Psalms in chronicles

Currents in Theology and Mission, August, 2005 by Ralph W. Klein

At the end of the prayer, however, the Chronicler does not include the Deuteronomistic conclusion (1 Kgs 8:50a[beta]-53). Instead, the Chronicler wrote his own conclusion, which consists of excerpts from Psalm 132.

Professor Erhard Gerstenberger has recently described Psalm 132 as a messianic hymn or a Zion song, and one of its central features is a series of three petitions to which there are three divine responses. The first petition asks God to remember the slavish toil of David, how he took an oath and went without sleep in his all-out effort to find a place for Yahweh, aye, a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob (132:1-5). Yahweh responds to this oath in the second half of the psalm (132:11-12) by swearing in a counter-oath that David's son would sit on the throne and that subsequent sons of Solomon too would rule if they would keep the requirements of Yahweh's covenant.

A second petition in Ps 132:8-9 asks Yahweh and his ark to go to their resting place in the temple and prays that the priests will be clothed with righteousness, and God's loyal folk will give a ringing cheer. Yahweh responds to this petition in vv. 14-16 by affirming his choice of Zion and identifying it as indeed his resting place. Among the blessings he showers on Zion are the promise to clothe the priests with salvation or victory and the opportunity for God's loyal folk to give their ringing cultic cheer.

A third petition in v. 10 returns to the royal concerns of the first petition and asks Yahweh, for David's sake, not to reject his anointed king. In response, vv. 17-18, Yahweh makes a series of promises to the Davidic kings: (a) I will make a horn sprout for David; (b) I have prepared a lamp for my anointed; (c) I will clothe the king's enemies with shame, and (d) the king's crown will gleam. This psalm promises the restoration of the monarchy. Gerstenberger remarks: "In this case one can imagine Zion and David festivals in situations of resurging hopes among believers for a powerful restoration of the lost monarchy" (Psalms, Part 2, and Lamentations, FOTL XV [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001], 369). I find this to be a convincing interpretation of the psalm itself.

But what becomes of this psalm when it--or really only a few parts of it--is used as building blocks for the conclusion of Solomon's great prayer at the dedication of the temple in 2 Chronicles 6? The Chronicler quotes only verses 8-10 from Psalm 132, followed by what seems to be a highly rewritten version of v. 1. In each of the three sets of petitions the Chronicler inserts an unusual divine name--Yahweh God--that gives strong emphasis to the petition itself.

The first petition in Chronicles, based on Psalm 132:8, is that Yahweh and the ark would go to and abide in Yahweh's resting place in the temple, a theme that has already occupied much of 2 Chronicles 5 and 6. In 2 Chronicles 5 the Levites, accompanied by the full assembly of Israel, brought the ark, the tent of meeting, and the holy vessels into Solomon's new temple, with the result that the temple was filled with glory and a cloud filled the sanctuary and did not allow the priests to continue to minister (cf. also 2 Chr 6:11 and 7:1-3). In the Chronicler's thinking the temple could not be built by David, the man of wars, but only by Solomon, whose name is a pun on the word "shalom" or peace. The temple could not be built until rest was achieved under Solomon. Now Yahweh and the ark are invited to enter the place of rest. The first petition, therefore, is for the welfare of the temple itself as Yahweh's resting place.