18 You have gone up on high, taking your prisoners with you; you have taken offerings from men; the Lord God has taken his place on the seat of his power.
Awake! awake! Deborah: awake! awake! give a song: Up! Barak, and take prisoner those who took you prisoner, O son of Abinoam.
So that he went away from the holy place in Shiloh, the tent which he had put among men;
And there came to my ears a great voice out of the high seat, saying, See, the Tent of God is with men, and he will make his living-place with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them, and be their God.
And they were all full of the Holy Spirit, and were talking in different languages, as the Spirit gave them power.
Till the day when he was taken up to heaven after he had given his orders, through the Holy Spirit, to the Apostles of whom he had made selection: And to whom he gave clear and certain signs that he was living, after his death; for he was seen by them for forty days, and gave them teaching about the kingdom of God: And when they were all together, with him, he gave them orders not to go away from Jerusalem, but to keep there, waiting till the word of the Father was put into effect, of which, he said, I have given you knowledge: For the baptism of John was with water, but you will have baptism with the Holy Spirit, after a little time. So, when they were together, they said to him, Lord, will you at this time give back the kingdom to Israel? And he said to them, It is not for you to have knowledge of the time and the order of events which the Father has kept in his control. But you will have power, when the Holy Spirit has come on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judaea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And when he had said these things, while they were looking, he was taken up, and went from their view into a cloud.
But what I am saying is true: my going is for your good: for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
Jesus said to him in answer, If anyone has love for me, he will keep my words: and he will be dear to my Father; and we will come to him and make our living-place with him.
Who may go up into the hill of the Lord? and who may come into his holy place?
And he is the head of the body, the church: the starting point of all things, the first to come again from the dead; so that in all things he might have the chief place. For God in full measure was pleased to be in him;
In whom are all the secret stores of wisdom and knowledge.
For in him all the wealth of God's being has a living form,
Though I had said violent words against God, and done cruel acts, causing great trouble: but I was given mercy, because I did it without knowledge, not having faith; And the grace of our Lord was very great, with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. It is a true saying, in which all may put their faith, that Christ Jesus came into the world to give salvation to sinners, of whom I am the chief:
For in the past we were foolish, hard in heart, turned from the true way, servants of evil desires and pleasures, living in bad feeling and envy, hated and hating one another. But when the mercy of God our Saviour, and his love to man was seen, Not by works of righteousness which we did ourselves, but in the measure of his mercy, he gave us salvation, through the washing of the new birth and the giving of new life in the Holy Spirit, Which he gave us freely through Jesus Christ our Saviour; So that, having been given righteousness through grace, we might have a part in the heritage, the hope of eternal life.
Who, being the outshining of his glory, the true image of his substance, supporting all things by the word of his power, having given himself as an offering making clean from sins, took his seat at the right hand of God in heaven;
Where Jesus has gone before us, as a high priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.
Now of the things we are saying this is the chief point: We have such a high priest, who has taken his place at the right hand of God's high seat of glory in heaven,
And so it is said, The first man Adam was a living soul. The last Adam is a life-giving spirit. But that which is natural comes before that which is of the spirit. The first man is from the earth, and of the earth: the second man is from heaven.
But is it truly possible that God may be housed with men on earth? see, heaven and the heaven of heavens are not wide enough to be your resting-place: how much less this house which I have made:
Let your heads be lifted up, O doors; be lifted up, O you eternal doors: that the King of glory may come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord of strength and power, the Lord strong in war. Let your heads be lifted up, O doors; let them be lifted up, O you eternal doors: that the King of glory may come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord of armies, he is the King of glory. (Selah.)
For the Lord's heart is on Zion, desiring it for his resting-place. This is my rest for ever: here will I ever be; for this is my desire.
How long, you simple ones, will foolish things be dear to you? and pride a delight to the haters of authority? how long will the foolish go on hating knowledge? Be turned again by my sharp words: see, I will send the flow of my spirit on you, and make my words clear to you.
Let the sinner give up his way, and the evil-doer his purpose: and let him come back to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for there is full forgiveness with him.
For this is the word of him who is high and lifted up, whose resting-place is eternal, whose name is Holy: my resting-place is in the high and holy place, and with him who is crushed and poor in spirit, to give life to the spirit of the poor, and to make strong the heart of the crushed.
But go and take to heart the sense of these words, My desire is for mercy, not offerings: for I have come not to get the upright, but sinners.
