David
Unknown Author
Table of Contents
David
“The Lord hath sought Him a man after His own heart,” (1 Sam. 13:14).
This testimony concerning David has proved a hard saying to many. The taunts of unbelievers trouble them because of his sins. Yet it should be borne in mind that he did not spare himself by any attempt to extenuate them (Psa. 51), and as he used no argument, and brought forward no plea in his own defense, we are not called to do so for him. It is clear that the Lord never made light of his fall. The thing that David had done displeased Him, and he had to reap, before all Israel and before the sun, what he had sown in secret. Blow after blow fell upon him, the chastening of love; for before he suffered a single stroke, he is assured that his sin, as before God, is put away. The range of his experiences was for extent and depth without a parallel among men; yet, what he learned of the heart of God in the worst of them broke his own; and this, the only acceptable offering he could bring, he brought in all humility. “Thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” Was he not even then a man after God's own heart? When in the hour of his deepest trouble, broken in heart and crushed in spirit with the weight of his guilt, he cast himself unreservedly on the loving-kindness and tender mercy of God, against Whom he had so grievously sinned, was he not on a higher level than any self-righteous moralist ever reached? He was nearer God; and what is there higher than that?
Bold then as the language of scripture concerning David confessedly is, the most exhaustive examination of his history will only prove its truthfulness. That he was an instrument in the hand of the Lord, to render the most important service to His people, will hardly be questioned. Saul had brought them to the, verge of ruin. Through his self will and wickedness their existence as a nation was at stake; but David left them a great, united, and settled kingdom, to enjoy, at least for a time, the blessings of prosperity and peace under Solomon. It is not, however, in these results, great as they were, that we discover the man after God's own heart. The record of the experiences of his soul must be studied for this—how in spite of failure upon failure he never let go the link of grace between God and His people.
He himself lifts the veil of obscurity, so far as it is lifted, that covers his early life. Left alone with his father's sheep, while his brothers enjoyed the comforts of home society, he was content to fulfill the lowly duties of a shepherd lad. It was his first school, and he learned in it his first lessons of self-devotion in the path of duty, and of confidence in the Lord for the hour of peril. His modest account of himself at this time affords us an exquisite picture of both. “Thy servant,” he said to Saul, “kept his father's sheep; and there came a lion and a bear and took a lamb out of the flock; and I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth; and when he arose against me, I caught him by the beard, and smote him and slew him.” (1 Sam. 17) What tender sympathy for the sufferings of even a lamb, and what courage to be friend it! Where had he learned this self-sacrificing devotedness in the cause of the oppressed? Was it natural to him? Was it found in the least degree in his family? Let the total unconcern of his father and brothers answer for them. Did they know that lions and bears prowled in that wilderness? Why leave such a lad there, and wholly unprotected? Even when Samuel came to sacrifice and his sons were called to the feast, they came but not he. Not a thought apparently was bestowed on him by those on whom, as the youngest of the family, he had special claims. Is he then cast down because of their neglect, or indifferent even to a lamb entrusted to his care? Alas! for it if he were, for there was not another to defend it. And he himself was as helpless, yet omnipotence was on his side. Psa. 23, whenever written, is surely his, and full of reference to his experiences of shepherd life. Even in those early days what changes he went through, from the sheep-folds to the court of Saul, then back to the flock and away again to the camp! Yet a survey of life, whatever its vicissitudes, awakened no anxiety (whatever its dangers), produced no fear. “Jehovah is my shepherd, I shall not want.” The attack of the lion and the bear, however sudden, found him prepared. “I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.” When all Israel were in terror because of Goliath, he was unmoved. “The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.” “Let no man's heart fail because of him.” Thus he endeavored to comfort others by the comfort wherewith he himself was comforted of God. And is not this after the Lord's own heart, so ready at all times to encourage the faint-hearted?
We can but remark too what self-renunciation characterized David when enabled thus to minister to the relief of suffering and to rescue the oppressed. When he had refreshed Saul by his skill in playing, and the evil spirit had departed from him, he carried his harp back to the plains of Bethlehem, happy to enjoy in solitude communion with the Lord in a way which he scarcely could have done amidst the distractions of the court. And after the overthrow of Goliath and the Philistines, he sought none of the honors of which he heard so much before, and made no complaint of the failure of royal promises, but with quiet simplicity again resumed the care of his father's sheep. Can we question that such childlike submission and gentleness was after God's own heart? Was it not fulfilling His will? (Acts 13:22.)
Again, the scornful conduct of his brother Eliab, when he publicly charged him with pride and naughtiness of heart as his motives for coming to the camp, awakened no resentment. He simply said, What have I now done? Is there not a cause?” and turned away. Such calmness of spirit, when wantonly insulted, was far from natural to him. He was a man subject to like passions as we are. We see this when Nabal provoked him. His fiery temperament showed itself at once. He blazed forth in anger and would have taken terrible vengeance, had he not been restrained by the timely remonstrance of Abigail (ch. 25.). We may gather from Psa. 19:13, that he was conscious of this infirmity. “Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins (lit. of pride); let them not have dominion over me.” He knew how soon they get the mastery. We shall see too in Psa. 131 that it was with real exercise of soul his passions were subdued. It was like the process of weaning, painful but necessary, yet carried through by grace till his soul was as a weaned child. “Lord, my heart is not haughty nor mine eyes lofty.” This is after God's own heart; “a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price.” Lovely as are these traits of divine life, they afford no ground for boasting. Few realized more than he the deep and constant need of delivering grace, and none has had richer experiences of it. “The Lord was with him,” is the key to his whole history.
If we turn to consider him now as the consciously anointed king of Israel, Saul being alive, we shall see how all must he of grace to bring him to the throne. The wisdom and prudence he needed, and that continually, were beyond nature. Then his unwearied devotion to their interests as the people of God is in marked contrast with the unbelief and self-seeking of Saul who counted them as Hebrews merely (ch. xiii. 3.). The outlook, when for the first time he was brought face to face with their actual condition, was dark enough. One man had for forty days struck terror in all their hearts. Saul drew out their armies in battle array, but they were dismayed whenever this man defied them. How could he count on one of them? Yet jealous for the name of the Lord of hosts, and feeling intensely for the humiliation of the people, David at once undertook, stripling as he was, to go forth in that Name and overthrow this foe, with the supreme desire that all the earth might know THERE WAS A GOD IN ISRAEL, and that they should be victorious, not he alone. As he said to Goliath.” The Lord will give you into our hands.” It was the first dawn of hope since the glory had departed, and it was the birth-time in David's soul of a zeal that never died. Though he was “often baffled, sore baffled, down as into entire wreck, yet he began anew.”
