Ps 132 (David and his sons)

Remember / Yhwh / in David’s favor

                All his painstaking effort

How he swore / to Yhwh

                In a vow / to the mighty one of Jacob

“I will never enter / my tent house,

                Never climb / upon my bed couch

Never permit / my eyes sleep

                My eyelids / slumber

Till I find / a place for Yhwh

                A tabernacle / for the mighty one of Jacob

The psalmist calls upon Yhwh to “remember” David’s efforts, and all of the afflictions and effort he went through in finding a place for Yhwh’s tabernacle. We will see later what this ‘remembering’ will consist of.

The psalmist then relates David’s vow to Yhwh. The focus of the vow is that David will not find rest until he finds a place for Yhwh to rest. Until Yhwh finds his home David will not enter his home. We should recall here the origin of the Davidic covenant—Yhwh will “build David’s house” just as David will build Yhwh’s house. The parallel is crucial. David and his line—his “house”—participate in the same divine establishment as Yhwh’s house. Note how Yhwh, the undying one, does not have progeny. So David’s perpetuity of covenant assurance is reflected, or instantiated, in the Temple that will not pass away. David’s line is now immortal, just as the Temple will be immortal. Just as David’s line will collapse, so too will the Temple. But through the collapse it will rise again, just as the Temple will also be rebuilt.

A key point to see here is that David’s heart—his unwavering commitment to finding Yhwh a house (he will “never…never…never…”)—is completely poured out for Yhwh. The parallel between the two houses (between David not entering his until he finds Yhwh’s) is not simply literary nor is it simply metaphorical. David sees no metaphorical distance between his home and Yhwh’s. In David, this Adam, this image of God, creation is literally wedding itself to Yhwh. Moreover, this is the action not simply of the individual David—it is the pure action of Yhwh’s king. David’s desire to find Yhwh a place is wed to the covenant to him as king, as ruler and protector of Yhwh’s people. Thus, the Temple is to serve as the heart of the people, the place where Yhwh dwells and therefore the source of all blessing and protection for David’s/Yhwh’s people. It will be a new Eden for the Garden of Israel. In other words, this is not a type of personal fulfillment but David’s mission as king. He is doing this as much, if not more, for the people than he is for himself. This ‘pouring out’ then is not simply one of devotion to Yhwh but an unwavering commitment to his/Yhwh’s people.

When we turn to Christ, the heir and son of David, this utter devotion to his Father and his mission is not simply something external to him. It is him—Christ is his mission. He is the mission, the Son, incarnate. He is this dual love of the Father and the people the Father has given to him. More to the point of this psalm—Christ will not ‘find rest’ until he establishes the new Temple, which will only be finally accomplished in his death and resurrection. During the night when he is taken away, Christ does not sleep, but instead pours himself out to the Father, as he sees the path ahead of him, where the Temple will be finally established. His disciples, on the other hand, waver and repeatedly fall asleep during Christ’s vigil. It is key to see here that Christ’s vigil is the fulfillment of David’s vigil.

More deeply still—this vigil is for the establishment of the Temple. That is the goal. To find, and establish, a permanent and perpetual resting place for God. David’s afflictions and painstaking effort to establish the resting place is consummated in Christ’s crucifixion, when he says “it is finished” and finally falls asleep, the vigil now over because the ‘resting place’ has now been established.

“Lo / we have heard of it / Ephrathah

                We found it / in the countryside of Jaar

Let us go / to this tabernacle

                Let us prostrate ourselves / at his footstool

Arise, / Yhwh / to your home of rest

                You and your powerful ark.

May your priests / be clothed with righteousness

                May your / loyal ministers / shout for joy

For the sake of your servant David

                Do not turn away / the face of your anointed one

These verses relate the fulfillment and re-fulfillment of David’s mission to find Yhwh a resting place. It refers to the time when David took the ark from the countryside and transferred to Jerusalem, the place of its rest. Significantly, this journey is re-enacted in a procession. The psalmist tells the people, “Let us go to this tabernacle; let us prostrate ourselves at his footstool.” He then commends Yhwo to “arise”, which generally refers to the lifting of the ark in times of battle when Yhwh would then move with the Israelites to be their Conqueror. Yhwh then goes to his “home of rest”, in a re-enactment of David’s fulfillment of his vow. When this is accomplished, magnificence follows—the priests are clothed with righteousness and Yhwh’s ministers shout for joy. With the establishment of Yhwh’s rest, liturgy, joy and festivity can begin.

