In this message we will begin to study Psalm 68. As we come to this psalm, we should regard it as the highest psalm among the one hundred fifty psalms.
Psalm 68 is extremely difficult to understand. Examples of this difficulty are found in verses 11b through 13. "The women who bear the glad tidings are a great host./The kings of the armies flee./They flee!/And she who abides at home / Divides the spoil./Though you lie among the sheepfolds,/There are dove wings covered with silver,/And its pinions, with greenish yellow gold." Who are the women who bear the glad tidings and are a great host? Who is she who abides at home and divides the spoil? There seems to be no antecedent for the pronoun "she" here. To whom does this pronoun refer? Furthermore, who is the "you" lying among the sheepfolds? We also need to inquire concerning the dove wings covered with silver and the pinions covered with greenish yellow gold. We must admit that it is difficult for us to know what these things mean and to understand them.
As we will see, the dove, the silver, and the gold refer to the Triune God. The dove symbolizes the Spirit of God; in typology silver signifies Christ as the Redeemer who accomplished redemption for God's salvation; and gold signifies God in His nature. Here the gold is greenish yellow, with green signifying the divine life and yellow, the divine glory. Hence, greenish yellow gold signifies God in His nature glittering in His life and glory. Here we have the Triune God—the Spirit, Christ, and God—with all His accomplishments for us to enjoy.
Verse 12 speaks of dividing the spoil. What is this spoil? It is something reaped as the result of fighting a battle. In His death, resurrection, and ascension, Christ fought the battle, and the spoil reaped by Him has become our enjoyment. Christ gained some spoil in every step of His fighting; He reaped spoil in His death, in His resurrection, and in His ascension, at which time, according to Colossians 2, the evil ones tried to hold Him back. The spoil gained, reaped, by Christ is actually the Triune God. This means that the spoil in verse 12 is the Spirit as the dove, Christ the Son as the silver, and God the Father as the gold.