No one pleads for personal perfection in David. This is seen alone in Jesus, David's Son and David's Lord, and with what all-surpassing glory and beauty in Him! But gleams of this beauteous light s. line out in His people by His Spirit, and thus we speak of David. His fervent desire to find a place for Jehovah in the midst of His chosen people was one of these bright rays. Psa. 132 discloses to us the all-absorbing desire of his heart, which, as it neared accomplishment, glowed the more fervently. The ark, the symbol of divine presence had been entirely disregarded by Saul. Not a thought of its restoration appeared to cross his mind. David could not rest until it was brought to Zion, and the happiest moment in his life was when the Levites bore it into the tent which he had prepared for it. Was he not then a man after God's own heart? Here, however, we reach the threshold of his teal life. Shall we be permitted to go farther? The will of the Lord be done. It is a history of profoundest interest, anticipating, as it does in many of its incidents and exercises, the deeper experiences of the Lord Jesus when rejected of Israel as their Messiah.
David: His Escape From Saul, Flight to Samuel and Thence to Ahimelech
HIS ESCAPE FROM SAUL, FLIGHT TO SAMUEL
AND THENCE TO AHIMELECH.
The life of David, illustrated by true expressions of his inmost feelings and experiences, is of peculiar interest; and this we have by inspiration of God. One of a nation whose existence was the fruit of the unmerited love of the Lord, he was almost alone among his contemporaries in the open confession of that love. Difference there was in him from the mass, especially from Saul who in earthly things, a mark of blessing to an earthly people, was richer than he. The mind seeks in vain to discover what made him to differ. Had he not his faults as other men? At times the gravest. A study of his life changes the question. The heart, touched by it—and it is a life to move the heart—asks rather, who made him to differ? No merit of congruity can be found in him. He defined his own condition clearly when he, said, “I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever.” A study of his life thus becomes a study of the mercy of God; and here cold reasoning is out of place. There is a divine congruity between the God of mercy and an object of mercy; between Him Who, with every provocation to anger, delighteth in mercy, and the broken and contrite heart whose only hope is in His mercy. But then, this confiding trust in the mercy, of God is marvelously sustained in the soul under every strain. Whence comes it then? He who sustains, implanted it: the whole is the work of His hand. Election, the doctrine most repugnant to the natural mind, becomes more and more intelligible to the lowly heart by the story of this life, a most eventful life in a most eventful period of Israel's history. May our study of it strengthen our faith, not in the mercy of God only, but in the God of mercy, or, as David would say, “the God of my mercy!”
His wrongs at the hand of Saul began before he was driven out to be hunted, as he said, like a partridge in the mountains. More than once, as he sought to soothe the king's troubled spirit by the melody of his harp, he had to avoid the spear which was hurled at him. Plot after plot to bring about his destruction failed; and at length Saul openly proposed, not only to his servants, but to Jonathan, to kill him. David was thus driven from the court and sought shelter in his house. At once “messengers were sent by Saul to watch him and to slay him in the morning.” Informed by his wife, Saul's daughter, of his danger he escaped, and from that night he never again had a settled abode while Saul lived. This is history (1 Sam. 18; 21). Psa. 59 gives us much more. According to the title it was composed on the discovery of Saul's plot, and with a knowledge of his emissaries. He describes them: men without fear of God— “for who, say they, doth hear?” —men of blood, heartless and unscrupulous, with whom his innocence would avail nothing. It was a moment of supreme danger; but no expression of alarm or anxiety escapes him.
A remark however is called for as to some parts of the Psalm. While the source of David's piety is the same as that of the Christian, the character and expression of it differ in some respects. This will force itself on the mind in reading the passages in which he pleads with God to intervene in judgment on his adversaries, not as opposed to him personally so much as enemies of the kingdom and rejecters of the counsel of God concerning its true king. Such passages look on to the final conflict of Israel with the apostate nations and their allies. The Christian's blessings are not here, but in heaven: there he is to lay up treasure, while in present expectation of the Lord Jesus to come and receive him to Himself to be with Him forever.
Some knowledge of the ways of God is thus most desirable, nay more, most important; but it is by the knowledge of Himself, now in Christ perfectly manifest, that rest in the changing scene is given to the spirit. The wonderful thing is that, in the time of the law dispensationally and of Israel's degradation historically, one so young as David (he was only thirty when he came to the throne) should be so deeply, that is, experimentally, taught. While Saul's messengers were prowling round the house, like dogs greedy for their prey, he, far from being afraid, scornfully anticipated their defeat and disappointment, and rejoicing in the power of the Lord and His mercy, prepared a song for the morning appointed by Saul for his death—
“But I will sing of thy power,
Yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning,
Unto thee, O my strength, will I sing:
For God is my defense, and the God of my mercy.”
We pursue the history. David first sought refuge with Samuel. We can understand this. In the day of adversity fellowship with a kindred spirit is doubly sweet. Moreover, at Naioth, whither they withdrew for greater safety, there was a company of prophets and the power of the Spirit was manifest among them. What a little sanctuary it might have proved but for the cruel jealousy of Saul who did not hesitate to seek his victim there, notwithstanding the presence of Samuel and the mighty influence of the Spirit of which for the time neither he nor his messengers could resist! How evident it was that he was fighting against God! David had again to flee, an outcast now let him turn where he may. He was however comforted by meeting with Jonathan and by receiving from him a signal proof of his unchanging affection; but learned that not even his influence with his father could change his determination. He then fled to Nob, the place where the tabernacle was and the priesthood, and where he might inquire of the Lord from Ahimelech the high priest. Doeg, an Edomite, an official in Saul's service, was there at the time, who told his master of the help given to David, but so wickedly misrepresented it that Saul suspected all the priests were in league against him. Terrible was his vengeance. Eighty-five were slaughtered at his command, by Doeg, and Nob was devoted to destruction, every living thing in it, man and beast, put to the sword. Abiathar the son of Ahimelech alone escaped and told David all (1 Sam. 21; 22). Some incidents are here omitted for the present to maintain the connection of this visit to Nob with its results.
