Useful Bible Studies > Songs of Ascent Commentary
Last part: The ark of the covenant
The ark was the most sacred object in Israel’s *worship. It was evidence of God’s promises to Israel. And David knew that he should bring it to Jerusalem.
David had heard about the ark long ago, when he lived as a boy in Bethlehem. Bethlehem is also called Ephrathah. But some Bible teachers think that the Ephrathah in Psalm 132:6 is a different place. The Bible sometimes refers to people from Ephraim as ‘Ephrathites’, which may mean ‘inhabitants of Ephrathah’. (See 1 Samuel 1:1 and 1 Kings 11:26 in the King James Bible.) The original place where the sacred tent stood in Israel was in that region. It was in the town called Shiloh, which was in Ephraim (Joshua 18:1; Psalm 78:60-61; Psalm 78:67-68).
But the ark had left that place long ago. And when David tried to find it, it was hard to find. It was the most important object in Israel’s *worship. But people did not even know where to look for it. Whether Ephrathah means Bethlehem or Shiloh here, people there had merely heard of it. Israel’s people had neglected the things of God; they had even forgotten how to *worship him. And they were *worshipping foreign, false gods for some of this time.
In the end, David found the ark at Kiriath Jearim. In Psalm 132:6, the poet calls Kiriath Jearim by the name ‘the fields of Jaar’, which means ‘the fields by the wood’. You can read the account of how the ark got there in 1 Samuel chapters 4 to 6. And from there, David brought it back to Jerusalem. You can read the account of that journey in 1 Chronicles chapters 13 and 15. And you will see that even David did not know the proper way to transport the ark.
Some Bible teachers think that David wrote Psalm 132 for that final journey. The words in Psalm 132:8 are like Moses’ words in Numbers 10:35.
Next part: The prayers in Psalm 132:9-10
See the word list for explanation of words with a *
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© 2015, Keith Simons.