John Calvin Commentary Psalms 132:14

"This is my resting-place for ever: Here will I dwell; for I have desired it." — Psalms 132:14 (ASV)

This is my rest for ever. The same truth is here put into the mouth of God to give it additional weight; and it is declared that the Temple had not been erected in vain, since God would effectively show, by practical testimonies, the delight he had in the worship of his own appointment.

God’s resting, or taking up his habitation, are expressions that denote his presence with people in the manifestation of his power. Thus he dwelt in Zion, in the sense that there his people worshipped him according to the prescription of his law, and also found the benefit of this service in his favorable answer to their requests.

It was eventually seen, in a very striking manner, that this was the promise of an infallible God, when, after the Temple had been overthrown, the altar cast down, and the whole system of legal service interrupted, the glory of the Lord afterwards returned to it once more, and remained there until the advent of Christ.

We all know in what a wicked and shameful manner the Jews abused the divine promise made here, under the impression that it necessarily obligated God to favor them, taking occasion from it, in the pride of their hearts, to despise and even cruelly persecute the Prophets.

Luther on this account calls it “the bloody promise;” for, like all hypocrites who make God’s holy name a covert for iniquity, they did not hesitate, when charged with the worst crimes, to insist that it was beyond the power of the Prophets to take from them privileges God had bestowed.

For them, to assert that the Temple could be stripped of its glory was equivalent to charging God with falsehood and impeaching his faithfulness. Under the influence of this spirit of vain confidence, they proceeded to such inconceivable lengths in shedding innocent blood. If the Devil of Rome were armed with such splendid pretensions, what bounds would be set to its audacity?

As it is, we see how fiercely and with what bloody pride it arrogates the name of the Church, while outraging all religion, in open contempt of God and flagrant violation of humanity. But what of that? The hierarchy would otherwise fall, and this must stand, if Christ is not to desert his spouse, the Church!

The refutation of such a plea is not difficult to find. The Church is limited to no one place: now that the glory of the Lord shines throughout all the earth, his rest is where Christ and his members are. It is necessary that we rightly understand what the Psalmist says of the everlasting continuance of the Temple.

The advent of Christ was “the time of reformation,” and the types of the Old Testament, instead of being then disproven or nullified, were substantiated and received their fulfillment in him. If it is still objected that Mount Zion is spoken of here as the everlasting residence of God, it is sufficient to answer that the whole world became an enlarged Mount Zion at the advent of Christ.