Psalm 132:8-18/Galatians 4:21-31
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
According to the witness of Holy Scripture, David, the anointed king of the chosen people of God, was a type of the One who is to come. What befell David occurs for the sake of the One who is in him and who is to proceed from him, namely, Jesus Christ. David was aware of this. As it is written, Being therefore a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that He would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ (Acts 2:30, 31). David was a witness to Christ in His kingly office, in his life, and in his words.
And the New Testament says even more. In the Psalms of David it is precisely the promised Christ who already speaks. That is to say, “the same words that David spoke the future Messiah spoke to him. Christ prayed along with the prayers of David or, more accurately, it is none other than Christ who prayed them in Christ’s own forerunner, David” (Bonhoeffer, The Psalms, p159).
Certainly not all of the psalms are from David. Yet all of them are decisively linked to him, either through his offspring or according to his confession of faith; which is the Christian’s confession. But especially because Christ Jesus says of the psalms in general, (along with the Torah and the Prophets,) that they announced His death and resurrection and the preaching of repentance and the forgiveness of sins (Lk 24:44).
The self-revealing God of the Old Testament is a preached God. That is God - the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - makes Himself known only in and through the Word. This Word the Father speaks in many and various ways to the prophets. He swears by Himself to His servant David, One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne.
This is an incarnational promise, even as it was to Adam and Eve in the beginning: the Seed of the woman shall crush the serpent’s head. This incarnational promise was renewed with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; reiterated and proclaimed with each passing generation, through every Israelite mother’s son. Until this incarnational promise took on a new locatedness when the Lord God of heaven and earth descended to man abiding among His people in the Ark of the Covenant, the Ark of His Might.
For there, atop the Ark, enthroned between the cherubim, dwelt YHWH Sabaoth. Located. Present among His people for their redemption and comfort. Hidden within the tabernacle constructed on Mount Zion. Within the Ark were the two tablets of the Law, inscribed with the finger of God, a constant reminder to the people of Israel of the testimonies of the Lord.
Now for nearly 70 years under the reign of King Saul, the tabernacle sat empty, a body devoid of a soul, a shell without a kernel, for the Ark of the Covenant was not there. It had been stolen by the Philistines. The Lord sent plagues upon the Philistines until it they returned the Ark to Israel. It was deposited in the wooded area around Bethlehem, known as Ephrathah. Saul was not interested in replacing it in its proper abode.
David was different. He longed to construct a suitable house for the Ark of the Lord; crying out in the opening words of Psalm 132: I will not enter my house or get into my bed, I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids, until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob. And according to the will and mercy of our Lord, David returned the Ark to the Holy City. But to him it was not given to build a Temple.
Rather to one of the sons of his body, to Solomon, was this honor granted. And upon the construction and dedication of the Temple, when the Ark was brought into its resting place, Solomon prayed in the words of this psalm : Now, O my God, let Your eyes be open and Your ears attentive to the prayer of this place. “And now arise, O Lord God, and go to Your resting place, You and the Ark of Your might. Let Your priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation, and let your saints rejoice in Your goodness. O Lord God, do not turn away the face of Your anointed one! Remember Your steadfast love for David Your servant” (2 Chr 6:41-42).
Now, as with Hagar and Sarah, Ishmael and Isaac, these events occurred. The first Temple was constructed in Jerusalem by King Solomon. The Ark of the Lord was carried into the Most Holy Place, the cloud of the presence of YHWH Sabaoth descended and filled the sanctuary.
But once more, this may be interpreted allegorically. And to do so is not to violate the historic meaning of the text, nor is it to impose up the Old Testament a perceived matrix of the New. Rather, it is to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph 3:18-19). As it is written, In Christ the whole fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily (Col 2:9).
Consider once more the psalm, 132; consider this incarnational Word and promise given to David. Is not Jesus, the Son of God, also the son of David according to his own body? Is He not the Messiah, that is, the Anointed One? As it is written, God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit [in His baptism] (Ac 10:38). And elsewhere David says, The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies Your footstool” (Ps 110:1; Ac 2:34). He who is David’s Son is also his Lord, the fulfillment of his eagerness to build a Temple to house the Ark.
