in His ascension Christ led us as captives to the Father and received us as gifts to the Body!

Sometimes when you read the Psalms with “the glasses of God’s economy on” you realize how high the revelation of Christ and God’s move is revealed in them! Psalm 68 in particular speaks about God’s move with Christ as its center, with all the processes Christ went through from His incarnation to His ascension, and touches even the Body of Christ and the house of God! May we really see something in this psalm – something of the high peak of the divine revelation!

You have ascended on high; You have led captive those taken captive

Christ is the One who ascended on high – He ascended to the highest peak in the universe (see Isa. 14:13) – to the right hand of God in the third heavens! But He did something in His ascension – He led captive those taken captive! We, all the believers in Christ, were taken captive by Satan to be under his authority and in his slavery, But Christ defeated Satan in His death and through His resurrection, and He took Satan’s captives as His captives!

Like a great general leading His captives, Christ in His ascension lead us as His captives to the Father! He led “a train of vanquished foes” – “those taken captive” (Eph. 4:8) – to the Father in a triumphant procession, just like a general would return from war and would lead a large procession with all his foes as his captives. Christ didn’t appear before the Father empty-handed – He had a great many vanquished foes to present to the Father as the spoils of war!

You have received gifts among man, even the rebellious ones also

Hallelujah, we who were once Satan’s captives have been defeated by Christ and now are part of His triumphant procession! Even more: after Christ gave the Father all the captives as a gift, as spoils of war, the Father gave back to Christ for His Body all the captives as gifts! We are the rebellious ones, those who are born in sin and grow up in rebellion against God – but we were defeated and captured by Christ, presented to the Father, and then we were given to Christ by the Father as gifts for the Body of Christ!

Every saved person is a gifted believer! We are gifts to the Body given by God the Father to Christ the Son! Never despise your portion – to each one of us was given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ (Eph. 4:7). Every member has a measure of function, receiving an amount of “blood supply” from the Body, and every member has a gift and is a gift to the Body of Christ! If we just function in our measure in the Body, we will build up the Body of Christ with our portion of Christ.

that Jehovah God may dwell among them

This last part of verse 18 of Psalm 68 shows that all the vanquished foes / the rebellious ones / the prisoners of war captured by Christ and presented to the Father were given to Christ as gifts to build up the dwelling place for God. God’s dwelling place is the church, and the church is altogether a matter of our spirit (Eph. 2:22). Whenever we exercise our mingled spirit to touch the Lord and enjoy Him, we are His habitation and we become gifts for building up! All the gifts do the same work of the ministry to build up the Body of Christ today (see Eph. 4).

We are gifts produced by Christ’s descending and ascending – He defeated us and took us with Him as vanquished foes, He presented us to the Father, and the Father gave us as gifts for the building up of His dwelling place. But God did not “stop travelling” – He is still travelling within us! Christ is bringing God into us and bringing us into God – by descending and ascending in us and making us gifts to the Body of Christ!

Now we are on “the mountain on which God desires to dwell” (Psa. 68:15-16), on Mount Zion, the highest peak in the universe! Praise the Lord, we who are the rebellious ones, even “the orphans”, “the widows”, “the solitary”, “the prisoners” (Psa. 68:15-16) – He is a Father to the orphans, a Judge for the widows, causing the solitary to dwell in a household, bringing the prisoners forth into prosperity. God is all this to us in His dwelling place, in His holy habitation! Praise the Lord – so wonderful!

[sharing inspired from the life-study of the Psalms msg. 27 and the life-study of Hebrews, as quoted in the Morning Revival on the Crystallization-Study of Psalms (1); you can get the morning revival book online. Intro: Christ ascended to the height. Picture source: mountain top wallpapers.]

Lord Jesus, we love You! Thank You for delivering us from Satan and making us Your captives! We are happy to be Your captives, those defeated and subdued by You… Lord, even us, the rebellious ones, You have led captives and You received as gifts from the Father! What a wise God You are, and how wonderful this is! You ascended to the height and brought us with You – now we are gifts to the Body! Keep us here, in Your Body, functioning in our measure!