John Calvin Commentary Psalms 132:7

"We will go into his tabernacles; We will worship at his footstool." — Psalms 132:7 (ASV)

We will go into his habitations. Here he dictates to all the Lord’s people a common form of mutual exhortation to the duty of going up to the place that had been pointed out by the Angel. The clearer the indication God may have given of his will, the more alacrity we should show in obeying it.

Accordingly, the Psalmist intimates that now, when the people had ascertained beyond all doubt the place of God’s choice, they should allow no procrastination and show all the more alacrity, as God was calling them more closely and with a more privileged familiarity to himself, now that he had selected a certain place of rest among them.

He thus passes a virtual condemnation upon the lukewarmness of those whose zeal does not increase in proportion to the measure of revelation they enjoy. Habitations are spoken of in the plural, and this may be (though we may doubt whether the Psalmist had such minute distinctions in mind) because there was in the temple an inner sanctuary, a middle apartment, and then the court.

It is more important to attend to the epithet that follows, where the Psalmist calls the Ark of the Covenant God’s footstool, to indicate that the sanctuary could never contain the immensity of God’s essence, as people were prone to absurdly imagine. The mere outward temple with all its majesty being no more than his footstool, his people were called to look upwards to the heavens and fix their contemplations with due reverence upon God himself.

We know that they were prohibited from forming any low and carnal view of him. Elsewhere, it is true, we find it called God’s face (Psalms 28:8), to confirm the faith of the people in looking to this divine symbol that was set before them.

Both ideas are brought out very distinctly in the passage before us: on the one hand, it is mere superstition to suppose God is confined to the temple; and on the other hand, the external symbols are not without their use in the Church. In short, we should use these as aids to our faith, but not rest in them.

While God dwells in heaven and is above all heavens, we must make use of aids in rising to the knowledge of him; and in giving us symbols of his presence, he, as it were, sets his feet upon the earth and allows us to touch them. In this way, the Holy Spirit condescends for our benefit and in accommodation to our infirmity, raising our thoughts to heavenly and divine things by these worldly elements.

In reference to this passage, we must note the amazing ignorance of the Second Council of Nicaea, in which these well-meaning but weak church fathers twisted it into a proof for idolatry, as if David or Solomon commanded the people to erect statues to God and worship them.

Now that the Mosaic ceremonies are abolished, we worship at the footstool of God when we yield reverent submission to his word and rise from the sacraments to a true spiritual service of him.

Knowing that God has not descended from heaven directly or in his absolute nature, but that his feet are withdrawn from us (being placed on a footstool), we should be careful to rise to him by the intermediate steps.

Christ is not only the one on whom the feet of God rest, but the one in whom the whole fullness of God’s essence and glory resides. Therefore, it is in him that we should seek the Father. He descended with this purpose: that we might rise heavenward.