Psalm 132:15

I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

132:11-18 The Lord never turns from us when we plead the covenant with his anointed Prophet, Priest, and King. How vast is the love of God to man, that he should speak thus concerning his church! It is his desire to dwell with us; yet how little do we desire to dwell with him! He abode in Zion till the sins of Israel caused him to give them up to the spoilers. Forsake us not, O God, and deliver us not in like manner, sinful though we are. God's people have a special blessing on common enjoyments, and that blessing puts peculiar sweetness into them. Zion's poor have reason to be content with a little of this world, because they have better things prepared for them. God will abundantly bless the nourishment of the new man, and satisfy the poor in spirit with the bread of life. He gives more than we ask, and when he gives salvation, he will give abundant joy. God would bring to nothing every design formed to destroy the house of David, until King Messiah should arise out of it, to sit upon the throne of his Father. In him all the promises centre. His enemies, who will not have him to reign over them, shall at the last day be clothed with shame and confusion for ever.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I will abundantly bless her provision - Margin, surely. Hebrew, "Blessing I will bless," a strong affirmation, meaning that he would certainly do it; that he would do it in every way; that every needed blessing would be imparted. The word rendered provision is a cognate form of the word in Psalm 78:25, translated meat: "He sent them meat to the full." It properly refers to food for a journey, but it is applicable to any kind of food. The original idea is that of food obtained by hunting - as game, venison: Genesis 25:28; Job 38:41. The meaning here is, that God would provide abundantly for their support.

I will satisfy her poor with bread - I will give them what they need. See the notes at Psalm 37:25.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

14-18. That choice is expressed in God's words, "I will sit" or "dwell," or sit enthroned. The joy of the people springs from the blessings of His grace, conferred through the medium of the priesthood.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

I will plentifully provide for Jerusalem, and all that live in her or resort to her for worship; nor shall they seek my face in vain.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

I will abundantly bless her provision,.... The provision of Zion, the church of God, the word and ordinances, of which Christ is the sum and substance; the Gospel is milk for babes, and meat for strong men; the ordinances are a feast of fat things; Christ's flesh is meat indeed, and his blood drink deed; the whole provision is spiritual, savoury, salutary, strengthening, satisfying, and nourishing, when the Lord blesses it; as he does to those who hunger and thirst after it, and feed upon it by faith; so that their souls grow thereby, and they become fat and flourishing; grace increases in them, and they are fruitful in every good work: and this the Lord promises to do "abundantly", in a very large way and manner; or "certainly", for it is, in the original text, (y) "in blessing I will bless", that is, will surely bless, as this phrase is sometimes rendered. Arama observes that the second blessing is because of the greatness of it; and says, that their Rabbin's understand it of the fertility of the land of Israel in the time to come, when there will be no poor in it; but all is to be understood spiritually of the church in Gospel times;

I will satisfy her poor with bread; Zion has her poor; persons may be poor and yet belong to Zion, belong to Zion and yet be poor; there are poor in all the churches of Christ: our Lord told his disciples that they had the poor, and might expect to have them always with them; and particular directions are given to take care of Zion's poor under the Gospel dispensation, that they may not want bread in a literal sense: though by the "poor" are chiefly designed the Lord's afflicted and distressed ones; or who in a spiritual sense are poor, and sensible of their spiritual poverty, and seek after the true riches; or are poor in spirit, to whom the kingdom of heaven belongs: these the Lord promises to satisfy, to fill them to the full with the bread of the Gospel, made of the finest of the wheat, of which there is enough and to spare in his house; and with Christ the bread of life, of which those that eat shall never die, but live for ever.

(y) "benedicendo benedicam", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Musculus, Cocceius, Gejerus.

Geneva Study Bible

I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

15. I will abundantly bless &c.] Or, I will surely bless. The Divine blessing will rest upon people, priests (16), and rulers (17f.). Even the poor shall not want. Cp. Deuteronomy 15:4. Palestine was liable to famines, and in the early days of the Restoration the community had suffered severely from scarcity (Haggai 1:6 ff.), but this was not God’s Will[83].

[83] The word for provision (צידה) means also prey, and was rendered literally by the LXX, θήραν (אaT); but in some MSS (e.g. אAR) this was changed to χήραν widow(s) either through a scribe’s mistake, or because prey seemed unintelligible and widows might naturally be classed with the poor. Cp. Deuteronomy 14:29. Hence the Vulg. viduam, Douay, her widow.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 15. - I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread. Literally, this seems to point to the blessing of abundance of food. Spiritually, it may be a promise of ample spiritual sustenance. Psalm 132:15

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Shiloh has been rejected (Psalm 78:60), for a time only was the sacred Ark in Bethel (Judges 20:27) and Mizpah (Judges 21:5), only somewhat over twenty years was it sheltered by the house of Abinadab in Kirjath-Jearim (1 Samuel 7:2), only three months by the house of Obed-Edom in Perez-uzzah (2 Samuel 6:11) - but Zion is Jahve's abiding dwelling-place, His own proper settlement, מנוּחה (as in Isaiah 11:10; Isaiah 66:1, and besides 1 Chronicles 28:2). In Zion, His chosen and beloved dwelling-place, Jahve blesses everything that belongs to her temporal need (צידהּ for זידתהּ, vid., on Psalm 27:5, note); so that her poor do not suffer want, for divine love loves the poor most especially. His second blessing refers to the priests, for by means of these He will keep up His intercourse with His people. He makes the priesthood of Zion a real institution of salvation: He clothes her priests with salvation, so that they do not merely bring it about instrumentally, but personally possess it, and their whole outward appearance is one which proclaims salvation. And to all her saints He gives cause and matter for high and lasting joy, by making Himself known also to the church, in which He has taken up His abode, in deeds of mercy (loving-kindness or grace). There (שׁם, Psalm 133:3) in Zion is indeed the kingship of promise, which cannot fail of fulfilment. He will cause a horn to shoot forth, He will prepare a lamp, for the house of David, which David here represents as being its ancestor and the anointed one of God reigning at that time; and all who hostilely rise up against David in his seed, He will cover with shame as with a garment (Job 8:22), and the crown consecrated by promise, which the seed of David wears, shall blossom like an unfading wreath. The horn is an emblem of defensive might and victorious dominion, and the lamp (נר, 2 Samuel 21:17, cf. ניר, 2 Chronicles 21:7, lxx λύχνον) an emblem of brilliant dignity and joyfulness. In view of Ezekiel 29:21, of the predictions concerning the Branch (zemach) in Isaiah 4:2; Jeremiah 23:5; Jeremiah 33:15; Zechariah 3:8; Zechariah 6:12 (cf. Hebrews 7:14), and of the fifteenth Beracha of the Shemone-Esre (the daily Jewish prayer consisting of eighteen benedictions): "make the branch (zemach) of David Thy servant to shoot forth speedily, and let his horn rise high by virtue of Thy salvation," - it is hardly to be doubted that the poet attached a Messianic meaning to this promise. With reference to our Psalm, Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, changes that supplicatory beracha of his nation (Luke 1:68-70) into a praiseful one, joyfully anticipating the fulfilment that is at hand in Jesus.