2 Samuel 6
ONE of the first cares of David, after he had been acknowledged king by the tribes at large, was to see after the Ark of God, and to place it near him (Psalm 132). It must have remained at Kirjath-jearim, in the house of Abinidab, near about 100 years, under the care, most probably, of the priests. It would appear that the solemn scene which had been enacted at Bethshemesh, on the occasion of its being brought back by the milch trine from the land of the Philistines, when the people were slain for looking into it (1 Sam. 6:1919And he smote the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the Lord, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the Lord had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter. (1 Samuel 6:19)), had been forgotten; for in David’s first attempt, he does not appear to have been impressed with a seriousness suitable to the occasion. We do not read of his seeking the mind and help of God in the matter, but we are told that “David (1 Chron. 13:11And David consulted with the captains of thousands and hundreds, and with every leader. (1 Chronicles 13:1)) consulted with the captains of thousands and hundreds, and with every leader;” even the priests seem not to have come into his mind. The pride and pomp of earthly glory cannot stand before the Ark of the Lord of Hosts. Humility and self-loathing became David, rather than the clank of arms, and the pomp and circumstance of war. But his mistake was soon made manifest. Uzzah put forth his hand to the Ark of God, for the oxen shook it, and “there he died before God.” We also, as Christians, are often under the chastisement of God for handling His things with a merely human touch― in the energy of the flesh. Such, then, was the sorrowful failure of his first attempt, made in the presence of the whole congregation of Israel (1 Chron. 13:4, 54And all the congregation said that they would do so: for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people. 5So David gathered all Israel together, from Shihor of Egypt even unto the entering of Hemath, to bring the ark of God from Kirjath-jearim. (1 Chronicles 13:4‑5)). It had been undertaken with an arm of flesh, and closed with a catastrophe which changed the current of David’s thoughts (1 Chron. 13:11, 1211And David was displeased, because the Lord had made a breach upon Uzza: wherefore that place is called Perez-uzza to this day. 12And David was afraid of God that day, saying, How shall I bring the ark of God home to me? (1 Chronicles 13:11‑12)). He became displeased and afraid of God, and turned the Ark aside into the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. Such is often our case. We begin with fleshly joy to undertake the things of God, and we finish with discontent, and charge God with the failure.
Nevertheless, in the things in which David was true., the Lord still went with him. We find from 1 Chronicles 14 that He gave him meanwhile victory over the Philistines, and that “his fame went out into all lands,” &c. It may be that this experience of the Lord’s goodness to him, in circumstances of difficulty, wrought upon his heart, in causing him to inquire into the reason of his failure. It is often so. Conflict with the enemy is made a means of restoration of soul. Perhaps Psalms 132 was composed under such feelings. Be this as it may, he addresses himself a second time to the bringing in of the Ark: he prepares a place for it, well assured that the Lord would now help. He finds from the Word (and oh! what abundant instances have we of the neglect of the Word even in the palmiest days of Israel) that the Levites were to carry the Ark, and we hear no further of any consultation with the chiefs. He receives the chastisement from the band of the Lord, and acknowledges, that because He had not been sought after the due order, this breach had been upon them. So, at last, the Ark rests safely in the tent that he had prepared for it.
Meanwhile, let us regard the state of soul in which David went through this solemn yet festive scene. We are told (2 Sam. 6:1414And David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod. (2 Samuel 6:14)), that “David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod.” What a crucifixion to the flesh must this have been Amid all that multitude, with every eye upon him, to leave the place and state of a king, and to become a dancing priest! This must, indeed, have surprised the warriors, whose ranks he had quitted to play such a part. And is it not to be so with us? What a poor thing is intellectual conception of truth, without fellowship with it in our own persons. David felt that it became him to put off the state of a warrior before “the Lord of Hosts that dwelleth between the cherubims.” He would, at such a moment, know no power but His. But how impossible is it to do this by the mere abstract sense of the greatness of God, unless we understand our relationship to Him. It is by the cross that we are now related to Him, and it is a sense of the depth of Christ’s humiliation there, that can alone enable us to take a low―a very loft place. Oh! that we may study Him in His humiliation for us, and so learn our own nothingness.
