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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
68:15-18 The Mountain of God's Abode. The ark's destination is the "sanctuary" on Mount Zion, the mountain of God. The previous section ended by referring to a mountain, and now this section compares God's mountain to the larger mountain of Bashan (to the north). Observe how the Lord dwells in the place where his ark does; God is especially present by way of his ark (cf. Josh. 3:11, ESV footnote). Sinai is now in the sanctuary. The ark is a portable Sinai, conveying God's presence to his people.
68:18 Ephesians 4:8-11 uses this verse to describe how the exalted Christ (who ascended after he descended in the incarnation) distributed gifts to his people, i.e., assigned to each of the members different ways of serving the body. That Paul can apply this to Christ shows that he considered Jesus divine. The quotation in Eph. 4:8 does not quite match the Septuagint (which follows the Hb.); Paul says that "he gave gifts to men" rather than receiving gifts among men. The difference is only superficial, however: the verb "receive" (Hb. laqakh) can have the idea of "receive in order to give," or "to fetch" (e.g., Gen. 18:4-5, where it is "bring"). Further, after a conquest, the spoils were distributed among the leader's men. Thus the psalm focuses on the conqueror who acquired the spoils from the defeated, while Paul's adaptation of the truth of the psalm focuses on how that conqueror distributed the spoils to his own.
