A Commentary on the Book of Psalms: Psalm 131 — A Prayer for the Fulfilling of the Promise Made to David
Psalm 131
A Prayer for the Fulfilling of the Promise Made to David
Explanation Of The Psalm
1 Such is the language of Solomon, who is supposed to be the author of this Psalm, in which he prays to God through the merits of his father, David, “Lord, remember David,” your friend, and all his good qualities, the principal of which was “his meekness.” The word “remember” does not imply that God is subject to forgetfulness; it means that when he does not regard the just he seems to act as if he did not remember their merits. The meaning, then, of such expression is, that he wishes we should pray for many things which, without our prayers, he would not have granted. An instance of it occurs in 3 Kings, where God, through the prophet, speaks to Jeroboam, and says he is highly incensed at the sins of Solomon; still, that he would preserve the kingdom for him during his life, “on account of David, his servant, who observed his precepts and commandments;” from which it appears that this prayer of Solomon was heard. Solomon alludes to David’s mildness, without taking any notice of his other virtues; because David was most remarkable for mildness, as was evident from his refusing to take Saul’s life, though he might have done so, and he knew Saul was seeking to take his, and that without cause; as, also, because mildness is of great value in the sight of God, being the constant companion of humility and charity, and because it makes man like to God, who is “sweet, and mild, and plenteous in mercy to all that call upon him.” Thus, previous to David, Moses was God’s greatest friend, “because Moses was a man exceeding meek, above all men that dwelt upon earth;” and Christ our Lord, who was full of grace and truth, held up no other virtue more for our imitation. “Learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart.” Nor is it inconsistent with the meekness of David or Moses to have taken the lives of so many, nor with that of Christ to have turned the buyers and sellers out of the temple, and to upset their tables; for meekness is not inconsistent with justice, it is rather sister to zeal for the honor of God; and they who readily put up with a personal offence, which is the office of meekness, are the more fit to punish one offered to God or to the neighbor, because it is evident to all that they are not influenced by any private pique or selfish motive, but by a pure love of justice; as, also, because they seem to forget themselves altogether, and to be entirely absorbed in seeking and extending God’s honor and glory.
2–5 Solomon now tells the consequence of the meekness and the humility of his father David. Being meek and humble in heart, he looked upon it as a reproach, that he should have a house wherein to dwell, and a bed whereon to lie, while the Ark of the Testament had no fixed place of residence, no temple where it may be worshipped with the reverence due to it; but was constantly shifted from one place to another; and, therefore, he swore that he would not enter his house, nor lie on his bed; nay, more, that he would not close his eyes anywhere, or take any manner of rest, so long as the Ark had no resting place. We have no exact account of David’s having made such a vow, unless we can infer it from 2 Kings 8, where David tells Nathan the prophet that he had determined to build a temple to the Lord, because he was ashamed of living in “a house of cedar,” while the Ark of God was under a tent. On that very night God ordered Nathan to tell David that it was not his wish that he should build the temple, but that he should leave it to his son to build it; and he repeated the same to David, in Par. 22, and 28. If David, then, bound himself by oath to build the temple, why did not he build it? Why did not he even make the attempt? He was forbidden by God; and besides, the words of the oath contain an exaggeration not unusual in the Scriptures; and they mean no more here than the expression of David’s great anxiety to build the temple. Thus, in Psalm 1, the words, “And on his law he shall meditate day and night,” contain a similar exaggeration; and again, “I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise shall be ever in my mouth;” and a more striking one in Isaias, “Upon thy walls I have appointed watchmen, all the day and all the night they shall never hold their peace;” and Solomon prescribes the same anxiety to perform a promise that he here attributes to his father, when he says, “Run about, make haste, stir up thy friend, give not sleep to thy eyes, neither let thy eyelids slumber.” Similar expressions occur in the New Testament, “We ought always to pray, and not to faint;” and, further on, “Watch ye, therefore, praying at all times.”
Such expressions do not imply that we must be praying at every given moment, but that we must pray often, and in matters of importance, and that we must not suffer the cares of the world, however urgent, to interfere with our ordinary prayers. The oath, then, may be thus explained, “If I shall enter into the tabernacle of my house,” so as to forget the obligation of building God’s house, which I swear never to forget—“If I shall go up into the bed where I lie,” I swear I will never go into it without thinking on the bed, the site of the temple, where the Ark of the Lord may rest in dignity. “If I shall give sleep to my eyes, or slumber to my eyelids;” I swear that I will not sleep or rest, without waking to consider on the necessity of building up a temple to the Lord, which oath and vow he most faithfully fulfilled, as can be seen in Par. 29, “And I, with all my ability, have prepared the expenses for the house of my God. Gold for vessels of gold, and silver for vessels of silver, brass for things of brass, iron for things of iron, wood for things of wood: and onyx stones, and stones like alabaster, and of diverse colors, and all manner of precious stones, and marbles of Paros in great abundance. Now, over and above the things which I have offered into the house of my God, I give of my own proper goods, gold and silver for the temple of my God, besides what things I have prepared for the holy house. Three thousand talents of gold of the gold of Ophir: and seven thousand talents of refined silver to overlay the walls of the temple.” Besides this large amount of property, he drew up a most elaborate specification of all parts of the temple, of its halls, porches, upper rooms, chambers, and the like, as well as of all the ornamentation of it. Now, these were all types and figures of Christ, the true David, who, in his desire of raising a living temple, and an everlasting tabernacle to God, spent whole nights in prayer, and, truly, neither entered his house, nor went up into his bed, nor gave slumber to his eyelids nor rest to his temples, and presented to himself “a glorious Church, not having spot nor wrinkle, nor any such thing,” nor built “with corruptible gold or silver,” but with his own precious sweat and more precious blood; it was with them he built that city in heaven that was seen by St.
John in the Apocalypse, and “was ornamented with all manner of precious stones.” Hence, we can all understand the amount of care, cost, and labor we need to erect a becoming temple in our hearts to God.
6 He tells the reason why David was so anxious to build a temple, and it was because the Ark of the Lord had no fixed or certain residence. “Behold, we have heard of it in Ephrata,” of the Ark being in Ephrata, in the land of Ephraim, that was when it was in Silo, in Samuel’s time; then “we found it in the fields of the woods,” when it was sent off by the Philistines, and found in the field of Joshua the Bethsamite, which must have been a woody place, as it was taken from thence to the neighboring town Cariathiarim, which means the city of woods.
7 Having expressed the wishes and desires of his father David, Solomon being now about to bring the Ark into the temple he had built, says, “We will go into his tabernacle;” in other words, hitherto, the Lord has been a stranger in various places, but now he shall have a fixed residence, and, therefore, “we will go into his tabernacle,” now erected, and built on Sion, and “we will adore in the place where his feet stood,” we will turn towards the holy Ark which is his footstool, where his feet stood, and are wont to stand, and adore there. The sanctuary in the interior of the tabernacle was so constructed that the Ark was the footstool, and the propitiatory was the seat of the Lord, and was supported by two Cherubim.