Now when he came back from the dead early on the first day of the week, he went first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had sent out seven evil spirits.
And now I will send to you what my father has undertaken to give you, but do not go from the town, till the power from heaven comes to you.
And while he was doing so, he went from them and was taken up into heaven.
However, when he, the Spirit of true knowledge, has come, he will be your guide into all true knowledge: for his words will not come from himself, but whatever has come to his hearing, that he will say: and he will make clear to you the things to come. He will give me glory, because he will take of what is mine, and make it clear to you. Everything which the Father has is mine: that is why I say, He will take of what is mine and will make it clear to you.
Him, when he was given up, by the decision and knowledge of God, you put to death on the cross, by the hands of evil men:
And so, being lifted up to the right hand of God, and having the Father's word that the Holy Spirit would come, he has sent this thing, which now you see and have knowledge of. For David has not gone up into heaven, but says, himself, The Lord said to my Lord, Be seated at my right hand, Till I put all those who are against you under your feet. For this reason, let all Israel be certain that this Jesus, whom you put to death on the cross, God has made Lord and Christ. Now when these words came to their ears their hearts were troubled, and they said to Peter and the other Apostles, Brothers, what are we to do? And Peter said, Let your hearts be changed, every one of you, and have baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will have the Holy Spirit given to you. For the word of God is for you and for your children and for all those who are far off, even all those who may be marked out by the Lord our God. And with more such words he gave his witness, offering them salvation and saying, Come out from this evil generation. Then those who gave hearing to his words had baptism: and about three thousand souls were joined to them that day.
But God has made clear his love to us, in that, when we were still sinners, Christ gave his life for us.
Have you not knowledge that evil-doers will have no part in the kingdom of God? Have no false ideas about this: no one who goes after the desires of the flesh, or gives worship to images, or is untrue when married, or is less than a man, or makes a wrong use of men, Or is a thief, or the worse for drink, or makes use of strong language, or takes by force what is not his, will have any part in the kingdom of God. And such were some of you; but you have been washed, you have been made holy, you have been given righteousness in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
And I will make prayer to the Father and he will give you another Helper to be with you for ever, Even the Spirit of true knowledge. That Spirit the world is not able to take to its heart because it sees him not and has no knowledge of him: but you have knowledge of him, because he is ever with you and will be in you.
For this reason he says, He went up on high, taking his prisoners with him, and gave freely to men. (Now this, He went up, what is it but that he first went down into the lower parts of the earth? He who went down is the same who went up far over all the heavens so that he might make all things complete.)
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 68
Commentary on Psalms 68 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 68
This is a most excellent psalm, but in many places the genuine sense is not easy to come at; for in this, as in some other scriptures, there are things dark and hard to be understood. It does not appear when, or upon what occasion, David penned this psalm; but probably it was when, God having given him rest from all his enemies round about, he brought the ark (which was both the token of God's presence and a type of Christ's mediation) from the house of Obed-edom to the tent he had pitched for it in Zion; for the first words are the prayer which Moses used at the removing of the ark, Num. 10:35. From this he is led, by the Spirit of prophecy, to speak glorious things concerning the Messiah, his ascension into heaven, and the setting up of his kingdom in the world.
With all these great things we should endeavour to be duly affected in singing this psalm.
To the chief musician. A psalm or song of David.
Psa 68:1-6
In these verses,
Psa 68:7-14
The psalmist here, having occasion to give God thanks for the great things he had done for him and his people of late, takes occasion thence to praise him for what he had done for their fathers in the days of old. Fresh mercies should put us in mind of former mercies and revive our grateful sense of them. Let it never be forgotten,
Psa 68:15-21
David, having given God praise for what he had done for Israel in general, as the God of Israel (v. 8), here comes to give him praise as Zion's God in a special manner; compare Ps. 9:11. Sing praises to the Lord who dwelleth in Zion, for which reason Zion is called the hill of God.
Psa 68:22-31
In these verses we have three things:-
Psa 68:32-35
The psalmist, having prayed for and prophesied of the conversion of the Gentiles, here invites them to come in and join with the devout Israelites in praising God, intimating that their accession to the church would be the matter of their joy and praise (v. 32): Let the kingdoms of the earth sing praises to the Lord; they all ought to do it, and, when they become the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ, they will do it. God is here proposed to them as the proper object of praise upon several accounts: