Psalms 132 - Introduction

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 (Psalms 132:1-2); and recites his resolution in the words which he might be supposed to have used on the occasion (Psalms 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 (Psalms 132:6-7), and praying that Jehovah will take possession of His sanctuary, and bless people, priests, and the royal house (Psalms 132:8-10).

ii. The answer to the congregation's prayer is a recital of Jehovah's oath to David (Psalms 132:11-12). That oath is grounded on Jehovah's choice of Zion as His earthly abode (Psalms 132:13). He declares His purpose to bless her people and her priests, and to restore the fortunes of the house of David (Psalms 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 Psalms 130:2; Psalms 132:8-9; Psalms 132:16; Psalms 132:10 b, Psalms 132:1, 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 Psalms 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.