June 17 / Psalm 68:1-18

Psalm 68:1-18

When I first read today’s Psalm 68 (1-18) I thought that it was the most convoluted psalm that we had read to date. Then I read from a second (Study) Bible, which had pretty much the same reaction: “This is the most difficult of the Psalms to interpret, and there is no general agreement either as to its meaning as a whole or in many of its details. Some scholars regard it merely as a collection of unrelated fragments.” So maybe I was not too far off the mark?!

But further reading brought greater understanding and I saw two major incidents (vv. 6-10; 11-18) bookmarked with praise sections (vv. 1-5; 19-20). Verses 6-10 seem to refer to the Exodus from Egypt while Verses 11-18 seem to refer to a major victory, likely for King David after he had established Jerusalem (Mount Zion) as God’s “dwelling place”. Read it in that context and it all falls together better.

Verse 18 is worth a comment. You ascended on high, leading a host of captives in Your train and receiving gifts among men… The Apostle Paul quotes this verse in Ephesians 4:8, Therefore it says, “When He ascended on high He led a host of captives and He gave gifts to men.

If we take verses 11-18 as David the conquering hero ascending to Jerusalem, the gifts that he gave would likely have been the jewelry and other valuables mentioned in verses 11b-13. But Paul sees this Psalm in a Messianic context, with Jesus ascending to Heaven and giving grace to each one of us (Ephesians 4:7) and equipping some as apostles, prophets, etc. (vv. 11-12). I have never known the context of those Ephesians 4 verses and they never made sense to me. Hearkening back to Psalm 68 opens my eyes! Yours, too, I hope!

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