PSALM CXXXI. (MEMENTO DOMINE.) A prayer for the fulfilling of the promise made to David. If. He expresses his vow in the form of an imprecation, without expressing the penalty, as he submits to the rigour of God's justice, if he proves faithless. (Calmet) --- He vows to take no rest, till he might, if it so pleased God, find a place to build a temple. (Worthington) --- This he discovered; yet was not permitted to execute his pious designs. How does his fervour confound our neglect of salvation! (Haydock) --- Self-love shuts the door of our heart against Christ. (St. Augustine) Temples. This seems to have been in the copies of the Septuagint and Theodotion. It is not correct to say that the former added it by inspiration, as they were only interpreters. (Berthier) --- It was marked as an addition in the Hexapla. (Calmet) Heard of it in Ephrata. When I was young, and lived in Bethlehem, otherwise called Ephrata, I heard of God's tabernacle and ark, and had a devout desire of seeking it; and accordingly I found it, at Cariathiarim, the city of the woods: where it was, till it was removed to Jerusalem. See 1 Paralipomenon xiii. (Challoner) --- Or it was revealed to David, that the temple should be built in that part of Jerusalem, which looked towards Bethlehem, and is surrounded with woods. All the plan was laid before him, 1 Paralipomenon xxviii. (Worthington) --- But it is not probable that Jerusalem should be thus described, and there is no proof that the threshing-floor of Ornan was woody. It seems rather, that the psalmist alludes to the ark first at Silo, secondly in the country of Ephraim, or the Ephratheans, (Psalm lxxvii. 60, 67., and Judges xii. 5.) for 328 years, and afterwards at Cariathiarim, for other 70. The captives may also recount its different stations, and pray that it may be restored; though it seems never to have been placed in the second temple. --- It, the tabernacle, which in Hebrew is feminine. (Calmet) --- Yet as the text has tabernacles, or "dwellings," mishcanoth, (ver. 5.) and as the Mosaical tabernacle was kept at Silo or Gabaon, and was not with the ark at Cariathiarim, we may perhaps suppose, that the psalmist alludes to the ark, (Haydock) or to the thing indefinitely, (Berthier) where the glory of the Lord was displayed. St. Jerome and Houbigant have "him," the God of Jacob. (Haydock) --- The Fathers explain it of Jesus Christ, (Theodoret) who was born at Bethlehem, (Worthington) and was prefigured by the temple, (Calmet) styled "the fields of wood." Hebrew sede yahar, to intimate the great extend and quantity of wood used in it; though (Haydock) Cariathiarim, "the city of the woods," may be meant. (Calmet) Stood. If David did this out of devotion, why may not Christians visit the places sanctified by the presence of our Saviour? (Worthington) --- God had not chosen to have a temple before the time of Solomon, 2 Kings vii. 6. (Calmet)