Salmos 68:4

Sing praises... — Better, play on the harp.

Extol him that rideth upon the heavens. — Rather, cast up a highway for him that rideth on the steppes. (Comp. Isaías 40:3, of which this is apparently an echo.) The poet’s voice is the herald’s who precedes the army of God to order the removal of all obstructions, and the formation of cairns to mark the road. Isaías 57:14; Isaías 62:10, are passages alluding to the same custom.

The translation, “upon the heavens,” rests on a rabbinical interpretation of ‘arabôth.

By derivation it means “a dry sandy region,” a “steppe.” The singular of the noun forms with the article a proper name designating the Jordan valley. (In the poetical books, however, any wild tract of country is called ‘Arabah — Isaías 35:1; Isaías 35:6.) The plural often designates particular parts of this region, as the plains of Moab or Jericho (2 Reis 25:4). Such a restricted sense is quite in keeping with the allusions to the early history which make up so much of the psalm.

By his name JAH. — Better, his name is Jah. This abbreviated form of Jehovah is first found in Êxodo 15:2. No doubt the verse is a fragment of a song as old as the Exodus.

It may be noticed here that the dependence of this psalm on older songs is nowhere more conspicuous than in the very various use of the Divine names, Elohim, Adonai, El, Shaddai, Jehovah, Jah.