Psalm 132:11 (ESV)
The LORD swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back.
How many times have you failed to keep a promise? We tell someone, “I’ll pray for you,” but we never do. We tell our children, “I promise we’ll do that when we have more time,” but that time never comes. Perhaps we tell our spouse, “I’ll never do that again,” yet the next time comes. Fallen humanity doesn’t even have the ability to keep every promise it makes, yet we make them—and break them—time and time again. We long for that which we can’t achieve: complete trustworthiness.
Today’s psalm is probably the most unusual of all the Psalms of Ascent. It is much longer than the other psalms, and the subject matter is more historical. The psalm unveils God’s promise and plan for the ages, stretching from God’s covenant with Abraham, to Jacob at Bethel, to the construction of the ark and its subsequent journeys, to David’s bringing the ark to Jerusalem, to Solomon’s building of the temple, to the promised coming of Christ, to the fulfillment of all God’s promises to his people through Christ in heaven. We do well to become students of the history of God’s chosen people through diligent bible study for their history became our history when we were adopted “into the family” through Christ.
Psalm 132 opens with a plea to God to “remember” all that David had been through. Of course, God never forgets anything, so this is not a request for God to grab hold of something he had misplaced. Rather, it is a common prayer found in the Old Testament which simply placed all hope on God’s promises to His covenant people, which includes every single modern-day follower of Christ. And rest assured, God has never forgotten any hardship that any child of His has endured, whether it be King David or some unknown saint in the jungles of a far away land. As the great 19th century theologian, Frederick Meyer, once said, “Thus God still bends over the scenes of the life-work of His children.” What a beautiful and comforting thought!
God remembers all that we have endured for His name’s sake, but He also remembers every single promise he has made in his Word—and he has been keeping every single one of them ever since. In Psalm 132:13-18 we find God’s promise to future generations after David’s. These are some of God’s promises to us. He promised to dwell with his people forever (v. 13-14), which He has accomplished, not through a building made of stone, but through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in each and every Believer (Jn. 1:14). He promised to bless us with salvation (v. 15-16) and through Christ, we are the “priests” clothed in righteousness divine (1 Pet. 2:9-10). We are the saints, God’s covenant people who ever sing for joy!
Finally, God’s ultimate promise is the unending reign of Christ in Heaven (v. 17-18). All of God’s promises to us—his promise to dwell with his people forever, his promise to bless us with his salvation—all of God’s promises to us are fulfilled by Christ’s reign in heaven. We read in Revelation 21:1-4: “Then I saw … the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God … There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’” It’s all right here in Psalm 132. The original pilgrims sang this song on their way to the earthly Jerusalem for the annual feasts. As followers of Jesus we sing it on our way to the heavenly Jerusalem for the heavenly feast!
