7; Jeremiah 12:8) the voice, according to Ges. 138, rem. 3, note, is conceived of as the medium of the giving, i.e., of the giving forth from one's self, of the making one's self heard, we must take קול עז not as the object (as in the Latin phrase sonitum dare), but as an apposition:

(Note: The accentuation does not decide; it admits of our taking it in both ways. Cf. Psalm 14:5; Psalm 41:2; Psalm 58:7; Psalm 68:28; Proverbs 13:22; Proverbs 27:1.)

behold, He maketh Himself heard with His voice, a powerful voice. Thus let them then give God עז, i.e., render back to Him in praise that acknowledges His omnipotence, the omnipotence which He hath, and of which He gives abundant proof. His glory (גּאוה) rules over Israel, more particularly as its guard and defence; His power (עז), however, embraces all created things, not the earth merely, but also the loftiest regions of the sky. The kingdom of grace reveals the majesty and glory of His redemptive work (cf. Ephesians 1:6), the kingdom of nature the universal dominion of His omnipotence. To this call to the kingdoms of the earth they respond in v. 36: "Awful is Elohim out of thy sanctuaries." The words are addressed to Israel, consequently מקדּשׁים is not the heavenly and earthly sanctuary (Hitzig), but the one sanctuary in Jerusalem (Ezekiel 21:72) in the manifold character of its holy places (Jeremiah 51:51, cf. Amos 7:9). Commanding reverence - such is the confession of the Gentile world - doth Elohim rule from thy most holy places, O Israel, the God who hath chosen thee as His mediatorial people. The second part of the confession runs: the God of Israel giveth power and abundant strength to the people, viz., whose God He is, equivalent to לעמּו, Psalm 29:11. Israel's might in the omnipotence of God it is which the Gentile world has experienced, and from which it has deduced the universal fact of experience, v. 36b. All peoples with their gods succumb at last to Israel and its God. This confession of the Gentile world closes with בּרוּך אלהים (which is preceded by Mugrash transformed out of Athnach). That which the psalmist said in the name of Israel in Psalm 68:20, "Blessed be the Lord," now re-echoes from all the world, "Blessed be Elohim." The world is overcome by the church of Jahve, and that not merely in outward form, but spiritually. The taking up of all the kingdoms of the world into the kingdom of God, this the great theme of the Apocalypse, is also after all the theme of this Psalm. The first half closed with Jahve's triumphant ascension, the second closes with the results of His victory and triumph, which embrace the world of peoples.

Psalm 69:5 Parallel Commentaries

and my sins [heb.] and my guiltiness

Psalm 17:3 You have proved my heart; you have visited me in the night; you have tried me, and shall find nothing...

Psalm 19:12 Who can understand his errors? cleanse you me from secret faults.

Psalm 44:20,21 If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god...

hid

Psalm 38:9 Lord, all my desire is before you; and my groaning is not hid from you.

Jeremiah 16:17 For my eyes are on all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from my eyes.