What is the meaning of "captives in your train" in Psalm 68:18?

A. The expression first occurs in Judges 5:12, where it means that Barak was called to lead captive those who had haughtily oppressed Israel. So also in Psalm 68:18 the risen and ascended Lord is celebrated in terms drawn from warfare as victorious over the mightiest powers of evil. There is no sound reason to doubt that in the Epistle the sense is the same, applied yet more loftily but within His mind Who ever looked on to Christ. Some have gone so far as to suppose an active force in the word αἰχμαλωσία. But there is no need to go beyond the ordinary usage, and the Hebraistic emphasis. That they had been captors before being thus emphatically led captive is no doubt true; but it is not expressed in the phrase itself, which simply but intensely expresses the completeness with which they were vanquished. Colossians 2:15 describes the same victory over him that had the power of death and his angels in a manner suited to that great Epistle. Their might is annulled in the cross, which seemed Christ's defeat but is the ground of His triumph. This was indeed a captivity led captive. And He who received gifts in man (or in that capacity) gave gifts to men.

Victor in the necessary conflict between good and evil, He has led captivity captive — put an end, that is, to the tyranny of Satan, and released those under his power. But it is not enough for Him to set free: He must enrich these, but now the poor slaves of Satan. He has "received gifts on account of man:" which the apostle carries on to its result, "gave gifts unto men." He applies it to the Church; the psalmist goes on to speak of Israel: "yea, for the rebellious also, that Jah Elohim might dwell among them."

There are three things in the eighth verse of this chapter. (1) He ascended up on high; (2) He led captivity captive; (3) He gave gifts to men. When He came into this world He found Satan the captor, and man chained, so to speak, to the wheels of his triumphal car. Man was in captivity, led or driven through the scene by the devil. Now the whole thing is reversed. It is not now that Satan is the captor, and man in captivity, but that Christ has been the Victor. He is now risen from the dead, the mighty Victor, and Satan is chained to the wheels of His car. "He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men." These are two wonderful things. Satan vanquished, and man delivered, to become Christ's willing vassal.

He gives the gifts to men. That is, He makes you the depositary of a certain gift, and then He takes you, gift and all, and makes a present of you to His Assembly. He takes up you and me, who have been under Satan's, power, He saves us, delivers us, puts our hearts right with God, and brings us nigh to Him. And not only that, but He gives us the Holy Ghost, so that our eternity of gladness is begun here, as we go through this scene, and makes us the depositary of some gift by which we are to be the exponents of His grace in this scene. He "went about doing good," and we are to walk in His footsteps. That is Christianity, or I do not understand it.

In the epistle to the Ephesians the question is not the exercise of gift, but its origin and its object. The object is, "For the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of the ministry, unto the edifying of the body of Christ." (v. 12.) The origin is Christ Himself, not acting, however, in His sovereign rights as the eternal Son of God, but in His acquired rights as the victorious, risen, and ascended man. This agrees with the general character of the epistle. In its earlier chapters we see God's "mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come." (Eph. 1:19-21.) It is in virtue of the same victory and exaltation that Christ now bestows gifts on believers. "When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men." (v. 8.) To lead captivity captive is a poetical expression signifying the complete triumph over a power by which one has formerly been subjugated, as it is said of Israel in reference to Babylon, "They shall take them captives whose captives they were." (Isa. 14:2.) The words are first found in the song of Deborah, when celebrating the victory of Barak over the armies of Jabin, by whom the Israelites had long been oppressed: "Arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abinoam." (Judges 5:12.) It is adopted in the passage here quoted by the apostle from the Psalms, where it is clearly prophetic of Christ's triumph: "Thou hast ascended on high, thou past led captivity captive, thou hast received gifts for men." (Ps. 68:18.) The title by which Christ bestows these gifts is therefore as follows: Man, as fallen, was in bondage under the fear of death, and under the power of the devil. Jesus has come as man, has entered into our wretchedness, charged Himself with our responsibilities, gone down under our judgment, so that "through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." (Heb. 2:14.) Having thus descended and conquered the foe who held us in captivity, He has ascended in triumph, and received gifts from God in His character as the risen, victorious man. Hence it is said, "Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things." (vv. 9, 10.) It was in consequence of His humbling Himself and taking the lowest place that He obtained this victory; and in virtue of this victory He "receives gifts for men," or, as the margin reads, "in the man," that is, in His character as man.

