The Bible Study Hour

Dr. James Boice: The ark of the covenant had been virtually forgotten by Israel under the reign of King Saul. But it was a reason for great celebration when the ark was rediscovered and brought to its resting place in Jerusalem.

Dr. James Boice: Welcome to the Bible Study Hour, a radio and internet broadcast with Dr. James Boice, preparing you to think and act biblically. God's people rejoiced at the ark's return, but even greater were the promises God made to David and his people. He would bless them and he would bless David's heirs, and his throne would be established forever.

Dr. James Boice: Join Dr. Boyce as he studies this Psalm of promise and blessing, and God's ultimate promise of a permanent throne to be established through the Messiah.

Dr. James Boice: We're looking at a Psalm today that is a happy Psalm because it has to do with a celebration. A celebration of the coming of the ark of God to Jerusalem and the time of King David. It's a very beautiful Psalm and I want to take a little time to describe its significance and its structure and then we want to look at it carefully and see the direction in which it moves.

Dr. James Boice: It's the longest of these 15 Psalms of ascent that we've been studying for a time. It's almost twice as long as any other one. That sense it doesn't quite seem to fit, but yet it's appropriate and for several reasons. For one thing, it was a song sung by pilgrims as they were making their way up to Jerusalem over the steep roads that led up to that high place. And it's the same path that was taken by the ark of God when David brought it up to Jerusalem, so there's a correspondence there.

Dr. James Boice: And then secondly, it's chiefly about the ark. The ark was deposited in the most holy place of the temple on the temple mount. So spiritually, this was really the goal of the pilgrimage of all these people. They were moving to Jerusalem, to the ark, and so a Psalm that deals with the ark and the coming of the ark to Jerusalem appropriately comes toward the end of this collection.

Dr. James Boice: The first half is about David's oath in which he promised to bring the ark to Jerusalem. And then the second half, beginning with verse 11, after a little transition verse, verse 10, records God's corresponding oath in regard to David in which God promises David an everlasting dynasty.

Dr. James Boice: What we're going to see is that the promises in the second half from God are heightened versions of the promises that occur in the first half, which is something we discover about God. We serve Him, but He's always ahead of us, blessing us far more than we can possibly do for Him.

Dr. James Boice: Now it's worth asking, who wrote the Psalm and when was it written? Verse 10, that little transition verse shows that it's not by David. It's written about David and appealing to God on the basis of David's vow. It obviously, therefore, is written later. Well, we don't know exactly who wrote it or who's saying this.

Dr. James Boice: Verses 8 through 10 are quoted in Second Chronicles 6 as part of Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple. So the Psalm probably dates from Solomon's reign. But it doesn't even mean that Solomon is speaking, and it might have been somebody else writing about Solomon.

Dr. James Boice: A few other references to this Psalm in the Bible. Stephen refers to verse 5 in his great speech before the Sanhedrin, recorded in the seventh chapter of Acts. Peter refers to verse 11 in his great Pentecost sermon, that's recorded in Acts 2 and so forth. So it's a very significant Psalm in the Bible, whether you look backward to its precedents or whether you look forward to the New Testament.

Dr. James Boice: Now, I have already said several times that it focuses on David's promise to bring the ark of God up to Jerusalem, and the Psalm really focuses on David. As a matter of fact, if you look through it and circle the word David and tie it together, you'll find that you're really linking up all the various parts of the Psalm.

Dr. James Boice: David is mentioned there in verse 1. Oh Lord, remember David and all the hardships he endured. The next verses tell about his vow. In verse 10, you have an appeal on the basis of what David has done, for the sake of David your servant, do not reject your anointed one. Then in verse 11, David comes in again, the Lord swore an oath to David. And then at the very end of the Psalm, you find David's name, verse 17.

Dr. James Boice: Here I will make a horn grow for David and set up a lamp for my anointed one. So it's about what David did almost from beginning to end and what God does for David. Now, David is recorded here as having made a vow to God that he would bring the ark of God up to Jerusalem, and that he would not enter into his house or go to his bed or sleep or anything else until he finds a place for the Lord. It makes one wonder whether he was wise in making the vow.

Dr. James Boice: We don't have to take his words literally, of course, when he says he's not going to sleep or eat until he constructs a home for God, building a temple for the ark in Jerusalem. He presumably himself wouldn't have been foolish enough to mean that literally because building the temple would take a long time.

Dr. James Boice: But even so, even if you don't take the words literally, you have to wonder whether he is wise in taking this vow or whether we are wise when we take vows. Generally speaking, it's not a good thing to take vows because we're unable generally to fulfill them. And in any case, David wasn't able to fulfill it even if you don't take it literally. You know, he is not the one who built the temple.

