8 Arise, Jehovah, to Thy rest, Thou and the Ark of Thy strength. 9 Let Thy priests be clothed with righteousness, And Thy favoured ones utter shrill cries of joy. 10 For the sake of David Thy servant, Turn not away the face of Thine anointed. 11 Jehovah has sworn to David, It is truth--He will not go back from it-- "Of the fruit of thy body will I set on thy throne. 12 If thy sons keep My covenant And My testimonies which I will teach them, Their sons also for ever and aye Shall sit on thy throne." 13 For Jehovah has chosen Zion, He has desired it for His dwelling. 14 "This is My rest for ever and aye, Here will I abide, for I have desired it. 15 Her provision blessing I will bless, Her poor will I satisfy with bread. 16 Her priests also will I clothe with salvation, And her favoured ones uttering will utter shrill cries of joy. 17 There will I cause a horn to sprout for David, I have trimmed a lamp for Mine anointed. 18 His enemies will I clothe with shame, But upon himself shall his crown glitter." The continuance of "the sure mercies of David" to his descendants for his sake is first besought from God, and is then promised, for his sake, by God Himself, speaking in the singer's spirit. The special blessing sought for is Jehovah's dwelling in His house, which is here contemplated as reared after long toil. Expositors differ, as usual, in regard to the date and occasion of this psalm. Its place among the pilgrim psalms raises a presumption in favour of a post-exilic date, and one class of commentators refers it confidently to the period of the rebuilding of the Temple. But the mention of the Ark (which disappeared after the destruction of Solomon's Temple) can be reconciled with that supposed date only by a somewhat violent expedient. Nor is it easy to suppose that the repeated references to David's descendants as reigning in accordance with God's promise could have been written at a time when there was no king in Israel. Zerubbabel has, indeed, been suggested as "the anointed" of this psalm; but he was not king, and neither in fact nor in idea was he anointed. And could a singer in Israel, in the post-exilic period, have recalled the ancient promises without some passing sigh for their apparent falsification in the present? Psalm lxxxix. is often referred to as the "twin" of this psalm. Its wailings over the vanished glories of the Davidic monarchy have nothing corresponding to them here. These considerations are against a post-exilic date, for which the chief argument is the inclusion of the psalm in the collection of pilgrim songs.