Chapter 68
David.
God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered; and those who hate him shall flee before him!
Psalms 68:1 ESV
This is coming still.
But the righteous shall be glad; they shall exult before God; they shall be jubilant with joy!
Psalms 68:3 ESV
What a huge contrast!
The rest of the Psalm is like a King's introduction. A recital of the powers, qualifications, and accomplishments of the God of Israel.
18 You ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train and receiving gifts among men, even among the rebellious, that the LORD God may dwell there. [Psa 68:18 ESV]. So here is where this comes from. And here is the NT verse that quotes it:
8 Therefore it says, "When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men." [Eph 4:8 ESV].
What does it mean? Note that in the OT verse, he RECEIVES gifts, and in the N verse, he GIVES gifts. I really don't think Paul misquoted the verse. So we have that change from OT to NT that may be key to understanding what this is about. MSB note says that in the NT, Paul applies this verse to Christ ascending to the heavens in triumph. So here in the OT, it is the Father that ascends, victorious, to the mountain of his choosing. There, as King of all things, he receives gifts of those whom he has defeated. We saw these kings back in 68:12: 12 "The kings of the armies--they flee, they flee!" The women at home divide the spoil-- [Psa 68:12 ESV]. These defeated Kings are in terror. They bring gifts to appease the King of All. The captives are the defeated Kings and their armies. The victorious King marches into the city leading those he captured, those who surrendered to him, and he takes his seat on the throne, and then he is presented with gifts from his new subjects. The more defeated captives, the greater is the victory.
Here is the MSB comment on Eph 4:8: MSB says Paul is using the OT verse as "...an interpretive rendering of Ps 68.18 as a parenthetical analogy..." Not very helpful, is it? Something else from my notes on Eph 4:8 is that the NT verse is written about Jesus ascending to heaven after the resurrection. All things were given into his hands. And what he did is send gifts to men. First, the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the spiritual connection that lets us know how we can honor Christ. And second, the spiritual gifts that endorsed the early church as God's plan for mankind - for both Jew and Greek.
So in the OT, it is about the conquest of Canaan, about the earthly physical victory of God and Israel in capturing and occupying Mt. Zion - Jerusalem - and the gifts they received from the previous occupiers of Canaan, and from the Kings of the surrounding lands, who now feared the God of Israel. In the NT, it is about Jesus' spiritual victory over sin on the cross and over death by his resurrection. And upon receiving all that God gave him, receiving authority over all things everywhere, Jesus GAVE gifts to me.
Perhaps with this explanation we need not really explain the "host of captives" that Jesus led. Perhaps it is just an incidental part of the reference...except that I don't believe there are any incidentals in the Bible. I will consider those captives another time...when I get to Ephesians this time maybe.