David's care for the ark. (1-10) The promises of God. (11-18)
Verses 1-10 David bound himself to find a place for the Lord, for the ark, the token of God's presence. When work is to be done for the Lord, it is good to tie ourselves to a time. It is good in the morning to fix upon work for the day, with submission to Providence, for we know not what a day may bring forth. And we should first, and without delay, seek to have our own hearts made a habitation of God through the Spirit. He prays that God would take up his dwelling in the habitation he had built; that he would give grace to the ministers of the sanctuary to do their duty. David pleads that he was the anointed of the Lord, and this he pleads as a type of Christ, the great Anointed. We have no merit of our own to plead; but, for His sake, in whom there is a fulness of merit, let us find favour. And every true believer in Christ, is an anointed one, and has received from the Holy One the oil of true grace. The request is, that God would not turn away, but hear and answer their petitions for his Son's sake.
Verses 11-18 The Lord never turns from us when we plead the covenant with his anointed Prophet, Priest, and King. How vast is the love of God to man, that he should speak thus concerning his church! It is his desire to dwell with us; yet how little do we desire to dwell with him! He abode in Zion till the sins of Israel caused him to give them up to the spoilers. Forsake us not, O God, and deliver us not in like manner, sinful though we are. God's people have a special blessing on common enjoyments, and that blessing puts peculiar sweetness into them. Zion's poor have reason to be content with a little of this world, because they have better things prepared for them. God will abundantly bless the nourishment of the new man, and satisfy the poor in spirit with the bread of life. He gives more than we ask, and when he gives salvation, he will give abundant joy. God would bring to nothing every design formed to destroy the house of David, until King Messiah should arise out of it, to sit upon the throne of his Father. In him all the promises centre. His enemies, who will not have him to reign over them, shall at the last day be clothed with shame and confusion for ever.
\\<>\\. Some think this psalm was written by Solomon, since Ps 132:8,10, are much the same with which he concluded his prayer at the dedication of the temple, 2Ch 6:41,42; on account of which it is supposed to be written; though he might borrow these words from hence, as he sometimes did recite the words of his father, Pr 4:4,5. Others are of opinion that it was written by David, either when he brought the ark from Baale or Kirjathjearim to the house of Obededom, and from thence to Zion, 2Sa 6:1-23; or when he had that conversation with Nathan the prophet, in which he expressed such a strong desire to build a house for God, 2Sa 7:1-17; or, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi think, after he had numbered the people, which brought the pestilence on them; and when he and the elders of Israel were in distress on that account, and he was ordered to build an altar in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite, 1Ch 21:18; by which it appeared to him that this was the place for the house of the Lord God he had been so desirous of building, 1Ch 22:1. It seems by Ps 132:6,7, that more persons than one were concerned in this psalm, at least the psalmist represents more; and Theodoret takes it to be a prayer of the captives in Babylon, and a prophecy of the Saviour of the world; and this is favoured by the Syriac inscription, which is, ``an anonymous psalm, when they would build the house of the Lord of hosts; and a prayer of David, and a revelation of Christ.'' And certain it is that Christ is spoken of in it, if not principally designed.