Psalm 68: Isaiah Challenges The Psalmist
Moral criticism and intertextuality
It is almost as if Isaiah 10, in which Isaiah chastises the people of Israel, for their suborning evil, creating nefarious laws, and subverting justice for the poor and needy, was written with Psalm 68 in mind, as 68:11 tells us that God provides for the needy.
In Psalm 68:13, “housewives are sharing in the spoils.” In Isaiah 10:2, “widows are the spoils.”
In Psalm 68:7 “God restores the lonely to their homes, and frees the imprisoned.” Isaiah asks (10:3-4) “To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your dignity, from collapsing during imprisonment.”
In Psalms 68: 21, God delivers us an escape from death. In Isaiah 10:4, death surrounds us.
Psalm 68:14 boasts that there will be riches for even those who don’t make any effort, with “wings of a dove covered in silver and its pinions in gold.” Isaiah (10:14) talks about the King of Assyria plundering other nations, and he says “I was able to seize, like a nest, the wealth of people. As one gathers abandoned eggs, so I gathered the earth. Nothing so much flapped a wing or opened a mouth to peep.”
Psalm 68:32 has tributes to God from the kingdoms of Egypt and Cush. Isaiah 10:6 recalls when God empowered the King of Assyria to destroy other nations, and to keep their spoils for himself. That king thought himself (10:7-8) all-powerful, because he had other princes doing his bidding. Psalm 68:28 boasts of the “princes of Judah… the princes of Zebulun and the princes of Naphtali.”
Psalm 68:36 says that “God gives might and power to the people”. Isaiah 10:13 has the King of Assyria saying “by the power of my own hand I did it, and by my own skill, as I am smart.”
It’s almost as if Isaiah read the arrogance and greed of the psalmist, and responded with the reality of how the corrupt operate. When a leader urges people to join a fight with the bombastic promise that “everyone will share in the spoils”, what usually comes next is that the same leader creates his own version of “justice” that results in the people most at risk being harmed.