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It is probable that this psalm was penned by Solomon, to be sung at the dedication of the temple which he built according to the charge his father gave him, 1Ch 28:2-21, etc. Having fulfilled his trust, he begs of God to own what he had done. I. He had built this house for the honour and service of God; and when he brings the ark into it, the token of God's presence, he desires that God himself would come and take possession of it, Ps 132:8-10. With these words Solomon concluded his prayer, 2Ch 6:41,42. II. He had built it in pursuance of the orders he had received from his father, and therefore his pleas to enforce these petitions refer to David. 1. He pleads David's piety towards God, Ps 132:1-7. 2. He pleads God's promise to David, Ps 132:11-18. The former introduces his petition: the latter follows it as an answer to it. In singing this psalm we must have a concern for the gospel church as the temple of God, and a dependence upon Christ as David our King, in whom the mercies of God are sure mercies.

This psalm is simply entitled "A Song of Degrees." The author of it is not known, nor can the occasion on which it was written be certainly ascertained. It would seem to have been composed in a time of public distress and disaster; when the affairs of the nation were in jeopardy, and especially when the line of the monarchy seemed about to fail, and the promises made to David seemed about to come to nought. It would have been a suitable occasion for such a psalm at the time immediately preceding the captivity in Babylon, or on the return from Babylon, when the throne was tottering or had fallen, and when God seemed to be about to forsake his house, the temple - or had forsaken it, and suffered it to fall to ruin. At such a time of national disaster, when it appeared as if the house of God was to be permanently destroyed, and the government to be overturned forever, it was natural and proper thus to make mention of the zeal, the toil, and the sacrifice of him who had sought a "habitation" for God; who had planned and labored that there might be a permanent dwelling-place for the Most High, and who had received gracious promises from God himself in regard to the permanent establishment of his family on the throne. It would be appropriate, also, to recall this as a foundation for the prayer that God would again visit Zion, and would fulfill the promises which he had given to David.

The psalm therefore consists properly of two parts:

I. A statement of the zeal of David for the ark, in securing a permanent abode for it, Psalm 132:1-8; and

II. A reference to the promises made to David and his posterity, and a prayer that these promises might be carried out and accomplished, Psalm 132:9-18.

The psalmist prays that God would remember his promises to David, Psalm 132:1. His purpose to bring the ark of the Lord into a place of rest, Psalm 132:2-5. Where it was found, and the prayer in removing it, Psalm 132:6-9. The promises made to David and his posterity, Psalm 132:10-12. God's choice of Zion for a habitation, and his promises to the people, Psalm 132:13-17. All their enemies shall be confounded, Psalm 132:18.

Some attribute this Psalm to David, but without sufficient ground; others, to Solomon, with more likelihood; and others, to some inspired author at the conclusion of the captivity, which is, perhaps, the most probable. It refers to the building of the second temple, and placing the ark of the covenant in it.

INTRODUCTION TO Psalm 132

A Song of degrees. Some think this psalm was written by Solomon, since Psalm 132:8, are much the same with which he concluded his prayer at the dedication of the temple, 2 Chronicles 6:41; on account of which it is supposed to be written; though he might borrow these words from hence, as he sometimes did recite the words of his father, Proverbs 4:4. Others are of opinion that it was written by David, either when he brought the ark from Baale or Kirjathjearim to the house of Obededom, and from thence to Zion, 2 Samuel 6:1; or when he had that conversation with Nathan the prophet, in which he expressed such a strong desire to build a house for God, 2 Samuel 7:1; or, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi think, after he had numbered the people, which brought the pestilence on them; and when he and the elders of Israel were in distress on that account, and he was ordered to build an altar in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite, 1 Chronicles 21:18; by which it appeared to him that this was the place for the house of the Lord God he had been so desirous of building, 1 Chronicles 22:1. It seems by Psalm 132:6, that more persons than one were concerned in this psalm, at least the psalmist represents more; and Theodoret takes it to be a prayer of the captives in Babylon, and a prophecy of the Saviour of the world; and this is favoured by the Syriac inscription, which is,

"an anonymous psalm, when they would build the house of the Lord of hosts; and a prayer of David, and a revelation of Christ.''

And certain it is that Christ is spoken of in it, if not principally designed.

CXXXII.

This psalm, at first sight, seems from comparison with 2 Chronicles 6 to be a hymn of Solomon’s, or of his age, in commemoration of the completion and dedication of the Temple. What, however, makes such an obvious conjecture at once suspicious is that David, and not Solomon himself, should figure as the founder and builder of the Temple. Beyond question the psalm is ideal in its treatment of the history, and it is just conceivable that Solomon, who in 2 Chronicles 6 is so careful to draw a contrast between his father’s project and his own accomplishment of that project, might in a poem have been entirely silent as to his share in the work. A poet of his court would hardly have been so reticent. It is, however hardly credible that Solomon would have blended incidents belonging only to the history of the ark with those relating to the building of his own Temple. Altogether Psalm 132:6 clears up only as we take a more and more distant standpoint from the incidents it notes. A very late poet might easily refer the Temple altogether to David, and see in the removal of the ark a step in a prepared design. Other indications, pointing to the Asmonean dynasty as that in whose honour the poem was composed, are alluded to in the notes. The parallelism is very marked, and well sustained.

