Psalm 132: Throne

 

Psalm 132 can’t be rightly read without starting at II Samuel 7. David was finally the king of reunited Israel. The Ark of God was now in the tent that David had pitched for it in Jerusalem and “the LORD had given him (David) rest from all his surrounding enemies.” This was before David’s sin with Bathsheeba, the murder of Uriah, before the rebellion of Absalom. This may have been the high point of David’s rule and his personal life, it may have been the season of his greatest peace. In that season David’s response was to desire to give thanks, to do something for God in response to all that God had done for him. That response was noble, it was pure-hearted, it was not in any manner self-seeking, but at the same time, it was not at all what God had planned or desired. It was David trying to do his will for God, because David still didn’t understand God’s will. 

David called for the prophet Nathan and said, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.” There was no request made or intent shared, but it seems Nathan understood David’s heart. The prophet responded, “Go, do all that is in your heart, for the LORD is with you.” Nathan gave David permission to fulfill his desires for God. 

That night the LORD spoke to Nathan. God reminded the prophet that He had never lived in a house, even more, that He had never spoken to any of Israel’s leaders about building Him a house. He told Nathan to go back and tell David a very specific message, that He would make a great name for David, that He would appoint a place for Israel and then these strange words, “the LORD will make you a house.” David wanted to build a house for God, but instead, God desired to build a house from David. David’s intentions were good, but his understanding was dim, he had a heart for God, but he had not yet understood the heart of God. 

In the next lines God promised that David’s son would be king after him and that he would build a house for God and that God would establish his kingdom, discipline him when he sinned, but never remove His steadfast love from him. But the heart of God was revealed in the final words that He spoke to Nathan for David, “Your throne shall be established forever.” We tend to get so stuck in the temporary that we miss the eternal. We grab the promise of Solomon but miss the prophesy of the Messiah. We hear what makes sense to us, what fits our limited understanding but at the same time we almost shut our ears and our hearts to the greater truth. David wanted to build a place where God could dwell with Israel, but God wanted to send the Messiah that would bring Israel and all the nations to dwell with God. God was doing immeasurably more than David could ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20), because God’s will has never been to answer our prayers but that His Son and His Spirit would change our hearts until our prayers were in line with His will. David wanted to build a temple; God was going to send the Messiah. 

I feel like we miss how important eternity is to God. Eternity is all God knows. He is self-existent, uncreated. He knows the end from the beginning because He is both the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega. All things were made, not only by Him, but for Him and in Him all things exist (Colossians 1:16-17). God did not create us to live here temporarily and then in heaven forever, but to live with Him eternally. Sin begat death, but before we sinned, before anyone ever died, the Father had already established that the Lamb would be slain (Revelation 13:8). Eternity is not about heaven, it’s not about where we go when we die, it’s about the relationship that the Uncreated One created for us to have with Him. So often we define eternal life as “living forever” or “never dying”, but Jesus defined it this way in John 17, His prayer before His arrest, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Eternity matters to God because it’s where His heart will be fully known to us the way our hearts have always been fully known to Him. 

David wanted to build God a temple in Israel, but God willed, He desired, to use Israel to birth a King that would establish His throne in Israel, for all nations, forever. Jesus the Messiah has always been the center of all God has done. In creation, God said, “Let us make man in our image”. The Holy Spirit revealed in Colossians 1:15 that “the Son is the image of the invisible God”. The image we were made in is the image of Jesus. When Adam and Eve sinned, God promised that He would send a Redeemer (Genesis 3:15). While many of us call Isaac, the son of God’s promise to Abraham, that son was Jesus, the One through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Isaac was the first miraculous seed that God would use to bring forth the most miraculous child of all. The plan of God, the heart of God, the will of God and the desire of God always was and will always be that the world would be redeemed through His Son. 

Psalm 132 was probably written after Judah had returned from the exile in Babylon. It was probably written and was definitely sung when Israel had no king, when there was no visible or physical throne in Jerusalem. It was not a song about the glory days of when David was king or when Solomon built the temple his father had longed for, it was a song about the promise that was still to come. It was not about the kings they had in the past, but the one King that was coming. Think of this, kingless Israel, made pilgrimage toward Jerusalem singing about the Messiah that was still to come. This psalm captures God’s heart! It’s not a song of Israel’s desire for God, but God’s desire for Israel. 

There are two key words in verses 13 and 14 that I want us to see, chosen and desired. The psalmist wrote that the LORD “has chosen Zion” and that He has “desired it for his dwelling place”. He continued, “This is my resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it.” God chose Israel from all the nations, to be His nation through whom He would save every nation. He chose Israel because He desired her and with God, who is the same yesterday, today and forever, nothing is past tense, so He continues to choose Israel because He eternally desires her. From Jerusalem Jesus ascended and to Jerusalem He will return because He chose Jerusalem for His throne. The psalmist and the singers understood that even when Israel did not have a king, the Messiah still had His throne, that while the temporary was hard to understand, the eternal was sure.  

So, which has control of our hearts, the temporary or the eternal? I think the thing that I love most about this psalm is that while it is built off a promise it is all about God’s character. Without a king they sing about an eternal throne. While still under the authority of others, they sing about the King that will come, that they have already given their hearts to and put their hope in. Promises and plans are often misunderstood because they are usually much more than expected. I don’t know if Abraham or David understood that God was promising them that the Son of God would be born through them, but I do know that when they would have been satisfied with answers that fit their plans God was making them promises that were born in His will. I also know that He’s doing the same for us. Don’t settle to build your best for God when He has planned to give His best to you and to the world through you. Don’t get bogged down in the now and the what’s next when God is working to birth in you what has always been and will always be. Jesus’ throne is established in Jerusalem forever, today let’s also set Him on the throne of our hearts and our lives. Let’s allow Him to correct us when we are pushing for our way and let’s follow Him in His way, even when it’s not the way we wanted to go. Some of us need to search our hearts and let the Holy Spirit reveal who or what is sitting on the throne. For some of us, it’s memories of the past, for others it’s how we perceive promises of the future, for a few it might even be the plans that we have made for God. But for all of us, there is only One who is worthy of the throne of our hearts, only One who not only promises but embodies eternal life, only One whose throne will last forever. Let’s make sure that Jesus is our Lord and let’s submit ourselves to His will to use our lives to build His kingdom. David never got to build his temple, but God used David to build Jesus’ throne. We might not get what we hoped for, but God will build what He desires.