Doeg is of bad pre-eminence in this history. In Saul we may learn the powerlessness of the flesh, whatever external advantages it may possess, to overcome its evil passions. Prophecy he despised, the priesthood he destroyed, and, notwithstanding moments of softening and compunction, he pursued the downward tendency of a godless course to the bitterest end. But Doeg is a treacherous foe: one who has learned that there is not a more potent weapon for the destruction of the innocent than the tongue. He is a type no doubt, of a terrible enemy of the remnant in Israel in the latter day. To learn the Holy Spirit's estimate of him, and David's by the Spirit, we must turn to Psa. 52 He was a proud boaster, magnifying himself because of his position and resources, and “he made not God his strength.” He was a lover of evil and of falsehood. In the tabernacle and before the Lord he was contriving the work of destruction, preparing his tongue, like a sharp razor, to slay the guiltless, a grievous wolf, not sparing the flock.
The sudden turn in the first verse from “the mighty man” to “the goodness of God” is a beautiful touch in the picture. The word translated “goodness” in the A. V., is rendered “mercy” in the R. V. Another has said— “It is not the goodness of Jehovah in His relationship with Israel but what is in the nature of God.” And here we may venture a question. Is it altogether a fault in the A. V. of the Psalms that so many words are given as renderings of one in Hebrew? Thus we have “mercy,” “loving kindness,” “merciful kindness,” “kindness,” “goodness,” “favor,” as translations of one word. May it not be a confession on the part of the translators of the difficulty of conveying to the English reader the exceeding wealth and fullness of meaning of that one word? Anyway, we are no losers by it. We learn more of “what is in the nature of God,” what He is as revealed and known in O. T. times, and what was the ground of the confidence that we find in men of faith like David. With the perfect revelation of God in Christ, the bright light of the N. T. on our nearer relationships to Him in Christ, and with the power of the Holy Ghost given, how we fall short of even their attainment!
We cannot pass over the closing words of this Psalm. It would appear to be David's conviction by the Spirit that the only effectual answer to the false tongue is practical life and godliness. The possession of grace, its silent growth and practical fruits, will affect others for good more than words however eloquent. He speaks of himself in contrast with Doeg, not as merit, but as the result of divine discipline:—
I am like a green olive tree in the house of God,
I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever,
I will praise thee forever, because thou hast
done it.”
These words— “because thou hast done it” refer, we think, primarily to what he suffered from a false, because faithless, step when he left Ahimelech. He was restored before the coming of Abiathar who told him of Doeg; but of this in our next, the Lord willing.
David: From Nob to Gath and Thence to Adullam
FROM NOB TO OATH AND THENCE TO ADULLAM.
The sword of Goliath came into David's hands a second time, but under very different circumstances from the first, When he took it from Goliath, his absolute confidence in the Lord and his self-devotion to the interests of His people distinguished him above all; and it was a time of blessing for Israel though of brief duration. Saul became jealous of him, and no means were left untried to bring about his destruction. His perils, his escapes, and the exercises of his soul because of them we have traced up to his flight to Nob, to the tabernacle, where he hoped to get help. In this he was not disappointed, though Ahimelech, the high priest, was troubled at his coming and by the manner of it. David's wants were now very pressing. Persecuted, defenseless, hungry, and weary, he turned to the minister of the sanctuary for supplies. Who more suited to meet his need and to afford him comfort in this moment of extreme difficulty and peril? Yes, fair in appearance as this flight to the tabernacle for help was, it was not a true seeking of the Lord, for David stooped to artifice to gain his end. He deceived Ahimelech by specious answers to his inquiries; and though his wants were met, his guile, indirectly at least, brought destruction on the innocent, and bitter anguish to his own soul (1 Sam. 22:22).
In the house of God, however, he found nothing but grace. The order of that house was set aside in his favor; he ate the shewbread which it was not lawful for him to eat but only for the priests, and he received from behind the ephod the sword of Goliath. He was fed, he was armed, and he would have been directed; but even this ministry failed, as we shall see, to impart confidence in the Lord. From Matt. 12:3, 4, we learn that David's circumstances at this time were typical of the deeper sorrows of the rejected Messiah and of the remnant attached to Him; and hence we think that the shewbread and the sword of Goliath may have a typical meaning also, pointing to the all-important ministry, so needed by the soul, of the true bread to nourish and the sword of death, no longer our dread, but for us, when used unsparingly against all within and around that hinders obedience to the will of God (Rom. 6:11, Col. 3:5). As David said, “There is none like it; give it me.”
Yet, instructive as the ministry of Ahimelech might have proved, the fact remains that David learned more of God when in the hands of the Philistines than when in the tabernacle; and how true it is now, that saints often learn more of Christ in suffering and distress than from the pulpit. Yet thanks be to God for true ministry. Can we however shut our eyes to the truth that when David was simply depending on the Lord and in confident assurance of his favor, the lion, the bear, and even Goliath, presented no difficulty to him? Young as he was, he met them all as the common work of the life of faith, and he did the greatest service when, in appearance, he was most defenseless. Now, after being ministered to abundantly, through fear of Saul he fled at once to Achish the Philistine, the king of Gath.
What a challenge this ought to be to us! Upon what is our soul really depending? Ordinances and ministry, the best provisions of the sanctuary, can be no substitute for personal trust in God. They may even draw off the spirit from the consciousness of its own inherent weakness, and thus hinder the good they ought to prove. There is no deception more subtle. The Corinthians had the best ministry, they came behind in no gifts; yet for them even more than for others was the warning needed, “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”
What can David do with Goliath's sword in Gath? Would he even dare to show it? Association with the world and looking to it for protection too often lead to subjection to it. The title of Psa. 56 implies that this was his case, “The Philistines took him in Gath.” Thus, after all that Ahimelech had risked for him and had ministered to him, his unbelief brought him into greater difficulties than those from which he fled. He confesses this in the Psalm:—
“Be merciful unto me, O God: for man would swallow me up; All the day long he fighting oppresseth me.”
His distress, more effectual than ministry, cast him upon the mercy of God, and not in vain. Brought into His presence, his faith revived: he became like the David of early days. What now was the estimate of his troubles? He saw at once the utter impotency of man, of whom he had lately been in such abject fear.
“What can flesh do unto me"?
“What can man do unto me”?
“What time I am afraid
I will trust in thee.”
If such was man, what had he learned of the Lord? That He was most compassionate, most merciful, entering into all his sorrows and with a perfect knowledge of them. Rarely was David's harp attuned to a sweeter note than is found here.
