I have written about King
David extensively over the years but it seems I am not finished yet. I watched
an AI generated film about him yesterday and it was done so well that I don’t
know who I cried about more, the David who rose to the throne or the David who
fell from it.
The fact remains that
David’s accomplishments are astounding. His name comes from the ancient Hebrew
root word dod which translates to a beloved person, love, a friend….pronounced
Dah-veed in modern Hebrew. As a youth, he was said to be a man after the
Lord’s “own heart” and as a man, he spoke by the Spirit and had many
revelations (1 Samuel 13:14).
In his rising to the
throne he conquered his enemies by his supplication to God for help and
protection ‘not fearing what man can do to him’ (see Psalm 55:11). He was
fearless in his dedication to his people by his awe inspiring way he believed
in the cause in Israel when he, a mere
shepherd boy, slew Goliath, considering him of no regard, a mere ‘uncircumcised
Philistine, who dared to defy the armies of the living God’ to whom he stated
without fear: “I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the
armies of Israel whom thou hast defied…...and I will smite thee and take thine
head from thee….that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel” (1 Samuel
17:26,45,46). All the earth, indeed…..
The zeal with which he
lived his early years is absolutely mind blowing. What tears at my heart the
most are the psalms he wrote as a reflection of his incomparable love for the
God of Israel. His faith gave him a
prophetic voice to testify of Christ who would one day sit on his throne. Apostle
Peter testified of this fact in Acts 2:22-36. Psalms worthy of notice to this
end are:
·
Psalm 16 (thou wilt not leave my soul in
hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption);
·
Psalm 22, which closely matches details of
the Crucifixion, including “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (v 1); “they pierced my hands and my feet” (v 16); “They
part my garments….and cast lots” (v 18);
·
Psalm 110, which Jesus and the apostles
use as messianic, including “The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right
hand” (v 1); the prophecy of Christ as “a priest for ever after the order of
Melchizedek” (v 4);
·
Psalm 41, often connected with betrayal: “mine
own familiar friend…hath lifted up his heel against me” (v 9), which Jesus
quoted at the Last Supper (John 13:18);
·
Psalm 69, linked to the suffering of
Christ: “in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink” (v 21);
·
Psalm 118, used repeatedly in the New
Testament about Christ: “The stone which the builders refused is become the
head stone of the corner” (v 22) and “blessed be he that cometh in the name of
the Lord” (v 26).
David did three things for temporal Israel that typify what Christ will do for spiritual Israel:
Firstly, following Saul's death, Israel's
kingdom was divided in two for seven years. The tribe of Judah accepted David
as their king and the rest of the tribes of Israel were ruled by Ishbosheth,
one of the sons of Saul, whom Abner, Saul's commanding general set up as the
new king (2 Sam 2:8-9).
Despite being anointed as Israel's king, by Samuel, the prophet,
David refrained from taking action against Ishbosheth in honour of the covenant
he made with Jonathan not to retaliate against Saul's family when he came to
power. Following Ishbosheth's murder David showed great wisdom and judgment by
executing the two men responsible (see (2 Samuel 3). This brought him into
favour with the tribes under Ishbosheth and ultimately united all twelve tribes
into one nation under the ultimate leadership of God.
Secondly, David succeeded in winning the whole extent of the
promised land for the covenant people. For the first time the chosen people of
the Lord controlled the whole land promised to Abraham's posterity nearly a
thousand years earlier.
Thirdly, David established Zion or Jerusalem as the spiritual and
political center of Israel. Under David's reign Israel reached its golden age.
Never before had Israel achieved such heights of power nor did they ever again.
(Old Testament Student Manual, Book 1 p 291)
David was anointed to sit on the throne of Israel and to establish the royal family line that would produce the King of Kings who would one day sit ‘on the throne of his father David’ (Luke 1:32-33). My question is this: was David chosen to be an example of the good King who was to come or was he chosen to show that no king can be as good as the King that was to come????? The answer is obvious, no king can be as good as the King that is yet to come because that King would never and will NEVER fall. I often think our present day governments will with their weakness and corruption accentuate the blessing that the King of Kings will be when He comes to govern the world.
“Even so, come Lord Jesus” (Revelation
22:20).
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
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