Ps. 68.1 (arising forth)

O that God / would arise / and his enemies / be scattered 
and those / who hate him / flee before him. 

This opening line captures one of the central themes and images of the psalm—that of a conquering dispersal. The corresponding image, which we will also see time-and-again, is a centralizing empowerment. Likewise, we also see in this opening a second image of recurring importance—of the effect of being “before God”. This geographical-spiritual position directly relates to the above movements of dispersal and centralization in that enemies who are “before God” are conquered and dispersed while the righteous who are “before God” are gathered into a liturgical unity. Crucially, it is God’s presence (being ‘before him’) that effects these twin movements—which we can call here, simply, ‘deliverance’. Also, this opening also draws our attention to the ‘movement of God’: his “arising”. It is this ‘rising’ movement of God that initiates the scattering and the centralizing. For, God’s ‘rising’ is, as we have shown in many other psalms, the ‘rising’/ascending of the Warrior King. The further/higher he arises the more potent does his power become effective on earth. As we have said over-and-over: for God to ‘arise’ is not for him to ‘leave’; it is the precise opposite: it is for him to enact his authorial power of deliverance for the righteous as the High Warrior King (assuming his throne). We can see this very poignantly by the fact that this ‘rising’ will later be called his “going forth before your people” (vs. 7). The higher God arises the more he ‘goes forth before his people’ (much as, in the Ascension, the higher Christ arose the more he went ‘forth’ before the apostles to the ‘ends of the earth’). In tying all of these images together, as it relates to the enemies of God, we see how their being conquered results in images of scattering and fleeing. First, as to ‘scattering’, the psalm will allude to this again in vs 14 and vs 30 where “kings of hosts” are scattered (vs. 14) and “those who love war” are scattered (vs. 30). Clearly, as to the kings, this ‘scattering’ is to be understood as a corporate, national defeat. Furthermore, what is also clear, is that to be ‘scattered’ is to become disunified. The kings, prior to God’s rising, operate jointly and singly as a force opposed to God (and his people). They become like the Tower of Babble or the statute in Daniel. And like the Tower and the statute, they will lose their unity when God arises/’goes forth’. God’s conquering will aim at this bond between them and he will sever it. He will render their ‘congregation’ impotent and lifeless. As to ‘fleeing’, this also in vs. 12 refers to kings who flee at the good news announcement of his messengers (…can a Christian possibly resist?) and leave their spoils behind them for the gathering. One wonders whether we could say the following: one flees when one is afraid; when one is afraid the body tends to seek its own preservation (physically, psychologically and spiritually); communal ties to others are quickly forgotten; possessions are abandoned. Perhaps, then, fear is used here as the sword that cuts the bonds between the kings. It is fear which causes them to ‘flee’ not simply from God but from each other.  And, important for the context of this psalm, it is what causes them to abandon their goods so that the righteous can, without effort or toil, ‘inherit them’.