“Thou tellest my wanderings:
Put thou my tears into thy bottle:
Are they not in thy book”?
And it is to be noted, that it is when in distress the soul values the word of God. The bed of suffering is very different from the study chair. There the heart has but little sympathy with questions as to the credit of the holy scriptures. Surely David had but little when he sung
“In God will I praise his word,
In the LORD will I praise his word.”
The time of his deliverance drew near, but the way of it must he the entire withering of the flesh. The conqueror in the valley of Elah now “scrabbled on the door of the gate and let his spittle fall down on his beard,” feigning madness to save his life.; yet even in this low estate his faith failed not
“When I cry unto thee, then shall my enemies turn back;
THIS I KNOW; for God is for me.”
The closing prayer of the psalm is very expressive of the need of a soul who, running his own course, has had a fall and fears another.
“Thou hast delivered my soul from death;
Wilt thou not deliver my feet from falling,
That I may walk before God
In the light of the living?”
It has been said, “Oh! the luxury of prayer.” This history may tell us that nothing can deprive a believer of it.
Returning to the land, of which even the Philistines owned he was the king, David's heart is again drawn to the people of the land, whatever treatment he may receive at the hand of their leader. Because of Saul he is still a fugitive and we find him after leaving Gath in the cave of Adullam. There his own family come to him for protection, being no longer safe in Bethlehem: and others, to the number of four hundred, men of no reputation— “in distress,” “in debt” and “bitter of soul” (1 Sam. 22) it is a change in his position. The Lord had been leading him into greater confidence in Himself, and would now train him for future rule in Israel and for delivering the people from their enemies. We must turn to 1 Chron. 11:10-47, to understand the true worth of this little band gathered to David in the cave, and to Psa. 34, to learn his state of soul at the time he received it. Saul evidently knew that he now had followers and openly sneered at his abject condition. “Will the son of Jesse,” he said to his courtiers, “give everyone of you fields and vineyards?” David truly had none, but it would be difficult to find a happier man than he, then or now. The first words of his song are
“I will bless the LORD at all times,
His praise shall be continually in my mouth.”
The Spirit of Christ, Who in Gath had drawn out his desires after God when in tears (Psa. 56.) now that he is delivered from all his fears completes his joy. Saul's nature craved for fields and vineyards; David's, by grace, for the Lord Himself. He had learned more of Him in his affliction than he had ever learned before; and full of praise he would teach others the secret of his joy, His own heart when sorely distressed had found rest, and he could therefore tell others where to find it also. “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart.” It is a beautiful Psalm. If in affliction we have turned to it, we can readily picture its effects on the outcasts in the cave of Adullam. David surely shared his joy with them, as in the overruling goodness of God, he has done with many since. Verse 6 is the experience of one poorer than David. Concerning such portions we may well adopt the words of the beloved author of “Meditations on the Psalms.” “The strings of David's harp are the strings of Christ's heart; and when they are touched, we should be still. There should be something of the deep silence of those who listen to distant music; for the melodies of that heart are far enough away from this coarse and noisy world.”
David: From Adullam to Moab and Return to the Land of Israel
There is great force in the entreaty of the apostle to the Corinthians— “We beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain” —based, as it is, on the fullest presentation of the gospel in the three preceding chapters (2 Cor. 6:1). To the upright in heart such pleading for practical godliness will not be disregarded, neither will instruction by example be unwelcome. In this way a true biography is often helpful, but to be true it must be inspired. In the scriptures the saints of God are not screened, and the brightest may serve as a warning as well as an example.
David was rejoicing in the goodness of the Lord and celebrating his praise in the happy strains of Psa. 34, when a question of every-day life brought to light that he was not, as to it, guided by the will of God. Let us not on this account question his sincerity. It is possible to receive and enjoy truth and sing to the Lord with a heart filled with a sense of His love, and yet to discover soon after that faith is not up to the requirements of the truth enjoyed. While this should humble us, it affords an opportunity for the display of the unwearied grace of God and leads to prayer for a truer condition before Him. The question that came before David in Adullam was one of duty. His aged father and mother sought his protection. Could they bear the dangers and hardships which were before him? Should he, to spare them, seek a quieter sphere than could be found in the land of Israel? He was not ignorant of the purpose of God in taking him from the sheep-cot and from following the sheep; and, since he could sing so heartily of His grace, why not also ask to be shown His way? Called, as he was, to occupy in due time the throne of Israel, every step he took was either for or against his calling. No principle is more simple or more insisted on than this for Christians (2 Peter 1:10). Let their confession of the grace of God be ever so full, clear, and joyous, they will miss their way in the midst of the pressing claims and perplexing questions of this life if they lose sight of their high destiny, of their calling of God to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus. This is the declared end and purpose of God in bestowing His love upon them. He has made them His children, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. We need to remind ourselves of this; for wisdom, as well as strength, is needed that we may live for this end, and against everything, whether in the church or out of it, inconsistent with it.
Saul had abandoned the responsibilities of his calling for self-gratification: shall David his for the sake of his parents? The importance of the question is our plea for dwelling on it; for duties and cares may lead a true soul astray when mere self-seeking would alarm it. Now the claims of natural affection are not to be refused: scripture maintains them (Ex. 20:12, 1 Tim. 5:8). They must, however, be subordinate to the higher claims of Him Who created all things for His pleasure. Neither the dead nor the living, however dear, must be allowed to interfere (Luke 9:59-61). He must be first, and all needed things will be added.
David, in the joy of his heart, had said in this psalm,
“Come, ye children, hearken unto me:
I will teach you the fear of the LORD;”
and again,
“The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous,
And his ears are open to their cry;”
yet he turned away from what he knew was “the inheritance of the LORD” (compare 1 Sam. 26:19) and sought help in his difficulty from idolatrous Moab. This was neither the fear nor the way of the LORD. It was the way of nature. Jesse was the grandson of Ruth the Moabitess; how natural then, and convenient also, for his son to seek an asylum there, and this he did. “He said to the king of Moab, Let my father and mother, I pray thee, come forth and be with you till I know what God will do for me.” Having got thus into Moab, he and his followers are next found “in hold” there; for to leave the path of God is easier than to return to it, and how many have left it for the sake of their families, who would not for their own.
