I will abundantly bless her provision; I will satisfy her needy ones with bread;
Psalm 132 begins as a prayer: the people ask the Lord to rise up and enter His resting place. From verse 13 on God answers them, and verse 15 gives more than they asked for.
God answers every request in the psalm, and each time He gives more than the prayer asked for.
The Psalmist prays, "Let your priests be clothed with righteousness." The answer is, "I will also clothe her priests with salvation." He prays again, "Let your saints shout for joy." The answer goes out, "Her saints shall shout aloud for joy." Then God adds more: "I will abundantly bless her provisions; I will satisfy her poor with bread." That recalls the apostle's words, "far more abundantly than all that we ask or think."
Nobody had asked for food. The prayer was about God's rest, His priests, His anointed one. God adds the bread Himself.
The promise has a starting point. Writers link it to the day the ark was carried up to Zion and set in its place.
As soon as the ark is set on Zion, the blessing flows out to the people: "I will abundantly bless her provisions; I will satisfy her poor with bread." Here again we have the thought of sovereign choice connected with Zion. This time the choice is also connected with the ark. The ark, with its mercy seat, speaks of Christ. So we learn that the full meaning of Mount Zion is the power of God's sovereign grace, working for the blessing of man through Christ. When everything has been lost through man's failure, all blessing is secured by the sovereign grace of God, flowing to us righteously on the ground of all that Christ is and has done.
God living among His people is why nothing runs short. The verse also names who receives the food.
With God living among them, His people could not lack, for it is in His heart to bless them at all times beyond their greatest desires. So the Lord, when He was on earth, challenged His disciples: "When I sent you out with no moneybag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything?" They said, "Nothing." His presence secured everything for them, as it always does when we grasp it and count on it. We can understand, then, this generous promise of Jehovah's grace. At the same time we confess with sorrow that we, like Israel of old, often limit our God by our unbelief. Think much, then, on the words: "I will abundantly bless her provisions; I will satisfy her poor with bread." And remember that it is the poor who are so satisfied.
One writer sees Jesus doing this very thing when He fed the crowd.
He shows Himself as the Jehovah of Psalm 132: "I will satisfy her poor with bread." He shows that here, and they own Him as a prophet. Then they are going to take Him by force and make Him a king. That gives two of Christ's titles. But He will not be king in this worldly way. He goes up into the mountain and takes the place of priest. Here is Christ, who would not be king, was a prophet, and intercedes on high, while His people toil below.
That feeding was a sample, not the full promise. One writer sees the verse pointing on to a coming day for Zion.
Then the feeding time will come. No longer will there be famine in the land; never again will there be "death in the pot." Of Zion it is written: "I will abundantly bless her provisions; I will satisfy her poor with bread" (Ps. 132:15). The Lord Jesus gave a foretaste of this when He fed the five thousand.
The end of the psalm sounds one note. One writer brings it home to the individual heart.
The characteristic note of the latter part of Psalm 132 is blessing. "I will abundantly bless her provisions… her saints shall shout aloud for joy." There is no blessing, no satisfaction, like that known by the soul in which Christ has His proper place of supremacy.
- Asked — the psalm prays for God's rest, His priests, His anointed one; no one asks for bread.
- Answered — God's reply goes past every request, adding food nobody thought to ask for.
- Anchored — the blessing flows from His chosen dwelling and the ark set on Zion, which speaks of Christ.
- Aimed — the promise lands on the poor; they are the ones God satisfies.
- Acted — Jesus fed the crowds and showed the promise at work; its full measure still lies ahead for Zion.
And I will clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints shall shout aloud for joy.
In verse 9 the people pray for two things: that the priests may wear righteousness, and that God's people may shout for joy. Verse 16 is God's reply, and it gives far more than the prayer asked for.
The promises of verses 13–18 belong to a day still to come. One writer ties them to Zechariah's picture of that day.
Zechariah 14 shows that the kingdom will be established after the deliverance of Jerusalem. It will not begin at the same moment, but when the glory of the Lord appears on the Mount of Olives. Then all the hindrances that kept Him from taking up His reign will have vanished... Zechariah's prophetic vision agrees with what we read in Psalm 132:13-18.
Verse 16 is not the only promise of its kind. A pattern runs through the psalm: each thing the people ask for comes back enlarged.
Nothing can be more striking than the goodness of God throughout this Psalm. God goes beyond all that is asked of Him. The prayer is, "Let Your priests be clothed with righteousness; and let Your saints shout for joy" (v. 9). But the answer is, "I will also clothe her priests with salvation; and her saints shall shout aloud for joy" (v. 16)... In every case the answer largely surpasses the request.
The prayer of verse 9 was about the priests' daily conduct.
Then they pray that the priests may be clothed with righteousness — that their daily ways may match their holy office. Thirdly, they pray that the Lord's people may shout for joy.
God does not refuse that prayer. His answer swaps righteousness for something else: salvation.
In verse 9 the desire is that Jehovah's priests be clothed with righteousness, as John the Baptist's father was. The answer in verse 16 is, "I will also clothe her priests with salvation" — the full, final deliverance of God. The desire is right: righteousness suits them. The answer is from God, and it suits Him in the power of His grace. The desire again is that His saints may shout for joy. That is right too: the renewed heart must desire the prosperity and joy of God's chosen. And God will give it abundantly: "her saints shall shout aloud for joy."
One writer compares the two coverings and explains who these shouting people are.
Grace more than answers the desire for its tender care: "I will also clothe her priests with salvation." That is a security greater than any personal righteousness of man. "And her pious ones" — not holy ones, in the sense of set apart from evil, but godly, with a heart for God — "shall shout." Yes, they shall shout aloud for joy.
One word changes between the prayer and the answer: "Your" becomes "her."
Faith had said "Your priests" and "Your saints," and they really were Jehovah's. But in His answer He says "her" (Zion's) priests and "her" saints. So Jehovah identifies Himself with Zion, and counts as hers what belonged to Him... The Christian will understand this. He knows how closely he is joined to Christ in every way and relationship. He knows that the Lord shares with His own all that He Himself has gained through redemption.
The ESV ends the verse with "shout for joy." Older translations read "shout aloud for joy." One writer first doubted that extra word, then took it back.
We had said that the word is the same as in the last clause of verse 9, so we thought the addition "aloud" was hardly justified. The word is the same, but its repetition was overlooked. In Hebrew, repeating a word intensifies its meaning. For example, Psalm 40:1 says, "I waited patiently for the Lord." Translated exactly, it would read, "In waiting I waited for the Lord." The repeated word gives a deeper and more lasting sense... It is beautiful to see how very far beyond the desires of His people God's heart answers their prayers.
- Asked — In verse 9 the people pray for priests clothed with righteousness and for saints who shout. The desire is right.
- Exceeded — He answers with salvation instead of righteousness and a louder shout than was asked for; the pattern holds through the whole psalm, where "in every case the answer largely surpasses the request."
- Secured — Salvation as clothing means "full, final deliverance." It is safer than any righteousness a person could produce.
- Shared — "Your priests" becomes "her priests." The Lord counts as Zion's what was His, just as He shares with His own all He has won.
- Sung — The repeated Hebrew word turns the shout into a shout aloud. God's reply runs further than the prayer that asked for it.