“Sing to God, sing praises to His name; extol Him who rides on the clouds” (Psalm 68:4a).
Once again we find David extolling God and praising Him among His people. In Psalm 68, he particularly emphasizes God’s power as the object of the people’s praise. David calls on the Lord’s people to praise Him by apprehending His power and government over the whole world and His preservation of His people in their salvation. He adds as an object of their praise God’s mercy in condescending to take the poorest and the most wretched people under His divine protection.
His infinite power is commended when it is said that He rides upon the heavens, for this proves that He is superior to all things. “The Holy Spirit may signify by the expression that we should exclude from our minds everything gross and earthly in the conceptions we form of Him,” Calvin wrote. “But He would, doubtless, impress us chiefly with an idea of His great power, to produce in us a due reverence, and make us feel how far short all our praises must come of His glory. We would attempt in vain to comprehend heaven and earth; but His glory is greater than both.”
Sometimes we find it difficult to praise God because He is so incomprehensible. Yet, while we cannot comprehend God in His fullest, we can know enough about Him through His revelation to praise Him appropriately. Even in our praise, He guides us by His Holy Spirit as we look to Christ that we might glorify Him in our worship. When David penned this psalm, the world was filled with the vain idols of superstition, and he urged God’s people to put away such temptations and praise God for revealing Himself to them. “The incomprehensible glory of God does not induce Him to remove Himself to a distance from us, or prevent Him from stooping to us in our lowest depths of wretchedness,” Calvin wrote. Such is the grace of God that He lifts us up, endowing us with the ability to praise Him. He has adopted us for this purpose—to glorify Him forever. God did not wait until we proved ourselves worthy to be in His family. He gathered His people together, adopting them into the kingdom, giving them a new name that they might praise Him for His power and grace and glory in His presence forever.
Verses 19–20 say, “Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens. Our God is a God who saves; from the Sovereign LORD comes escape from death” (NIV). Use this teaching on God’s power and your salvation to bring comfort to your soul today.