WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.120 Psalm 132, a song of ascents. 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:33.420 In Ephrathah, we found it in the fields of Jer. 00:00:34.039 --> 00:00:36.740 Let us go to his dwelling place. 00:00:36.880 --> 00:00:38.500 Let us worship at his footstool. 00:00:39.579 --> 00:00:44.740 Arise, O Lord, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might. 00:00:45.539 --> 00:00:52.500 Let your priests be clothed with righteousness, and let your saints shout for joy for the sake of your servant David. 00:00:53.159 --> 00:00:56.019 Do not turn away the face of your anointed one. 00:00:56.020 --> 00:01:01.620 The Lord swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back. 00:01:02.300 --> 00:01:05.659 One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne. 00:01:06.180 --> 00:01:13.320 If your sons keep my covenant and my testimonies that I shall teach them, their sons also forever shall sit on your throne. 00:01:14.460 --> 00:01:18.540 For the Lord has chosen Zion. He has desired it for his dwelling place. 00:01:18.960 --> 00:01:20.879 This is my resting place forever. 00:01:21.500 --> 00:01:23.659 Here I will dwell, for I have desired it. 00:01:23.659 --> 00:01:26.399 I will abundantly bless her provisions. 00:01:26.599 --> 00:01:28.420 I will satisfy her poor with bread. 00:01:28.700 --> 00:01:33.219 Her priests I will clothe with salvation, and her saints will shout for joy. 00:01:33.899 --> 00:01:36.060 There I will make a horn to sprout for David. 00:01:36.239 --> 00:01:38.219 I have prepared a lamp for my anointed. 00:01:38.759 --> 00:01:43.759 His enemies I will clothe with shame, but on him his crown will shine. 00:01:44.719 --> 00:01:47.000 This is God's holy and authoritative word. 00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:54.900 This psalm is about how we should seek the presence of God and the reign of Christ the King over our lives. 00:01:55.519 --> 00:02:01.879 In the first half of the psalm, verses 1 to 10, we see Israel's prayer that God would reign in their midst. 00:02:02.560 --> 00:02:06.400 And in the second half, verses 11 to 18, we see God's answer. 00:02:06.740 --> 00:02:10.020 His promise that he would reign in their midst. 00:02:10.020 --> 00:02:14.700 So let's first look at Israel's prayer in verses 1 to 10. 00:02:16.200 --> 00:02:21.800 The psalmist begins by asking God to remember his servant David in verses 1 to 5. 00:02:21.960 --> 00:02:25.600 Remember, O Lord, in David's favor all the hardships he endured. 00:02:25.960 --> 00:02:28.460 How he swore to the Lord and vowed to the mighty one of Jacob. 00:02:28.540 --> 00:02:30.480 I will not enter my house or get into my bed. 00:02:30.540 --> 00:02:35.900 I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids until I find a place for the Lord. 00:02:36.480 --> 00:02:38.400 A dwelling place for the mighty one of Jacob. 00:02:38.400 --> 00:02:48.719 This is an allusion to 2 Samuel chapter 7, verses 1 to 3, where King David expresses to Nathan the prophet his desire to build a temple for God. 00:02:49.360 --> 00:02:56.180 And there he says, you know, see now I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent. 00:02:57.759 --> 00:03:06.860 And apparently, according to Psalm 132, David had sworn not to enter his own house until he had found a place for the Lord. 00:03:06.860 --> 00:03:10.240 A dwelling place for the mighty one of Jacob. 00:03:10.980 --> 00:03:18.620 The mighty one of Jacob is a title for God that is sometimes associated with the ark of the covenant because the ark was known. 00:03:19.340 --> 00:03:23.500 Ark was kind of the physical representation of God's presence. 00:03:23.740 --> 00:03:25.200 It represented God's footstool. 