From 2 Sam. 8:2 we learn that, when upon the throne of Israel, friendship could no longer be maintained between David and the Moabites. They were the enemies of Jehovah and of His people. Even Saul knew it (1 Sam. 14:47), wiser in this than the children of light. How painfully inconsistent therefore was this seeking their good offices in the time of trouble whereas he must deal in judgment with them, when in power! Serious thought! And what can be more inconsistent than for the saints of God, who will assuredly be assessors with Christ when in righteousness He shall judge the world, to seek its friendship now in order to secure its momentary patronage and protection! And when this is done by those who say “Hearken unto me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord” the inconsistency is greater still. That the saints will judge the world is distinctly stated in 1 Cor. 6:2. It is the subject of the earliest prophecy, and is found with much minuteness of detail in the latest (Jude 14, 15, Rev. 19:2 to 20:4). It cheered Israel in captivity (Dan. 7:27), and is set before the churches by the Lord Himself for the encouragement of the faithful in the time of apostacy (Rev. 2:26, 27).
There is, however, more than inconsistency. Jehovah of hosts was the God of Israel. “Happy art thou, O Israel; who is like unto thee, O people saved by Jehovah, the shield of my help, and Who is the sword of thy excellency!” Moab had another god and magnified himself against Jehovah (Jer. 48). In the expressive language of the prophet, “his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed.” What could there be in common between David and the king of Moab? And what can there be in common between the world and the servants of Christ, when its friendship is enmity with God? Is not the gospel a witness that, notwithstanding the fullest display of the love of God in Christ, the world is still opposed? Why beseech men to be reconciled to God if they are so? Moab for its own ends may smile on David, but it is Moab still. And the world may bestow its favors, its patronage, and protection on Christians, if they sink so low as to solicit them; but it is the world still, with its own god, its own aims, objects, and interests, and alas! to add, its own doom.
There was a difference truly, between David's flight to Gath in thorough distrust of God, and his turning to Moab for the sake of his aged parents. To deliver him from Gath, he was humiliated before the Philistines. To restore him from Moab, the Lord, in sovereign grace, intervened by the prophet Gad, that is, by his word. He said to him, “Abide not in the hold, depart and get thee into the land of Judah. Then David departed and came into the forest of Hareth.” At this time Saul was giving way to frightful excesses. Hearing that David was in Judah, he at once held a council with his servants to take him! and this led to the horrible slaughter of the priests through the treachery of Doeg. David seemed to be putting himself in his power, but the authority of God's word was supreme. He knew well that obedience meant his giving up a position of apparent quietness and facing persecution, danger, and distress; yet he obeyed, and in the wilderness of Judah and its caves, he composed some of the most instructive and beautiful of his psalms. He has thus strengthened the faith of those who have taken the path of God in this evil world, a path so clearly enjoined in His word (2 Cor. 6:2, 14-18; 2 Tim. 2:19, 2 John 10, 11, Rev. 18:4).
Psa. 57, 63, and 142. from their titles date from about this time, a time of intense peril, yet of unequaled blessing, for David. Saul's forces were greatly increased, and he was more determined than ever to seek out his prey and destroy him. David felt it keenly——
“Refuge hath failed me; no man careth for my soul.
I cried unto thee, O Lord;
I said, Thou art my refuge,
My portion in the land of the living” (142).
yet, let his enemies rage as they may, he was never more sensible of the boundless range of the power of the Most High God, or more simply dependent on Him for protection.
“I will cry unto God Most High,
Unto God that performeth all things for me. He shall send from heaven, and save me
From the reproach of him that would swallow me up” (57.).
There was also the testimony of his conscience as to his path. He had followed no human judgment. He had obeyed the Lord, and to Him he could appeal as to that path—
“When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, Thou knewest my path” (142.).
He could thus walk with God where there was nothing to ensnare. How unlike the path of nature! Before Goliath he was bold in “the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel,” for then it was a question of power, and before many. Now, in the desert, it is one of love, of personal love, known and enjoyed in the soul when alone. “O God, thou art my God.” His song in the wilderness of Judah (Psa. 63) is thus full of beauty, but a beauty that only those will appreciate whose separation to God is a divine reality.
“Because thy loving kindness is better than life, My lips shall praise thee,
Thus will I bless thee while I live:
I will lift up my hands in thy name.
My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness;
And my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips”
David had no such experiences in Moab. Christians may have much truth, profess much truth, and circulate much truth; but to live before God in the power and holy joy of the truth, they must be in a true path.
David: Treachery in Israel, Regard for Saul
When David left the land of Judah for the sake of his parents, though the motive abstractedly was innocent, the first of all duties was neglected. When God has His rightful place, everything is referred to Him. “In all thy was acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” This necessarily stands at the head of all obedience, and this was the lesson which David was taught by his failure. Immediately on his reaching the forest of Hareth he heard that the Philistines had attacked Keilah and were plundering the threshing-floors. With the desire not to repeat his fault he inquired of the Lord. “shall I go and smite these Philistines? And the Lord said, Go, and smite the Philistines and save Keilah.” But why the sword? Why does he say:—
“Blessed be the Lord my strength,
Who teacheth my hands to war
And my fingers to fight.” (Ps. 144.)
Why is the desire so often expressed by Israel for judgment on their enemies, and why was it counted an honor to execute it upon them? The answer is this. “The earth is the Lord's,” the ordering of it is His also. In His sovereignty He has apportioned to Israel the chief and central place among the nations (Deut. 32:7-9). In them divine government has been displayed on the earth, and. will be again. With a high arm He brought them out of Egypt to Himself to be their King and their God; and the idolatrous nations that opposed and mocked at His power were His enemies, Israel being used by Him to execute judgment on them. Under the first and legal covenant the chosen people so grievously failed that “they are scattered among all peoples from the one end of the earth even unto the other” (Deut. 28:64); but “He that scattered Israel will gather him” (Jer. 31:10). Now, sinners reached by God's grace through the gospel, whether Jew or Gentile, are brought into one body, the church, a people for heaven, who while on earth should be manifestly a heavenly people. The ceaseless efforts of the god of this world have been directed to make the church a “mock Israel,” and with much success. Happy are they who have been able to stand against hiss wiles (Eph. 6:10-18). The Gentiles, placed in authority on the overthrow of the house of David, have never had any care for the divine plan for ordering the earth, but eagerly strive for the possession of it. We have now reached that period in their history when the question is, how to mingle the iron of the image in Dan. 2 with the clay, for they will not cleave one to another, and further revolutions are anticipated. The Christian, not sharing the fears of the world, reads in this the near approach of the day of deliverance (Dan. 2:44, 45). THE EARTH IS THE LORD'S, and He will take it Whose right it is. Then shall Israel be restored and take their true and glorious place among the nations; Jehovah shall be manifestly their King and their God, and the earth shall rest from war. The Psalms, while full of instruction for us, concern Judah and Israel. David's desires and actings were thus in strict accordance with the ways of God on behalf of an earthly people.\
To save the men of Keilah, their enemies must be smitten, but they brought the judgment on themselves. Those with David however were not ready to follow him now. To go with him to Moab presented no difficulty; but to go to Keilah was a challenge to their faith, and what was the answer? “Behold,” they said, “we be afraid here in Judah how much more then if we come to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?” David refused to put his personal influence in the place of the word of God. He neither reasoned with them nor rebuked them, but inquired of the LORD yet again. “And the LORD answered Arise, go down to Keilah for I will deliver the Philistines into thine hand.” This assurance of divine power overcame their fears; they went with David, smote the Philistines with great slaughter, and Keilah was saved.
