David, once shepherd, king’s servant, exiled soldier and fugitive now became the King of Israel in power. On the death of Saul, he came to the throne of Judah when his own tribe elected him as their king. He was 30 years of age, the same age that Jesus began his ministry, and reigned in all for 40 years.
All was not easy after Saul’s death, for the Philistines were bold in their domination of the land. Abner, Saul’s captain of Israel, had withdrawn across Jordan to Gilead and thence began his forays to wrest back much of the invaded territory. He took the opportunity to set up Saul’s puny son, Ishbosheth, as king over all Israel in rivalry to David. Inevitably, inter-tribal warfare ensued, with David at the head of Judah doing battle with the remaining tribes under Abner’s leadership.
It must have been a grievous burden for King David to bear. Realising his destiny was to be king of a united Israel he yet had to watch God’s people engage in civil war. However, the problem was solved when, following a quarrel with Ishbosheth, Abner defected to the standard of David. The solution was marred by the treacherous murder of Abner by Joab and Abishai doubtless prompted not only by revenge for his slaying of their brother Asahel, but also by reasons of State to remove a potential rival to the favour of their king. Then Ishbosheth himself was murdered, and, with David expressing his deep revulsion for both deeds, the way was opened for him to take the throne over the whole of Israel: “So the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron and king David made a league with them in Hebron before the Lord: and they anointed David king over Israel.”1
So began the effective, unifying and wise rule of David. As an early move he saw the wisdom of central government, and removed from Hebron in the heaiit of Judeh to Jerusalem, 20 miles to the north, which fortress and city was more conveniently situated as a capital for all the tribes of Israel.
At this time the Jebusites held the city, and in the early days of David’s rule they had withstood the onslaught of the Israelites. Then David at his army’s head attacked the confident Jebusites who, in their stronghold, thought themselves unconquerable, nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion; the same is the city of David. . . . So David dwelt in the fort and called it the city of David. And David built round about from Millo and inward. And David grew great and the Lord of Hosts was with him”.2
With Jerusalem as the new capital David enlarged his possession far and wide, and the golden age of Israel began. These were great days for, like his greater son to come, David was a prophet as well as a king. Coupled with his love for Zion was an appreciation of the great future role of his city, aptly named “possession of peace”, of which he sang, “Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion on the sides of the north, the city of the great king”.3 Troubles would come but God would triumph in the end and would give the dominion to Israel. Yes . . . “God will save Zion and will build the cities of Judah: that they may dwell there and have it in possession. The seed also of his servants shall inherit it: and they that love his name shall dwell therein”.4
What sort of a king was this prophet, David? No ordinary man, as his early life testified, but a godly man beloved of God, a “man after God’s own heart”. No wonder that we find his reign and dealings with his subjects to be generally wise and true.
Though a king, David retained the common touch begotten of his deep humility before God. Typical of his waiting on the Lord was the event of bringing the Ark of the Testimony into Jerusalem. He did not deem it below his dignity then to “dance before the Lord”. His wife, Michal, Saul’s daughter, despised him and called it a shameful thing to witness the king of the land leaping and dancing before the Lord, but David viewed it differently and he retorted, “It was before the Lord, which chose me before thy father and before all his house to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel: therefore will I play before the Lord”.5
In this we see his largeness of heart, coupled with a real reverence for God. What an example for a king to set his people, as evidenced in such earlier acts as his posture before Saul whom he could have easily slain, except that this man was the Lord’s anointed.
Israel under David prospered as God’s nation. Again and again, trusting the direction of God, they waged war against the surrounding nations and extended the borders of the land to include Syria, Moab, Ammon and Edom. At home, spiritual values were not neglected, and the worship of the Lord of Hosts was developed and encouraged among the people. Yet, as a man of blood, David was not permitted to complete his kingly dream of building a great Temple in his city. Nevertheless, he had God”s promise of his ultimate everlasting blessing. As the Apostle Peter declared a millennium later, David knew that “God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins according to the flesh he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne” .6
Meantime, David had to be content to prepare the materials for his son Solomon to actually build the Temple, and at the same time to engage in the terrible wars against his neighbours to establish the kingdom. He saw such warfare at its true worth, for Israel was God’s battleaxe against His enemies: “And the Lord gave victory to David whithersoever he went.”7
It was at the height of his power that he committed the grievous sins in the taking of Baithsheba and “in the matter of Uriah the Hittite”.8 In fact, it may have been largely due to that very power. “Power corrupts: absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Was this true of David, as it certainly became true of his son, Solomon? With David, it would seem that his redemption lay in his very reverence for God, in spite of tragic failure.
Self deceit, or “internal hypocrisy”, has been called the greatest threat to individual holiness. David in his two terrible transgressions is pointed out as guilty of this self-destroying sin. In fact, all his other sins might have been remedied, but this deep-seated evil of self-deceit would have totally destroyed him, but for the mercy of God.
His sin with Uriah’s wife may be instanced as a sin of passion, but his murder of Uriah was deliberate and determined wickedness. What we see in King David, may it not be an indication of the wickedness of our heart? For in looking at him in his self-deceit we find ourselves under scrutiny.
In modern language, we can imagine that David “rationalised” in his treatment of both transgressions. It has been well suggested David’s inner thoughts may have run along these lines. His first sin—”I am the king and Uriah and his wife are both my servants. All that he has is mine. She is not for such as he. She should be a queen and she shall be. And I can make it up to him and I will.” Then followed Uriah’s disobedience and insolence to his king, so David may have gone on to his second wickedness. “He has disobeyed his king and I must be obeyed. Yes, and the sword devours one as well as another and it might have devoured Uriah even if I had not written that letter!” So he fell grievously and it required Nathan to take his life into his hand and confront him with the parable of the rich man robbing a poor neighbour of his one ewe lamb to tell him he was unclean, cruel, cowardly and guilty of blood.
What of David the large hearted, the shepherd of God’s flock, exercising compassion and goodwill to his people? The dreadful point of internal hypocrisy is manifest in this, that he doubtless carefully judged in Israel all this time. Yet David’s underlying life was not unclean or cruel and, above all, he loved God: so that the words of Nathan come with godly power to rebuke his ungodly acts and he “came to himself” in response to the messenger of God.
These terrible events and God’s judgments that followed must have had a tremendous effect on the king. We can be sure that they remained with him constantly and he did not develop further into a despotic ruler of God”s people. In fact the overall impression coming to us of David as “King in Power” is of a big-hearted, God fearing man, directing the nation wisely. He acknowledged his own grievous faults and, though imperfectly, he foreshadowed the greater Son of David to come. For he, too, feared the Lord in humility and trusted God with all his heart.
We can therefore say this: that these very qualities and his conquests and stabilization of God ancient kingdom are shadows cast before of the great day to come when Israel’s Messiah will build God’s House; when He “will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever”9 and, in David’s words under inspiration, “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth”.10
References
1- 2 Sam. 5 . 3.
2- 2 Sam. 5 . 7, 9.
3- Psalm 48 . 2.
4- Psalm 69 . 35,36.
5- 2 Sam. 6. 21.
6- Acts 2. 30.
7- 2 Sam. 8 . 14.
8- 2 Sam. Chapter 11 .
9- 2 Sam. 7. 13.
10- Psalm 72. 8.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One