00:03:26.320 --> 00:03:29.020 And so it was sometimes referred to by God's name. 00:03:29.680 --> 00:03:32.960 And so later in verse 8, it refers to the ark of your might. 00:03:32.960 --> 00:03:35.060 That's a parallel to this mighty one of Jacob. 00:03:36.120 --> 00:03:39.960 And this is kind of, this is why actually David's one of my favorite characters in the Bible. 00:03:40.939 --> 00:03:44.620 He had an intensely personal relationship with God. 00:03:45.180 --> 00:03:46.640 He loved the Lord. 00:03:47.340 --> 00:03:50.800 He was a man after God's own heart, though not without his failings. 00:03:50.800 --> 00:04:04.240 And when a pestilence was raging throughout the nation because of David's own sins, because he took a census, which showed that he was relying on the number of his army rather than in the power of the Lord. 00:04:04.240 --> 00:04:18.360 And when David saw the angel of the Lord kind of executing God's judgment on the, and when he saw the angel of the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah, the Jebusite. 00:04:18.579 --> 00:04:20.800 You guys probably, some of you probably remember the story. 00:04:21.460 --> 00:04:26.680 He goes there to build an altar to the Lord and to worship him there and to plead on behalf of his people. 00:04:26.680 --> 00:04:32.160 And so he offers to buy the place, the threshing floor from Araunah. 00:04:32.660 --> 00:04:38.560 Araunah, of course, is, you know, in the presence of the king, says, hey, you could take it for free. 00:04:38.720 --> 00:04:42.460 You know, I give it to you, you know, as a gift to the Lord. 00:04:42.720 --> 00:04:46.840 But David insists, no, but I will buy it from you for a price. 00:04:47.340 --> 00:04:51.460 I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing. 00:04:52.360 --> 00:04:54.100 Like that was kind of David's heart. 00:04:54.100 --> 00:05:02.720 He was eager to make costly sacrifices to God because he wanted to demonstrate his love for God, his commitment to God. 00:05:04.040 --> 00:05:12.840 And David could not, according to this psalm, rest his eyes in the comfort of his palace, knowing that the ark of God remained in a tent. 00:05:13.540 --> 00:05:18.260 He saw the incongruity of it, the wrongness of that picture, 00:05:18.259 --> 00:05:24.219 that he should dwell in the comfort of his own home when the ark of God sat without one. 00:05:24.800 --> 00:05:26.300 And so he vowed to correct it. 00:05:27.319 --> 00:05:34.099 And even though God tells David that he wanted his son Solomon eventually to build a temple, 00:05:34.360 --> 00:05:40.360 God nevertheless commanded David for this desire, for having this desire to want to house the ark of the Lord. 00:05:40.360 --> 00:05:46.819 And so the psalmist, having recalled the favor that David enjoyed from God, 00:05:47.240 --> 00:05:54.100 now asks the Lord, out of his steadfast love and faithfulness to David, to return to his dwelling place in Jerusalem. 00:05:54.800 --> 00:05:56.300 In verses 6 to 10, he says, 00:05:56.300 --> 00:06:26.280 And verse 6 is kind of recounting, 00:06:26.300 --> 00:06:29.960 recounting the journey of the ark of the covenant. 00:06:30.759 --> 00:06:35.900 It's uncertain what Ephrathah refers to because it could refer to a couple different things, 00:06:36.040 --> 00:06:46.240 but it may refer to Shiloh, which in 1 Samuel 1, verses 1 to 3 is associated with the Ephrathites. 00:06:47.220 --> 00:06:50.519 Shiloh was a city within the territory of the tribe of Ephraim, 00:06:50.519 --> 00:06:56.259 where the ark of the covenant resided after the conquest of Canaan in Joshua 18. 00:06:57.000 --> 00:06:59.800 So that's where the ark was first found. 00:07:00.040 --> 00:07:04.500 So verse 6 then would mean, you know, we heard that it was in Ephrathah. 00:07:04.660 --> 00:07:06.040 We had heard of it in Ephrathah. 