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Wednesday 05/14/25
Thru the Bible: Psalm Book V: Chapters 132-134
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The Songs of Ascents Pt. 4
Psalm Book V – Psalms 132-134
We are wrapping up the Songs of Ascents tonight. I’m sure I don’t need to remind you but these Psalms were written in various time periods. Many were most likely written following the Babylonian exile and the greatest majority of them seem to fit nicely with their future designated use. They came to be used as songs sung by the Jewish people as they ascended the hill leading to Jerusalem during the 4 required annual feasts. Even most of David and Solomon’s contributions, though they were very early, were central to the temple and worship.
We begin tonight with Psalm 132.
Psalm 132:1-18,
This psalm was likely written following the Babylonian exile. It makes reference to God’s promise to David regarding the Ark of the Covenant and the temple. Since following the Babylonian exile they returned to a destroyed temple which no longer contained the Ark of the Covenant, this psalm seeking God regarding it makes a fair amount of sense!
“(1) A Song of Ascents.
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.”
This is in reference to the place where they went to retrieve the Ark of the Covenant or the Ark of God’s presence.
The wording has caused a considerable amount of confusion and this is understandable in that language can be very tenuous and suggestive in many directions at once.
People have thought the claim was that the Ark was in Ephrathah, but there is no historical evidence such was ever the case, much less during the life of David. Both 1 Chronicals 13 & 14 and 2 Samuel 6 & 7 seem to offer a clear and synonymous account of the Ark from the time of Saul to David and Ephrathah is never mentioned.
Ephrathah is an ancient name for Bethlehem which is a mere 6 miles south of Jerusalem and was never directly mentioned as being in enemy hands or control. So if the Ark had been there all along it would have been an exceedingly simple matter to retrieve it.
No, I think the clear understanding is that the composer of this Psalm had available to him some shred of information passed down through time of the people of Ephrathah hearing or recalling that the location of the Ark of the Covenant, was in Kiriath–Jearim or “Jaar” during the time that David was seeking to retrieve it.
You may recall that the ark was kept in Kiriath–jearim and in fact had been there for 20 years prior to the death of Saul. 1 Samuel 7:1 tells us that it was brought to the house of Abinadab and that Eleazar, his son, was consecrated as the keeper of the Ark.
So it is there that David first went to retrieve the Ark, when in his failed attempt Uzzah died and David got angry at God. So David was not willing to move the ark of the LORD to Jerusalem at that point but instead, took it to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. Who lived in Gath, a place located between Kiriath–Jearim and Jerusalem.
So, assuming this Psalm was following the return from the Babylonian exile it would have been a sort of appeal to God to return the Ark, using the situation in David’s life as a token example and precedence to do so.
Of course, on some level, their understanding of the promises we read in the coming verses were skewed. David’s sons had NOT met the requirements of God’s enduring promise. The reign of the Davidic line in Jerusalem ended with the Babylonian conquest in 586 BCE. King Nebuchadnezzar, upon conquering the city, destroyed the temple, and exiled the last Davidic king, Zedekiah, to Babylon. This marked the end of the Kingdom of Judah and the direct line of David as rulers of Jerusalem
As such, following the Babylonian exile the Jews were under the rule of Persian governors, not kings. Cyrus the Great, the Persian King, had allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple, but he did not reinstate a king.
While Zerubbabel, a descendant of the kingly Davidic line, was a prominent leader in the rebuilding efforts, he was only a governor, not a king.
After Zerubbabel, there were no more rulers of any kind from among the Israelites. From that point on the Jews were largely under the rule of either Persian or Roman governors. The only exceptions were some minor Viceroys a few of which were said to have been Jewish and the appointment of Jason, a Selucid sympathizer was appointed High Priest which carried some religious authority, but never again was there an official Jewish King!
As I said, David’s sons had NOT kept followed the Lord as David had and so the scepter
However, parts of the promise to David served a dual purpose being predictive of Messiah’s Millennial reign and the eternal dwelling of God among His people.
