Psalm 132
18 verses · BSBPsalms book hub →
Speaks with:Psalms 132×3Luke 1×32 Chronicles 6×2Acts 2×2Psalms 87×2Psalms 120×1
Summary
Chapter summary
The ark's psalm: remember for David all his affliction, the vow not to enter his house nor give sleep to his eyes 'until I find out a place for Jehovah, a tabernacle for the Mighty One of Jacob.' We found it in the field of the wood: 'Arise, O Jehovah, into thy resting-place; thou, and the ark of thy strength.' Jehovah's answering oath: 'Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne' (Acts 2:30). Jehovah hath chosen Zion: 'This is my resting-place for ever… There will I make the horn of David to bud; I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed.'
Context
Poetry · David, Asaph, Sons of Korah, others — Psalms overview
The world behind this chapter
Psalms 132The history
The longest of the pilgrim songs retells a specific day. The ark of the covenant — the gold-covered chest that stood at the heart of Israel's worship — had been captured by the Philistines, returned, and then left for decades in a village. The psalm names the places it was tracked down: Ephrathah, the old name for the Bethlehem area, and the fields of Jaar, which is the town of Kiriath-jearim where it actually sat.
David's oath is quoted: he would not go home or lie down until he found a place for it. Building a permanent house for a god was standard royal duty in the ancient world, and kings advertised it on inscriptions. What is not standard is God's reply, which refuses the offer and promises to build the king a house instead.
The clothing language is priestly. Priests were dressed in specified garments for service, and the psalm asks that they be clothed with righteousness — then God answers by promising to clothe them with salvation, which is more than was asked.
The horn that will sprout for David and the lamp prepared for him are two royal images: a horn is strength and a ruling line, and a lamp kept burning in a house meant the household had not gone dark. On the traditional reading of prophecy these are not finished promises. A descendant of David is to reign from Zion in an age still ahead, which is why later readers went on singing them long after the last king of Judah was gone.
What it meant to them
Pilgrims sang this while climbing to a temple that stood because of a promise older than the building.
It gave them two things to hold at once: God had chosen Zion as his resting place, and he had sworn an oath to David that he would not take back. When the throne was empty and the province small, both halves were still on the books.
Sources cited
- Walton, Matthews and Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Psalms 132. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Connections from this chapter
v. 11 · Quoted here
'of the fruit of his loins... he would raise up Christ': Peter, the Davidic oath.
Acts 2:30→But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that He would place one of his descendants on his throne.
public-domain commentaries in agreement
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.