So much more...Psalm 132

This week I am using Madame Guyon's first prayer method, Praying the Scripture. I haven't been able to get a handle on her second method, Waiting in His Presence. It is really hard to just sit still for a period of time! And I know I need to work on it.

Psalm 132 is my starting place for most of this week. It is a Psalm of Ascents, one of those sang, most scholars believe, by the Jews as they walked up to Jerusalem to celebrate their pilgrim feasts (Passover, Pentecost and Day of Atonement.) When reading these Psalms it is easy to imagine them, in small groups, happily walking up the winding road to the Holy City. They would be able to see other clusters of faithful and excited pilgrims scattered along the road, some up ahead of them and some coming up behind them.

It might be sort of like when we drive in the mountains, and it appears that automobiles sort of cluster together. There will be a group of 3 or 4 up ahead around a couple more curves, and another band following behind us. Very rarely do we see a car alone. That was probably true for those Hebrew pilgrims.

As they journeyed up they would sing and chant Psalms of joy and praise. Likely they shouted some of the verses back and forth to each other, praising their great and merciful God for His faithful love and goodness. Maybe the joyful sounds echoed around the hills that lined the road. Maybe those at the very bottom, just beginning their walk, could hear those "echoes of mercy, whispers of love" as they moved along. (I wonder if they called it surround sound?)

Anyway, this is what I am experiencing reading Psalm 132: It reveals an aspect of God's character that we often ignore. His eagerness to shower on us more than we even ask for or can imagine.

The first 9 verses recall David's desire to build the LORD a temple. It reminds us of David's oath to God about the new temple. And then in verses 11-18 we read God's oath to David.

Verse 10 is a sort of hinge verse, revealing to us that the Psalm was written, not by David, but by his successor. It seems the Psalm was originally written by one of the musicians serving at the time of Solomon, probably for the dedication service of the great Temple.

But what brings me joy is to compare the words of each section. In verse 8 the poet is asking God to "Arise, O LORD, and come to your resting place." And then in God's response, in verses 13 and 14, God says "This is my resting place for ever and ever."

In verse 9 the poet asked God to clothe His priests with righteousness. God's response in verse 16 is that He will clothe them even more regally, with salvation.

In verse 9 the poet asks God to allow His saints to sing for joy. God says in verse 16 that the saints will sing with joy forever.

In verse 10 God is asked to accept, for the sake of David, the new king. God promises even more than that -- He will place David's descendants on the throne for as long as they keep their covenant with God.

And then in verses 17 and 18 we have the best-of-all promise that God will rise up a "horn", the symbol of a powerful ruler, who will achieve all that God has promised to His people. This is a whisper, a preview, of the long-awaited Messiah.

The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of Our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign for ever and ever. (Revelation 11:15)

Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Eph. 3:20-21

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