What we see here is a type of renewal of the covenant through a re-enactment of David’s journey. By following in his footsteps, his sons are brought into the life of the covenant by renewing it. This is not simple reenactment. It is renewal. It is, in that sense, sacramental. It accomplishes what it performs. This flows into the next portion of the psalm, where David’s son will remind Yhwh of his oath and the blessings that flow from it.

We also see in this the momentum of the Church as it perpetually renews and reenacts Christ’s sacrifice in the Eucharist. It “follows in Christ’s steps” the night of his suffering, betrayal and then his crucifixion, renewing the covenant through the Passover Eucharist. By stepping into the drama, every person baptized into Christ is then made into a Christ like David’s sons stepped into his covenant and perpetuated it in their day. It was grounded and founded on David’s heart and vigil. The covenant established David as the father and pattern of the covenant’s life. The fact that David’s sons participate in their father’s procession does not diminish David’s accomplishment. Quite the contrary. It only heightens what he established. Same as Christ’s crucifixion and the Eucharist—by bringing all the baptized into his Passover, he only more firmly establishes himself as the sacrifice that makes it possible to participate in his Passover.

Yhwh swore an oath / to David

                A sure oath / on which he will not renege

“Members of your own progeny

                Will I set upon your throne

If your sons / keep my covenant

                And my terms / which I teach them

Their sons too / forever

                Will sit / upon your throne

For Yhwh has chosen Zion

                Desiring it/ for his royal seat

This is my home / of rest forever

                Here will I sit enthroned / for such is my desire

With food / will I bless her abundantly

                Her poor / will I fill with bread

While her priests / will I clothe with salvation

                And her loyal ministers will shout aloud for joy

There will I make to grow / a horn for David

                I have prepared a lamp for my anointed one

His enemies / I will clothe in humiliation

                But upon his head / his crown will gleam.

The first part focused on what David promised to do to find Yhwh a resting place. The psalmist now turns to what Yhwh promised to do for David and his sons. Yhwh can do what no man can—he can establish, in perpetuity, David and his line on the throne. The visible kingship of David is the visible blessing-oath of Yhwh. When one sees a Davidic son on the throne, one is looking upon the power of Yhwh.  

There is a conditional element to it in that their enthronement is dependent upon their mimicking David’s allegiance and faithfulness to Yhwh. Their steadfastness will then be met by Yhwh’s, who sits enthroned forever because he always keeps faith with his covenant partners. While a Davidic son may prove unfaithful and removed from his throne, Yhwh will remain forever enthroned in Jerusalem, provide the basis for the renewal of covenant and its re-establishment. Zion will always be pregnant with Yhwh’s power and it can be enacted anytime a Davidic son is faithful. For David, the result became the establishment of the sanctuary. For his sons, it will mean an abundant blessing, and filling the poor with bread. With the establishment of Zion there begins the blessings of abundance.

This abundance begins with the ‘filling in’ of social cracks—the feeding of the poor. It then cascades over those who are charged with the liturgy in the temple. They are swept up in it as well—as they are “clothed with salvation” and they “should aloud for joy.” This bottom-up blessing shows how the entire spectrum of the people are covered in Yhwh’s blessing. It is an astonishing affirmation of the power of the Davidic covenant and how its realization in a faithful Davidic son explodes Yhwh’s blessing across the Land.

A few remaining things. First, it is important that the concluding verses, in referring to the present king, calls him “David”. For Yhwh, to look upon a son of David is, because of the covenant, to look upon David himself. The covenant binds them together and makes present the covenant with David. This too occurs through Christ and every Christ-ian baptized into him. Revelation describes how Christ’s iron scepter is shared by all who follow him; and all who follow him sit upon the same throne as Christ. Paul sees all believers as part of Christ’s body. The church is essentially a host of christs, all made Davidic-sons through Christ, the son of David.

Second, the first portion of the psalm deals with David’s unrelenting and tiring search for Yhwh’s resting place. The second stanza says that Yhwh chose Zion as his royal seat. This is important to see—for the Scriptures there is no competition between these two viewpoints. Yhwh can choose Zion as much as David can, because David has aligned himself utterly with Yhwh’s own heart. In other words, when Yhwh opens his heart up to man in his covenant, what was before his own choice (or, his own monologue so to speak) now becomes a space within which the Cosmos can participate (or, a dialogue). It is precisely because Yhwh stands as the always greater than his choice (his monologue) is not a ceiling on man’s choice. In other words, Yhwh’s monologue makes possible man’s dialogue with him. Yhwh becomes the possibility of man’s freedom, not a hindrance to it. This principle, of course, is why the Son can become flesh and yet man remain unconsumed by the Son’s being—fully god and fully man. It is also why men and women can be baptized into Christ, becoming Christ-ians, and actually become freed into freedom.