Dr. James Boice: Although he did collect all of the things that would be needed for the building, the great cedars of Lebanon and the gold and all of that, but it was actually his son Solomon who did it. Nothing is said elsewhere in the Bible about David taking an oath. When you read about the construction of the temple and David's desire to do it back in the historical books, nothing is said about this. This is the only place in the Bible where the oath of David is mentioned. And it's something he didn't fulfill.

Dr. James Boice: It's significant, I think, however, that what is stressed here in the Psalm is not the fact that David didn't fulfill it, but that his intentions were good. He really wanted to do something for the Lord. And so that's what's acknowledged here, and God certainly blessed him. David was concerned about God's glory and God's house. And so to use an expression of our own, he wanted to lay it on the line where his zeal for God was concerned.

Dr. James Boice: It does lead us to ask the personal question, are we equally intent on doing honor to God and God's house? In our day, sadly, the majority of believers in the churches don't give anywhere near a tenth of their income to the Lord and the Lord's work, let alone giving sacrificially, which is what David was trying to do.

Dr. James Boice: So that's the first portion here, David's oath. It's verses 2 through 4. Now, in the next section, verses 6 and following, we find how the ark was actually brought up to Jerusalem. And it's an interesting little bit of historical record, a little historical remembrance. It's helpful here to know just a little bit about what the ark was and what had happened to it during the previous years.

Dr. James Boice: Most of you will know that the ark was a box meant to contain the law of God and the stone tables and a few other things. It was made out of wood, but it was covered with gold and then it had a gold covering to it, a covering made entirely of gold, upon which there were figures of cherubim, angels, that faced one another over the roof of the ark, and that covering was called the mercy seat because that's the place where the blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled on the day of atonement.

Dr. James Boice: It was on the basis of the shed blood that God showed mercy to the people and forgiving their sins. Now, because it was covered with gold, it was a heavy thing. And it was carried by priests on poles. It had to be done in a certain way. People were not even allowed to look upon it. And so the priests when it came time for them to move the ark from one place to another had to very carefully cover it.

Dr. James Boice: During the days of the wilderness wanderings, it was kept in the tabernacle, and whenever the people moved on their march, everything was packed up, including the ark, and the ark led by the priests actually led the way. And when they were about to start out, the great cloud, the Shekinah glory that hovered over the tabernacle raised up and went before the people.

Dr. James Boice: Now, that's the ark that we're talking about. When the people came to the Jordan River on the brink of their entry into the promised land, the ark carried by the priests led the way. And if you recall that story, you'll know that when the priests first set foot into the Jordan River, the waters parted, and the ark followed by the people were able to pass over on dry land.

Dr. James Boice: When they got into the promised land, the ark was first deposited at Shiloh. A reference to that is in Joshua 18. After that, it was somehow moved to Bethel. A reference to that is in Judges 20. Then it stayed for a time at Mizpah. The reference there is to Judges 21. And finally, for 20 years, it was kept at a place called Kiriath-Jearim. And the reference to that is 1 Samuel 7 verse 2.

Dr. James Boice: Now, that's where we pick up the story with Psalm 132. Because Kiriath-Jearim is the place that's referred to when the Psalm says we came upon it in the fields of Jaar. Jaar is just the singular form of Jearim. And so Jearim would be a shortened way of referring to Kiriath-Jearim, and Jaar is a shortened way of referring to Jearim. So this is where they they found it and this is what is being described.

Dr. James Boice: The important thing about that is that the location of the ark had been forgotten. Here is something that was significant in the history of the people, both as a remembrance of what had happened during those years of wandering, but also as the very focal point of their religion where the sacrifices were made on the Day of Atonement.

Dr. James Boice: And yet, during the reign of Saul that preceded the reign of David, the ark of the covenant was so far forgotten that they didn't even know where it was, and when David said we want to bring the ark up to Jerusalem, they had to scramble around and find it. You know the story, David actually danced before the ark as it was brought into the city.

Dr. James Boice: Now that's what we have referred to here briefly. One thing the people did as the ark was brought up was sing again or cry out again, the well-known marching cry of Israel from the wilderness days when the Shekinah glory and the ark went before them.

Dr. James Boice: We're told about it in Numbers 10. The people used to say, Arise, O Lord, and come to your resting place, you and the ark of your might. Now that's exactly what's being referred to here in what I've called this historical reminiscence. Now, that's the past.

