The Eternal Dwelling Place of God

Psalms 132:1-18
A Song of Ascents.

1 LORD, remember David
And all his afflictions;
2 How he swore to the LORD,
And vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob:

3 "Surely I will not go into the chamber of my house,
Or go up to the comfort of my bed;
4 I will not give sleep to my eyes
Or slumber to my eyelids,
5 Until I find a place for the LORD,
A dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob."

6 Behold, we heard of it in Ephrathah;
We found it in the fields of the woods.

7 Let us go into His tabernacle;
Let us worship at His footstool.

8 Arise, O LORD, to Your resting place,
You and the ark of Your strength.

9 Let Your priests be clothed with righteousness,
And let Your saints shout for joy.

10 For Your servant David's sake,
Do not turn away the face of Your Anointed.

11 The LORD has sworn in truth to David;
He will not turn from it:
"I will set upon your throne the fruit of your body.

12 If your sons will keep My covenant
And My testimony which I shall teach them,
Their sons also shall sit upon your throne forevermore."

13 For the LORD has chosen Zion;
He has desired it for His dwelling place:
14 "This is My resting place forever;
Here I will dwell, for I have desired it.

15 I will abundantly bless her provision;
I will satisfy her poor with bread.
16 I will also clothe her priests with salvation,
And her saints shall shout aloud for joy.

17 There I will make the horn of David grow;
I will prepare a lamp for My Anointed.
18 His enemies I will clothe with shame,
But upon Himself His crown shall flourish."

How this song of ascent to worship the LORD sings of the Messiah as promised through the lineage of King David to whom it was promised (Acts 2:29-30)!  He began the song to remind God and himself that He had chosen him to build an everlasting kingdom and a place of worship in Jerusalem, a foreshadowing of the eternal kingdom and the New Jerusalem to culminate the promise forevermore.  The king vowed to do all in his power to build such a place on the earth as a shadow of the heavenly temple (Hebrews 8:1-2, 5, 9:11-12, 24), a place to meet and worship God until we could all stand before Him face to face.  The footstool of worship is not therefore here in the temple on earth, but in the heavens and at last on the new earth in the New Jerusalem come down out of heaven where He will live and where we will worship without pilgrimage and the long and arduous ascent up the earthly Mount Zion to appear there.  No, we have our bodies as His temples to worship from now and He lives within us, that we may offer our reasonable service of worship with these temples we tabernacle in throughout our pilgrimage here on earth (Romans 12:1, Hebrews 11:13).  The Lord’s resting place is in us until the consummation of all things when He brings the heavenly tabernacle to us as Revelation 21:2-3 tells us, and becomes the temple (Revelation 21:22) Himself!  We will worship in a temple not made of hands as David attempted to do in anticipation of the true.  As priests to God, we will then forever shout joyfully as we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ.  This is through the promise of the Messiah, the Anointed Christ to come from the fruit of David’s lineage and from heaven above as God’s own Son which was shadowed in the promises to,and through this earthly king.  That was God’s certain promise.  This is our hope fulfilled as the chosen eternal resting place where He dwells, not on a physical mountain and temple, but in us; the kingdom of God is within and among us (Luke 17:21)!  Yes, as the psalm ends with promises of provision and abundance, as well as the pledge by God to clothe us with salvation, that which we are unable to attain for ourselves.  We have then this great joy which all God’s enemies do not possess; they have only eternal shame for rejecting Him and His crown of glory, honor, and not ascribing tomHim the praise due to Him by us and by His grace and mercy in Christ to us.  Let us then worship in these temporal temples corporately and individually until we together worship in Him as the temple (Revelation 21:22) in the New Jerusalem, the eternal dwelling place of God!