The history of the expression "lead thy captivity captive," first found in this scripture, strikingly illustrates the remark of a well-known writer, that "he that does not see Christ everywhere in the Old Testament, sees Him nowhere." It is here addressed to Barak. "Awake, awake, Deborah: awake, awake, utter a song: arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abinoam." After the victory over Sisera, the Holy Spirit put a song of celebration into the lips of Deborah and Barak, in which they are made to recall the former state of Israel, the gathering of the people, and the circumstances of the conflict. The words occupying our attention take the form of an exhortation in the prospect of the struggle, urging Barak to grapple with, and to bring into captivity, the power which had been holding Israel captive. Passing onward to Psalm 68, we read, "Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men [or rather, as in the margin, in the man]; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them." (v. 18.) Here the conflict is over (see vv. 1, 2, 12); but the words are not, as in Judges, an exhortation, but a description — a description of the victorious issue of the conflict in the ascension and exaltation of Christ as Man. But there is more, as another has remarked, for "He has led captive the power of the enemy who ruined all — conferred blessing, and as Man, and in His human nature, He has received gifts even for rebellious Israel, that Jehovah Elohim might dwell among them." We learn, therefore, that the divine energy of the Spirit, that wrought in and through Deborah and Barak for the overthrow of the enemies of Israel, was but a foreshadowing of that divine power which was displayed in and through Christ in His conflict with the power of Satan in His death on the cross (compare Col. 2:15), and which will be exhibited through Him when He returns for the deliverance of His people Israel in a later day. The psalm, though all is based upon and flows out from the virtue of His death, refers to the latter; but if we now turn to Ephesians — the last place where the expression is found — the reference is to the former — His overcoming the whole power of Satan. "When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men," etc. (Eph. 4:8.) That is, He has brought to nought the power that held us captive; and Satan, as the enemy who has been worsted and overcome, now only waits for the execution of his sentence. (See Rev. 20:1-2, 10.) Not only so; but we, freed from our captivity (compare Heb. 2:14-15), are brought into the enjoyment of the present fruits of the victory in the gifts bestowed by the victorious and ascended Christ. (Ephesians 4:7-14.) The effect for Israel will be that their Lord God will once more dwell among them in power and blessing; while believers now have already entered upon the blessings won for them in the provision made "for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ," and can joyfully anticipate the full result in the future glory of the victory. E. D.

Each member in the body of Christ has a specific place for a specific work. See Romans 12:4-5 and 1 Cor. 12:4-5. And the bestowal of gifts for service in the body is in His hands. He ascended upon high and triumphed over all enemies. He led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. He triumphed over the devil, who has the power of death and stripped him of that power. And all who constitute His body share in His triumph. They are no longer under the power of Satan, but delivered from the power of darkness, they are His trophies. "He led captivity captive," i.e., those who were in captivity, or "a troop, a multitude of captives." The view held by some that the Old Testament saints are meant, whom He led forth from Hades is incorrect.

A. Christ in ascending led captive the evil powers which held man captive previously. It had nothing to do with the O.T. saints or any others. The Lord after death went to Paradise where His Father received His Spirit. It was in Hades, not yet Gehenna, that the rich man lifted up his eyes, being in torments. The express object of the parable is to show the great and immediate change in the unseen state for the believer, no matter how at ease here. Resurrection or final judgment is not in question. The converted robber on dying joined the Lord in Paradise. Abraham's bosom, the blessed expression before, was not suitable for Him and His now, though both speak of bliss in heaven; and Paradise still remains for the risen and glorified by-and-by (Revelation 2:7).

Is it a plausible interpretation that the Holy Spirit would apply a figure from vanquished foes to the O.T. saints of God? And this, not referring to their evil condition when living in sins, but when turned to God from idols, or from iniquities of any and every kind, and even after they had departed from this life? Would it not be a strangely violent and ungenial account to describe them at the Saviour's ascension as "captives"? On the other hand, it is not only intelligible, but unforced and accurate, to speak of the spiritual hosts of wickedness as a "captivity" which Christ then "led captive." Him alone it became, and He alone was capable of it.

It is as raised and ascended that Christ His given gifts to the Church. To do so, He has "led captivity captive." Captivity is the state of bondage in which, before Christ, even believers were held. Compare Hebrews 2:14-15. Satan's power (the power of death) had introduced this state through sin. Christ went into death to completely nullify this power, and His resurrection is the full proof and declaration of His triumph. Satan, sin and death no longer have any enslaving power over the believer: Christ has conquered this. In the gifts He gives there is no element of bondage, but of precious, vital liberty. The gift is given both to express this liberty as not bound by human regulations, and to minister to the united blessing of the saints of God.

The point in the Psalm is that the bestowal of these gifts is the fruit and manifestation of the triumph of the Lord Jesus. He descended first into death and all that was involved in it. He arose from the dead to the confusion and scattering of every adverse power. He ascended into the heavens having made captive the evil principalities and powers that formerly held us captive. Then, to crown everything, He received as Man the gifts which He bestowed upon men.

These gifts are even for "the rebellious," as the Psalm says: that is, for those who once were rebellious, but now have been happily subjugated through grace, are captives in the chains of His love. By-and-by, when judgment has run its course in the earth, there will be a great out-pouring of the Spirit and of the gifts of the Spirit upon once rebellious men. At last the earth — Israel and the nations — will be in sincere subjection to the will of God, and it will be seen that Christ is "the Head over all things" (Eph. 1:22). In that glad day the gifts will flow to men from the glorified Man who is Head over all.