Ps. 68.30-31 (Zion's empire)

Your god / has ordained / your strength.
Show your strength / O God / which you have exercised / for us.
From your temple / above Jerusalem 
let kings / bring gifts / to you,
rebuke the beast / of the reed thicket
a herd of bulls / with calf peoples
till they / submit themselves / with pieces of silver / as tribute
let people who / delight in war / be scattered.
let noble envoys / come from Egypt
and Cush / let him hasten / to stretch out his hands
with tribute / for God. 

We mentioned in the previous reflection that the unity established by God in the ‘taking of Zion’ resulted in a liturgical empire. There, however, we were only in the realm of Israel. The liturgy engaged in was that of a unified Israel. Here, the empire comes into view. Zion, the “temple over Jerusalem”, now comes to exert its force and power on the world, drawing everything to itself. The magnitude of Zion power now spills over the border of Israel. This is not the first instance in the psalm. God has ‘drawn forth’ his people from the Sea and Bashan. That act, however, was in order to bring his people back into one body; it was act of resurrection similar to what Ezekiel saw in the binding up of flesh and sinew. Here, with the body re-unified, a new more powerful force is exerted again. This time, however, the rebuke that carries over the land, that reaches both Egypt and Bashan, is the sovereign rebuke of a king re-claiming (or, conquering) territory. This is not deliverance as much as subjugation. What occurred in Zion and to Israel is now to happen to the whole world. This is the proper beginning of the liturgical empire with the re-unified Israel at its heart. Just as the enemies of the opening were scattered, and just as the ‘kings of hosts’ were too, so now the expanse of God’s scattering force extends to all who “delight in war”. The smoke was first blown away within the Promise Land (vs. 2-3); it is now being blown away from the earth. And with its dispersal, gifts and, importantly, tribute can now safely be delivered to Zion in recognition of the Zion-King’s authorial glory (the nations are now tributaries to the river in Zion). The rebuke of Egypt was in order that they might send noble envoys with tribute (it was not a brute force of destruction but had this acknowledgment (this tribute) as its goal). Here we see an important insight into Zion: the ‘taking of Zion’ had as its goal not only the reunification of Israel, but the reunification of creation. In other words, the ‘taking of Zion’ was the beginning of an empire, not only a kingdom. Israel had to be reunified first. But, its reunification served as the catalyst, the foundation and the prelude to the world’s unity. It became, in other words, in its resurrection, the ‘high priest’ of its brothers, the nations. Not until it was ‘joined together’ could world be harvested (much like the disciples needed to be 12 again in Acts before the Holy Spirit could descend upon them inaugurating the new empire). Crucially: this is a plea. The psalmist is here asking that all of the power he has been describing in the previous verses be put at the disposal of his people. That God ‘empower’ them. And that this earth-shattering-in-redemption be unleashed. It is an incredibly bold petition grounded in an even more bold desire for (and vision of) unity.