Saul on hearing that David was now “in a town that had gates and bars” at once prepared to besiege him, and at this time Abiathar, fleeing from Nob, came to him with the ephod in his hand. It was indeed a token for good. The breastplate, inseparable from the ephod, bore the names of all the tribes of Jacob; and, as he was about to learn by bitter experience the character of the people whom he was to serve, he by it was reminded of the unchanged compassion of the Lord for them, changed as were their circumstances. To view them in the light of their conduct might have estranged him from them; but to see them according to the thoughts of the Lord, expressed in this type, would deepen his interest in them, while by the Urim and Thuminim he could have the guidance he needed. Hence he said to Abiathar, “Bring hither the ephod.” Most solemn, most reverent, most earnest was his cry. Appealing again and again to the LORD as the LORD God of Israel, he inquired. “Will Saul come down? And the LORD said, He will come down. Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul. And the LORD said, They will deliver thee up.” He made no complaint. He cannot wage war with Israel, with the people whose names were on the breastplate. He can strike no blow at his master, the LORD'S anointed. He will not fight, but “he and his men, which were about six hundred, arose and departed out of Keilah, and went whither they could go.”
Many of his Psalms bear witness to the strong emotion under which they were composed; few more so than those which were written on the discovery of the ingratitude and treachery of the people he served.
“For my love they are my adversaries: But I give myself unto prayer.
And they have rewarded me evil for good, And hatred for my love.” (Psa. 109)
See also Psa. 35:12-16; 38:20; 69:4, and others.
God has thus used his afflictions by the Spirit “to express the feelings not only of the people of God, but often of the Lord Himself.”
We find him next in the wilderness of Ziph, where Jonathan with affectionate sympathy and noble courage and devotion came to him, and “strengthened his hand in God.” How he needed it, for the Ziphites, more treacherous than the men of Keilah, volunteered to betray him to Saul, who actually blessed them in the name of the LORD for having compassion on him! Guided by them he led his forces in pursuit and reached the mountain near Maon on the other side of which were David and his men. The peril was extreme. In a very short time they would be surrounded and all hope gone. Nothing but the direct interposition of God could save them; and it is beautiful to see how, led by the Spirit, he cast himself and those with him on God as known, or in the language of scripture on “His name” — “Save me, O Gol, by thy name, and judge (vindicate) me by thy strength.” (Psa. 54) His cry was heard. “A messenger came to Saul saying, Haste thee and come for the Philistines have invaded the land.” Thus pressed he was obliged to return and David was saved. So marked was this deliverance that the place where it occurred was called “The cliff of Escape.”
We have now to see this servant of the Lord under very different circumstances. Twice Saul was in his power: once when he retired alone into the cave where David and his men were hiding; and a second time when he and his guards were “in a deep sleep from the LORD.” On the former occasion David cut off the skirt of his robe as a proof of the danger to which he had exposed himself. On the latter, David and Abishai noiselessly approached him and took the spear and cruse of water from his bolster; “and no man saw it, nor knew it, neither awaked.” Urged by his followers to take the opportunity, which to them seemed to be of the Lord, to rid himself of so relentless an enemy, he firmly refused. Indeed his magnanimity of spirit, his loyalty and obeisance to the king, as his master, his earnest and even affectionate appeal to him, as in the presence of the Lord, when he said, “My father, see, yea, see the skirt of thy robe in my hand,” the witness that he had not sinned against him, though Saul was hunting his soul to destroy it, display a character of no ordinary kind. Whence was it? There can be but one reply. In his recent afflictions he had sought the Lord more diligently than ever, and in communion with Him had learned much of the ineffable goodness of His nature. He was certainly born of God, and had thus the capacity of enjoying and valuing the favor, the lovingkindness, of God. Light as to the flesh and the new creation did not shine out then as since the cross, but he could not be much in the presence of God without a real moral change, and this in an interesting way is discovered in the Psalms. If our translators found it difficult to render into English the one word in Hebrew that expresses the nature of God, and have employed six English words to convey its meaning, they have in like manner used five to express the moral character of the faithful remnant in Israel of whom David was certainly one (see Psa. 86).
“Bow down thine ear, O LORD, hear me:
For I am poor and needy.
Preserve my soul, for I am holy:
O thou my God, save thy servant that trusteth in thee.”
The word “holy” is, in the margin, “one whom thou favourest;” in the R. V., “godly.” The same word is also rendered “saint,” “the merciful” and in Mic. 7:2, “the good man.” How intimate and beautiful is the connection between the graciousness of God and the graciousness of the heart that by faith knows and delights in Him; but alas! how different is the result in those who do not. The same sun, that perfects the beauty of the rooted living flower, withers the rootless one. So was it seen in David and in Saul, in the remnant and in the nation of Israel, and so is it now in the true receiver of Christ and in the mere professor. Oh! for more faith in the quiet power of communion with God.
David: Life in Ziklag and Its Experiences
LIFE IN ZIKLAG AND ITS EXPERIENCES.
David's last meeting with Saul evidently affected him greatly; and it is probable that, as he set before him in feeling terms his condition as a partridge hunted on the mountains, and his insignificance, compared with the strength and resources of the king, as a flea, that he realized his danger in a way he had never done before, and felt that his enemies would eventually hunt him to death. The exceeding peril of yielding to anxious thoughts lie at one time pressed in language which many since have adopted for their blessing, but which at this moment he failed to realize. In Psa. 139, which brings the soul in all its internal workings under the eye of the Lord, he expresses the fervent desire to be delivered from every thought which would discourage his heart and lead to departure from God.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my thoughts:.
