Psalm 132:8-18

“The Lord swore to David a sure oath… One of the fruit of your body I will set on your throne.” (Psalm 132:11)

Most commentators believe this psalm was a liturgical composition used at the preexilic Jerusalem temple. It appears to presuppose the existence of the Davidic dynasty (esp. v. 17), the Solomonic temple (vv. 13–14), and the ark of the covenant (vv. 7–9). On the other hand, the psalm’s presence in the Psalms of Ascent, an otherwise postexilic collection, may imply that at least the final form of the psalm stems from the postexilic period. Its petitions may point to the same period, when David’s dynasty was a memory (v. 1) and in need of restoration (v. 10), though they could also be simply general petitions. (The mention of David can apply to both David himself and to the Davidic dynasty, as in Jer. 30:9; Ezek. 34:23–24; 37:24–25; Hos. 3:5.) The psalm’s structure is framed by these two petitions (vv. 1, 10) with each followed by two quotations, all of which have a narrative introduction.

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