Colossians 1:19 to Psalm 68:17
NT Text: "in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell"
OT Source(s):
- Psalm 68:17 (67:17 LXX) (εὐδοκέω + κατοικέω - "well-pleased to dwell" in Zion/temple)
- Haggai 1:8; 2:7 (God pleased with house, will fill with glory)
- 2 Maccabees 14:35; 3 Maccabees 2:15-16 (pleased to dwell in temple)
- Targum 1 Kings 8 (God's good pleasure to dwell/Shekinah in temple)
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Typology + Longitudinal Theme
Significance: Paul declares that "God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him" (Col 1:19), joining two ideas — God's good pleasure and God's dwelling — that together echo the temple theology of Psalm 68:17, where the LORD ascends amid his chariots to take up residence at Sinai and, by extension, on Zion. The verbal pairing of "pleased" and "dwell" recurs across Israel's temple vocabulary (Haggai 1:8; 2:7 — God "pleased" with the rebuilt house, filling it with glory), marking the settled conviction that God's presence does not merely visit a sanctuary but chooses, gladly and by his own good pleasure, to make it his dwelling. Paul takes that entire temple grammar and relocates it in a person: Christ is not merely a temple among temples but the place where the totality of God's presence has chosen, once for all, to dwell bodily (cf. Col 2:9). The tabernacle and temple were real but partial dwellings, awaiting a fuller and final residence; in Christ the pattern reaches its intended terminus — no longer curtains and cherubim mediating a hidden glory but the incarnate Son in whom the fullness of deity dwells embodied. This is the Temple and Presence trajectory's climax: God's ancient good pleasure to dwell among his people is now perfectly and personally realized, so that to behold Christ is to stand where the pillar of cloud once stood — before the very presence and pleasure of God himself.
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