Psalms 132 - Introduction

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 Psalms 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.