I don’t know if you noticed it as we went through the Old Testament Historical and Prophetic books, but there is a type of loose association between the throne of David and the Ark of the Covenant. The idea that the Messiah would come from the line of David and establish his throne, is often mentioned in the same breath, as it were, in association with the Ark of the Covenant. This all has its roots in the Davidic Covenant, detailed in 2 Samuel 7, which promises an eternal kingdom for David’s descendants, with the Messiah ultimately reigning from David’s throne. This throne is also seen as a representation of God’s throne on earth, and the Ark of the Covenant is a key element in this symbolism.
Hopefully knowing this will help you as we keep reading…
“(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.”
This section has two future fulfillments. The first is Messianic when Jesus rules on the throne of David in Jerusalem during the Millennial kingdom following the Great Tribulation. Then after all humanity has been judged and the earth is renovated by fire, Revelation 21 says that Zion, or the New Jerusalem will descend out of heaven to the earth and God will say something very much like these above verses.
Revelation 21:1-4,“(1) Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had ceased to exist, and the sea existed no more.
(2) And I saw the holy city – thenew Jerusalem – descending out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband.
(3) And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying:
“Look! The residence of God is among human beings. He will live among them, and they will be his people, and God Himself will be with them.
(4) He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will not exist any more – or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have ceased to exist.”
Psalm 133:1-3,
“(1) A Song of Ascents. Of David.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brethren to dwell together in unity!
(2) It is like the precious oil upon the head, Running down on the beard, The beard of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments.
(3) It is like the dew of Hermon, descending upon the mountains of Zion; For there the LORD commanded the blessing— Life forevermore.”
This psalm is more complex in its imagery than one might first think.
Clearly the overarching idea is the beauty of unity – that is clearly stated and so we know in what direction to begin an accurate interpretation of its meaning.
The idea of unity is nothing fancy, it means what it says. Unity here is nothing more than unitedness, community and association.
Mediterranean cultures often place a high value on family ties and social connections, with a strong emphasis on gathering together, sharing meals, and participating in communal activities.
Families tend to be close-knit, and friendships are nurtured through regular interaction and mutual support.
Unfortunately I find myself on the complete other side of the spectrum. Not being Jewish or Greek or Mediterranean in any way it is hard for someone like me to wrap their head around this greater sense of community. I grew up in a neighborhood where we had very little interaction with our neighbors and quite frankly didn’t want to. Our sense of community was family and church but even that had its limits where too much was just too much.
That having been said, I think it has to do with the type of association. I have had times and people in my past where the communion was deep and we could talk for hours about the things of God and never have to break our pace in order to catch the other person up on a verse or its context. We could build upon themes and follow character traits of God out to their end conclusions in a variety of scenarios. Speculating on the kind of themes and topics you could never teach on in a typical modern church. Now, that type of communion and association I find life giving and perhaps that is the type of association being spoken of here because it is rooted in God’s desire of communion with us by mentioning the anointing oil that ran down Aaron’s beard.
You see in Leviticus we read that God gave certain laws to the Jews which did not seem rooted in God’s character but rather SEEM to have been intended to separate them from other nations. One of these traditions was the forbidding of men to round off the corners of the hair on their temples or ruin the corners of their beards.
This of course is NO demand that men grow beards, only that if they had one they should not keep them like the surrounding nations because there were pagan practices of beard trimming which were done in honor of pagan deities. God did not want His people to appear to be honoring a foreign god so this was forbidden to them.
As it seems always happens, the Jewish people used this to mean that men needed to grow long beards and that such represented masculine honor, wisdom, and piety among other things.
So this psalm makes the comparison between the unity of the brethren dwelling together with the anointing oil that ran down Aaron’s beard. The anointing as we know has always represented the Holy Spirit in one way or another. The Spirit, even in the New Testament, is the agency of our continual union and peace with God.
John records in the 14th chapter of his gospel that upon Jesus saying that He was leaving them the Holy Spirit as our Comforter, immediately connected the Holy Spirit with peace by saying,
“Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Your heart must not be troubled or fearful.”