Israel had been restored from exile. The Temple had been rebuilt. Jehovah had returned to dwell in Zion according to His promise. But was His other promise of an eternal dominion to the house of David to be annulled? Was David’s zeal in establishing the worship of Jehovah in Jerusalem to be forgotten? Were the prayers and hopes of that memorable occasion to be doomed to final disappointment? Surely it could not be. Such seem to have been the circumstances under which this Psalm was written, and the thoughts to which it was designed to give expression. It is a prayer of the congregation, thrown with a singular boldness of poetic imagination into a vividly dramatic form. It consists of two main divisions, (i) the prayer of the congregation that Jehovah will remember David, (1) reciting his oath, and (2) describing the cooperation of the people with him; and (ii) the answer to the prayer.

i. (1) The congregation prays Jehovah to remember the pains which David took to prepare Him a sanctuary in Zion (Psalm 132:1-2); and recites his resolution in the words which he might be supposed to have used on the occasion (Psalm 132:3-5).

(2) David’s people are introduced as speakers, describing the enthusiasm with which they joined in his plan for bringing the Ark to Zion (Psalm 132:6-7), and praying that Jehovah will take possession of His sanctuary, and bless people, priests, and the royal house (Psalm 132:8-10).

ii. The answer to the congregation’s prayer is a recital of Jehovah’s oath to David (Psalm 132:11-12). That oath is grounded on Jehovah’s choice of Zion as His earthly abode (Psalm 132:13). He declares His purpose to bless her people and her priests, and to restore the fortunes of the house of David (Psalm 132:14-18).

The abruptness of the transitions has led some commentators to suggest that fragments of an older poem are incorporated in the Psalm; but the homogeneousness of its style militates against such a theory, and if once the dramatic principle of the Psalm, expressing ideas not by narrative but by the direct speech of those concerned, is grasped, the difficulties disappear.

The Psalm then is an encouragement to Israel of the Restoration to believe that Jehovah will not fail to perform His promises to the house of David. Those promises rested upon the choice of Zion as Jehovah’s earthly abode. The Restoration had proved that Jehovah had not abandoned Jerusalem; it was a pledge that He would not leave His promise to David unfulfilled. The re-establishment of the worship which David founded in Jerusalem would be incomplete without the fulfilment of those promises. The Psalm is then a truly Messianic Psalm. It looks forward boldly to that fulfilment of the promises to David which was realised in Christ, and reaffirms the hope of Israel at a time when nothing but the strongest faith in the immutability of a Divine promise could have ventured to do so. Such an expression of Messianic hopes was most natural for the pilgrims going up to Jerusalem for the Feasts, and recalling all the memories connected with the “city of David.”

To what period of the post-exilic period the Psalm belongs is doubtful. It is certainly earlier than Chronicles, for the Chronicler’s addition to Solomon’s prayer (2 Chronicles 6:40-42) is a free reproduction of Psalm 130:2, Psalm 132:8-9; Psalm 132:16; Psalm 132:10 b, 1, with a reminiscence of Isaiah 55:3. Some commentators have referred it to the age of Zerubbabel, and have even supposed that he is referred to in Psalm 132:10. But more probably it belongs, like most of the Psalms of Ascent, to the age of Nehemiah. It is at any rate noteworthy how strongly men’s thoughts turned back to David as the originator of the Temple ritual and worship, at the time when the services of the Temple were being reorganised by Nehemiah. See Nehemiah 12:24; Nehemiah 12:36; Nehemiah 12:45-46.

Some have thought that the language of the Psalm implies the existence of the monarchy, and that it may have been written in the time of David or Solomon, for the Translation of the Ark or the Dedication of the Temple. But the prayer that David should be ‘remembered’ implies that his work lay in a distant past; and the language of the Psalm points rather to a time when the great promises to David seemed to have been forgotten. In many respects it resembles Psalms 89, with which it should be carefully compared; but while the historical background of Psalms 89 is evidently the Exile, without one ray of hope in the immediate present, Psalms 132 breathes a spirit of hopefulness which presumes the Restoration and the re-establishment of the Temple worship.

Psalms 132 differs from the other Psalms of Ascent not only in length, but in rhythm. We miss the rhetorical repetition and the elegiac measure which mark so many of them. On the other hand the introduction of different speakers, though more boldly employed here, is found in 124, 129.

As a Messianic Psalm it is fitly appointed for use on Christmas Day.

Ps 132:1-18.

The writer, perhaps Solomon (compare

Ps 132:8, 9),

after relating David's pious zeal for God's service, pleads for the fulfilment of the promise

(2Sa 7:16),

which, providing for a perpetuation of David's kingdom, involved that of God's right worship and the establishment of the greater and spiritual kingdom of David's greater Son. Of Him and His kingdom both the temple and its worship, and the kings and kingdom of Judah, were types. The congruity of such a topic with the tenor of this series of Psalms is obvious.

1-5. This vow is not elsewhere recorded. It expresses, in strong language, David's intense desire to see the establishment of God's worship as well as of His kingdom.

remember David--literally, "remember for David," that is, all his troubles and anxieties on the matter.

Lord, remember David - Call to remembrance his zeal, his labor, his trials in order that there might be a permanent place for thy worship. Call this to remembrance in order that his purpose in thy cause may not be frustrated; in order that the promises made to him may be accomplished.

And all his afflictions - The particular trial here referred to was his care and toil, that there might be a settled home for the ark. The word used would not refer merely to what is specified in the following verses (his bringing up the ark to Mount Zion), but to his purpose to build a house for God, and - since he was not permitted himself to build it because he was a man of war, and had been engaged in scenes of blood, 1 Kings 5:3; 1 Chronicles 22:8 - to his care and toil in collecting materials for the temple to be erected by his son and successor. It is not, therefore, his general afflictions which are here meant, but his anxiety, and his efforts to secure a lasting place for the worship of God.