Psalm 132

¹³ For the Lord has chosen Zion;
He has desired it for His dwelling place:

¹⁴ “This is My resting place forever;
Here I will dwell, for I have desired it.

¹⁵ I will abundantly bless her provision;
I will satisfy her poor with bread.

¹⁶ I will also clothe her priests with salvation,
And her saints shall shout aloud for joy.

¹⁷ There I will make the horn of David grow;
I will prepare a lamp for My Anointed.

¹⁸ His enemies I will clothe with shame,
But upon Himself His crown shall flourish.”

Some commentaries believe this psalm was sung at the dedication of Solomon’s temple. Williams believes it was written by Hezekiah when he (and the ark) was besieged in Jerusalem by the Assyrians, and the king was childless.

Seeing that the content of this psalm is generally parallel to that of Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the Temple in 2 Chronicles 6, with an especially close (and clearly intentional) similarity in the language of vs.9-10 of this psalm and the closing two verses (41-42) of Solomon’s prayer, it has long been suggested by various interpreters that this psalm was originally composed and sung during the “bringing up” of the ark from its tent in the city of David to its place in the inner sanctuary of Solomon’s Temple (see 1 Kings 8:4-6). — Wechsler, page 315.

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In addition to affirming David’s determination to find—i.e., to both find a suitable location (the threshing floor of Araunah/Ornan the Jebusite [2 Chronicles 3:1]) and built thereon (which his son, Solomon, did), this section (vs.1-5) also supplies new information by describing the personal vow that David made that until he found the Lord a “place” he would neither enter his house nor lie on his bed (a euphemism for sexual relations). — Wechsler, page 315.

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Israel’s role (vs.6-10) is that of responding by going into God’s dwelling place and worshiping at His footstool (i.e., before the Ark). The people’s petition in v.10 that God not turn away the face of His anointed (Messiah), while alluding, on the one hand, to God’s promise in 2 Samuel 7:14-15 not to remove His grant of royal status to the successive sinful kings in the Davidic line, also serves as a segue to the following verse introducing God’s role in the covenant and His ultimate acceptance of the “face” (i.e., of the intercession, the expression “not to turn away the face of” meaning to accept another’s request of petition) of the Anointed One par excellence. — Wechsler, page 316.

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The psalmist introduces the final section (vs.11-18) by immediately emphasizing (in v.11) that the fulfillment of the covenant depends exclusively on God. Hence we are told that the Lord has sworn and will not turn back from His statement to David that He would seat one of the fruit of his body upon the throne, which statement is applied directly to Jesus in Acts 2:30 as the final and ideal realization of this promise. The conditional language of v.12 does not introduce a condition into the fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant, but rather the extent to which the successive sons of David would also sit on the throne in their own lifetimes (as opposed to being removed therefrom in chastisement) until there would come that ideal Son of David who, by virtue of His perfect obedience, would take up that throne forever. … The messianic nature of this covenant’s fulfillment is further intimated by the expression “My resting place” as well as by God’s declaration in v.17: “I will cause to branch forth a horn of David”—hearkening unmistakably to the messianic prophecies concerning the “Branch” of David in Isaiah 4:2; Jeremiah 23:5; 33:15; Zechariah 3:8; and 6:12. — Wechsler, pages 316-318.