00:07:07.800 --> 00:07:10.780 And then, however, because of Israel's unfaithfulness, 00:07:11.040 --> 00:07:13.759 the ark was lost, captured by the Philistines. 00:07:14.199 --> 00:07:17.339 But then God brought judgment on the Philistines on account of the ark, 00:07:17.560 --> 00:07:19.240 and so the Philistines returned it. 00:07:19.860 --> 00:07:27.339 And then when they returned it, it was taken to Kiriath-Jerim in 1 Samuel 6, 21. 00:07:27.579 --> 00:07:33.899 That's another name for the fields of Jair, meaning town or land of forests. 00:07:33.899 --> 00:07:38.560 And it's from there that David brings up the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem. 00:07:38.699 --> 00:07:41.699 So verse 6 is kind of recounting the journey of the ark, 00:07:42.259 --> 00:07:47.159 God's presence from Shiloh to Kiriath-Jerim and finally to Jerusalem. 00:07:47.979 --> 00:07:51.579 And anticipating its arrival to Jerusalem, 00:07:51.579 --> 00:07:55.680 the psalmist says in verse 7, 00:07:55.779 --> 00:07:58.000 let us go to his dwelling place. 00:07:58.539 --> 00:08:00.419 Let us worship at his footstool. 00:08:02.019 --> 00:08:05.139 And apart from a few word variations, 00:08:05.539 --> 00:08:10.259 the verses 8 to 10 are identical to 2 Chronicles 6, verses 40 to 42. 00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:15.519 That's where Solomon is praying at the dedication of the newly built temple. 00:08:15.519 --> 00:08:21.859 So it's very possible that this psalm was composed for the occasion of dedication of the temple. 00:08:23.579 --> 00:08:31.319 And this psalm is talking about the kind of transference of the ark. 00:08:32.679 --> 00:08:34.120 And so he's praying, 00:08:34.399 --> 00:08:38.179 Now arise, O Lord God, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might. 00:08:38.860 --> 00:08:41.620 Let your priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation. 00:08:41.879 --> 00:08:44.539 Let your saints rejoice in your goodness, O Lord God. 00:08:44.539 --> 00:08:46.719 Do not turn away the face of your anointed one. 00:08:47.519 --> 00:08:49.839 Remember your steadfast love for David, your servant. 00:08:50.500 --> 00:08:54.120 So it's praying that God would show favor to his people by dwelling among them. 00:08:55.740 --> 00:08:58.099 And then that's the people's prayer. 00:08:58.759 --> 00:09:01.919 And then in the second half of the psalm, we see God's answer. 00:09:02.740 --> 00:09:04.839 His promise that he will reign in their midst. 00:09:06.480 --> 00:09:10.939 And there's a lot of parallels between verses 1 to 10 and 11 to 17. 00:09:10.940 --> 00:09:17.520 And these parallels emphasize the connection between the people's prayer and God's answer. 00:09:18.360 --> 00:09:23.940 So verse 2 recalled how David swore to the Lord to build a temple for him. 00:09:24.360 --> 00:09:31.160 And then verses 11 to 12 recall how the Lord swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back. 00:09:31.159 --> 00:09:34.959 That he would have set someone from his line on the throne. 00:09:35.179 --> 00:09:41.100 If your sons keep my covenant and my testimony that I shall teach them, their sons also forever shall sit on your throne. 00:09:42.079 --> 00:09:44.379 So similarly in verse 7, the psalmist says, 00:09:44.639 --> 00:09:46.919 Let us go to his dwelling place. 00:09:46.919 --> 00:09:48.799 And then in verse 8, 00:09:48.860 --> 00:09:51.159 Arise, Lord, and go to your resting place. 00:09:51.419 --> 00:09:57.699 That's parallel by verses 13 and 14, where the Lord himself says he has chosen Zion, his dwelling place. 00:09:58.279 --> 00:10:01.199 And he says that this is my resting place forever. 00:10:01.659 --> 00:10:02.559 Here I will dwell. 