Psalm 68:35

Psalm 68:35, in plain English

God displays His awesome nature in the sanctuary where His people gather, and He actually gives strength and power to His people, which is why the psalm ends in blessing and gratitude.

Why it's here

The final verse brings everything home. All the victory imagery, the national unity, the cosmic authority—it culminates in God's sanctuary where people experience His awesome presence and receive His strengthening power. This is where theology becomes personal: God doesn't just rule the universe, He strengthens you.

Who's speaking

The psalmist, offering the final summary and benediction

Where it sits in the story

The entire 68th Psalm moves from victory over enemies to God's cosmic rule to His presence in the sanctuary to His strengthening of His people. It's the complete arc of faith: trusting that the God who rules everything is present with you and willing to strengthen you for what you face.

The scholarly reading

God inspires awe in His sanctuary and grants His people strength and power—culminating the psalm's theology with the affirmation that fear of God and empowerment of the people constitute the ultimate blessing.

Language and setting

The psalm concludes where it should: in the sanctuary where God's presence is concentrated, where awesome power radiates, and where the community experiences both terror and empowerment. The final blessing ('Blessed be God') represents not temporal condition but eschatological affirmation—the psalmist pronounces blessed what is being realized through liturgical enactment.

Voice

The psalmist speaks as prophetic voice blessing God and the community—adopting the blessing formula (*barukh*, 'blessed') that ordinarily belongs to priestly utterance but here issues from the entire worshipping assembly.

Significance

This final verse synthesizes the psalm's theological trajectory: from cosmological affirmation (God's transcendent power) through political vision (God's universal dominion) to intimate sanctuary experience (God as source of Israel's strength). It resolves the tension between transcendence and immanence that the entire psalm has navigated, affirming that the cosmic sovereign is simultaneously present in the community's worship, empowering them for historical engagement.

33to Him who rides upon the highest heavens of old; behold, His mighty voice resounds.

34Ascribe the power to God, whose majesty is over Israel, whose strength is in the skies.

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

Read all of Psalm 68 — A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows — God sets the lonely in families and leads prisoners to freedom. Then He marches in triumph.