Beloved this is the mysterious nature of this psalm; it begins with David and the sanctuary on Mount Zion, but it ends with a prophecy concerning Christ, His incarnation and eternal kingdom. Indeed not only this, but all the Psalms, as true Christian prayers, submerge us in God’s good purpose and holy will; thus they must be about the Christ, just as the Christ, according to the Father’s will, must suffer and die and on the third day rise and repentance and forgiveness be preached in His Name (cf. Lk 24:44).
Do you see, oh people loved by God? Christ is the fulfillment of this psalm and prophecy. Old Zechariah, by grace saw and sang, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David (Lk 1:68-69). It is not his son, John, but the only begotten Son of the Father, the descendant of the King of Israel, David’s Son and David’s Lord, Jesus, the Christ, who is the horn of salvation of which Zechariah sings for joy.
He has come to His dwelling place, which is among man, even as Solomon hope for and prayed. For He who has come down from heaven, and has tabernacled among us in the flesh, is the Glory of YHWH, hidden in the Temple made without hands; that is, His own body born of Mary. He is the Temple! He is the Ark! He is the Mercy Seat Sacrifice! This is the incarnate Word of our preached God! Worthy is He, the Lamb who was slain for by His blood He has ransomed a people for God and have made them a kingdom and priests to our God (Rev 5:9-10).
Beloved, you are His priests, the children of promise, born of the free Woman, that is His Bride, the Church. And you are clothed in garments of righteousness and salvation; adorned with the precious blood of the Lamb. As St Paul wrote to the Galatians, In Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ (Gal 3:26-27); vested as priests in His own righteousness. And He places in your hands the lamp of His Anointed, that is, the Word, which illumines your path.
The Ark of the Old Covenant was lost. The Temple destroyed. But the Ark of the New Covenant and the Eternal Temple is found in Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, and His shed blood for you.
Come then, you holy nation, you royal priesthood, and partake of the priestly food: the Body and the Blood of the Lamb who was slain, the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. This is His abundant provision. For you shall not be cast out; your inheritance is with Isaac and David and all the children of promise. You are a co-heir with Christ the only Son, your inheritance is the crown of glory that shall never fade away.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
According to the witness of Holy Scripture, David, the anointed king of the chosen people of God, was a type of the One who is to come. What befell David occurs for the sake of the One who is in him and who is to proceed from him, namely, Jesus Christ. David was aware of this. As it is written, Being therefore a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that He would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ (Acts 2:30, 31). David was a witness to Christ in His kingly office, in his life, and in his words.
And the New Testament says even more. In the Psalms of David it is precisely the promised Christ who already speaks. That is to say, “the same words that David spoke the future Messiah spoke to him. Christ prayed along with the prayers of David or, more accurately, it is none other than Christ who prayed them in Christ’s own forerunner, David” (Bonhoeffer, The Psalms, p159).
Certainly not all of the psalms are from David. Yet all of them are decisively linked to him, either through his offspring or according to his confession of faith; which is the Christian’s confession. But especially because Christ Jesus says of the psalms in general, (along with the Torah and the Prophets,) that they announced His death and resurrection and the preaching of repentance and the forgiveness of sins (Lk 24:44).
The self-revealing God of the Old Testament is a preached God. That is God - the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - makes Himself known only in and through the Word. This Word the Father speaks in many and various ways to the prophets. He swears by Himself to His servant David, One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne.
This is an incarnational promise, even as it was to Adam and Eve in the beginning: the Seed of the woman shall crush the serpent’s head. This incarnational promise was renewed with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; reiterated and proclaimed with each passing generation, through every Israelite mother’s son. Until this incarnational promise took on a new locatedness when the Lord God of heaven and earth descended to man abiding among His people in the Ark of the Covenant, the Ark of His Might.
For there, atop the Ark, enthroned between the cherubim, dwelt YHWH Sabaoth. Located. Present among His people for their redemption and comfort. Hidden within the tabernacle constructed on Mount Zion. Within the Ark were the two tablets of the Law, inscribed with the finger of God, a constant reminder to the people of Israel of the testimonies of the Lord.