The Holy Spirit plays a crucial role in establishing and maintaining peace with God. He’s the One Who initially brings about a state of grace and reconciliation with the Father, He is the One Who convicts the believer of sins, empowers them to live righteously, and in the very person of the Godhead we are told we have communion with!
The peace the Spirit of God brings is often described as exceeding all understanding, it is a fruit of the Spirit and allows believers to experience union among each other as a result.
So it is very likely that this comparison is not really a comparison as much as it is the real point of the psalm. Also, since it points to Aaron and the anointing he had to stand before God representing God to Israel and Israel to God – it is very fitting to have it in this collection of Songs of Ascents.
Finally the last comparison given is that of the dew of Hermon, descending upon the mountains of Zion. Of course this is not literal since Herman is geographically too far removed from physical Zion to have any of its dew settle there. This is a comparative statement. Mount Hermon had become an example of the blessings and prosperity God afforded His people due to a unique geographical phenomenon. Mount Hermon, was the highest peak in the region, providing a constant source of dew despite how dry and arid all of the surrounding lands were.
So it is that the Psalmist points to the dew of Hermon, descending upon Zion – which naturally pointed to Jerusalem but ultimately represents God’s people.
So this Psalm is saying that the anointing that flowed over the High Priest blessed Israel with the abundance of God’s blessings, His mercy and His grace drawing Israel into a covenant of unity with their Creator.
Of course we know this has its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Who is the final High Priest. Hebrews tells us that Jesus did what He did by the power of the Father – a.k.a. the Spirit – when the writer of Hebrews tells us that it was by the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus offered Himself up in death and that it was by means of the glory of the Father Who is the powerful person of the Holy Spirit that Jesus was raised to physical life again.
Thus this psalm ends with the words…
“It is like the dew of Hermon, descending upon the mountains of Zion; For there the LORD commanded the blessing— Life forevermore.”
Psalm 134:1-3,
“(1) A Song of Ascents.
Behold, bless the LORD, All you servants of the LORD, Who by night stand in the house of the LORD!
(2) Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, And bless the LORD.
(3) The LORD Who made heaven and earth Bless you from Zion!”
Closing out the Songs of Ascents is this simple Psalm which has us blessing God and He blessing us. It is a beautiful picture of unity and united purpose.
The servants of the Lord who stood in His house were the priests. The sanctuary was the tabernacle of meeting. We know this for several reasons.
1st it is in reference to the house of the Lord under the Old Covenant
2nd it mentions the men who serve God in this place, therefore making them priests
3rd the temple only had two rooms, the tabernacle of meeting and the Most Holy Place
4th the Most Holy Place NEVER had servants plural in it, but only the High Priest and that only once a year.
So it is that the only place this COULD be referencing is the Tabernacle of Meeting.
Also the word translated as “sanctuary” in the KJV and NKJV is actually referring to “The Holy Place” which is the tabernacle of meeting because the Ark of the Covenant and the presence of God were behind the curtain in the MOST Holy Place. [See Exodus 26:33 & 28:29].
More importantly is what service these priests performed in the Tabernacle of Meeting.
Well the first Tabernacle of Meeting was actually Moses’ personal tent. In Exodus 33:7-11 Moses is said to pitch his tent outside the Israelite camp and he called it the “tent of meeting”.
Exodus 33:7-11, “(7) Now Moses took a tent and set it up outside the camp, far away from the camp; he called it the “tent of meeting”.
Anyone who wanted to consult the LORD would go to the tent of meeting that was outside the camp.
(8) Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would stand up, each one at the door of his tent, and they would watch Moses until he entered the tent.
(9) When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and remain at the entrance to the tent, and the LORD would speak with Moses.
(10) As all the people saw the pillar of cloud remaining at the entrance to the tent, they would stand up, then bow in worship, each one at the door of his tent. (11) The LORD spoke with Moses face to face, just as a man speaks with his friend.
Then Moses would return to the camp, but his assistant, the young man Joshua son of Nun, would not leave the inside of the tent.”