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:04.919 Verse 9, 00:10:05.120 --> 00:10:08.000 Praise for the priests to be clothed with righteousness, 00:10:08.620 --> 00:10:10.740 and the saints to shout for joy. 00:10:10.740 --> 00:10:12.399 And then in verse 16, 00:10:12.500 --> 00:10:15.360 God promises her priests I will clothe with salvation, 00:10:15.899 --> 00:10:17.759 and her saints will shout for joy. 00:10:18.659 --> 00:10:24.379 And then verse 10 finally asks God not to turn away his face from David, his anointed one. 00:10:24.960 --> 00:10:26.200 And then in verse 17, 00:10:26.379 --> 00:10:27.060 God answers, 00:10:27.440 --> 00:10:29.519 There I will make a horn to sprout for David. 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:32.100 I prepared a lamp for my anointed. 00:10:32.419 --> 00:10:36.519 So sprouting horn is a metaphor for strength and power. 00:10:36.519 --> 00:10:42.240 And lamp represents David's kind of and his line's reign, dynastic reign, 00:10:42.919 --> 00:10:44.659 that will never be put out. 00:10:45.199 --> 00:10:48.519 And so these extensive parallels between the first half and second half of the psalm 00:10:49.039 --> 00:10:51.799 teach us that God is a promise keeper. 00:10:52.659 --> 00:10:54.480 He answers the prayers of his people. 00:10:54.639 --> 00:10:55.939 He will keep all of his promises. 00:10:57.439 --> 00:10:59.240 The trouble is, 00:10:59.240 --> 00:11:04.399 even though God promised to put someone on the throne out of David's line forever, 00:11:04.399 --> 00:11:06.360 in 2 Samuel 7, 00:11:06.939 --> 00:11:09.879 Israel failed to keep their end of the covenant. 00:11:10.360 --> 00:11:12.379 Because if you look again at verse 12, 00:11:12.539 --> 00:11:13.259 it says clearly, 00:11:13.500 --> 00:11:15.259 If your sons keep my covenant, 00:11:16.199 --> 00:11:18.100 and my testimony is that I shall teach them, 00:11:18.199 --> 00:11:20.740 their sons also forever shall sit on your throne. 00:11:21.240 --> 00:11:24.059 But Israel and their kings did not keep the covenant. 00:11:24.559 --> 00:11:28.919 And the royal succession of David came to an unceremonious end with Zedekiah, 00:11:28.919 --> 00:11:33.299 who was the last king to reign in Judah before they were all exiled. 00:11:34.399 --> 00:11:40.240 And the promise, however, stands, 00:11:40.399 --> 00:11:43.539 the promise of God to have someone from David's line reign forever. 00:11:44.139 --> 00:11:47.579 And so that promise is fulfilled ultimately in the coming of Christ, 00:11:47.959 --> 00:11:49.659 Christ the king, the messianic king. 00:11:50.459 --> 00:11:55.439 And that's why he's described in Matthew 1 carefully as a descendant of David. 00:11:56.259 --> 00:11:59.399 He's the one who ascends the eternal heavenly throne 00:11:59.399 --> 00:12:02.340 by dying on the cross, being raised from the dead, 00:12:02.659 --> 00:12:03.819 and ascending to heaven. 00:12:04.519 --> 00:12:08.259 And it's by pledging our allegiance to Jesus as our king 00:12:08.259 --> 00:12:11.059 that we are grafted into Israel 00:12:11.059 --> 00:12:15.879 and the promise of Psalm 132 becomes ours to cherish forever. 00:12:15.879 --> 00:12:21.500 And the Jewish people understood this, 00:12:21.580 --> 00:12:23.220 the fulfillment of this in the New Testament. 00:12:23.980 --> 00:12:26.379 This psalm is quoted in Acts 7, 00:12:26.679 --> 00:12:29.679 verses 44 to 50, 00:12:29.899 --> 00:12:33.200 in Stephen's speech just before his martyrdom. 00:12:33.200 --> 00:12:40.080 But he recalls there that even though Solomon built the house for God, 00:12:40.620 --> 00:12:43.660 that God himself says, 00:12:44.040 --> 00:12:46.340 Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. 00:12:46.560 --> 00:12:49.020 What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord? 00:12:49.640 --> 00:12:51.200 What is the place of my rest? 00:12:51.759 --> 00:12:54.300 The temple was not the ultimate place of God's rest. 00:12:54.940 --> 00:12:57.259 Jerusalem was not the ultimate place of God's dwelling. 