your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not

with perishable things such as silver and gold that you were redeemed

from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but

with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these

last times for your sake. Through Him you believe in God, Who raised Him

from the dead and glorified Him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

(I. Peter 1. 17-21).

HALLELUJAH! THANK YOU LORD JESUS FOREVERMORE!

There is one body and one Spirit, just as there is also

one hope that belongs to the calling you received.

There is one Lord, one faith one baptism, One God

the Father of us all, Who is above all, Sovereign over

all, pervading all and living in us all.

Yet grace (God’s unmerited favor) was given to each

of us individually (not indiscriminately, but in different

ways) in proportion to the measure of Christ’s rich and

bounteous gift. Therefore it is said, When He ascended on

high, He led captivity captive (He led a train of vanquished

foes) and he bestowed gifts on men.(Ephesians 4.4-8).

POINTS FOR PRAISE AND MEDITATION

1) There is one Lord, one Spirit, one body, one faith, one

baptism, one God and Father of us all who is above all,

pervading all and living in us all. HALLELUJAH!

2) Each believer has specifically been blessed with grace,

which is God’s unmerited favor according to the measure

of Christ’s rich gift. The measure is unlimited as we saw in

Ephesians 1.19.

3) The rich gift of Christ is described and predicted by the psalmist

who alludes to God’s Kingdom rule in prophetic and spiritual

ways which cover the past, present and future. This has to do

with each individual Christian and the Church, because this is

the holy place where the Lord dwells.

Here is Psalm 68.13-20):

“Though you (the slackers) may lie among the sheepfolds (in slothful ease,

yet for Israel) the wings of a dove are covered with silver, its pinions

excessively green with gold (trophies recovered from the enemy).

When the Almighty scattered kings in the land, it was as when it snows

on Zalmon (a wooded hill near Shechem).

Is Mount Bashan the high mountain of summits, Mount Bashan the

mount of God? Why do you look with grudging and with envy, you

many-peaked mountains, at the mountain which God has desired for

His dwelling place? Yes, the Lord will dwell in it forever.

The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands upon

thousands. The Lord is among them as He was in Sinai, in the

Holy Place.

YOU HAVE ASCENDED ON HIGH. YOU HAVE LED AWAY CAPTIVE

A TRAIN OF VANQUISHED FOES. YOU HAVE RECEIVED GIFTS OF

MEN, YES of the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell there

with them.

Blessed be the Lord, who bears our burdens and carries us day by day,

the God Who is our salvation! Selah (pause and calmly think of that)!

God is to us a God of deliverances and salvation and to God the Lord

belongs escape from death (setting us free).

4) Here in this psalm the Lord Who bears our burdens, whose

burden is easy and burden is light Jesus the Christ is the One

Who delivers and sets us free from sin and death, our God Who is

our salvation. The very name Jesus literally means (God Who IS

Salvation).

5) St. Paul in a turn of the phrase states that Jesus Christ led

captivity captive and bestowed gifts to humanity. This is different from

the context of the psalm where a train of captives were being led and the

Lord received gifts of men.

When the Lord led captivity captive He destroyed the power the

devil which kept  mankind captive to the  fear of death. This is

explained here by the author of Hebrews:

” Since, therefore His children share in flesh and blood, He himself

in asimilar manner partook of the same nature, that by going through

death He might bring to nought and make of no effect him who had the

power of death, that is the devil-

And also that He might deliver and completely set free all those who

through the haunting fear of death were held in bondage throughout

the course of their lives. “(Hebrews 2. 14& 15).

In the psalm He receives gifts. In Ephesians St. Paul is saying that

the Lord gives each believer individual spiritual gifts.

HALLELUJAH! THANK YOU LORD JESUS FOREVERMORE!