1 Samuel 18:6-9
And it came to pass as they came, when David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine,
that the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul,
with timbrels, with joy, and with instruments of music.And the women sang one to another as they played, and said,
Saul hath slain his thousands,
And David his ten thousands.And Saul was very wroth, and this saying displeased him;
and he said, They have ascribed unto David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands:
and what can he have more but the kingdom?And Saul eyed David from that day and forward.
1 Samuel 22:1-2
David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave of Adullam:
and when his brethren and all his father’s house heard it, they went down thither to him.And every one that was in distress,
and every one that was in debt,
and every one that was discontented,
gathered themselves unto him;
and he became captain over them:
and there were with him about four hundred men.
1 Samuel 24:9-15
And David said to Saul, Wherefore hearkenest thou to men’s words, saying, Behold, David seeketh thy hurt?
Behold, this day thine eyes have seen how that the Lord had delivered thee to-day into my hand in the cave:
and some bade me kill thee; but mine eye spared thee;
and I said, I will not put forth my hand against my lord; for he is the Lord’s anointed.Moreover, my father, see, yea, see the skirt of thy robe in my hand:
for in that I cut off the skirt of thy robe, and killed thee not,
know thou and see that there is neither evil nor transgression in my hand,
and I have not sinned against thee, though thou liest in wait for my life to take it.The Lord judge between me and thee, and the Lord avenge me of thee:
but my hand shall not be upon thee.As saith the proverb of the ancients, Out of the wicked cometh forth wickedness:
but my hand shall not be upon thee.After whom is the king of Israel come out?
after whom dost thou pursue?
after a dead dog?
after a flea?The Lord therefore be judge, and give sentence between me and thee,
and see, and plead my cause,
and deliver me out of thy hand.
1 Samuel 26:17-20
And Saul knew David’s voice, and said, Is this thy voice, my son David?
And David said, It is my voice, my lord, O king.And he said, Wherefore doth my lord pursue after his servant?
for what have I done?
or what evil is in my hand?Now therefore, I pray thee, let my lord the king hear the words of his servant.
If the Lord hath stirred thee up against me, let Him accept an offering:
but if it be the children of men, cursed be they before the Lord;
for they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord, saying, Go, serve other gods.Now therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth from the presence of the Lord:
for the king of Israel is come out to seek a flea,
as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains.
2 Samuel 5:4-5
David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years.
In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months;
and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty and three years over all Israel and Judah.
That is all we will read for tonight.
We mentioned last night that, in God’s work of recovery among His people in the history of Israel, He began with Ruth: the principle of grace. Then He continued with Hannah: the principle of prevailing prayer. After Hannah, He followed with Samuel: the principle of revelation. And after Samuel was David: the principle of divine authority.
You find that all these principles are given in God’s work of recovery. We believe that God is doing His work of recovery among His people today. He is bringing His people back to His original purpose concerning them.
He is not satisfied that His people are merely redeemed—that is, having their sins forgiven and being given the promise of going to heaven. God’s original design for His people is far, far higher and nobler than that.
Of course, to be redeemed by the precious blood is the foundation. But God is going to build upon that foundation, and He is going to bring His people under His King into full possession of their possession.
In order to bring His people today into that place, you find that He is working today along the same principles by which He worked in the old days. First of all, we need to rediscover the principle of grace. We need to see that everything is grace.
It is not by our works. It is not the works of the flesh, no matter how hard we try. We need to see that it is all of grace. From the beginning to the very end, it is God’s grace.
Because the grace of God is upon us, it drives us to our knees to pray. Grace shows us God’s burden. Grace enables us to take up God’s burden. Grace helps us to pray, to discharge that burden with prevailing prayer.
As God’s people begin to pray, you find that He begins to appear to His people and to speak to His people. Revelation shall be given. You remember Paul’s prayer for the church in Ephesus: that God may give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation unto the full knowledge of God.
Out of revelation, God’s King—God’s authority—shall be brought forth.
We mentioned last night the first stage of David’s life: from his being anointed by Samuel to the time when he was manifested to the children of Israel in overcoming Goliath.
We saw that the reason God anointed him was, of course, sovereign. Whom God wants to choose, He chooses. It is God’s sovereignty. Yet, even though it was God’s sovereign choice, the reason God chose David was because God saw in David a perfect heart, a heart that was toward Him.
How important it is that our hearts need to be perfect toward Him. We mentioned last night that to have a perfect heart does not mean to have a perfect life. Even with David, his life was not perfect; yet God said that his heart was perfect toward his God.
Because his heart was perfect, God chose him. God anointed him to be His king—a king after His own heart, to do all His will.
But as David was anointed, you find he still had a few hidden years. He was not manifested to the children of Israel right away. That was a difficult thing. When a person realizes that he has been chosen by the Lord and anointed, set apart by the Lord to do a special work, he cannot wait. He wants to show himself and get on with it.
But God’s way is very different from man’s way. Even though David was anointed, he was not manifested until a few years later. During those hidden years, he learned to know God in a deeper way.
He learned to know God as a Deliverer, who delivered him out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear. That was a preparation for the time of his manifestation, when he could see the uncircumcised Philistine as just a lion and a bear, and could trust God for victory.
Now this evening, we would like to go on with the life of David. The life of David can be very clearly divided into three stages:
The first stage is David as a shepherd, and we have already heard a little about that. The second stage is David as a fugitive. That covers about ten years of his life. Then, after that, we find David as king. He was king over Israel for forty years.
For the sake of limited time, we want to put the latter two stages together tonight. So we will have to jump from here to there.
After David overcame Goliath, all Israel rejoiced over that fact. Because of that, they loved David. Not only did all Israel rejoice over the victory, but even Saul was happy with it, because David killed Goliath. Everybody was happy about it.
But when they came back from the battlefield, something happened. The women gathered together and went out to meet the triumphant army. When they went out to meet the victorious army, they began to sing a song. It was so spontaneous; it was not premeditated. It was just a spontaneous thing.
They danced around, and they sang a song: “Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” These women were very innocent. They did not do such a thing with some bad thought. It was just natural and spontaneous.
But when they sang in this fashion, one man heard it, and he was not happy. That man was Saul. Saul heard it and said, “They have ascribed thousands to me, and ten thousands to David. What is there left for him but the kingdom?” From that day onward, he eyed David with an evil eye.
These women caused a problem. But do not blame them, because they were innocent. They were innocent. Probably they were too expressive. They were so naïve as to express what was in their hearts. They were not too diplomatic, not too careful, and because of that David had to suffer for it.
Of course, God wants us to be true and honest, but God does not want us to be naïve and inconsiderate. I think probably even here we need to learn a lesson. Sometimes we say, “Well, I am just being honest,” and we are proud of it. If we are not considerate, we may cause problems for other people.
Here was poor David. From that day onward, he did not have a good day. Saul was envious of him. Because the Spirit of God had left Saul, an evil spirit came upon Saul from time to time. Saul gave ground to the evil spirit.
David played the harp before Saul to soothe his spirit, and that was the way the evil spirit was driven away. But one day, when the evil spirit came upon Saul and David was playing the harp, trying to soothe the agitation of Saul, Saul hurled his spear at David, trying to kill him. David escaped twice.
Because of that, Saul was afraid of David. He was very much afraid of David. He sent him out to be captain over a thousand, thinking that perhaps David would be killed by the hand of the Philistines. But wherever David went, he prospered, and that made Saul even more afraid of him.
Saul tried every means to get rid of David. He tried to get rid of David by having his daughter married to David, thinking perhaps through that he might get hold of David. But he did not succeed. Finally, he became so open in his hostility that David had to flee for his life.
Now, brothers and sisters, the reason David had to flee for his life was not because David did anything wrong. It was because he was anointed of God. In other words, he was persecuted because the anointing was upon him.
If that was the reason for his persecution, it was very difficult to explain. When we suffer because of our sins, we can console ourselves in a way, saying, “I deserve it. God was right. I deserve it.”
But if we have to suffer not because we have done anything wrong, but, on the contrary, because the anointing of the Lord is upon us, then that is very difficult to explain.
Our human concept is this: if a person is anointed of the Lord, then he should be on the throne, giving command to everybody. He should have a very smooth and prosperous life. Everywhere he goes, he prospers. That is our idea of being anointed of the Lord.
Who can imagine that, for the anointed of the Lord, there is a phase of life which means suffering? Who can imagine that? Probably, in our thinking, it has never entered our mind.
When we see any brother or sister, or even ourselves, being persecuted and in suffering, we invariably come to the conclusion that something is wrong with that person, or something is wrong with us. Something must be wrong.
We think that if we are right, certainly the blessings of the Lord are upon us. Certainly, we will go from strength to strength, from victory to victory, from glory to glory. There should be no suffering involved.
This is what Peter thought. After God the Father revealed the Son to Peter, after Peter confessed the Lord as the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Christ continued to reveal more to Peter:
Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church;
and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom.
My, that is glorious. Then the Lord began to share with His disciples how He must go to Jerusalem, how He would be rejected, how He would die, and how, on the third day, He would be raised from the dead.
Peter could not stand that. It was not in human logic. Peter took hold of the Lord and said, in effect, “Lord, not so. Be good to Yourself. You do not need to go to the cross. You do not need to suffer. The throne is Yours. The kingdom is Yours. You may have it by just saying it.”
But the Lord turned and said:
Get thee behind Me, Satan:
thou art a stumbling-block unto Me:
for thou mindest not the things of God,
but the things of men.
Is it strange that to be anointed means to be in suffering? To be anointed means to flee as a fugitive, to hide in caves and strongholds, to live in the wilderness, and to wander here and there without a home, apparently accomplishing nothing. Is that the meaning of being anointed?
It is very difficult to explain. But again, we say: God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and God’s ways are higher than our ways.
David was anointed to be king, to exercise authority over the kingdom of Israel on God’s behalf. But before he was able to sit on the throne as God’s representative, God had to put him through a fiery test.
It was of God. Even though outwardly it was because of the carelessness of these women, God was sovereign. God was behind it. God allowed such things to happen in order that He might further prepare that vessel, that very embodiment of spiritual authority.
David had to learn more about authority. He could not stay any longer in the palace. He could not even stay in his own home. He fled for his life. He went to the cave of Adullam, and there his parents and family joined him.
Those who were in distress, those who were in debt, and those who were discontented all came and joined David. About four hundred men joined David, and he became captain over them.
Saul hunted David every day. Saul wanted to get rid of David, so David had to wander around and had no place to rest. That was David’s life for about ten years.
We would say, “What a waste!” After David was anointed and manifested—God manifested him—if God’s time had not yet arrived, why should God have manifested him? If God had allowed him to remain in the field as a shepherd, he would not have had all these troubles.
It was God who manifested him, but after God manifested him, God took him away again. This is difficult for any person.
Within us there is such a nature: if we stay, we stay; if we go, we want to keep on going. That is our human nature. If we are hidden, after a while we get so comfortable that we do not want to be manifested any more. We have our little nest; it is very cozy.
Then, if God should manifest us and keep us going, we cannot stop. We want to go, go, go, go, go, because that is in our human nature. We think, “Well, if God wants to manifest us, then let us be manifested.” But God’s way is so mysterious.
He manifested David, and then David was taken off again as a fugitive, hiding himself. Dear brothers and sisters, that is God’s way with His people.
Oftentimes, you wonder why God does not allow you to stay put in one position. When He first puts you in a position, you are uncomfortable. You do not like it. But after a while, you get used to it and become very happy about it. Then you find God disturbs your nest and throws you out.
At the beginning, you are not comfortable and do not want to go. But after a while, you find your place and become very comfortable. Then suddenly God again puts you aside. You wonder why.
But this is God’s way, God’s way of training us. There are so many different lessons we have to learn, and we cannot learn all the lessons in one position. He has to put us into different positions in order for us to learn many different lessons.
Those years of wandering as a fugitive were not a loss to David. I think that in those years David learned at least three things—three areas of things.
First, it was during those years that David began to see himself in a way that he had never seen before. Even though David knew himself to a certain degree, no doubt about that, if God had anointed him, manifested him, and then immediately put him on the throne, do you think he would have known himself as he knew himself later on? He would not.
Because he had to wander, flee, hide in caves, strongholds, and wildernesses, and because he was hunted in such a way, he began to know himself. In the beginning, nobody would be comfortable. David was just like one of us. No doubt, in the beginning it was very difficult for him.
He could not understand why he should be hunted like this, why he should live such a life as a fugitive. It was not his fault. He must have examined himself before the Lord, asking, “Why, why, why? I do not deserve it. No matter how bad I am, I do not deserve such treatment.” Certainly, he did not deserve it.
But after this continued for a while, God began to speak to him. David learned one precious lesson through those years: he began to really know himself.
How much did he know himself? He could testify before his enemy that he was but a dead dog. He said, “Whom are you hunting? Whom are you pursuing? You are not pursuing David, that mighty man who killed Goliath. You are pursuing a dead dog.”
To the Jews, dogs were unclean in their eyes; but a dead dog is worse than a living dog. David considered himself not only a dog but a dead dog. Think of that. In his own eyes, he saw himself as nothing but a dead dog.
Not only a dead dog, but a single flea. A flea is such a small thing—small and quite troublesome too. Here you find David looking at himself as a single flea. “I am nothing. I am worse than nothing. I am not only dead, but I am troublesome. That is me, a single flea.”
He told Saul again, “I am but a partridge.” What a bird—a partridge. Nothing, nothing at all. These words came from the heart of David. He was not just trying to be polite or trying to act humble. Not at all.
When David confessed it, he confessed it from his heart: “This is just what I am.” So he told Saul, “Why do you bother? Why do you bother? You have nobler things to do. You have greater things to do. Why do you bother with me? I am nothing at all.”
Dear brothers and sisters, it is not easy to be brought to that place. However poor we are, however much we are nothing, we still consider ourselves as something.
Sometimes we try to be humble and say, “Oh no, I am nothing.” But when people say that you are nothing, how do you react? You may say that you are nothing to yourself, but are you able to say that you are nothing before your enemy? Certainly not.
I may consider myself a nothing, but before my enemy, well, I am something. But here you find David was brought to a point where, without these years of wandering, it would have been impossible for a man to consider himself as a dead dog, a single flea, and just a partridge.
God brought him down, down, down, down. God was reducing him all the time. After his victory over Goliath, probably everybody would have said, “Now you are the greatest name in the world.” But God began to reduce him, reduce him, reduce him, until he was reduced to nothing, even worse than nothing.
David accepted it. He confessed it. He even acknowledged before his enemies, “I am absolutely nothing.” Oh, David really knew himself.
Dear brothers and sisters, the problem with us is that we do not know ourselves. Because we do not know ourselves, it is very dangerous if God should entrust anything to us, especially if God entrusts authority to us.
What will happen if we do not know ourselves and yet we have authority? That is the most dangerous thing. A person who does not know himself and is not entrusted with authority cannot do much harm. But for a person to be entrusted with the kingdom of God, and yet not know himself—what would happen?
God had to teach David, who was to represent God’s authority, one lesson: to know himself as absolutely nothing. This is the lesson God wants us to learn. It is very hard to come to realize that we are absolutely nothing: a dead dog, a single flea, a partridge.
The second lesson is this: on the one hand, David learned through suffering that he was absolutely nothing. Therefore, he would not stand in God’s way. If you still think yourself something, you will find that you are standing in God’s way.
But on the other hand, he was to learn God more and more deeply. If you know yourself but do not know God, that will make you very passive and pessimistic. But during those days, David learned to know God in a way that he could never have learned before.
As a shepherd over the sheep, he could learn God in certain ways. He learned how God delivers. He learned how God cares. He could write Psalm 23:
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures;
He leadeth me beside still waters.
He could learn God in that area. But it took years of wandering as a fugitive for him to learn God in such a rich way.
Many of the psalms that David wrote were written either at that time or concerning that time. If you read the psalms, some have subtitles that tell you when he wrote them, or concerning what event he wrote them. There are many others without subtitles, yet when you read them, you know that they were David’s experience of God.
David’s psalms were not merely beautiful thoughts about God. David’s psalms were his own life experience. He experienced God in such an abundant way that, out of his personal experience of God, he wrote these psalms. That is why these psalms touch our hearts so deeply.
To illustrate, consider Psalm 18. Psalm 18 has a subtitle:
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David the servant of the Lord,
who spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord delivered him
from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul.
This psalm is a summing up of God’s delivering David out of the hand of all his enemies, especially Saul. He said:
I love thee, O Lord, my strength.
The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer;
My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge;
My shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower.
I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised:
So shall I be saved from mine enemies.
Out of all his suffering came love. Humanly, it is strange. We may think that the more David suffered, the more bitter he would become—bitter against God and bitter against the whole world. If you do not have God, that will be the case.
But having God, you find that sufferings only increased his love for God. He said, “I love Thee, O Lord, my strength.” He discovered God as his strength.
“The Lord is my rock.” He is not only my strength, but He is my rock upon which I stand, and my fortress, and my deliverer. God is my rock, in whom I trust; my shield, the horn of my salvation, my high tower.
Here David describes his knowledge of God in different ways: strength, rock, fortress, deliverer, shield, horn, and high tower. These are not merely flowery words or figures of speech. No. To David, these were real.
He literally and spiritually experienced God as such. If you read his life as a fugitive, you find that he really discovered that God was his fortress. Who could protect him from Saul and from all his enemies? It was not an earthly or material fortress. God was his fortress.
Who shielded him from all the attacks of his enemies and from the arrows shot at him? The Lord was his shield. Who lifted him up? The Lord was the horn of his salvation. He was his high tower.
David began to know God in such abundant and rich ways. Dear brothers and sisters, how necessary such knowledge is. If we do not know God as we should, how can we represent Christ?
We are here to represent Christ, but how can we represent Christ if we do not know Him in the way we ought to know Him? How can our knowledge of Christ be increased? Oftentimes, you find that it is in the years as a fugitive that David learned to know God.
These two kinds of knowledge are absolutely essential for God’s vessel. We need to know ourselves. We need to know God.
Thirdly, because David was to be king and represent God’s authority, he had to learn obedience through the things which he suffered. That was the only way to learn.
David had to learn that he was under authority before God was able to put him in authority. The only way to enter into authority is through the way of obedience, and the only way to obedience is through suffering.
Even our Lord Jesus, as the Son of God, never needed to learn obedience. Is that not strange? Does God ever need to learn obedience? That is not a lesson for God. God never needs that lesson. He is God.
Being the Son of God, our Lord Jesus had never learned the lesson of obedience. He is God. He is to be obeyed, not to obey. But for the Son of God to learn the lesson of obedience, He had to become a man.
As a man, He learned obedience through the things which He suffered. He had never learned obedience before. Let us remember that. He learned obedience only while He was on earth as a man.
There He learned obedience through the things which He suffered. Oh, how He suffered. Our Lord Jesus suffered more than anybody else. Being God in a human body—restricted, limited, hindered—how He must have suffered.
You remember that one day He said, in effect, “I am straitened. I am so restricted. I am looking for the day of My release,” and that release was through the cross. Then His life would be released. But He was constrained in that human body. How much He must have suffered in His incarnation.
How much He suffered at the hands of men, from the powers of darkness, from His own people, and from His own disciples. They did not understand Him. He tried to tell them something, and they misunderstood. How He suffered on the cross.
Dear brothers and sisters, if you think of the sufferings of our Lord, they are beyond description. Yet through sufferings He learned one thing: obedience. He learned to obey His Father in all things.
Because He learned obedience through the things which He suffered, He became the Author of eternal salvation. So, for David to come to the throne and truly represent God’s authority, God had to put him through the school of suffering.
He had to learn what he was. He had to learn to be under authority, even under wrong authority. When God wants somebody to learn some lesson, sometimes He puts that person in an extreme situation. In that extreme situation, you ought to learn something extraordinary.
David was even put under wrong authority, and yet he learned obedience. Saul’s relationship with David was twofold. Saul, at that time, was David’s king. David was his subject. As a subject, David had to learn to submit himself under the authority of his king.
That does not mean that David had to let himself be killed by Saul. David could flee for his life, yet he would not touch Saul. That was submission.
Secondly, Saul was David’s father-in-law. David was his son-in-law. As a son-in-law, he needed to respect his father-in-law, however unrespectable his father-in-law might be.
We may think, “If he is such an unrespectable person, certainly I can despise him.” No. Whether he is respectable or not is between him and the Lord. But if you have a relationship with him, then you have respect because of that relationship.
David was put under a double obligation to Saul: as his king and as his father-in-law. Saul was seeking David’s life, a wrong authority in every way. Yet David could not lift up his finger to touch Saul.
Twice God put Saul into David’s hand. Once, in the cave at En-gedi, David and his men were hidden in the recesses of the cave. Even today, if you go to En-gedi, you will find a place full of caves—very deep caves. It is easy to hide there, and hundreds of people can be hidden in the recesses without anybody noticing.
David and his men were in the recesses of the cave, and Saul came in. David’s men said, “God has put your enemy in your hand. Now is the time. Rise up and kill him, and all your problems are solved.”
David was tempted. He got up and cut off a piece of Saul’s robe. But when he did it, his heart smote him.
David did not kill Saul, but he cut off a piece of Saul’s robe to show Saul that he could have killed him. Even that thought was not allowed by God. His conscience said, “I should not do that. I should not do that.” How sensitive was David’s heart. How pure his heart must have been.
Another time, Saul came hunting David. Saul and his three thousand men were camping in the night, fast asleep. David came in with Abishai, and Saul was lying there with his own spear stuck in the ground by his side.
Abishai said, “Just let me thrust him through with the spear once, and that is all. You do not even need to do anything.” What a temptation. David could easily have said, “I did not do it. I did not touch Saul.”
But David had to give permission, and he said, “No. Nobody can touch the anointed of the Lord and be guiltless. He is in the hand of God. When his time comes, God will remove him. But my hand will not stretch out against him. Just take the spear and the jar of water, and let us go away.”
David was tested twice. This showed that David could control his own spirit.
If you read Proverbs, you will find that a person who can control his spirit is mightier than one who takes a city. We think that taking a city is powerful. But to control your spirit is even more powerful than taking a city.
Our problem is that we cannot control ourselves. If we cannot control our spirit, how can we be used of God to control, for God, His people? We are not fit—nothing.
Here you find that David was able to control his spirit. He did not give in to human persuasion and logic. He did not give in to his own selfishness. He was able to control his spirit and did not allow it to become haughty or revengeful. He kept his spirit pure before God.
Oh, what a mighty man of God was David. No wonder God was able to entrust His authority to that man.
Through the years of suffering as a fugitive, those times were not wasted. God was continually preparing His vessel. There were three essential lessons: to know himself, to know God, and to learn obedience through the things which he suffered—to learn how to control his own spirit.
After his lessons were learned, God removed Saul. Dear brothers and sisters, I do believe that we need to learn these lessons.
As we sang in the beginning, God has made us kings and priests unto God. We are kings, but are we fit to rule? When Christ returns, we shall rule and reign with Him. But today is the day in which we are to be trained.
If we do not know ourselves today, if we do not know God, if we do not learn obedience, and if we cannot control our spirit, then when Christ returns, are we fit to reign with Him for a thousand years?
Finally, David became king. But he was first king over Judah only, for seven years and six months. During those days, the house of David increased, and the house of Saul decreased.
After seven years, David became king over all Israel—over all Israel.
Without going into details, when David ascended the throne, you find that certain things happened. David, as king, learned to do all God’s will. It was not because David had now come to the throne that he could do all his own will.
We want to do our own will, but we cannot because we do not have the power or the position. We think, “Oh, if only we had the power, then we could do what we want to do.” But that is not God’s way.
David became king that he might do all God’s will. To be king is not to do your own will. To be king is to do God’s will.
What was God’s will? First, after David became king, the first thing he did was to take Jerusalem.
Evidently, God revealed to David, after hundreds of years, that this was the place of God’s choice, where He would put His name. Because there was Jerusalem, the whole nation flowed into Jerusalem. They became one nation, united.
Second, the next thing David did was to remove the ark from Kirjath-jearim, from the fields of the forest, into the tent of David at Mount Zion. That is to say, he put God in His rightful place among His people.
They became a people united as one under God. That was what David did. Because this was done, all the enemies were conquered.
For the first time, God’s promise to Abraham concerning the land—from the brook of Egypt to the river Euphrates—came under the possession of Israel. God’s promise for His people was fulfilled.
God also put into David’s heart to build God a temple. Even though it was built by Solomon, the thought came from David.
Dear brothers and sisters, in David all these things came into being. Authority is for building up, not for tearing down. Sometimes things have to be torn down, yet authority is for building up.
It is in Christ that God’s people are united into one. Then we are built up into a holy temple.
As fellow workers with Christ, as labourers under Christ, how we need to see that we are not divided, but that we are one. How we need to put ourselves under the headship of Christ, that He may have His rightful place among His people.
It is in this way that the enemies will be defeated, that we will enter into the full possession of our possession in Christ, and that we will be built up together into a holy temple unto God.
Here you come to God’s recovery. God’s purpose is recovered.
O Heavenly Father, we want to praise and thank Thee because, in the life of Thy servant David, Thou dost desire to show us Christ, our David, and also to show us how to be joined to our Christ.
Teach us to learn all the lessons that Thou dost want us to learn, that one day we may reign with Him and truly be heirs and co-heirs with Christ.
O Lord, show these things to us. Make them very real and living. Lord, even though sometimes these lessons are hard to learn, encourage us with Thyself. Lead us on until Thy eternal purpose among Thy people may be fully accomplished in the church in Christ.
We ask in His name. Amen.