When King David was bringing the ark of God to Jerusalem, with much rejoicing, full of praise and music, his joy was turned to sadness at the death of Uzzah for the reason stated in 2 Sam. 6:7. He was displeased and emotionally disturbed; and as we read in v.9 “David was afraid of the Lord that day, and said, How shall the ark of the Lord come to me?” So David halted the procession and placed the ark of the Lord in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite.
David was told that, in the three months that the ark of God was in Obed-Edom’s care, the Lord had blessed Obed-Edom and all his family, because of the ark of God. Now Obed-Edom was a Philistine. Why should King David place the most holy object in Israel in the house of a Philistine, since the Philistines had been and still were the chief enemies of Israel?
The reason was, apart from Obed-Edom’s house being near, King David had a deep regard for the Gittites, who came from Gath, because 600 of them had come to help David in his flight from Absalom. With Ittai the Gittite, had also come the Cherethites and the Pelethites, who were branches of the Philistines, as we read in 2 Sam. 15:18-22. The words of Ittai, v.21, are remarkable; and stamp him as one of the truly great friends of King David. Having deserted the King of Gath, the Gittites were, as David said, strangers and exiles, and had just come to David the day before. Apparently David was reluctant to risk the lives of these men, as David’s followers were out-numbered. But Ittai refused to return to his king, with these words to King David, “As the Lord liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be”. Verse 18 of chapter 15 records, “And all the Cherethites and all the Pelethites and all the Gittites, 600 men which came after him from Gath, passed on before the king” (all of them Philistines). By the way, Goliath was a Gittite (2 Sam. 21:19).
How strange that, when David’s people had rejected him, hated foreigners — people of whom David had not known previously as far as we can ascertain — had come to David’s assistance in his time of trouble. Was this the work of the Lord moving these people to help David? It appears so to me. Ittai became a commander in David’s army. David further appointed Obed-Edom and 72 of his family, to be porters for the house of the Lord (1st Chron. 26:8). It was an honour indeed, but it shows that Gentiles could become Israelites by being proselytes and having faith and accepting the Lord God of Israel as their God.
The Solution