00:12:57.259 --> 00:13:00.159 That's fulfilled in Jesus, the new temple. 00:13:00.419 --> 00:13:03.899 And in him, it's fulfilled in us, the body of Christ, 00:13:04.319 --> 00:13:05.299 the temple of God. 00:13:05.740 --> 00:13:09.519 That's why 1 Corinthians 3 describes us as God's temple 00:13:09.519 --> 00:13:13.059 and that God's spirit dwells in us. 00:13:13.799 --> 00:13:19.279 So then there's a couple ways that I think we could still hold on to this psalm 00:13:19.279 --> 00:13:21.379 and seek the dwelling place of God. 00:13:22.279 --> 00:13:26.779 If Christ is the fulfillment of this psalm, 00:13:26.779 --> 00:13:30.500 one, we ought to pledge allegiance to him and follow him, 00:13:30.579 --> 00:13:35.939 knowing that it's only in him that we can be citizens of his kingdom. 00:13:36.699 --> 00:13:40.480 And then secondly, if we are the temple of God, 00:13:41.579 --> 00:13:44.919 then it is true, as it says in Matthew 18, 20, 00:13:45.179 --> 00:13:49.120 that when we are gathered in Christ's name, 00:13:49.279 --> 00:13:50.720 that God is among us. 00:13:51.220 --> 00:13:54.179 So then in the same way that these people, 00:13:54.179 --> 00:13:55.639 the Israelites, 00:13:56.279 --> 00:13:57.439 just because for them, 00:13:57.539 --> 00:13:58.239 think about it, right? 00:13:58.399 --> 00:14:01.239 The ark was the physical manifestation 00:14:01.239 --> 00:14:04.679 of God's spiritual presence. 00:14:05.339 --> 00:14:07.059 So they longed for that. 00:14:07.339 --> 00:14:08.819 When the ark was gone, 00:14:08.899 --> 00:14:10.019 they felt his absence. 00:14:10.399 --> 00:14:13.059 They felt the lack of the assurance 00:14:13.059 --> 00:14:14.759 of God's presence among them. 00:14:14.759 --> 00:14:17.100 When they were cut off from the temple, 00:14:17.220 --> 00:14:18.179 cut off from Jerusalem, 00:14:18.399 --> 00:14:19.039 when they were in exile, 00:14:19.139 --> 00:14:20.519 they felt his absence, 00:14:21.139 --> 00:14:22.299 that God's not among them. 00:14:22.700 --> 00:14:23.639 And so for us, 00:14:23.700 --> 00:14:25.659 we should long for the presence of God. 00:14:25.740 --> 00:14:28.159 One, we should recognize the privilege 00:14:28.159 --> 00:14:29.799 that we are the dwelling place of God, 00:14:30.379 --> 00:14:32.620 that the spirit of God himself dwells in us 00:14:32.620 --> 00:14:35.659 so that we can experience this reality at all times, 00:14:35.659 --> 00:14:37.139 even though, 00:14:37.699 --> 00:14:39.799 even without a physical temple. 00:14:40.459 --> 00:14:41.659 But then two, 00:14:42.039 --> 00:14:43.500 this is especially true 00:14:43.500 --> 00:14:44.899 when we are gathered in his name 00:14:44.899 --> 00:14:46.159 as the people of God, 00:14:46.579 --> 00:14:48.100 because they are specially, 00:14:48.259 --> 00:14:49.500 God's presence is made known. 00:14:49.659 --> 00:14:51.259 He's manifest in a more powerful 00:14:51.259 --> 00:14:52.439 and palpable way. 00:14:53.019 --> 00:14:54.639 And so we should long for that. 00:14:54.879 --> 00:14:57.699 We should long to be together 00:14:57.699 --> 00:14:58.439 with God's people, 00:14:58.519 --> 00:14:59.299 the body of Christ, 00:14:59.379 --> 00:15:00.139 the family of God, 00:15:00.199 --> 00:15:01.459 the dwelling place of God. 00:15:01.460 --> 00:15:05.620 And so have the assurance 00:15:05.620 --> 00:15:06.820 of his presence among us. 00:15:07.040 --> 00:15:10.540 And so this makes me really yearn 00:15:10.540 --> 00:15:12.180 for the gathering of the church again. 00:15:13.139 --> 00:15:15.660 And let's pray for that together 00:15:15.660 --> 00:15:17.360 and pray for, 00:15:19.700 --> 00:15:22.080 and to pray that we would not lose sight 00:15:22.080 --> 00:15:22.840 of that privilege 00:15:22.840 --> 00:15:24.900 and not to take it for granted.