Matthew Poole and continuators on Psalms 68:17

17 The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them as in Sinai, in the holy place .

(i. e.) The Hosts or Armies (whereof Chariots were a great and Eminent part in those times and places) which attend upon God to do his Pleasure, and to fight for him and for his People.

(i. e.) An innumerable Company, a certain number being put for an uncertain, as Psal. 3. 6. and 91. 7. and in many other places.

Here is not onely the Presence of the Angels, but of the great and blessed God himself. And here the Psalmist seems to be transported by the Prophetical Spirit, from the Narration of those external Successes, and Victories of which he had been speaking in the former part of the Psalm, unto the Prediction of higher and more Glorious things, even of the coming of the Messiah; and of the Happy and Transcendent Priviledges, and Blessings accruing to Mankind by it, described in the next Verse. And the Connexion of this new Matter with the former, is sufficiently Evident. For having preferred Zion before other Hills, v. 15, 16. he now proves its Excellency, by an invincible Argument, because this is the place to which the Lord of Hosts himself, the Messiah, God manifested in the Flesh, was to come, as is manifest from Psal. 2. 6. and 110. 2. Isa. [illegible: 1+ letters]. 3. and 23. 16. Compared with 1 Pet. 2. 6. Isa 59. 20. Compared with R[illegible: 1+ letters]m. 11. 26. and many other places of Scripture. And when he did come into the World, he was attended with a multitude of holy Angels, which celebrated his Birth, Luk. 2. 14.

t God is no less Gloriously, though less Terribly, present here then he was in Sinai, when the great God attended with Thousands of his Angels, solemnly appeared there to deliver the Law, Heb. Sinai is in the Sanctuary, or holy Place. Which is a Poetical and a very Emphatical Expression, and very Per[illegible: 1+ letters]inent to this place. For having advanced Zion above all other Hi[illegible: 1+ letters]ls, he now equals it to that venerable Hill of Sinai, which the Divine Majesty honoured with his glorious Presence. Here, saith he, you have in some sort Mount Sinai it self, to wit, all the Glories and Priviledges of it, the Presence of Iehovah attended with his Angels, and the same Law and Covenant, yea, and a greater Priviledge than Sinai h[illegible: 1+ letters]d, to wit, the Lord Iehovah descending from Heaven, into an humane Body, as appears by his ascending thither again, which the next Verse describes, and visibly coming into his own Temple, as it was Prophecied concerning him, Mal. 3. 1.

Marginal references: Deut. 33. 2. D[illegible: 1+ letters]n. 7. 10. Heb. 12. 22. Rev. 9. 16.; Or, even mary Thousands.; Heb. Thousands of doubling, or, doubt[illegible: 1+ letters] ones.