This acting of David may remind us of beautiful touches in our Lord’s life, where we see Him occupied with other objects, and in a different train of thought, from the busy crowd around Him; and, so to speak, spoiling the day to them, as David did to Michel. There is the case of the Syrophenician woman, in Matthew 15 The wish of the disciples was that she should be sent away, for “she crieth after us.” They were in no mood for her company; but the Lord found in her a truly bright example of faith. Still more pertinent is the case of blind Bartimeus. The human dignity with which the unstable multitude had invested Jesus for the moment, did not allow of a conversation with a mendicant, who, as a well-known person, had often been passed unnoticed by the giddy crowd. “They charged him to hold his peace.” But Jesus never forgot Himself: He was always about His Father’s business: and He found in this poor man also one of His great triumphs. Just as uncongenial was David’s conduct, to Michel, the daughter of Saul, his wife. Her flesh had been sadly stirred at the sight of David her husband dancing before the Ark. She had looked out of a window to admire him as a king, but instead “she despised him in her heart.” She was utterly ignorant of the grace which had brought him there, and thought that he had shamefully demeaned himself. The false dignity of the flesh is ever thus stirred by the self-abasement which a sight of the glory produces. Hear his blessed answer to her charge of his “shamelessly uncovering himself, as one of the vain fellows:” “It was,” said he, “before the Lord ... and I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight.” How thoroughly was he impressed with the nothingness, as to himself, into which grace had brought him!
In some of the doings of David here, there is an interesting fore-tracing of what will surely happen in the corning dispensation, as to the Melchisedec kingdom and priesthood of Christ. In Zechariah, it is said of Christ, “He shall be a priest upon his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.” That is, as some expound, the exercise of both functions shall be in use. Now, David is clearly a priest in this scene. He “was clothed with a robe of fine linen” (1 Chron. 15:2727And David was clothed with a robe of fine linen, and all the Levites that bare the ark, and the singers, and Chenaniah the master of the song with the singers: David also had upon him an ephod of linen. (1 Chronicles 15:27)), and was “girded with a linen ephod” (2 Sam. 6:1414And David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod. (2 Samuel 6:14)). After the bringing in of the Ark, “he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of Hosts,” and “he dealt among all the people to everyone a cake of bread, and a good piece of flesh,”&c.; that is, he took upon himself the Melchisedec functions of coming forth, dealing oat refreshment, and blessing the people (compare Gen. 14). “Then,” we are significantly told, (2 Sam. 6:20,20Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, How glorious was the king of Israel to day, who uncovered himself to day in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself! (2 Samuel 6:20)) “David returned to bless his household.” Nothing can be more expressive of the distinction which will prevail in the Millennium between the kingdom and the Church or Household (Eph. 2:1919Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; (Ephesians 2:19)). As soon as He has settled the affairs of the former, He will return to some other place, like David, to bless His Church already at rest. So also the carrying aside of the Ark into the house of Obed-edom the Gittite, between the failure in the first attempt, and his success in the second, is not without its meaning; for although the name Obed-edom was doubtless in use among the Hebrews, yet Obed-edom the Gittite, or man from Oath, is strongly expressive of a Gentile house, and the sojourning of the Ark there, and the blessing of his house in consequence; for “it was told king David, saying, The Lord hath blessed the house of Obed-edom and all that pertaineth unto him, because of the Ark of God,” forcibly reminds us of part of Romans 11, in which we are told that the Gentiles are blessed during the casting off of the Jews, and these latter are thereby provoked to jealousy. “I say, then, have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke then to jealousy. Now if the fall of then be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness?” The true Ark shall yet return to the Jewish house. “There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.”
TEMPTATION. ―I have been thinking how it is that temptation so often comes over us with such sudden power, and the preparedness of Christ when Satan came to try Him. I feel and think, that it arises much from our judgment not having become established in times of quietness. Christ answered as one who had not then to think, but to communicate judgment long since formed and settled. May the Lord grant that we may thus use leisure, to prepare the feelings of the soul to meet Satan with a realized answer, however varied the temptations may be; and this can only be, by dwelling in the heart and mind of Jesus, as He dwelt in His Father’s.
THE DAY OF REOKONING. ―The controversy between a Christian and the world cannot be settled until the appearing of the Lord Jesus. To His tribunal the Christian can, through grace, commit his cause. Can the worldling do as much?