Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he captured captives; he gave gifts to men.”
Each of us is a bearer of divine gifts; we are bearers of divine grace. And in this verse, Paul is quoting from the book of Psalms.
You ascend on high;
you have taken many captives.
You receive tribute from men,
including even sinful rebels.
Indeed, the LORD God lives there.
As you see, it does not read quite like Paul quoted.
It could be that the Psalm is a picture of what earthly kings do after they have conquered territories; they receive tribute from those they have conquered, but the heavenly king, Christ, is different.
He ascended on high and, rather than collecting tribute, He gives gifts, to tell us that He is different order. Rather than collect things from you to ostensibly add value to Himself more valuable, He gives you things that make you more valuable: divine gifts.
John wrote, “For we have all received from his fullness one gracious gift after another” (John 1:16). He is the definition of the gift that keeps giving. He gave His life, and a week later, He poured out the Holy Spirit.
And we read that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or the slightest hint of change” (James 1:17). And still we read in another place that “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, along with him, freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).
The point is: giving is basic to the character of God.
He said If I were hungry, I would not tell you because the cattle on a thousand hills are mine. He is the origin of all things.
I am not condemning you because of your sacrifices,
or because of your burnt sacrifices that you continually offer me.
I do not need to take a bull from your household
or goats from your sheepfolds.
For every wild animal in the forest belongs to me,
as well as the cattle that graze on a thousand hills.
I keep track of every bird in the hills,
and the insects of the field are mine.
Even if I were hungry, I would not tell you,
for the world and all it contains belong to me.
Do I eat the flesh of bulls?
Do I drink the blood of goats?
And still in another place we read that ‘the Lord owns the earth and all it contains’ (Psalm 24:1).
So this ascended king is different. After He conquered, and captured captives (Ephesians 4:7), He gives gifts to those He rules over, who are now His slaves.
When Israel asked for a king, God told them the king would be a burden to them (see 1 Samuel 8:10–18), but not the King of kings, Jesus, who gives gifts. Israel was supposed to work and give to their king, but Jesus worked, and He is giving to us.
We are the captives that have been captured, and rather than telling us you owe Me, He tells us, here is a gift for you, here is my grace for you, here is my sustenance for you, here is my grace that is sufficient for you, here is my grace and gift with which you serve one another out of love for me.
That is such a beautiful picture, don't you think?
It is such a joy, such a delight to serve the lord, serve the people of God with the gift He has given us. The gift He gives gives us a sense of usefulness to Him.
Remember, he said Come to me, you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. And that package includes taking His yoke on us as part of finding rest for our souls. So the yoke of service is not stress, it is rest. Understand that!
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you and learn from me because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and my load is not hard to carry.”
And the focus verse also tells us the significance of the ascension. Jesus did not just disappear and appear in heaven; He actually ascended to fulfill the words of the psalm and to be the glorious God who came to battle and won for himself our souls from the dungeon of Satan's hold.
He ascended in the view of several people (Acts 1:9–11), not in people's imagination, or in their dreams; He actually ascended. He ascended bodily. And the flowing of the gift through us testifies to that fact, according to this verse. Glory to God!