This Psalm is Solomon’s pleading with the Lord to arise and possess Himself of the house which he had builded, upon the ground of David’s zeal and affliction, and of the Lord’s own covenant and promises (Psa. 132:1-13). The Lord seems at once to answer this with still larger promises than He had made before, and with richer blessings than His servant had desired (Psa. 132:14-18).
For this is His way—this is divine. Even the promise of His own lips, as well as the wish of His people’s heart, is exceeded. And the promise which was conditional (Psa. 132:12) is now yea and amen in Christ Jesus (Psa. 132:17-18).
I think I see a very right mind, if I may so speak, in Solomon here. For while he desires God’s blessing on himself, the “anointed one,” he desires it in connection with God’s presence, or with the Ark’s entrance into its rest. This is quite as it should be. We may seek happiness if we seek it in and with the Lord.
The ark had been a stranger in the days of Saul (1 Chron. 13:3). David’s earliest desire was to restore it; and this Psalm shows that that desire consumed him. We can admit this, when we understand David as presented to us in First Chronicles. And this in David is pleaded here by Solomon. So, Jesus could say, “The zeal of thine house has eaten me up.” To restore to God a habitation among men, and to bring back man to God, was the spring of His energies, the secret of His many sorrows. The griefs and cross of Jesus have opened a way for the glory to return, or the long estranged presence of God to fill the earth again in its season; as the same blood has already rent the vail, and is preparing mansions in the heavenly house for us.
The “lamp,” which is here promised to shine in the kingdom of the Son of David by and by, had been espied afar off by Abraham (Gen. 15:17), who thus saw Christ’s “day,” and “was glad.” It has been the desire both of Christ and His people, all through the night-time of this present world (Isa. 62:1). The Lord Himself, in answer to that desire, will light it up in due season (Psa. 18:28). And then it will shine in steady full brightness through the kingdom (Isa. 60:1).
So the “horn” shall then “bud,” as here also promised. The oak of Judah, the stem of Jesse, has long been a withered stump. But the substance has been in it, though it have cast its leaves (Isa. 6:13); and in the latter day brought forth, like Aaron’s rod, as from the presence of God (Num. 17), it will revive, and bud, and be fruitful. “The mercies of David” are “sure” in Jesus risen (Acts 13:34).
All this we have in this magnificent Psalm of Solomon. And being of such a character, it could very happily have been used by the captives, now drawing near to this house which Solomon had built for the Lord. And so it may be again taken up by the heart and lips of the people in the days of Israel’s revival, when expectation counts on speedy fulfillment