And see if there be any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.”
Thoughts have tempted many to forsake their own mercies, as Jonah, and observe lying vanities. Here David failed. Self-preservation was a suggestion of Satan, and he yielded to it so fully that past experiences, deliverances, joys, and testimonies were all forgotten. What discord a single distrustful thought may stir up in a truly godly soul! He loved Israel: he loved the Lord, and in this same Psalm he declares that the enemies of the Lord were his enemies.
“Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee?
And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee?
I hate them with perfect hatred;
I count them mine enemies.”
As the appointed ruler over Israel this was right. For the display of the righteous government of Jehovah in the earth and the deliverance of His people, it was the truth that he was called to maintain; but truth to be of any avail must be held in communion with God. There is no power in truth of itself, and knowledge is not faith. Of this, David at this time was a striking example. “He said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul: there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines: and Saul shall despair of me, to seek me any more in the coast of Israel: so shall I escape out of his hand.” There was now with him a band of brave men who, under his leadership, would prove a valuable contingent to the forces of the Philistines. On this he reckoned for favor in their eyes and not in vain. Thus temptation and opportunity combined to draw him away from his known duty. Achish welcomed him, and at his request gave him the city, Ziklag, to dwell in.
This suggests the thought that another motive was at work. Every man with him had his household, and David his two wives, Ahinoani and Abigail: was there not heart longing for rest as well as safety, for a home as well as a refuge, and this, if it could not be in the land of Judah, with the enemies of God?
This sudden spiritual change in a man of exemplary faith should be a solemn warning against giving way at any time to the suggestions of “a dark brooding heart.” From the time of his return from Moab to the land of Judah, he had been going on happily, seeking and obtaining counsel and help of the Lord in every difficulty, and giving expression to the joy of his soul again and again in Psalms of praise; yet at once his guilty weakness and fears betrayed him into a course of disobedience, of self-will, of open departure from the Lord, and of conduct, shameful and cruel in the extreme. We all need the lesson, or it would not have been written for us. As another has said, in writing of Job, “There is a wonderful scene going on in the heart of man. God does not always let us see it, it would not be good for us: we could not bear it. Sometimes the veil is drawn aside and the heart is exposed to itself. It is a serious thing when God thus lifts the veil and shows what is going on for good and evil in a poor little heart like ours.”
Under no circumstances hitherto would David strike a blow against Israel, yet what advantage was it to Achish to receive him if he did not: therefore to meet his searching inquiries as to the raids he made, he must deceive him. This he did, and so effectually that Achish said, “David hath made his people Israel utterly to abhor him, therefore he shall be my servant forever.” But artifice and falsehood alone could not secure him from discovery. Therefore of those against whom he made war, “he left neither man or woman alive lest they should tell saying, So did David, and so will be his manner all the while he dwelleth in the country of the Philistines.” And this was his course for sixteen months! Surely in the flesh dwelleth no good thing, sin only is found there. Explicit statements of this are abundant in scripture, especially in the New Testament; but these are confirmed by narrative after narrative which discovers it where we should least expect to find it. Deliverance from it can only be by the Cross of the Lord Jesus and to this the Christian emphatically puts his seal (Gal. 5:24)—is taught to do so. About the close of the sixteen months the allied princes of the Philistines resolved upon engaging in a combined attack upon the forces of Saul at Gilboa, and Achish said to David, “Know thou assuredly that thou shalt go out with me to battle”? and David said, “Surely thou shalt know what thy servant can do “: and he and his men passed over in the rereward of the Philistines army with Achish. The time of deceit was over. Israel's champion, in alliance with their bitterest foes, is in arms, not against the people of God only, or against Saul whose life he twice spared because he was anointed, but against Jehovah of Hosts whom he had confessed before Goliath to be the God of the armies of Israel. This then raised the question as to His rights, for David was his servant; and if he were powerless to break the yoke under which he had placed himself, it should be broken for him. As the rivers of water, the Lord turneth the hearts of men, and He turned the hearts of the other lords of the Philistines against David. They insist on his immediate dismissal. “Make this fellow return that he may go again to his place which thou past appointed him, and let him not go down with us to the battle, lest in the battle he be an adversary to us.” Achish had to yield, and David returned to Ziklag to find it in flames. The Amalekites had invaded it, and taken captive the women, the children, and the cattle—everything. It was a terrible blow, but a self-earned one. Though God forgives His people, He takes vengeance on their inventions. The distress of all the men, their weeping, their despair, their almost hatred of David, for they spoke of stoning him, though he was a partner with them in. all their sorrow, added inconceivably to the anguish of his soul; but he knew the hand that smote him, and appalling as were his circumstances, “encouraged himself in the Lord his God.” Such is the simple record (1 Sam. 30:6) and such is faith; if for a season eclipsed, it shines out the more intensely when the darkness of distrust is, by grace, removed. Even the splendid triumph over Goliath cannot be compared with the victory over himself. He is David again as we knew him before his fall. He turned to Abiathar for the ephod, inquired of the Lord, and at His word pursued the Amalekites, came upon them, smote them and recovered all. Now, when his condition was right before God, his spirit was changed, his heart was enlarged. An Amalekite could leave his servant who had fallen sick to die in the field. Though rich with the spoils of Ziklag, his niggardly heart refused even the little that might give back strength to the poor exhausted Egyptian. Will David yield to the selfish suggestion of some that those of his men who were too faint to go with him to the fight should not share in the spoils? Far be the thought. His faith had taken hold of God, and the mercy which he himself received he must display. It was an opportunity for good, and he seized it: as the Christian loves, because God first loved him. In royal grace David saluted the feeble ones, inquired as to their welfare, rebuked the hard-hearted, and made a statute and an ordinance for Israel from that day forward: “As his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff; they shall part alike.”
David: From the Ruins of Ziklag to the Throne of Hebron
FROM THE RUINS OF ZIKLAG TO THE THRONE IN
HEBRON.
