Lord, remember David and all his afflictions; how he . . . vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob: “. . . I will not go into the chamber of my house . . . I will not give slumber or sleep to my eyelids, until I find . . . a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.” . . . We heard of it in Ephrathah. . . . Let us go into His tabernacle; let us worship at His footstool. Arise, O Lord, to Your resting place, You and the ark of Your strength. Let Your priests be clothed with righteousness, and let Your saints shout for joy. —Psalm 132: 1-9
In these opening verses, the writer appeals to the Lord to “remember David.” This refers to God’s promises to His people and to David. In 2 Samuel, we read of David’s heart’s desire to build a resting place for the Ark of the Covenant. The Lord spoke to Nathan the prophet, and told him to speak this promise to David: “When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him. . . . But My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever” (2 Samuel 7:12-16).
The author of our psalm today is reminding the Lord of that response to David’s zeal, and he asks God to remember His promise regarding Jerusalem and the One whose throne would be established forever. We can see the connection between the physical temple at the time of the psalms and the future Temple with Jesus reigning eternally!
To try to separate Israel’s role in the past from their purpose in the present damages the integrity of Scripture. Denying that the Jews of modern Israel are biblical Israel takes some serious interpretive gymnastics and requires a cut- and-paste approach to the Bible. In addition to this, remember that genetics link modern Israelites to the ancient Israelites and also that the Jews have lived in the same region of the world with the same capital city that they had 2,000 years ago! It’s imperative that we understand the seventy weeks of Daniel, the fact of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and the coming of the Most Holy One, Jesus. If the first coming of the Most Holy One involved the Jews and Jerusalem, then the return of the Most Holy One must also involve the Jews and Jerusalem!
Let’s take a quick look at what two Old Testament prophets wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. “The day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will diminish their brightness. The Lord also will roar from Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; but the Lord will be a shelter for His people, and the strength of the children of Israel. ‘So you shall know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion My holy mountain. Then Jerusalem shall be holy, and no aliens shall ever pass through her again” (3:14-17). And Zechariah wrote: “I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem. . . . Half of the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant . . . shall not be cut off. . . . Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations. . . . His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, making a very large valley . . . ” (Zechariah 14:2-4).
These events are still in the future, and they share the same three elements that we’ve been looking at: the Jews, Jerusalem, and Jesus. The seventieth week of Daniel can’t be nullified without denying the very purpose for God’s people and city. He will reign in Jerusalem, which will again be known not as the capital of Palestine but as the capital of Israel!
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