Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 68:16

"Why look ye askance, ye high mountains, At the mountain which God hath desired for his abode? Yea, Jehovah will dwell [in it] for ever." — Psalms 68:16 (ASV)

Why leap ye, ye high hills? — That is, with exultation; with pride; with conscious superiority. Why do you seem to regard yourselves as so superior to Mount Zion in strength, in beauty, in grandeur?

The Hebrew, however — רצד râtsad — rather means, “Why do you watch insidiously? Why do you look askance at?” This word occurs only in this place. In Arabic, it means to watch closely, to lie in wait for.

This is the idea here. The mountains around Palestine—the mountains of the pagan world, the lofty hills—as if conscious of their grandeur, are represented as looking “askance,” in their pride, at Mount Zion. They are depicted as eyeing it with silent contempt, as if it were not worthy of notice, as if it were so insignificant that it had no claim to attention.

The idea is not that of “leaping,” as in our English Bible, or of “hopping,” as in the version of the Episcopal Prayer Book, but that of a look of silent disdain, as if, by their side, Zion, so insignificant, was not worthy of regard. “Perhaps,” by the high hills here, however, the mighty powers of the pagan world are also disguisedly represented, as if looking with contempt on the people of the land where Zion was the place of worship.

This is the hill which God desireth to dwell in — The hill which he has selected as his abode, and which he has honored above all the mountains of the earth by his permanent residence there. As such, Zion has an honor above the loftiest hills and ranges of mountains on the earth.

Yea, the Lord will dwell in it for ever — Permanently; he will make it his fixed habitation on earth. Notwithstanding the envy or the contempt of surrounding hills, he will make this his settled abode. He has chosen it; he delights in it; he will not forsake it for the mountains and hills that are in themselves more grand and lofty.