This psalm is simply entitled "A Song of Degrees." The author of it is not known, nor can the occasion on which it was written be certainly ascertained. It would seem to have been composed in a time of public distress and disaster; when the affairs of the nation were in jeopardy, and especially when the line of the monarchy seemed about to fail, and the promises made to David seemed about to come to nought. It would have been a suitable occasion for such a psalm at the time immediately preceding the captivity in Babylon, or on the return from Babylon, when the throne was tottering or had fallen, and when God seemed to be about to forsake his house, the temple - or had forsaken it, and suffered it to fall to ruin. At such a time of national disaster, when it appeared as if the house of God was to be permanently destroyed, and the government to be overturned forever, it was natural and proper thus to make mention of the zeal, the toil, and the sacrifice of him who had sought a "habitation" for God; who had planned and labored that there might be a permanent dwelling-place for the Most High, and who had received gracious promises from God himself in regard to the permanent establishment of his family on the throne. It would be appropriate, also, to recall this as a foundation for the prayer that God would again visit Zion, and would fulfill the promises which he had given to David.
The psalm therefore consists properly of two parts:
I. A statement of the zeal of David for the ark, in securing a permanent abode for it, Psalm 132:1-8; and
II. A reference to the promises made to David and his posterity, and a prayer that these promises might be carried out and accomplished, Psalm 132:9-18.

The psalmist prays that God would remember his promises to David, Psalm 132:1. His purpose to bring the ark of the Lord into a place of rest, Psalm 132:2-5. Where it was found, and the prayer in removing it, Psalm 132:6-9. The promises made to David and his posterity, Psalm 132:10-12. God's choice of Zion for a habitation, and his promises to the people, Psalm 132:13-17. All their enemies shall be confounded, Psalm 132:18.
Some attribute this Psalm to David, but without sufficient ground; others, to Solomon, with more likelihood; and others, to some inspired author at the conclusion of the captivity, which is, perhaps, the most probable. It refers to the building of the second temple, and placing the ark of the covenant in it.

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 132
A Song of degrees. Some think this psalm was written by Solomon, since Psalm 132:8, are much the same with which he concluded his prayer at the dedication of the temple, 2-Chronicles 6:41; on account of which it is supposed to be written; though he might borrow these words from hence, as he sometimes did recite the words of his father, Proverbs 4:4. Others are of opinion that it was written by David, either when he brought the ark from Baale or Kirjathjearim to the house of Obededom, and from thence to Zion, 2-Samuel 6:1; or when he had that conversation with Nathan the prophet, in which he expressed such a strong desire to build a house for God, 2-Samuel 7:1; or, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi think, after he had numbered the people, which brought the pestilence on them; and when he and the elders of Israel were in distress on that account, and he was ordered to build an altar in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite, 1-Chronicles 21:18; by which it appeared to him that this was the place for the house of the Lord God he had been so desirous of building, 1-Chronicles 22:1. It seems by Psalm 132:6, that more persons than one were concerned in this psalm, at least the psalmist represents more; and Theodoret takes it to be a prayer of the captives in Babylon, and a prophecy of the Saviour of the world; and this is favoured by the Syriac inscription, which is,
"an anonymous psalm, when they would build the house of the Lord of hosts; and a prayer of David, and a revelation of Christ.''
And certain it is that Christ is spoken of in it, if not principally designed.

(Psalm 132:1-10) David's care for the ark.
(Psalm 132:11-18) The promises of God.

Prayer for the House of God and the House of David
Psalm 131:1-3 designedly precedes Psalm 132. The former has grown out of the memory of an utterance of David when he brought home the Ark, and the latter begins with the remembrance of David's humbly zealous endeavour to obtain a settled and worthy abode for the God who sits enthroned above the Ark among His people. It is the only Psalm in which the sacred Ark is mentioned. The chronicler put Psalm 132:8-10 into the mouth of Solomon at the dedication of the Temple (2-Chronicles 6:41.). After a passage borrowed from Psalm 130:2 which is attached by עתּה to Solomon's Temple-dedication prayer, he appends further borrowed passages out of Psalm 132 with ועתּה. The variations in these verses of the Psalm, which are annexed by him with a free hand and from memory (Jahve Elohim for Jahve, לנוּחך for למנוּחתך, תּשׁוּעה for צדק, בּטּוב ישׂמחוּ for ירנּנוּ), just as much prove that he has altered the Psalm, and not reversely (as Hitzig persistently maintains), that the psalmist has borrowed from the Chronicles. It is even still distinctly to be seen how the memory of Isaiah 55:3 has influenced the close of 2-Chronicles 6:42 in the chronicler, just as the memory of Isaiah 55:2 has perhaps also influenced the close of 2-Chronicles 6:41.
The psalmist supplicates the divine favour for the anointed of Jahve for David's sake. In this connection this anointed one is neither the high priest, nor Israel, which is never so named (vid., Habakkuk 3:13), nor David himself, who "in all the necessities of his race and people stands before God," as Hengstenberg asserts, in order to be able to assign this Son of degrees, as others, likewise to the post-exilic time of the new colony. Zerubbabel might more readily be understood (Baur), with whom, according to the closing prophecy of the Book of Haggai, a new period of the Davidic dominion is said to begin. But even Zerubbabel, the פּחת יהוּדה, could not be called משׁיח, for this he was not. The chronicler applies the Psalm in accordance with its contents. It is suited to the mouth of Solomon. The view that it was composed by Solomon himself when the Ark of the covenant was removed out of the tent-temple on Zion into the Temple-building (Amyraldus, De Wette, Tholuck, and others), is favoured by the relation of the circumstances, as they are narrated in 2-Chronicles 5:5., to the desires of the Psalm, and a close kinship of the Psalm with Ps 72 in breadth, repetitions of words, and a laboured forward movement which is here and there a somewhat uncertain advance. At all events it belongs to a time in which the Davidic throne was still standing and the sacred Ark was not as yet irrecoverably lost. That which, according to 2 Sam. 6, 2-Samuel 7:1, David did for the glory of Jahve, and on the other hand is promised to him by Jahve, is here made by a post-Davidic poet into the foundation of a hopeful intercessory prayer for the kingship and priesthood of Zion and the church presided over by both.
The Psalm consists of four ten-line strophes. Only in connection with the first could any objection be raised, and the strophe be looked upon as only consisting of nine lines. But the other strophes decide the question of its measure; and the breaking up of the weighty Psalm 132:1 into two lines follows the accentuation, which divides it into two parts and places את by itself as being את (according to Accentssystem, xviii. 2, with Mugrash). Each strophe is adorned once with the name of David; and moreover the step-like progress which comes back to what has been said, and takes up the thread and carries it forward, cannot fail to be recognised.