Psalms 132:8-10

(8-10) These are the words which the chronicler (2 Chronicles 6:41) puts into Solomon’s mouth at the dedication of the Temple. Some think that they are there only as a quotation from this psalm, but the mode in which the words are here introduced points the other way. The psalmist does not at his distance from the events distinguish between David and Solomon. He merges the executor of the work in the projector; and in honour of the second Temple it is as natural for him to take up words used at the actual dedication of the first as it was to refer to the original purpose in David’s mind. All is blended together in the long perspective of poetry. As to the form of the words, they are of course themselves a reminiscence of the ancient battle-cry of the nation when the Ark set forward on the march. (See Psalms 68:1, Note.) The mention of the Ark does not definitely dispose of the Maccabæan theory of this psalm, though it doubtless must weigh against it. The quotation may have been adopted generally without meaning literal correspondence between all the circumstances — just as the battle-cry had become merely a religious formula — or, as Lightfoot and Prideaux suggest (see Prideaux, Connection, i. 141), there may have been an ark made for the second Temple in imitation of the original.