Dr. James Boice: Verse 10, we have this transition. The reigning king, your anointed one there, may be the one who is praying for blessing for the sake of your servant David, his predecessor, or it may be someone else praying here on behalf of the anointed king in reference to David.

Dr. James Boice: At any rate, he is interceding and referring to David. I suppose the way we need to apply that is by recognizing that when we apply to God for blessing, we do so on the basis of our great king, David's great successor, Jesus Christ, because it's in His name that we come. We can come claiming the blessings of God, the promises of God, but we do it not because of ourselves or who we are.

Dr. James Boice: We come claiming the blessing or promises of God because of Jesus Christ and the fact that we belong to Him by his purchase of us on the cross. So we need to apply it that way. As we begin to move on through here, we find that it has more and more to do with us because the direction of the Psalm is toward the future as we're going to see.

Dr. James Boice: Now, the second half of it, beginning with verse 11, is where the Psalm begins to focus not on David's oath on behalf of what he would do for God, but rather God's oath on behalf of David and what he's going to do for David. This is a truncated or abbreviated version of the great promise to God that you have back in the historical books, particularly in 2 Samuel 7.

Dr. James Boice: David had said he was going to do something for God, and God in that great revelation said, well, that's nice, but actually I'm going to do something even greater for you. And God began to spell out what those blessings were. First of all, that God would establish the people in their own land. They were already there, but he was going to establish them there. Secondly, that God would give David an heir who was going to succeed him.

Dr. James Boice: That was a very important thing in those days because Saul's heir had not succeeded Saul. And so what they needed was stability in the kingdom, and God promised that. Number three, that God would bless his successor, who turned out to be Solomon. God saying, however, that he would discipline him when he needed that. And mentioning that this successor would be the one who would actually build the temple.

Dr. James Boice: And then fourth, in this great promise of God in 2 Samuel 7, that the throne of David was going to be established forever. That's the most important thing because it points forward to the Messiah. A particular verse is verse 16, where God says, Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me. Your throne will be established forever.

Dr. James Boice: Now, those are the promises that are picked up, although I say in a shortened or truncated version, an abbreviated version here in Psalm 132. There are two levels of promise. One has to do with God's promises to David and his immediate successors who are going to reign upon the throne, and it has to do with blessings upon Israel. And then the second level of promise has to do with the Messiah who's yet to come.

Dr. James Boice: Now, as I said earlier, what is striking here is that these promises in the second half relate to the prayers or promises in the first half, but the second half heightens them. So what God actually does is greater than what was anticipated or prayed for. Look, let me give you some examples. First of all, the people in their prayer recorded in the first half of the Psalm asked for righteousness for the priests. And what God promises in the second half is to clothe the priests with salvation, which is an even greater concept.

Dr. James Boice: Secondly, the people asked that the saints might sing for joy. And God promises that they're going to sing for joy forever. Thirdly, the people had asked that the ark might be brought up to Jerusalem, which it was. But God promises now that he's going to sit enthroned there in Jerusalem forever.

Dr. James Boice: You see, that's always the way it works with God. You can never sort of out-expect God. We can pray for things and sometimes we pray wrongly, and God doesn't give us what's going to hurt us, but when we pray rightly, God not only answers the prayers, He answers them far and above what we could possibly anticipate. We pray for salvation, but which one of us could ever possibly imagine the wonder of the salvation which we receive in Jesus Christ, the blessings that we have in Him.

Dr. James Boice: Look here in this last section, what these particular blessings are. First of all, verses 13 and 14, they talk about the establishment of God's throne in Jerusalem. Now part of that has to do with the establishment of David's throne and the Jewish state. But when God speaks of establishing Zion as His resting place forever and ever, as He does in verse 14, it's clear that this has to go beyond the endurance of a merely earthly kingdom. It's about the Messiah and His throne.

Dr. James Boice: When you talk about forever and forever, you're talking about that which only God can fulfill as David was well aware when God announced the promise to him. He said to God, this isn't something that belongs to a mere man. This has to do with you and the Messiah who's yet to come. And of course, that's exactly right. Because the throne of David did not in fact, historically speaking, endure forever, at least if you're looking at it on the human level.

Dr. James Boice: It ended with Jeconiah, who is also sometimes called Jehoiakim in the Old Testament, when he was carried off to Babylon where he died. Moreover, there's even a curse pronounced upon this man for his sin, recorded by Jeremiah in the 22nd chapter. God speaking said that no descendant of this man is going to sit upon the throne of David or rule anymore in Judah, and they didn't. He was the last of the kings. All of this man's sons died in exile, and the line of David as it would seem, ended there.

