A HABITATION FOR THE LORD
Psalm 132 is one of the Psalms of Ascent, sung by the people of Israel when they traveled up to Jerusalem. I take it to be penned by Solomon, given that the language of this psalm is similar to Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the temple (2 Chronicles 6:41). You have to keep in mind when reading the Psalms of Ascent that the saints of old sang them on the way up to Jerusalem, but you sing them having already trekked up to the heavenly Jerusalem (Hebrews 12:22). This can be a bit disorienting. And to make things even more interesting, they sang them going up to the holy city, but you sing them with the holy city coming down on your heads (Revelation 21:2–3).
THE TEXT
“Lord, remember David, and all his afflictions: How he sware unto the LORD, and vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob; ‘Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed; I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the LORD, a habitation for the mighty God of Jacob . . .’” (Psalm 132:1–18).
SUMMARY OF THE TEXT
David was afflicted (v. 1). His afflictions involved his determination not to enter his own house until he had built the LORD’s house (v. 2–5). The ark of God was heard of in Bethlehem and found in the fields of Jaar (v. 6). The saints desired to have the ark of the covenant within the tabernacle so that they might worship at God’s footstool (v. 7). With the installation of the ark in the temple, the LORD arose to enter His rest (v. 8). This occurred after the completion of Solomon’s temple, as King Solomon and all Israel sacrificed sheep and oxen without number before the Levites who carried the ark up from the city of David (Zion) to Solomon’s new temple on Mount Moriah. As a result, priests and saints rejoiced (v. 9).
For David’s sake, the request was made that the LORD keep His anointed from turning his face away (v. 10); and the LORD would not turn His face away from His covenant, in which He promised a Davidson to sit on the throne (v. 11). If the children kept covenant, the throne was theirs (v. 12). Because Yahweh desired to dwell forever in Zion (v. 13–14), bless her provision, and feed her poor with bread (v. 15). Solomon comes around again to the refrain of happy priests and saints (v. 16). And this because God would make David’s horn bud, His lamp shine, His crown flourish, and His enemies ashamed (v. 17–18).
RESURRECTED TABERNACLE
The prophet Amos spoke of the resurrection of David’s tabernacle—
“In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old” (Amos 9:11).
This resurrection would include the gathering in of Gentiles—
“That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name” (Amos 9:12).
At the Jerusalem council, James quotes Amos, noticing the fulfillment of his prophecy was at hand (Acts 15:15–17).
This leaves us in a world where Christ and His temple have walked out of the grave. Take John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and add that the man who died on the cross, where Christian lost his burden, was buried in the tomb where Christian’s burden rolled. But while in the tomb, this man reached down the length of the King’s Highway, grabbed the Celestial City, and pulled it with Him out of the grave. This “dwelling place of God” has been growing ever since. It has spread over the edges of the King’s Highway, back toward the City of Destruction, and over to Doubting Castle. Giant Despair stands tiny in its shadow.
If the Davidic covenant could make happy priests and saints when its footstool was installed in Jerusalem, how glad might priests and saints be today in the New Covenant, seeing the whole earth has become His footstool?
HOW HORNS GROW AND LAMPS SHINE
Nothing throws an independent and determined man like the fact that the only way for him to build God a house is for God to first build him one. Grace puts you on your backside before teaching you to work. David was determined to build God a house only to hear God say in response, “No, I will build you a house” (2 Samuel 7:11). God’s covenant with David was that He would set the fruit of his body on the throne (v. 11), and so David’s horn would bud and his lamp shine (v. 17; 1 Kings 11:36).
This covenant promise would come to pass if David’s children kept God’s covenant (v. 12), if the anointed did not turn their face away (v. 10). For God certainly would not turn His face away from His covenant (v. 11). “Let God be true though every man a liar” (Romans 3:4).
THE REST OF THE LORD
You have no doubt met a man working away unsuccessfully at resting in the Lord. He is wound tight, fidgety on his good days, frantic on his bad ones. There is nothing wrong with telling such a man to rest in the Lord. But it is quite humorous to first see and then inform him that, whatever troubles he has with resting in the LORD, the LORD apparently has no trouble resting on him.
“For the LORD hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell” (v. 13).
We rest in God, for He rested on us first. Enter His courts with praise? You are His courts.
“Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts” (Malachi 3:1).