Much is in these verses and lest you think I mention these things just to milk this passage for all its worth, let me remind you that Israelites think like this – or at least they used to. You can witness it throughout the bible. The people remembered their history! So when people read this Psalm or sang it as they ascended the hill to Jerusalem during the sacred feasts they were calling to mind all that I am describing to you. It was unavoidable and was in fact the intent of the Psalm. So if you and I are going to get anything approaching the understanding and impact that ancient Israel received in the singing of this song we need to experience it the same way they did, at least as much as is possible.
This incident with Moses is BEFORE God established the tabernacle but WHEN HE DID, I find it wonderfully redemptive and even a little sentimental on God’s part to call the first room of the tabernacle by the same name as the tent He used to meet Moses in.
What was the purpose of Moses’ meeting with God – what happened in that tent?
Well God would commune with Moses, speaking to Him face to face. So it is more than a point of idol speculation that such was the intent of God in the later Tabernacle of Meeting. Both the objects in it and the service done there all speak to the intimacy of meeting with God.
Without belaboring this, I want you to call to mind the articles of the Tabernacle of Meeting. Who can tell me?
The Menorah
This was the first thing anyone entering the Tabernacle of Meeting would see, since it was its only real light source.
This was intentional. The Menorah was a symbol of God and His people. It was a family photo if you will.
The ase represented the Father God Who upholds all things.
The center staff represented Jesus. Part of this staff was hollow, in the same way that Jesus emptied Himself by becoming a human and thus the servant of both God and man.
This center staff had branches protruding out of its sides which too were hollow. These branches represent us under the NewCovenant. We are branches which grow out of our Vine Who is Jesus. These branches had almond clusters on various stages of development. This represents the fruit we bear out of our union with Jesus.
The center staff was filled with precious oil which flowed from the center staff out, into and through the branches. These branches culminated in flax wicks which would draw upon the oil and allow the flames to burn without consuming the wicks.
These wicks made of flax would smoke and make a terrible stench if the oil ever ran out which represents the foul smell of all we do outside of our union with God through the Spirit.
The Menorah was constructed in such a way as to focus the light on the center staff, revealing the purpose of our being used by the HolySpirit which is to draw attention NOT to ourselves but to Christ.
Finally, the Menorah was made of one large piece of gold. It was NOT a welded work but a hammered work from a single piece of gold.
Gold, as we know, represents deity and so the family of God represented in the Menorah has us all IN God and being part of Him. Though we are clearly the created, in Jesus Who IS God but also became one of His Own creatures, we are connected eternally to God as family – ONE piece!
The next article in the Tabernacle of Meeting was the Showbread Table.
This was a table of gold which always had 12 loaves of fresh bread on it, each loaf representing one of the non-priestly tribes and thereby the government of God. [See Lev. 24:5-9]
Showbread means “bread of faces” or “bread of the presence”. You will no doubt now remember that the original Tabernacle of Meeting was the place God spoke with Moses “face-to-face”. The fact that there are 12 loaves correspond to the tribes of Israel indicating that in the priest, the tribes were represented as having and maintaining a continual communion with God – one that is face to face.
These loaves were baked fresh every week and placed on the table on the Sabbath. The week old bread would be taken up and given to the priests to eat before the Lord, and the frankincense which had been laid beside that bread would be taken up to be burnt upon the altar as a burnt offering before the Lord.
This in effect would make the priests one with the offering to the Lord. The frankincense would be one with the bread, but the frankincense would be offered to the Lord by fire while the bread would be offered to the Priest by ingestion.
To eat the showbread was to eat God’s bread in God’s house as a friend and a guest of the LORD, enjoying His hospitality.
In that culture, eating together formed a bond of friendship that was permanent and sacred. So eating the showbread was a powerful way of saying, “LORD I love You and I seek Your face. I’m in Your presence and I want to be transformed by seeing Your face.” It was also God’s way of saying nearly the same to the Priests and to all of Israel through the priests.
Aaron and his sons were to eat the week old bread in the holy place or the Tabernacle of Meeting. So this was a very symbolic, yet intimate meal of associating, identifying and becoming one with the offering which was a type of Messiah Jesus.