Dr. James Boice: But not so. Jesus Christ, the Messiah, is destined to rule and to rule forever. That's why we read in Revelation as we come toward the end of the Bible, the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever. And when we read that, the people of God say, amen.

Dr. James Boice: Now, secondly, we read about God's blessings on the people, both physically and spiritually. And that's verses 15 and 16, two verses a piece given to each of these. This blessing involves material prosperity, ample provision for the poor, but also salvation for the priests and joy for all the people. In other words, what it's talking about is a future, idyllic, Messianic state.

Dr. James Boice: It's an interesting thing that people have dreamed about this in history throughout the centuries of history. Wise men have dreamed about what has sometimes been called the Golden Age. Plato was one of them. He wrote about it in his republic. Virgil, the great Latin writer and poet, wrote about it in his fourth eclogue. And you come down to more modern times and you have writers like Thomas More, Edward Bellamy, Samuel Butler, writing about a future idealistic state. Or even people like Leo Tolstoy, the writer, tried to create one.

Dr. James Boice: Or if you think in terms of movements, the communists tried to do it in terms of a classless society. And we in the West and the capitalistic countries try to picture this in terms of increasing prosperity for everyone. The problem is that this has never been achieved. No state, no people, no dreamer has ever achieved this idealistic goal of a Golden Age. And when we look at the future, even the future doesn't seem very promising.

Dr. James Boice: Let me read you a quote by a writer from a few years ago. See if this doesn't describe what we've all experienced. This man wrote, The rule of man has been characterized by irreconcilable ambitions and conflicts of interest. The brains of man have been dedicated to the production of military machines and accouterments for the scattering of death and desolation among the inhabitants of the earth.

Dr. James Boice: Man has looked for peace and found war. He has talked of brotherhood and love and has seen hatred and persecutions. He's boasted of his civilization, enlightenment, and progress, and the so-called heathen have upbraided him for his godless practices. He has spent billions of dollars for war, millions for pleasure, and only a few paltry thousands for the spreading of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Dr. James Boice: This gives no promise of improvement. As it was, so it is, and so it will be until the King comes back. There has not been a period since the fall of man in which the race has enjoyed or witnessed the condition which prophecy declares shall obtain in the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Those words aren't harsh. Those are accurate words describing the history of our times. But the striking thing is that they were written in 1938, the year I was born. Things have not gotten better in my lifetime.

Dr. James Boice: We dream of a Golden Age, but if there's ever going to be a Golden Age, it's going to be the King of glory who will bring it in. And of course, that's exactly where the Psalm ends because that's what the last verses talk about, verses 17 and 18. They talk about the coming of the Messiah and the establishment of His kingdom.

Dr. James Boice: That's what God means when He says that He'll cause a horn to grow up for David. That is a powerful ruler who will achieve everything that God has promised, and God says his crown and his alone will be resplendent, verse 18. We live in an age when people are looking to the government to solve their problems. But even in a freely elected system like ours, with a benign government, the government is never going to solve our problems.

Dr. James Boice: The anticipation that the government will do it is actually statism, which is a form of idolatry. It means we're looking to the state as our savior. And the kingdom of God doesn't come that way. At a meeting of the National Association of Evangelicals in 1980, after President Ronald Reagan had given an address to the people, and everybody was cheering wildly, the main address of the evening was to be given by Charles Colson, who had served in government under Nixon.

Dr. James Boice: And he stepped to the platform, and after he had gotten people's attention, and they had quieted down, he said in a very quiet and solemn voice, you have to remember that the kingdom of God does not arrive on Air Force One. And that was absolutely true. It does not, but it does arrive with the coming of the Messiah. Because it is He to whom we look, we who are on this pilgrimage of the Christian life. And that means that we have to keep our eyes on Him.

Dr. James Boice: The author of Hebrews noted that although we do not yet at present see everything subject to Him, we do nevertheless see Jesus. Hebrews 2:8 and 9, and that's enough. Because as we look to Jesus, we move on toward that goal that God has set before us, which is the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Dr. James Boice: Thank you for listening to this message from the Bible Study Hour, a listener-supported ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. The Alliance is a coalition of pastors, scholars, and churchmen who hold to the historic creeds and confessions of the Reformed faith, and who proclaim biblical doctrine in order to foster a reformed awakening in today's church. To learn more about the Alliance, visit Alliancenet.org. And while you're there, visit our online store, Reformed Resources, where you can find messages and books from Dr. Boice and other outstanding teachers and theologians.

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