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Gustave Doré’s engraving of David standing crowned and bowed as he mourns Absalom

Psalm 132

One of the fifteen Songs of Ascents, which St Athanasius said to pray when you can feel yourself climbing higher.

  • 18Verses
  • 1Situation

St Athanasius, Letter to Marcellinus

When to pray it

In the 300s, St Athanasius of Alexandria wrote a letter to his friend Marcellinus about praying the Psalms. In it he matched psalms to what people go through. This is what he gave this one for.

You can feel yourself climbing: forgetting what's behind you and straining toward what's ahead.

When you sense yourself climbing higher in how you live, so that you can say with Paul, "forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead", you have the fifteen Songs of Ascents to say at every step forward.

Letter to Marcellinus

He gave all fifteen Songs of Ascents for this, Psalms 120 to 134.

18 verses, Berean Standard Bible

The whole psalm

Psalm 132

Its own heading A song of ascents.

  1. 1O LORD, remember on behalf of David all the hardships he endured,
  2. 2how he swore an oath to the LORD, and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob:
  3. 3“I will not enter my house or get into my bed,
  4. 4I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids,
  5. 5until I find a place for the LORD, a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob. ”
  6. 6We heard that the ark was in Ephrathah; we found it in the fields of Jaar.
  7. 7Let us go to His dwelling place; let us worship at His footstool.
  8. 8Arise, O LORD, to Your resting place, You and the ark of Your strength.
  9. 9May Your priests be clothed with righteousness, and Your saints shout for joy.
  10. 10For the sake of Your servant David, do not reject Your anointed one.
  11. 11The LORD swore an oath to David, a promise He will not revoke: “One of your descendants I will place on your throne.
  12. 12If your sons keep My covenant and the testimony I will teach them, then their sons will also sit on your throne forever and ever.”
  13. 13For the LORD has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His home:
  14. 14“This is My resting place forever and ever; here I will dwell, for I have desired this home.
  15. 15I will bless her with abundant provisions; I will satisfy her poor with bread.
  16. 16I will clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints will sing out in joy.
  17. 17There I will make a horn grow for David; I have prepared a lamp for My anointed one.
  18. 18I will clothe his enemies with shame, but the crown upon him will gleam.”

Psalm 132 is 131 in the Greek numbering Athanasius used, which Orthodox Bibles and some older Catholic ones still follow.

When life is good, and you want to thank Him and grow

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Which Psalm are you living right now?

A few honest taps about your life right now, and the psalm an early Church Father gave for exactly that.

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Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Athanasius’s advice is paraphrased from his Greek.