Finally there was the Altar of Incense –
Incense was burnt on the incense altar twice a day EVERY day!
The purpose of the incense altar was to create a fragrant aroma BEFORE THE LORD Who was on the other side of the curtain – therefore the altar of incense was directly associated with and in some way “belonged to” the Holy place.
Also, the censor, which carried the incense into the Tabernacle of Meeting was considered an extension of the altar itself and so in a symbolic way the altar DID actually go into the holiest of holies.
Fire is connected to several things in scripture and while some are unpleasant I think even those are intended to represent extremes.
- Coals are used to cleanse Isaiah’s lips.
- Fire is used as a crucible for purifying and trying.
- The tongue is said to be a fire – a world of iniquity.
- Love is like a fire – that cannot be quenched.
- God’s word is said to be a fire within Jeremiah.
So I think it is fair to say that coals and fire can speak of fervently spoken words or rather words which are spoken from a heart stirred to passion.
That the words being represented by the ascending fragrant smoke of the increases represent the perpetual communication of God’s people with Him speaks of the desire of God to commune with His people.
You need to understand – this altar had the smell of the smoldering incense rising continually BY THE COMMAND OF GOD. What does that tell us of God’s desire to commune and communicate with His people?
1 Thess. 5:17 tells us to “Pray without ceasing.”
and
Eph. 6:18 says, “praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—”
We are told to have and maintain fervent love one for another and that the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous avails much.
On the other end of the spectrum is the unholy fire Aaron’s sons offered. Like Cain they thought they could bring an offering of their own contrivance and God would be obligated to honor their ways. This met with God’s wrath on these men. Their unholy incense could represent unholy passions which are not dedicated to God. From that line of thinking it could effectively be argued that 1 Jn. 5 may be referring to such when he tells us of a prayer NOT to offer – sins leading to death or willful and high-handed sins of defiance and passionate rage against God are not offerings acceptable before Him. Therefore do not offer them.
To a lesser degree, but also important and relevant are prayers of general selfishness. We are warned against these by James. When he writes,
“(1) What is the source of the wars and the fights among you? Don’t they come from the cravings that are at war within you? (2) You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. You do not have because you do not ask. (3) You ask and don’t receive because you ask wrongly, so that you may spend it on your desires for pleasure. (4) Adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the world’s friend becomes God’s enemy. (5) Or do you think it’s without reason the Scripture says that the Spirit He has caused to live in us yearns jealously? (6) But He gives greater grace. Therefore He says: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. (7) Therefore, submit to God. But resist the Devil, and he will flee from you. (8) Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, double-minded people!” – James 4:1-8
This is an area which ends much revision in the hearts of modern Christians. We have become so over-familiar with God as a Father Who loves us, that we take liberties in our times of approaching Him which are not at all in keeping with honoring Him as our God and Creator. We need to remember that using God’s example of the Incense Altar and the very precise and holy mixture of spices it contained represented our prayers which are in turn said to BELONG to the Most Holy Place. So the prayers we offer should be prayers which BELONG in God’s presence. And what does that say to us but that there are prayers which do NOT belong there as I have just demonstrated! Therefore it is a modern fallacy which claims that God hears every prayer.
Psalm 100 addresses the proper way to approach God and has some key elements which are similar to this Psalm 134 we are examining. So in closing let’s reread Psalm 134 and then read Psalm 100.
“(1) A Song of Ascents.
Behold, bless the LORD, All you servants of the LORD, Who by night stand in the house of the LORD!
(2) Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, And bless the LORD.
(3) The LORD Who made heaven and earth Bless you from Zion!” – Psalm 134
Psalm 100,
“(1) Shout triumphantly to the LORD, all the earth. (2) Serve the LORD with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs. (3) Acknowledge that the LORD is God. He made us, and we are His–His people, the sheep of His pasture. (4) Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and praise His name. (5) For the LORD is good, and His love is eternal; His faithfulness endures through all generations.”
Blessings!
Tri
Tri
