Psalm 132:18

His enemies will I clothe with shame: but upon himself shall his crown flourish.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(18) Crown (nezer).—As the distinctive use of this word in Israel—by its derivation meaning mark of separation—was for the golden plate, inscribed “Holiness to the Lord,” worn on the high priest’s mitre (see Exodus 29:6; Exodus 39:30), we cannot be wrong in seeing here a special allusion to the same. This allusion is rendered more probable by the use of the word rendered “flourish” (properly, shine), a cognate to which was the technical name given to this golden plate. (See the reference in Exodus 39, above.) It is also possibly alluded to in Psalm 89:39, the only other place in the psalms where the word occurs, though as the word is used of the royal crown in 2Samuel 1:10, &c, the allusion is not certain. But if the Maccabæan hypothesis is correct, the use of the word, instead of the more usual word for “crown,” is interesting. “One relic of the ancient insignia has been preserved, which was probably prized as the most precious of all. It was the golden plate affixed to the turban, inscribed ‘Holiness to Jehovah,’ which was believed to have come down from the time of Aaron, and which, treasured through all the vicissitudes of the Jewish state, was carried to Rome by Titus, and seen there by the great Jewish Rabbi, in the time of Hadrian” (Stanley, J. C. 3:353).

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

His enemies will I clothe with shame - They shall be so confounded that shame shall seem to cover them as a garment. See the notes at Psalm 109:29. That is, David would be triumphant.

But upon himself shall his crown flourish - His crown shall be as a fresh, blooming garland. The Hebrew word used here may mean either to glitter, or to flower, to fiourish or bloom. As applied to a crown, it may mean either that it would sparkle or glitter, as set with precious stones - or (under the idea of a garland) it may mean that it would appear to bloom or blossom. In either case it denotes success, joy, triumph - and is a promise of prosperity to David as a king. This was a part of the promise referred to by the psalmist, and a ground of the plea in the psalm. God had made these precious promises to David and his posterity; and now, in a time of sorrow and disaster, when the glory of the crown seemed about to pass away, the psalmist, in the name of the people, and in language to be used by the people, prays that those ancient promises might be remembered and fulfilled. So, in a time of general religious declension, we may plead the promises, so rich and so abundant, which God has made to his church, as a reason for his gracious interposition, for his coming to revive his work.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

17. make the horn … to bud—enlarge his power.

a lamp—the figure of prosperity (Ps 18:10, 28; 89:17). With the confounding of his enemies is united his prosperity and the unceasing splendor of his crown.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Clothe with shame; for the shameful and unexpected disappointment of all their vain hopes and wicked designs.

Upon himself; upon him and his posterity, which are nothing else but a man’s self multiplied.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

His enemies will I clothe with shame, With the garments of shame, as the Targum; very different from the clothing of Zion's priests; all that are incensed against Christ as a King and Saviour shall sooner or later be ashamed; either here, when brought to a sense of their evil, to repentance for it, and faith in him; or hereafter, at the resurrection, when they will rise to shame and everlasting contempt, and when they shall see him come in the clouds of heaven, in power and great glory, to judge the world in righteousness, Isaiah 45:24;

but upon himself shall his crown flourish; being crowned with glory and honour, as he now is at the right hand of God, he reigns, and will reign, till all his enemies become his footstool; his throne is for ever and ever, and his kingdom an everlasting one; and will be very flourishing in the latter day, when his subjects shall be many, and when there shall be an abundance of peace and prosperity, and of that no end; the crown of the Messiah shall flourish on him as a king, shine out and be very conspicuous, as Aben Ezra and Jarchi interpret the word used; and so his crown as a priest; the same word is used of the holy crown of the priests put upon the mitre, on which Holiness to the Lord was inscribed; and the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, render it, "my holiness"; and, as his own crown is a never-fading one, such an one he will give to his ministers, and all that love him appearing, 1 Peter 5:4.

Geneva Study Bible

His enemies will I clothe with shame: but upon himself shall his crown flourish.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

18. will I clothe with shame] The opposite of salvation, Psalm 132:16. Cp. Psalm 35:26; Job 8:22.

upon himself] Upon David in the person of his representative, who is called David in Ezekiel 34:23-24.

shall his crown flourish] The expression is a peculiar one. (1) The word for ‘crown’ (nçzer) used here as in Psalm 89:39, means (a) ‘consecration,’ (b) ‘a crown’ or ‘diadem,’ as the mark of consecration to an office. It is used not only of a king’s crown, but of the high-priest’s diadem (Exodus 29:6). (2) The verb yâtsîts, ‘flourish,’ or rather ‘sparkle,’ ‘glitter,’ is cognate to the word tsîts, which denotes the glittering plate of gold bearing the inscription “Holiness to Jehovah” which the High-priest wore on his turban, and which is called in Exodus 29:30, “the plate of the holy diadem.” This phraseology seems intended to suggest that David’s representative will have high-priestly as well as royal dignity. Cp. Jeremiah 30:21; Zechariah 6:11-13.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 18. - His enemies will I clothe with shame. David's "enemies" are those who oppress his "Seed," and will not have him to reign over them. All such will be "confounded and put to shame" (Psalm 35:4), "clothed with shame and dishonor" (Psalm 35:26). But upon himself shall his crown flourish. The true and the final Davidic representative is Christ, who "remaineth a King forever" (Psalm 29:10). On him his crown will ever flourish.



Psalm 132:18

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.