Solomon records a deeply interesting and suggestive fact concerning David. “The Lord said to my father, Forasmuch as it was in thine heart to build a house for my name, thou didst well that it was in thine heart: notwithstanding thou shalt not build the house; but thy son who shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build the house for my name” (2 Chron. 6:8, 9). From Psalm 132 we learn how fervent the desire became in David's heart that the departed glory should return to Israel; that the Lord should again dwell, and be worshipped there. As to the accomplishment of this, he had to be put in his proper place, but that which was in his heart was approved. Of which of his deeds is it said, “thou didst well?” We cannot recall one, and if it be so, we have that, in his case, which is full of encouragement for others, for it places all the saints of God on one footing, however much they differ as to ability for service. The counsels of the heart are before God, and this realized will make them regardless of the praise of men (1 Cor. 4:5). Even Samuel when he was sent to anoint David needed the word, “Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” A remark by Adolphe Monod is much to the point: “‘Give me thy observances,’ says the God of Pharisaism. ‘Give me thy personality,’ says the God of Hegel. ‘Give me thy reason,’ says the God of Kant. The living and true God says, ‘Give me thy heart '.” Yes, the desire for God Himself must precede all service. This David learned—we can appeal to all his Psalms in proof of it; and great was the mercy, and patient was the grace of God in teaching him.
It was at Ziklag and on the third day after his victory over the Amalekites that the news of Saul's death was brought to David (2 Sam. 1). What place so suitable for him to hear it? Everything around would remind him of his own sinful weakness and failure, and of the abounding mercies of the Lord. He and his men had recovered all that the Amalekites had taken, but the flames spared nothing which they received from Achish. The moral of this, for us, may be learned in 1 Cor. 3:13-18. His self-will had plunged him into great distress, but the grace of the Lord was wonderful. He strengthened him with strength in his soul, so that he received the tidings which assured him that the way was at length open for him to the throne without a selfish thought. He wept when he heard of Saul's death.
Poor Saul! Israel had given up everything for him. Samuel thought that they had rejected him for the sake of the king. No, said the Lord, “They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me that I should not reign over them.” Saul was a gifted man, and attractive to the flesh in many ways, yet never a man of faith though in a position that called for continuous faith. His own soul had no link with God, and he succeeded in reducing Israel practically to the same state. By giving to his followers fields and vineyards, rank and titles, and by clothing the daughters of Israel in scarlet with other delights, and putting ornaments of gold upon their apparel, he maintained for them a fair outward appearance of prosperity, while he was leading them farther and farther from God. But the end came. He and his three sons were slain. What then was the condition of Israel? To whom shall they turn when their reproach was in the mouth of the heathen, in the house of their idols, and among the people? Abner's attempt to set up Ish-bosheth, a younger son of Saul, proclaimed their degradation. He was not anointed, not gifted, a mere tool in the hands of Abner for his purpose, and eventually murdered by two of his captains. His right name, Esh-Baal, had been dropped, and he was popularly Galled Ish-bosheth, that is, “man of shame.”
To rightly estimate all this, and the cause of David's exercises and yearnings of heart, we must go back to their origin as a people saved by Jehovah. On the Canaan side of the Red Sea Moses himself was but as one of them. The presence of the Lord was the great, joy-inspiring truth. He had brought them not only forth out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, but to Himself. Their hearts were united, they sung as one man— “Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people whom thou hast redeemed, thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation.” Though the wilderness was before them, in the love of their espousals they followed the Lord in a land not sown. But how was it with them now? For forty years they had followed a man. They had seen the prophet of God ignored, His priests slaughtered, and David persecuted. Still they followed him He led them to lean upon him, and there was a sacredness attached to his authority which quieted conscience: they must either acknowledge him or be outcasts with David: the will and pleasure of God were not thought of. There was a charm, too, about the man himself. As David said in his touching elegy:
“The beauty (the gazelle) of Israel is slain upon the high places:
How are the mighty fallen!
Ye mountains of Gilboa,
Let there be no dew, neither rain upon you, nor fields of offering;
For there the shield of the mighty was vilely cast away,
The shield of Saul, as of one not anointed.”
Is it possible that Christians can be indifferent to these lessons? Christendom, like Israel, under its self-chosen leaders, has degenerated into an organized system in which the presence of the Lord, whose name it professes, is neither necessary nor desired; but are there none in it like David? None who have learned, it may be by sore discipline, to find their only blessing in His presence?
“Whom have I in heaven but thee?
And there is none on earth I desire beside thee.”
Dr. Octavius Winslow, in his memoir of his mother, quotes the following from her correspondence: “One word as to the blessed manifestation to the soul of Christ Himself (John 14:21). Let us never be satisfied without this. I meet with many professing Christians who appear to know nothing about it.” (This lady had exceptional opportunities of meeting with Christians.) How far her witness is true as to others, must not be our first concern. Is it true of ourselves? This was the order in David's experience. He first proved the blessedness of the manifested presence of the Lord in his own soul, and then he sought it for all Israel.
Now that Saul was dead the way was opened for his establishment on the throne. Though he had not left Ziklag, he at once acted royally, sending presents to the elders of Judah, to his friends, and order in, the execution of the Amalekite who charged himself with the death and plundering the person of “the Lord's anointed.” What shall be his next step? Here again we have distinct evidence how real was the presence of the Lord to his soul. With the simplicity of a child, and in few words, he inquired of Him— “Shall I go up unto any of the cities of Judah? And the Lord said, to him—Go up. And David said, whither shall I go up? And He said, unto Hebron.” This holy liberty and simplicity is seen in the church at first, as in Ananias (Acts 9) and others. If unknown to any now, how great their loss! David obeyed at once. He went to Hebron with his two wives, and the men were with him, every man with his household: “and the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah.” He had yet to wait seven years and a half before all Israel submitted to his rule. The typical application of this (see Ezek. 37:15-28) has been pointed out by many, but there is a secret of blessing also in this life—history, which every Christian, however lacking in acquaintance with its typical significance, may learn to profit. He was a man subject to like passions as we are. A man that saw much affliction, and needed to see it. A man whose heart was exposed to the intrusion of evil thoughts and suggestions, which, when acted on, led to the bitterest consequences. Yet a man who, by the patient grace of God, came to find His presence the very gladness of joy (Psa. 43:4 margin). And after his own experiences how could he limit the mercy of God. Shall not all Israel, as the people of the Lord, be led back to their first love, to exult that His habitation was again in their midst? It was his most fervent desire, and though Solomon built the house, he was at all sacrifice and cost for it. And the Lord said, “Thou didst well that it was in thine heart.” What a reward!
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