Psalms 68:6, commentary and pictures

God does not leave the lonely to live in isolation but places them in families and gives them a home, especially orphans, the fatherless and widows. This family is both a real home on earth and a spiritual household by grace, in which Christ as elder Brother adopts the bereaved and friendless into the Father's family and supplies filial and brotherly love. The human family is a divine institution established at creation alongside the Sabbath, and in the redeemed kingdom no one will be left alone or homeless but all will be united in one great family of which God is the Father. His people are therefore to carry out His provision by welcoming the homeless and gathering neglected and orphan children into loving homes where they can be nourished, taught and trained for service rather than left in large institutions. He brings out those held in bondage while the rebellious are left to abide in a weary, dry and barren land, a victory belonging to Christ's triumph and to be fulfilled in the closing work of the third angel's message when the plentiful rain is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the latter rain.

Setting and Wording

Psalm 68:6 belongs to a paean of victory that is prophetic of Christ in His triumph. It pictures God in His holy habitation as a father of the fatherless and judge of the widows, who sets the solitary in families and brings out those bound with chains, while the rebellious dwell in a dry land. Its setting is God's going forth before His people and marching through the wilderness, with shaking earth and dropping heavens at Sinai. This is followed by His sending plentiful rain to confirm His weary inheritance, causing His congregation to dwell therein and preparing of His goodness for the poor, culminating in the Lord giving the word published by a great company.

It is part of a latter-day prophecy especially applicable to the remnant church in the closing work of the third angel's message. It is to meet its fulfilment at the same time as the promise in Isaiah 58. In that fulfilment the plentiful rain of the psalm is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the latter rain of the third angel's message.

The solitary are the beloved and lonely whom God seats in families at home. He brings those held in bondage out with chains, and the rebellious are left to abide in a weary, dry, barren land. The placing of the solitary in families is an enduring divine act, already true at the beginning of the world. It shows that the human family is a divine institution established at creation alongside the Sabbath.

God Gives a Family

God does not intend people to live in isolation but places the solitary in families, providing family and a home for those who are alone, especially orphans, the fatherless, and widows. His care for the fatherless and widows is shown through practical help for people in need, expressed by welcoming people without homes and sheltering those cast out. His provision is carried out through people who use what they have to help others.

Christ as elder Brother adopts the lonely and needy into the Father's family and leads them like a flock along the heavenly way. Jesus fulfills this comfort for the bereaved and friendless, for His fellowship supplies what earthly loss has taken away, and in Him believers find both filial and brotherly love. Even those without earthly family ties who belong to Christ will have a place in heaven's family, for salvation is not independent of others. This family is spiritual rather than based on fleshly or natural relationship but made by grace, and those who lead others to Christ become their spiritual parents, with the saved becoming children in the faith.

God seats the solitary, the beloved, in families at home, gathers them into families and brings those held in bondage out, while the rebellious abide in a weary, dry, barren land. In God's kingdom not one person will be left alone and there will be no homeless ones, but every individual will belong to some family made not by natural ties but by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Families divided and alienated by sin will be restored through Christ, and family ties will be made whole by His grace. Little companies gathered around Christ's representatives join into larger groups, churches and conferences, until all revolve around one grand Center, the Lord Jesus Christ, just as planets form a family around the sun and all heavenly bodies revolve around one grand center where God resides, so that when this world is redeemed all will be united in one great family of which God is the Father. Heaven's inhabitants are social, giving to and receiving from one another, and the redeemed likewise share in a great company rejoicing together before God, and this fellowship is a pattern for life on earth where God calls people to work for one another.

Home Life and Care

God carries out His setting of the solitary in families through His people, who use what they have to help others by welcoming those without homes and sheltering those who are cast out. This practical help expresses His care for those who are alone, especially orphans and for the fatherless and widows. The promise belongs particularly to neglected children in slums and desolate places and to orphan children, who are to be gathered into real, welcoming homes.

In such homes they belong, are loved and nourished, and are taught and trained for service in God's kingdom, rather than being left in large institutions. Helping to place homeless children in welcoming families is itself a way of caring for the solitary. Receiving them in this way can also bring personal blessing to the family that welcomes them.

The family of father, mother, and child is the most beautiful of all human relationships, joining protecting care with guiding love and absolute faith. When united in interests and in love, its members are kept from isolation and find strength and happiness together. Only then does the family reach its God-appointed place.

In the household God's presence and the Holy Spirit draw members toward one another and toward life's true end, making them of one mind. Family prayer nurtures this unity among old and young alike. This oneness in the home prepares them for the redeemed family of all nations and tongues who will dwell with God eternally.

The family is the unit of the church, established by God to place the lonely within families and designed to raise a godly offspring whose children serve God. Families that follow God become a source of light and blessing to their communities through witness and work for others. One true family can do great good in any community, with its home serving as a missionary center of the message, and the light shining from family altars sustains the light of sanitariums, publishing houses, and colleges.

God does not leave the individual alone, but recognizes both the family on earth and the family in heaven. A man without a home is like a ship without a rudder. The home He gives has eternal influence for good or evil, as the origin of national progress and development, the root of society, and the foundation of government, sending children out into the world bearing either truth, honesty, and purity or weakness, depravity, and woe.

Religion brings lonely people into caring, wholesome communities. This is especially needed for young workers and students, who are to be given the guidance and watchfulness of a family so that loneliness does not lead them into temptation. Women whom God has placed in family life are to make the best of that place and not use abortion or other means to frustrate family life and indulge lust.

God also sets solitary believers in irreligious households where they are sorely tried by provocation and a hard place. Jesus watches these sorely tried ones with more tender solicitude. Their situation gives no excuse for failing to be amiable, lovable, kind, and considerate, since there is no merit in being good where there is nothing to hinder, and religion must make its possessor better than before. Their hard home is one of the strongest tests of the Christian life and one of its deepest and richest experiences.