Now for nearly 70 years under the reign of King Saul, the tabernacle sat empty, a body devoid of a soul, a shell without a kernel, for the Ark of the Covenant was not there. It had been stolen by the Philistines. The Lord sent plagues upon the Philistines until it they returned the Ark to Israel. It was deposited in the wooded area around Bethlehem, known as Ephrathah. Saul was not interested in replacing it in its proper abode.
David was different. He longed to construct a suitable house for the Ark of the Lord; crying out in the opening words of Psalm 132: I will not enter my house or get into my bed, I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids, until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob. And according to the will and mercy of our Lord, David returned the Ark to the Holy City. But to him it was not given to build a Temple.
Rather to one of the sons of his body, to Solomon, was this honor granted. And upon the construction and dedication of the Temple, when the Ark was brought into its resting place, Solomon prayed in the words of this psalm : Now, O my God, let Your eyes be open and Your ears attentive to the prayer of this place. “And now arise, O Lord God, and go to Your resting place, You and the Ark of Your might. Let Your priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation, and let your saints rejoice in Your goodness. O Lord God, do not turn away the face of Your anointed one! Remember Your steadfast love for David Your servant” (2 Chr 6:41-42).
Now, as with Hagar and Sarah, Ishmael and Isaac, these events occurred. The first Temple was constructed in Jerusalem by King Solomon. The Ark of the Lord was carried into the Most Holy Place, the cloud of the presence of YHWH Sabaoth descended and filled the sanctuary.
But once more, this may be interpreted allegorically. And to do so is not to violate the historic meaning of the text, nor is it to impose up the Old Testament a perceived matrix of the New. Rather, it is to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph 3:18-19). As it is written, In Christ the whole fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily (Col 2:9).
Consider once more the psalm, 132; consider this incarnational Word and promise given to David. Is not Jesus, the Son of God, also the son of David according to his own body? Is He not the Messiah, that is, the Anointed One? As it is written, God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit [in His baptism] (Ac 10:38). And elsewhere David says, The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies Your footstool” (Ps 110:1; Ac 2:34). He who is David’s Son is also his Lord, the fulfillment of his eagerness to build a Temple to house the Ark.
Beloved this is the mysterious nature of this psalm; it begins with David and the sanctuary on Mount Zion, but it ends with a prophecy concerning Christ, His incarnation and eternal kingdom. Indeed not only this, but all the Psalms, as true Christian prayers, submerge us in God’s good purpose and holy will; thus they must be about the Christ, just as the Christ, according to the Father’s will, must suffer and die and on the third day rise and repentance and forgiveness be preached in His Name (cf. Lk 24:44).
Do you see, oh people loved by God? Christ is the fulfillment of this psalm and prophecy. Old Zechariah, by grace saw and sang, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David (Lk 1:68-69). It is not his son, John, but the only begotten Son of the Father, the descendant of the King of Israel, David’s Son and David’s Lord, Jesus, the Christ, who is the horn of salvation of which Zechariah sings for joy.
He has come to His dwelling place, which is among man, even as Solomon hope for and prayed. For He who has come down from heaven, and has tabernacled among us in the flesh, is the Glory of YHWH, hidden in the Temple made without hands; that is, His own body born of Mary. He is the Temple! He is the Ark! He is the Mercy Seat Sacrifice! This is the incarnate Word of our preached God! Worthy is He, the Lamb who was slain for by His blood He has ransomed a people for God and have made them a kingdom and priests to our God (Rev 5:9-10).
Beloved, you are His priests, the children of promise, born of the free Woman, that is His Bride, the Church. And you are clothed in garments of righteousness and salvation; adorned with the precious blood of the Lamb. As St Paul wrote to the Galatians, In Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ (Gal 3:26-27); vested as priests in His own righteousness. And He places in your hands the lamp of His Anointed, that is, the Word, which illumines your path.
The Ark of the Old Covenant was lost. The Temple destroyed. But the Ark of the New Covenant and the Eternal Temple is found in Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, and His shed blood for you.
Come then, you holy nation, you royal priesthood, and partake of the priestly food: the Body and the Blood of the Lamb who was slain, the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. This is His abundant provision. For you shall not be cast out; your inheritance is with Isaac and David and all the children of promise. You are a co-heir with Christ the only Son, your inheritance is the crown of glory that shall never fade away.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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